The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY', JANUARY 22, 1642.

being a "step down" of from six to eighteen inches,
varying according to the strength of the tide at high
water, and caused by the obstruction which the massive
piers and starlings of the bridge presented to the flow
of the tide.

But, although the artificial embankments have not
produced much effect upon the positive height of the
surface of the water, at either high or low warts!. ;
they have, by contracting the width, undoubtedly done
much to increase the depth, under low water, of the
part between the banks, and thereby to improve the
river for an extent of navigation, for which, in its natu-
ral estate, it would probably have been quite unfit, from
the want of depth and from the uncertainty of the
channel. This deepening has been eflected by con-
fining the current of the up-land, or fresh-water, united
with the tidal water, to act upon a limitel width, in-
stead of being diffused, and its force spent over a great
surface ; thus its velocity and scouring force have been
increased, and the channel has been deepened.
An illustration of this principle has been afforded in
our own time in other rivers ; in none perhaps so much
as in the river Clyde, which, chiefly from the operation
of contracting the width, has, from having a depth
at Glasgow, only for boats and barges, drawing from
two to five feet wafer at spring tides, become, ail
within the last eighty years, navigable up to the quays
for ships drawing from thirteen to sixteen feet, with full
cargoes from the East and West ladies and elsewhere.
1 name the above to show that although the river
Thames has numerous imperfections, there is, in its
great outlines, much to admire ; and that, even its ap-
parent defects ought to be treated with caution ; and I
wish not to be understood to say that the narrowing
or embanking has improved the sea entrances of the
Thames, or at all lower down than where the enbank-
ments were formed ; by diminishing the back water,
their effect has been injurious.
' As respects its fitness for trade, we have, with the
exception of some shoals, to be afterwards referred to,
a depth of from I•? to 14 feet at low water* nearly up
to London Bridge ; and a width nowhere of less than
700 feet ; but generally 1,000 feet at high water, near
London, a distance of 40 miles from its mouth.
As respects salubrity, it is to be observed that in ad-
dition to the river or fresh water, which, even as high
as Staines, 37 miles above London, is very seldom less
than 150,000 cubic feet per minute, and is much in-
creased by the streams which afterwards join it, and
still more by the springs which rise up unaer it in its
course downwards ; there is also the very much greater
volume of tidal water, rising and falling in every
twelve hours, from 14 to 19 feet in vertical height,
in constant motion, at a speed of from two to three
miles per hour, carrying past London upwards of
70,000 tons, or from two and a half to three millions of
cubic feet of water, at every minute of time. Even the
defects which are at present apparent, and so much re-
quire removal, arise in a great measure from the al-
tered state of things at the end of perhaps fifteen
centuries from the time when the Thames was em-
banked, rather than from the ignorance of the engineers
who had the direction of the great work. Could they
have contemplated that, on a length of only five miles,
there would be placed upon its banks a city containing
two to three millions of human beings, whose only drain
would be the Thames ; and that the citizens would
invent and adopt luxuries in their houses, which
should discharge every kind of impurity into sewers
and drains, to be built in every street and alley, and
which should all empty themselves into the river, more
care would probably have been taken to equalise the
river, and so to contract the width at these densely
peopled portions, as to prevent the nuisances now justly
complained of. Or, had they anticipated that, lower
down, at Woolwich, a great establishment would be
formed for building and repairing ships of war, to
,:float which, thrice the depth of water, sufficient for their
largest vessels, with a river wall certainly not in the
best direction for the tide, would be required ; they
might h ive kept the embankments, above and below
Woolwich, in straighter lines, so as to have induced a
stronger current, and to have prevented the trouble-
some accumulation of mud in front of that national
establishment.

