Online Encyclopedia
GEORGE FINLAY (1799-1875)
Online EncyclopediaOriginally appearing in Volume
V10,
Page 387
of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also: British historian, was See also: born of Scottish parents at See also: Faversham, Kent, on the 21st of See also: December 1799
.
He studied for the See also: law in See also: Glasgow, and about 1821 went to See also: Gottingen
.
He had already begun to feel a deep See also: interest in the See also: Greek struggle for independence, and in 1823 he resolved to visit the country
.
In See also: November he arrived in Cephalonia, where he was kindly received by See also: Lord See also: Byron
.
Shortly afterwards he landed at See also: Pyrgos, and during the next fourteen months he improved his knowledge of the language, See also: history and antiquities of the country
.
Though he formed an unfavourable opinion of the Greek leaders, both See also: civil and military, he by no means lost his See also: enthusiasm for their cause
.
A severe attack of fever, however, combined with other circumstances, induced him to spend the winter of 1824-1825 and the spring of 1825 in See also: Rome, Naples and See also: Sicily
.
He then returned to Scotland, and, after spending a summer at See also: Castle Toward, See also: Argyllshire, went to See also: Edinburgh, where he passed his examination in civil law at the university, with a view to being called to the Scottish See also: bar
.
His enthusiasm, however, carried him back to See also: Greece, where he resided almost uninterruptedly till his See also: death
.
He took See also: part in the unsuccessful operations of Lord Cochrane and See also: Sir See also: Richard See also: Church for the
See also: relief of Athens in 1827
.
When independence had been secured in 1829 he bought a landed estate in See also: Attica, but all his efforts for the introduction of a better See also: system of See also: agriculture ended in failure, and he devoted himself to the See also: literary See also: work which occupied the rest of his See also: life
.
His first publications were The Hellenic See also: Kingdom and the Greek Nation (1836); Essai sur See also: les principes de banque appliques a l'etat actuel de la Grece (Athens, 1836); and Remarks on the Topography of Oropia and Diacria, with a map (Athens, 1838)
.
The first instalment of hisSee also: great See also: historical work appeared in 1844 (2nd ed., 1857) under the title Greece under the See also: Romans; a Historical View of the Condition of the Greek Nation from the See also: time of its See also: Conquest by the Romans until the Extinction of the See also: Roman See also: Empire in the See also: East
.
Meanwhile he had been qualifying himself still further by travel as well as by See also: reading; he undertook several See also: tours to various quarters of the See also: Levant; and as the result of one of them he published a See also: volume On the Site of the See also: Holy Sepulchre; with a See also: plan of Jerusalem (1847)
.
The History of the See also: Byzantine and Greek Empires from 716-1453 was completed in 1854
.
It was speedily followed by the History of Greece under the See also: Ottoman and Venetian Domination (1856), and by the History of the Greek Revolution (186'1)
.
In weak See also: health, and conscious of failing energy, he spent his last years in revising his history
.
From 1864 to 187o he was also correspondent of The Times newspaper, his letters to which attracted considerable See also: attention, and, appearing in the Greek See also: newspapers, exercised a distinct influence on Greek politics
.
He was a member of several learned See also: societies; and in 1854 he received from the university of Edinburgh the honorary degree of LL.D
.
He died at Athens on the 26th of See also: January 1875
.
A new edition of his History, edited by the Rev
.
H
.
F
.
Tozer, was issued by the See also: Oxford See also: Clarendon See also: press in 1877
.
It includes a brief but extremely interesting fragment of an autobiography of the author, almost the only authority for his life . As an historian, See also: Finlay had the merit of entering upon a See also: field of research that had been neglected by
See also: English writers, See also: Gibbon alone being a partial exception
.
As a student, he was laborious; as a See also: scholar he was accurate; as a thinker, he was both acute and profound; and in all that he wrote he was unswerving in his See also: loyalty to the principles of constitutional See also: government and to the cause of liberty and See also: justice
.
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Additional information and Comments
About George Finlay. His "History of the Greek Revolution" andc its sequel of the reign of King Otho was re published by Zeno of London in 1971 and this masterly work dove tails with other observers English and Greek such as Fotis Chrysanthopoulos. Of interest is his revelation of the presence of another philhellene Frank Abney Hastings a young out of work naval officer who died at Anatolicon in central Greece in the last stages of the revolt. Hastings innovated modern naval warfare by transforming a paddle steamer which he called "Karteris" ( Perseverance) with cannon and firing hot shot into the Egyptian ships of Ibrahim Pasha which had entered the war and which had practically smashed the revolt. In fear of this strange new craft Ibrahim's navy re positioned itself in a safe haven at Navarino where it met a disaastrous end at the hands of he combined English,French and Russian fleets.Navarino bottled up Ibrahim's ships denying the fleet from mobility on the open sea to its strategic detriment Hasting's contribution was to have caused the Egyptians to make the fatal move into land locked position so as to make it a sitting duck. It was the first application of the new technology of steam powered vessels in war and the bewildered Egyptian navy personnel were attacked by a craft that needed no winds or tides to carry it in and out of range to fire its deadly shot at their sails and hulls. Finlay's affection for Hastings is one of the most touching parts of the history as he recounts the obstacles and the dispointments Hastings experienced and pays tribute to this otherwise unremembered hero who gave his life for a foreign cause that in context was in fact a universal cause of every hero. A fight for fellow man.
About George Finlay. His "History of the Greek Revolution" andc its sequel of the reign of King Otho was re published by Zeno of London in 1971 and this masterly work dove tails with other observers English and Greek such as Fotis Chrysanthopoulos. Of interest is his revelation of the presence of another philhellene Frank Abney Hastings a young out of work naval officer who died at Anatolicon in central Greece in the last stages of the revolt. Hastings innovated modern naval warfare by transforming a paddle steamer which he called "Karteris" ( Perseverance) with cannon and firing hot shot into the Egyptian ships of Ibrahim Pasha which had entered the war and which had practically smashed the revolt. In fear of this strange new craft Ibrahim's navy re positioned itself in a safe haven at Navarino where it met a disaastrous end at the hands of he combined English,French and Russian fleets.Navarino bottled up Ibrahim's ships denying the fleet from mobility on the open sea to its strategic detriment Hasting's contribution was to have caused the Egyptians to make the fatal move into land locked position so as to make it a sitting duck. It was the first application of the new technology of steam powered vessels in war and the bewildered Egyptian navy personnel were attacked by a craft that needed no winds or tides to carry it in and out of range to fire its deadly shot at their sails and hulls. Finlay's affection for Hastings is one of the most touching parts of the history as he recounts the obstacles and the dispointments Hastings experienced and pays tribute to this otherwise unremembered hero who gave his life for a foreign cause that in context was in fact a universal cause of every hero. A fight for fellow man.
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