decamped bag, baggage, and colours a quarter of an hour before the leading Albanians entered the place of Cambus. I shall only remark that it stood on the top of a mountain; only to be reached by the most narrow and difficult passes, and had the Greeks intended to fight at all, they never could have had a better opportunity.

'The day after I left Canea in a small boat I had hired to take me to Karabusa. It was a fine calm morning, but when we had gone about two miles along shore a very heavy gale came on, our sails were blown away and with great difficulty we reached Cape Spada, rowing for two hours within fifty yards of the shore, and could not reach it. We lay in a level with a rocky headland this night with but little to eat. The next day we tried to get round Cape Spada but could not; the wind then shifted to the northward and blew a hard gale. We were now wrecked among the breakers at the bottom of the bay of Gonia. Thank God I reached the dry land and was well taken care of at the monastery. There I found Chrisophopulos and Vanilikeli, who escorted me to Castelli and from thence to Karabusa.

'December 12.--At Canea. Find the Greeks here well contented with the Turks. No taxes or impositions get laid on, in fact at present the Greeks are better off than the Turks. The Spakiotes have not all submitted. Three Spakiotes taken prisoners with their arms are made Primates of their respective villages and members of the Council.

'December 13.--Left the ship in the cutter, in company with Signor Capogropo and Mons. Corporal. Landed at Celivez, a surf on the beach, all got wet, it was _sauve qui peut_ and we left our cloaks behind us, which to people on the point of bivouacking for the night was not really pleasant. But Signor Capogropo, though eighty-two years of age, seemed to make so light of the matter that it was out of the question to complain. Here we found horses sent for us to the camp, where I arrived about ten o'clock having passed through a rich and beautiful country to the village which, like all in Candia, gives a good idea of the ravages of civil war. Here I found the Pacha and Osman Bey had established their head-quarters. I was treated like a Pacha, boys attended to wait on me with pipes, coffee, a barber, &c. I made my toilet in the morning attended by seven or eight servants. Nothing can be better than the manner in which these chiefs are conducting affairs in this country.

'June 2, 1831.--Left Malta for England, left my ship in Malta harbour in the hands of new officers. Poor _Alligator_, I did not know I had so much of the love of ships, no not ships, I knew that, but of men, in me. I could have kissed every man jack of them to death--and have cried over every blue jacket on parting, and my dear Mids, they I believed were surprised; they did not think I cared so much about them till I took leave of them.

'My loss is great. God's Will be done. God only knows whether I shall return to my ship again, but I think I have love enough for her to make it no difficult task on my part.

'Nine o'clock at night, blowing strong from the N.W. course in the dirtiest steamboat I ever was in, nevertheless she wears a pendant.

'June 23.--Foul wind--cold dark day--making little progress, that is 100 miles a day. What a change in seamen's distances, 100 miles a day, right in the wind's eye, and call that doing ill. What would Benbow say if one could tell him that? I will tell you, "You lubberly dog, you lie."

'Nevertheless I go fast towards home or--God knows what! What part in the play am I to act, I wish my mind was made up on this cursed Reform question. It will be carried, but I should like to do what I think right and honourable towards myself, that is act and vote as I really think. We must become republican England as well as republican France (damn France, she is the root of all evil and the branch of no good). It matters little how; whether by Reform which will produce national bankruptcy, or by a starving population which will produce rebellion and civil war. Reform certainly means No taxes and cheap bread. Have been reading Moore's Byron. Poor Byron, quite what I believe him to be in many things and more than I believe him to be in others. I saw him at Missolonghi.

'June 6.--This day six years I was made a Post Captain, had my poor father lived to-day he would have completed his sixty-third year. Strong winds and contrary--directly in our teeth. Nevertheless we make good more than four miles per hour. Yesterday hove to under the lee of Gibraltar all day. I finished Byron's Memoirs by T. Moore. Many sentences in his latter letters from Missolonghi which he word for word said to me when I saw him there. Our passengers are a gentleman in the government of Corfu and a young officer of the _Britannia_ said to be dying of a consumption--eats like the devil--very obstinate--will do as he pleases, seems determined to do what is quite right--send the doctor to the devil. Learn that a horse power in steaming is 32,000 lbs.

'June 9.--Fell in with the _St. Vincent_ bearing the Flag of E.A. Sir H. Hotham on his way to relieve Sir P. Malcolm. Received letters from my uncles, &c. &c. Melancholy enough and politically disagreeable. Shall rejoin my dear _Alligator_ again. Nothing can be more kind than the conduct of the Admiralty. Allow ship to come home if I please, &c. &c.

'Steam boilers leak. Put fires out, lose seven hours--obliged to empty boilers--the Devil and all! At least the men here are devils incarnate-- two of them entered the boilers and drove rivets with the thermometer 160 in there.