It is to be noticed, also, that the clumsy erection of
London-bridge in the twelfth century much disturbed
the uniformity of the river, as Idt by the original em-
bankers. Its eighteen piers, with starlings, each from
30 to 50 feet in thickness, reduced the width of the
water way from 920 down to 300 feet, and the sec-
tional area in nearly the same ratio ; and this small
water-way was further interrupted by nine of the
openings having the whole of the London-bridge
waterworks before them. These erections, in-
creased by the stone that was, from time to time,
thrown in the openings and round the piers, to
prevent their being undermined ; and the bridge
being carried away, acted as a solid weir, or dam, in
diminishing the scour of the river, and causing an ac-
cumulation of matter above the bridge. Hence, not
only the high-water difference to which I have referred,
but also the difference at low-water, for, when the tide
was out, the water above the bridge vray prevented ebb-
ing so low, as it did below the bridge, by from three to
five feet, so that the quantity and strength of the t►dal
current was lessened, and the solid bed, or channel of
the river above the bridge, was raised from eight to ten
feet higher than below it.

This great evil is now remove I by the present new
and elegant fabric, designed by the late Mr. Rennie,
and executed under the direction of his sons, Messrs.
George and Sir John Rennie, which was opened in
1831. It hss a water-way of 690 feet in width, with
a great increase of depth under the arches ; and the
whole channel of the river, above bridge, has since,
from the increased current, being gradually lowering.
Hence, already has it been found requisite to support
by piling round, within coffer-dams, formed at great
expense, the piers of Blackfriars-bridge, the waterway
of which is 780 lineal feet, and the like operation is
now in progress, also under our (Walker and Bur-
gess's) direction at Westminster-bridge, built by La-
belye, in 1740, of which the waterway is B'2o feet. The
piers of Vauxhall bridge, which was built under my
direction in 1816, are, with one exception, carried
down to the London clay, and are not, therefore, likely
to be undermined.

What has thus so soon been rendered necessary for
the bridges upon the river, will, probably, in time, be
required for the buildings on its sides. When it is con-
sidered that the bed of the Thames at London is ge-
nerally gravel, with a large mixture of fine sand, for a
depth of from ten to fourteen feet under low water,
where the London clay is reached, it is manifest that
this point has not yet received the attention it deserves;
nor will it, probably, until its effects become visible
upon some rerblic or other important building. t Much
was said on this head in my evidence before the Select
Committee of last year, which it is unnecessary to re-
peat here.
Dismissing, however, the subject of the buildings for
the present, the ancient Thames embankers appear to
have done their work so well that, notwithstanding the
great increase of traffic, little has been done up to the
present day to improve the navigation of the river
below Fulham Bridge, which is eight miles above
London. Above Fulham, absolute necessity appears to
have demanded an improvement for passing the barges.

It was not, however, until 1777 that power was given
to raise funds, even to make a horse towing-path, and
to remove shoals ; and still the navigation remained
very imperfect until after the year 1810, when an Act
was passed, empowering the Conservator of the River
to erect locks, weirs, and other works, and to collect an
additional toll upon the traffic, whereby a very great
improvement has been effected, under the able super-
intendence of Mr. Leach, who has directed the exe-
cution of all the locks and repairs done under the Act
of 1810.

The Lord Mayor, as Conservator of the Thamer,
through a Committee of the Corporation of London, in-
terferes to prevent encroachments and nuisances for
the whole of the district, between Staines and Yentlett
Creek, which is a few miles above the Medway. The
Corporation of Trinity House, under their charter,
raise gravel for the ballasting of ships, and thus if the
shoals happen to be gravel they are removed, the chief
object being, not the improvement of the river, but the
ballast they take up. Leave to raise, above bridge,
gravel and sand for repairing roads, making foundations,
and other purposes, is given to individuals, who take
such materials wherever the quality suits them,
without sufficient regard to the improvement of
the navigation. The Commissioners of Sewers for
the City form and enlarge their outlets into the
river to discharge the mud from the streets and
the contents of drains into the river. And the
Commissioners of Sewers and Embankments for the
levels or marshes below London, support their embank,
meats and sewers to prevent the Thames from overflow-
ing the banks ; and to carry off the rain water through
the sluices which enter the river , but, if a part of the
river is too wide, causing a shoal in the middle, or line
of navigation, and a muddy bank by the sides of it,
both probably the effects of too great width, I am not
• aware of any power, with sufficient disposable funds, to
remove the shoal, or to narrow end straighten the river,
even where there would be no private interest opposed
to it. lam sure, at least, that very little indeed has
been done in this way ; and it is not, therefore, surpri-
sing that, from the alterations occurring in so great Li
lapse of time, there should be many things requiring at-
tention and improvement. To state these, and the
manner of effecting them, is the matter now to be con-
sidered ; and when I say the manner, I refer only to
my own profession, the engineering part ; without any
reference to legal powers and authorities, which I leas e
entirely in other hands.
Mr. Leach's Report states the defects and deside-
rata from Battersea-bridge upwards, and the obstruc-
tion caused by the awkward position of the bridges, and
the small openings between the piles or piers. These
bridges are indeed altogether unworthy, as respects
utility and appearance, of the situations so near London

