der, was zealous in behalf of the nationality and freedom of his countrymen. Knowing that the Ionian Islands could not stand alone as an independent State, he wished to place them under the protection of Great Britain, whose institutions, framed on principles of liberty, he desired to see established among a people of Greek habits and language.

These desires of Count de Capodistrias were, by the influence of the Court of Russia, and with the consent of Great Britain, accomplished by the Treaty of Paris of November 5, 1815, between Great Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia.

The preamble of this Treaty recites that the Powers concerned, animated by the desire of prosecuting the negotiations adjourned at the Congress of Vienna, in order to fix the destiny of the Seven Ionian Islands, and to ensure the independence, liberty and happiness of those Islands, by placing them and their Constitution under the immediate protection of one of the Great Powers of Europe, have agreed to settle definitively by a special Act whatever relates to this object, etc."

The First Article of this Treaty declares that the Islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo and Paxo, with their Dependencies, such as they were described in the Treaty between His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias and the Ottoman Porte, of the 21st of March 1800, shall form a single, free and independent State, under the denomination of the United States of the Ionian Islands."

The Fourth Article declares that the Lord High Commissioner of the Protecting Power shall regulate the forms of convocation of a Legislative Assembly, of which he shall direct the proceedings, in order to draw up a new Constitutional Charter for the State, which His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland shall be requested to ratify."

The Fifth Article is as follows: „In order to ensure without restriction to the inhabitants of the United States of the Ionian Islands the advantages resulting from the high protection under which these States are placed, as well as for the excercise of the rights inherent in the said protection, His Britannic Majesty shall have the right to occupy the fortresses and places of those States, and to maintain garrisons in the same."

A like provision places under the order of the Commander-in-chief of the troops of His Britannic Majesty the military force of the said United States.

It appears clear from these provisions that the intention of the High Allied Powers was to found in the Seven Islands a free, independent State, which, by the protection of so powerful a country as Great Britain, might develop its resources without fear of external aggression or internal anarchy.

It appears, also, from the Fifth Article that the main object of the stipulation placing the fortresses in the hands of Great Britain was to insure to the inhabitants of the United States of the Ionian Islands the advantages resulting from the high protection under which the States are placed."

The Constitution established in execution of the Articles of the Treaty contained in its Fourth Article a provision that the established language of the States is Greek," thus showing conclusively that the intention of Count de Capodistrias to create a Greek nationality was steadily kept in view by Great Britain, as the State entrusted with the Protectorate.

The British Government having received this trust, have endeavoured faithfully to discharge the duties imposed upon them by the Allied Powers. In spite of many obstacles, they have ameliorated in all respects the condition of the inhabitants. With regard, however, to the exercise of the constitutional functions of the Lord High Commissioner and the Legislative Body, complete harmony has seldom prevailed between them. But the great change which took place in the condition of some of the neighbouring Turkish Provinces, when the Greek people of those Provinces asserted their independence, altered materially the political condition of the inhabitants of the Seven Islands. From that time the sympathies of the Ionian people began to turn towards Greece, and when the Greek Kingdom became a recognized State of Europe, the wish to be politically united with men of their own race took root among the people of the Ionian Islands.

This wish has been often laid hold of as a pretext for factious opposition; it has been expressed since 1850, at times when Great Britain could not listen to it without yielding to projects of ambition very foreign

from the freedom of Greece. But in its origin and tendency there is something in this Ionian wish of union with Greece which must obtain the respect of the British nation.

A love of independence in union with a kindred race has in itself claims to regard from a nation which prides itself on its love of freedom.

It is thus that, with a view to strengthen the Greek Monarchy, to fulfil the original objects of the foundation of the Ionian Islands as a State, and to comply with the wishes frequently, though irregularly, expressed in the Ionian Islands themselves, Her Majesty's Government have declared their readiness to consent to the union of the Ionian Islands with Greece.

Her Majesty's Government are not insensible of the value of Corfu as a maritime and military station, nor are they unaware of the apprehensions felt in Austria and Turkey at the prospect of the abandonment of the Ionian Islands by Great Britain. It has been suggested in England that Corfu might be retained while the other Islands might be given up. But Her Majesty's Government conceive that it would be a perversion of the trust confided to them by Europe, and a breach of faith towards the Ionian people, if Great Britain were to turn a portion of a single free and independent State under her Protectorate, into a part of her military possessions, and to make Corfu an element of her European power.

now

Her Majesty's Government propose, therefore, that a King of Greece has been recognized by the protecting Powers, to consult in the most formal and authentic manner the wishes of the inhabitants of the lonian Islands as to their future destiny. If those wishes, deliberately expressed, should be in favour of a union with Greece, Her Majesty's Government would propose that, with a view to considering the future condition of the Ionian Islands, a Conference should be assembled, to consist of the Representatives of the Powers who signed the Treaty of November 1815, and of the protecting Powers who, in 1827 and 1832, signed the Treaties by which the kingdom of Greece was constituted.

