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be attacked by an armament so inconsiderable as his. But he watched and followed them: and by skilful manoeuvres, succeeded in making several captures. More than twenty of them, it is said, fell into his hands.

Monte Video also surrendered in the course of the year to the Brazilians: so that Portugal no longer possessed a single station in South America.

On the 6th of September, the corvette called the Voador with two Portuguese commissioners, the count de Rio Maior and don Francisco Jose Vieira, late minister of Brazil, arrived at Rio de Janeiro, to announce the restoration of the king of Portugal, to his former power. The Voador, with the commissioners on board, entered the harbour under Portuguese colours, and without hoisting a flag of truce. She fired a royal salute, which was not returned. Soon after, an intimation was sent on board, that no person would be permitted to land: the rudder was unshipped and deposited in the arsenal; the corvette was laid up under the guns of the batteries; and the government treated her in every respect as a prize. The commissioners, not being able to declare that they had authority to recognize the independence of Brazil in the first instance, were not allowed to negociate on any other point, and were immediately sent back to Europe in the Portuguese brig of war Treire de Maio.

From a statement of the finances, which was laid before the congress on the 26th of September, the exchequer of Brazil appeared to be in no very flourishing state. The estimated ordinary revenue for the half year was 1,767,000 milreas; and the expenditure for the same

time was expected to exceed this sum by 900,000 milreas. The debt amounted to 30,500,000 crusadoes, or about four millions sterl ing. The local revenues of the different provinces were likewise inadequate to their local expenditure. The annual deficit of Minas Geraes amounted to near 60,000 milreas; that of Goiaz, to near 20,000; that of Matto Grosso to 10,544 milreas; that of Santa Catherina to 34,870; making in all more than 125,000 milreas. The other provinces of Spirito Santo, Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande, Alagoas, Paraiba, Maranhao, &c. were likewise in arrear. Santo Spirito presented an annual deficit of 33,172 milreas.

The charges thrown

But

upon the treasury by these deficiencies in the local revenues, amounted to 280,000 milreas annually. In the midst of such difficulties, the government had sought relief in forced loans and contributions, donations, and even sequestrations, by which means they had obtained about a million of crusadoes. they now hoped to find a more effectual resource in a loan, the negotiation of which had been commenced in London. The proposed terms of it were-that 2,500,000l. should be raised by the sale, at 75 per cent, of 3,333,3331. stock, bearing 6 per cent interest.*

The statements of the minister of finance specified with extreme minuteness, all the sums advanced in support of the emperor or his household. The expenses incurred at the christening of the emperor's daughter amounted to 5,006 milreas (about 1,2007.): there was paid for books and the charges of the imperial library, about 2507. A new tiling to the emperor's palace and to the coronation cost only 67,200 milreas, or adjoining houses cost 8001. Don Pedro's somewhat less than 17,000.

CHAP. XIV.

ITALY-Prosecutions-Election of a New Pope-IONIAN ISLANDS TURKEY - War with the Greeks-Military and Naval situation of the Greeks-Military Operations-Naval Operations-Predatory Incursions in Asia Minor-Affairs at Constantinople-Difficulties with respect to Wallachia and Moldavia-Seizure at Constantinople of Ships under the Russian flag-Concessions of the Turks-Arrangements between Turkey and Austria-Treaty between Turkey and Persia.

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On the 20th of August Pope Pius 7th breathed his last, regret ted by his subjects and revered by the whole Christian world. [Vide Biography, p. 210.*] On the 27th of September, the cardinal Della Genga was elected his successor, and assumed the name of Leo the Twelfth. The new pope was born on the 2nd of August, 1760, at the Castle de la Genga, situated between the Duchy of Urbin and and the March of Ancona. He was Nuncio during 14 years in the electorates of the Rhine, and at the period of the persecutions exercised by Buonaparte against the head of the Church, was obliged to quit Rome. In 1814 he was sent by Pius 7th to congratulate Louis 18th on his

restoration to the throne. At the moment of his election, he was Cardinal Vicar, that is, administrator, in spiritual affairs, of the diocese of Rome. He has the character of being a man of great learning, accustomed to business, and of irreproachable morals.