'Sir H. Hotham wrote me a kind note in answer to my request to allow Hart to bring the ship home after me.

'June 20.--At sea hove to off the coast of Portugal in the steam packet. Sailed from Gibraltar (the 2nd time having put back once in consequence of the coals being bad Welsh). On the 15th called at Cadiz. On the 16th went on shore, Consul B--y pompous, &c. Daughters, music, painting, &c. William the Conqueror, &c. &c. Last night the Jew groaned heavily in his sleep, woke him--he was dreaming of being robbed of his money.

'June 23.--Put into Vigo Bay for coals and left it in the evening of the 24th. Beautiful Bay, fresh day; St. John's market a beautiful sight, if fine women constituted that. The steamboat all day crowded with strangers. Heard that Don Pedros had left Brazil and been received in London.

'June 30.--Arrived in sight of Falmouth and anchored in 30 fm. having burnt the guts and bulwarks to bring her thus far. Went to town the next day by mail.'

CHAPTER VII

COURT DUTIES AND POLITICS. 1831-1847

On the voyage home from the Mediterranean in the steamship _Meteor_, which is described in the journal I have quoted in the last chapter, my father received the sad news of the death of Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, an event to which he makes no allusion in the journal. Admiral Sir Henry Hotham, who had just been appointed to the command of the Mediterranean station, and had sailed in the _St. Vincent_ from Portsmouth, was the bearer of a last letter written by Sir Joseph to his son on the 3rd of April 1831. The _St. Vincent_ met the _Meteor_ at sea, and Sir Henry, in handing the letter to Captain Yorke, had also to announce Sir Joseph's death, which occurred only two days after he had finished the letter. This letter was found among my father's papers, and I set it out at length; it is quite typical of others which display the affection which existed between father and son, and it shows very convincingly the success which attended Captain Yorke's career in the Mediterranean. The circumstances of the accident in which Sir Joseph lost his life appear, so far as they can be known, in a note to Sir Joseph's letter written by my brother John, the late Earl of Hardwicke. [Footnote: He died from influenza, March 1909.] From this it will be seen that Sir Joseph was returning from a visit to the St. Vincent, which he had made in order to hand his letter to Sir Henry Hotham, when he met his death. It appears also from the annotation by my father that Sir Henry sailed without hearing of the accident, and only learned of Sir Joseph's death by subsequently reading a notice of it in Galignani's _Messenger_.

* * * * *

14 NEW BURLINGTON STREET, LONDON:

April 2, 1831.

'MY DEAREST CHARLES,

'Your last note to me enclosing your long recital of occurrences in Candia, addressed to your brother Henry, was duly received about a month ago, and has made us all equally happy and highly interested in your fortunate and successful mission. I proceeded to the Admiralty as you desired, and looked over the whole of the correspondence there, and I was much struck with the encomiums passed on you by my friend Sir Philip Malcolm, and of the coincidence, of the Admiralty minute and all the observations made by that chief, on your conduct. It runs thus, "acquaint Sir P. M. that their Lordships entirely concur with him in the opinion he has formed of the conduct of Capt. Yorke during his service at Karabusa." I see by the _United Service Journal_, that you sailed for Smyrna on the 8th of January, two days after your letter to me, and that you were at that port on the 18th, of course this acknowledgement of your correspondence will go by the Admiralty bag, but I doubt whether I shall save the packet. It will however be conveyed by your new Chief, Sir Henry Hotham, who is very desirous to render you all attention, for in a note I had from him, about a Middy I asked him to take with him in the _St. Vincent_, he says, "had I been able I would have fulfilled your wishes with much pleasure in this instance, as I shall have the pleasure in doing in regard to the captain of the _Alligator_, and if you have anything to send to him I will take the charge of it with pleasure." Thus you see, my dear Charles, that Sir Henry Hotham will be as much interested about you as any of his predecessors if you desire it, which I am sure you will.

'You may indeed say, or rather exclaim, What changes! The chances now are that our order in the State (to make use of Lord Grey's words about his own order), instead of being Lords of the Admiralty will be hewers of wood and drawers of water, that is, if the Reform Bill passes in its present shape. For it cannot be denied that it must give a preponderating bias to that class, namely the £10 householder, which are by far the most numerous, active, and republican class, who by living in towns, can be collected for any political purpose at a moment's notice; who are shopkeepers, citizens, manufacturers, possessing great intelligence and spirit, and whose business it will be to have the chief government, and bring down the interests of the funds. This will, of course, straiten most severely all those who at present derive any income therefrom, and as the small sums into which the said funds are divided, are spread over a widely extended population of humble but respectable persons, it will totally ruin a great many. However, there seems to be an opinion that the Bill will be greatly modified. For the sweeping away of sixty boroughs (amongst which Reigate goes at once) and