Online Encyclopedia

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 (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention, and, appearing in the Greek See also:

NEWSPAPERS

newspapers, exercised a distinct See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence on Greek politics . He was a member of several learned See also:

SOCIETIES, LEARNED

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

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 (through Fr. presse from Lat. pressare, frequentative of premere, to crush, squeeze, press)

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, GEORGE (1799-1875)

Finlay had the merit of entering upon a See also:

field of See also:

RESEARCH (O. Fr. recerche, from recercher, re- and cercer, mod. chercher, to search; Late Lat. circare, to go round in a circle, to explore)

research that had been neglected by See also:

ENGLISH

English writers, See also:

Gibbon alone being a partial exception . As a student, he was laborious; as a See also:

SCHOLAR, SCHOLARSHIP

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

loyalty to the principles of constitutional See also:

government and to the cause of See also:

LIBERTY (Lat. libertas, from liber, free)

liberty and See also:

JUSTICE (Lat. justitia)

justice .

End of Article: GEORGE FINLAY (1799-1875)

[back]
FINLAND (Finnish, Suomi or Suomenmaa)

[next]
FINN MAC COOL (in Irish FIND MAC CUMAILL)

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.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.

Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.