The Ionian islands continued to enjoy, under our dominion, quiet, and increasing prosperity: and, at length, those groundless and so often refuted charges of oppression and misgovernment, which enmity to England invented, and party spirit at home foolishly circulated, against sir Thomas Maitland, began to sink into the oblivion which their falsehood deserved. A new parliament was elected, and met at Corfu on the 1st of March The session was opened by a speech from the lord commissioner. With respect to the war in Greece he observed, "These unfortunate hostilities are, as usual, attended: with the greatest horrors and atrocities. The Ionian government, however, will continue to seize on every opportunity of exercising the duties of hospitality and humanity, in favour of the unhappy victims of that wide desolation which forms the peculiar character of this cruel

and bloody warfare." In regard to the internal quiet of the islands themselves, he stated that he felt confident of the continuation" of the present calm and unruffled tranquillity;" and recommended, in consequence, to the Ionian Executive government, "the recall to their native island Zante, of those turbulent individuals, being five in number, whose behaviour, during the late crisis in the Morea, forced the government to remove them from the island for a time. They comprise the whole of the individuals treated in this manner; nor is there a single person within the states in a state of arrest or detention on this account."

The speech then adverted to the finance of the islands. The public accounts reached to the 31st of January, 1823, the close of the financial year. The receipt during the year was 707,875 Spanish dollars; the expenditure, 590,518; leaving a surplus revenue of 117,357. "Your financial affairs" (said the general)" continue to wear a promising aspect. Certain it is, that this is not the result of fresh taxation, for you well know that no additional imposts have been laid on the people, since the establishment of the present constitutional government of 1817, unless the modification of the then existing taxes, made by parliament in 1818, is considered in that light. But to settle this point at once, there is laid on your table a return of the present commercial duties, and taxes of all descriptions, together with a statement showing how they stood at the period of and antecedent to, the connexion between Great Britain and the Islands. From these documents it appears, that mitigations, not aggravation, of taxation, was the

result of the regulations of 1818, alluded to."

The crops during the preceding year failed in Corfu. In the island of Cephalonia, Zante, and Ithaca, the year was one of unexampled prosperity, in consequence of the goodness of the crops and the price for currants being high beyond all precedent, owing to the total destruction of the currant plantations of the Morea by the contest in that peninsula.

On this point sir Thomas Maitland said " From real documents which have been submitted to me, it appears, that the proprietors of Cephalonia, Zante, and Ithaca, have received in one year a return, clear of all charges whatever, of 20 to 30 per cent on the value of their respective properties; and it affords me the highest gratification, at a time when the agriculturists in all other parts of the world find the greatest difficulty in obtaining sale for their produce, that the inhabitants of these islands form the happicst exception to the general distress; and that the praiseworthy industry they have shown, since the establishment of the present government, in the material extension of the cultivation of their lands, has met its due reward."

In regard to the expenditure, the civil list was laid on the table for the consideration of the assembly; also an account enumerating every item of the whole expenditure. The chief heads of it were alluded to in the speech; such as the govern ment new buildings at Corfu, the new market and lazzaretto in Cephalonia, and the new military hos pital in Zante; the money expended in all the islands in the making of roads, and in paying, during the last year, an extra body of the militia to guard the coasts-a pre

caution made necessary by the appearance of the plague on the opposite shores. The lord commissioner stated that the new college would open in the current year, not however in Ithaca, as formerly proposed, but in Corfu.

In respect to the administration of justice, the general expressed his regret that greater progress had not been made in remedying the defects; he believed, however, that great substantial amelioration had been effected, and adverted to an act of Parliament of the former year, from which much benefit had been derived, and from the effect of which he expected the certain reformation of the laws, and of the judicial service of the States.

The address concluded with some observations on the late general elections :

"At the time (said sir Thomas Maitland) that the present charter was framed, it must be known to those I am now addressing, that the greatest difficulties were supposed to exist in introducing the system of voting viva voce, instead of the one in practice of balls and ballotting boxes; and it was even contended that this last manner of voting was necessary, for the peace and harmony of society.

