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FINLAY, GEORGE (1799-1875)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 387 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FINLAY, See also:GEORGE (1799-1875) , See also:British historian, was See also:born of Scottish parents at See also:Faversham, See also: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 See also:independence, and in 1823 he resolved to visit the See also:country. In See also:November he arrived in See also: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 See also:language, See also:history and antiquities of the country. Though he formed an unfavourable See also: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 See also:fever, however, combined with other circumstances, induced him to spend the See also:winter of 1824-1825 and the See also:spring of 1825 in See also:Rome, See also:Naples and See also:Sicily. He then returned to See also: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 See also:Athens in 1827. When independence had been secured in 1829 he bought a landed See also: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 See also: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 See also:Topography of Oropia and Diacria, with a See also:map (Athens, 1838).

The first See also:

instalment of his See also:great See also:historical work appeared in 1844 (2nd ed., 1857) under the See also:title Greece under the See also:Romans; a Historical View of the See also: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 See also:Sepulchre; with a See also:plan of See also: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 See also: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 See also: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, Finlay had the merit of entering upon a See also:

field of See also: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 See also:liberty and See also:justice.

End of Article: FINLAY, GEORGE (1799-1875)

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