I am etc.

Russell.

25.

Protocole d'une Conférence tenue à Londres, le 1er août 1863, entre les Plénipotentiaires de l'Autriche, de la France, de la Grande-Bretagne, de la Prusse et de la Russie, relativement à la réunion des Iles Ioniennes au Royaume de Grèce. Présents: les Plénipotentiaires de l'Autriche, de la France, de la Grande-Bretagne, de la Prusse et de la Russie.

Le principal secrétaire d'État de Sa Majesté Britannique pour les Affaires étrangères a exposé les raisons qui déterminent le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté à s'entendre avec les Cours d'Autriche, de France, de Prusse et de Russie sur la révision du Traité du 5 novembre 1815, en vertu duquel les Iles Ioniennes ont été placées sous la protection immédiate et exclusive de la Grande-Bretagne. Animé du désir de consolider par de nouveaux arrangements le bien-être des populations confiées jusqu'ici à sa sollicitude, le Gouvernement de Sa Majasté Britannique considérerait la réunion des Iles Ioniennes au Royaume hellénique comme la solution la plus conforme aux intérêts mutuels des deux pays, liés entre eux par une communauté d'origine et de croyance religieuse,

Les représentants d'Autriche, de France, de Prusse et de Russie ont déclaré:

Que leurs Cours reconnaissent unanimement au Gouverne- · ment de Sa Majesté Britannique le droit de renoncer à l'exercice du protectorat exclusif établi par le Traité du 5 novembre 1815;

Qu'elles sont disposées à accorder leur assentiment et à prêter leur concours à la réunion des Iles Ioniennes au Royaume hellénique, si les voeux du Parlement ionien se prononcent en faveur de ce plan;

Qu'elles réservent au Gouvernement de Sa Majesté Britannique de consulter à ce sujet les représentants de l'État Septinsulaire ;

Qu'après avoir acquis la certitude de l'adhésion de cette assemblée, les Cours d'Autriche, de France, de Prusse et de Russie se déclareront prêtes à se concerter avec le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté Britannique sur la rédaction définitive du Traité destiné à placer l'arrangement proposé sous la sanction d'un acte européen.

Baron Gros. Russell. Bernstorff. Brunnow.

26.

Décret de l'Assemblée nationale des Iles Ioniennes sur la réunion des Sept Iles au Royaume de Grèce; voté à Corfou, le 19 octobre 1863.

Traduction.

The Assembly of the Ionian States having taken into consideration the Message of his Excellency the Lord High Commissioner, dated the 6th of October 1863 N. S., and with reference to its decision of the 23rd of September 1863, respecting the union of the Seven Islands with the Kingdom of Greece - decides:

Art. 1. As soon as the British Protectorate established in these States in virtue of the Treaty of Paris of the 5th of November 1815, shall legally cease, and until the establishment of the new Constitution of Greece, with the intervention of Ionian Representatives, His Majesty the King of the Hellenes is authorized to exercise over the Ionian Islands and their dependencies all rights of sovereignty, and in such manner as he shall exercise them in the rest of the Kingdom of Greece.

Consequently the exercise of the privileges and functions of the Protecting Sovereign, the Lord High Commissioner, his Residents, and the Most Illustrious the Senate, shall then cease.

All the other authorities of the State are maintained and shall act on the basis of existing Ionian laws, under the direction of the proper Ministers of the Kingdom of Greece.

Art. 2. On the legal cessation of the payment of the sum of 25,000l., hitherto paid yearly to the military funds of the Sovereign Protectress, and the sum of 13,000l. placed at the disposal of the Lord High Commissioner for the salaries and contingencies of his establishment, the sum of 10,0001. yearly is fixed to be paid monthly in augmentation of the Royal Civil List of His Majesty the King of the Hellenes.

This sum shall remain as the first charge on the Ionian revenue, unless due constitutional provision shall be made for the payment of the said augmentation out of the revenue of the Kingdom of Greece.

Art. 3. All contracts and engagements entered into