"It appeared to me then, as it does now, that the introduction of the system of voting viva voce on all occasions, would of itself tend to form the character and correct the morals of the people more than any other measure that could be adopted; and its success has, I own, exceeded my most sanguine expectations, and I apprehend, has also surpassed those of every wellwisher to his country: for, whether we look at the number of electors who assembled, and their zeal and anxiety to exercise their

elective franchise, or whether we consider the quality and description of the persons they returned as their representatives, it must be obvious, that every thing that has been said by a few factious individuals, is proved by the act and deed of the whole of the nobility, and of every person of respectability or property in the country, to be utterly false. The conduct, in fact, observed by all ranks of society, seems to ine to be exactly the one best calculated to ensure, and at the earliest period, an extension of the liberties and franchises possessed by the people."

The war between the Greeks and the Turks continued to rage with undiminished fury, but without any decisive results on either side. In January the siege of Missolunghi was raised. Churchid had been succeeded by the Seraskier Mahomet Pacha. That chief had his head quarters at Larissa in the beginning of the year: but even so late as the end of spring he was without an army. The Pachas who commanded in Albania were at the head of a considerable force; but that force, instead of being employed in the subjugation of the Morea, found more than sufficient employment in checking the insurgent Beys of Albania. The Turkish arms were every where paralyzed by the inadequate supply of military stores, and by the want of money for the regular pay of their troops.

The Greeks on their part, introduced, in a pretended assembly of deputies, some fancied improve ments into their imaginary constitution, and made some alterations in their official arrangements. Petro Bez, a military chief, was placed at the head of the execu

́tive government; and Maurocordato, the late president, accepted the office of secretary of foreign affairs under him. But the nominal government for Greece had neither the resources to maintain, nor the influence to control even the scanty bands that fought for their cause. For the Greek soldiers received no pay; not more than a third of them were equipped with sufficient clothing to shelter them from the inclemencies of a mountain warfare; they almost invariably slept in the open air, and frequently had to pass two or three days without any other food than the herbs of the field. So far as they did not provide for themselves, they were supplied from the scanty resources of the individual chiefs whom they followed. The general mode adopted by the chiefs was, to advance a small sum, generally about two Spanish dollars, to cach soldier previous to his entering the field; with which he provided himself with bread, tobacco, and whatever other necessaries he might require, as far as the money would suffice. The necessary consequence of this state of things was, that the troops were rather the partisans of particular leaders, than the servants of the government, and that the dissensions and jealousies of the chiefs prevented any consistent plan of operations from being persevering ly acted upon.

The navy was equally deficient in permanent organization. It consisted, in fact, of nothing more than about a hundred (at one time the number was 180) vessels of various sizes, fitted out as privateers, by about thirty individuals resident in Hydra, Spezzia, Ipsara, and Samos. The seamen amount ed nominally to about twenty

thousand; and the chief difficulty with respect to them, consisted in providing for their families in their absence.

Under these circumstances, nothing of importance could be expected to be accomplished. The operations by land consisted either of ineffectual blockades, or of petty guerilla warfare; the events of which were usually magnified for a time into decisive victories. The Greeks besieged Patras, but in vain. The Turks, on the other hand, moved downward on the Morea with a considerable force. But they were retarded so long by the difficulty of procuring provisions, and so harassed by the hostility of the inhabitants of the mountainous districts through which they had to pass, that the autumn was arrived before they came near to the destined scene of action, and a great part of their mercenary troops quitted their standard. The example of dispersion, being once set, was speedily followed; and by the beginning of August, the army, without having accomplished any one thing, ceased completely to exist. One of their chiefs, however, again formed the siege of Missolunghi; but, after losing nearly two months before that place, they were obliged to hasten away from it, abandoning their wounded and their sick, as well as a considerable quantity of stores. The Turks still held Modon and Coron. In Candia they received important assistance from the Pacha of Egypt: yet Canea and Retyrno were the only for tresses which they retained in that island, and these were closely blockaded.

The Greek fleet was late in commencing operations; and it was kept in check by the neigh

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