SIR RICHARD CHURCH[23]

[23] Guardian¹, 26th March 1873.

General Sir Richard Church died last week at Athens. Many English travellers in the East find their way to Athens; most of them must have heard his name repeated there as the name of one closely associated with the later fortunes of the Greek nation, and linking the present with times now distant; some of them may have seen him, and may remember the slight wiry form which seemed to bear years so lightly, the keen eye and grisled moustache and soldierly bearing, and perhaps the antique and ceremonious courtesy, stately yet cordial, recalling a type of manners long past, with which he welcomed those who had a claim on his attentions or friendly offices. Five and forty years ago his name was much in men's mouths. He was prominent in a band of distinguished² men, who represented a new enthusiasm in Europe. Less by what they were able to do than by their character and their unreserved self-devotion and sacrifice, they profoundly affected³ public opinion, and disarmed⁴ the jealousy⁵ of absolutist courts and governments in favour of a national movement, which, whether disappointment may have followed its success, was one of the most just and salutary of revolutions—the deliverance of a Christian⁶ nation from the hopeless tyranny of the Turks.

He was one of the few remaining survivors⁷ of the generation which had taken part in the great French war and in the great changes resulting from it—changes which have in time given way to vaster alterations⁸, and been eclipsed by them. He began his military life as a boy-ensign in one of the regiments¹⁰ forming part of the expedition which, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, drove the French out of Egypt in 1801; and on the shores of the

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