'l/4 This low water is that of 17 feet 10 inches under
the datum high water of Trinity standard, both deter-
mined by that Corporation in 1800. The high water is
marked upon the entrance of the London Docks, and
upon a pier of each bridge in the river.
t Mr. Leach is of opinion that the foundation of So-
merset House already requires Watching.

which they occupy. The following suggestions are
therefore directed chkfly to the part front Chelsea-
hririze downwards.

The greatest defect in the river is the irregularity in
its present width and depth ; and in the line of the
wharfs and banks that term its sides. As examples :

Feet.
The u idth, half a mile below Fulham-bridge, is 82.0
Two miles lower, or half a mile below Battersea-
bridge, it is . . . .
One mile lower, opposite the Chelsea Water-
works . . • • • •
Ons mile and a quarter lower, opposite the Peni•
tentiary, only . . . . 600
Three-quarters of a mile lower, opposite the
Houses of Parliament, before the new river

. 745

. 1,000

wall was built . . . . 1,050
Half a mile lower, opposite Hungerford-market 1,450
which is nearly two and a half times the width
opposite the Penitentiary.
Three-quarters of a mile lower, below Black-
friars-bridgo. . . . . . .
Three-quarte;s of a mile lower, below South-
wark-bridge, it is contracted to . .
just half the width opposite Hungerford-mar-
ket, which is one -mile and a half higher.
Thu irregularity is less below London-bridge,

995

. 720

with the exception of the contraction to -
opposite Limehouse-bridge Dock, three miles
below London-bridge : so that the great in-
equalities are chiefll in the wharfed part at
London.

770

Now, on reference to the accompanying plans, and
the table of widths and observations, appended to this
Report, it will be seen generally that where the river
is narrow, there it is deep and comparatively clear of
mud, excepting where the beads divert the strength of
the tide to one side, but where the width is great,
there are shallows and muddy banks ; which are
injurious to navigation and to health. A main
object, therefore, is to take means for removing
these evils by an approximation to a uniform width
and depth ; and, with the exception of the cases where
the shore between high and low water is used for coal
barges and floating timber (for which a special provi-
sion can be made by recesses or docks, as is hereafter
referred to, but explained more particularly in the
evidence of last year's Committee), it is generally the
interest of the owners of the particular property, as well
as of the public, that they should be removed.

One of these causes of the present great irregula-
rity upon the shores of the River, even where em-
bankments have been formed in modern times, has
been the want of a general system or plan for guiding
the lines of wharfs and embankments ; so that each
party has proceeded, either without authority ; or
the Navigation Committee has granted or withheld
the authority, and defined the line, as the applying
or opposing party had the stronger argument or in-
terest, without having more before them than li-
mited information of the part of the river which was
proposed to be embanked. Thus necessarily, although
often with the best intentions, sanction may have been
given to what was injurious ; and resistance offered to
what would have been beneficial ; to say nothing of the
effects of private interest and influence operating in the
same injurious manner, where the Committee, of which
all the members were not likely to be conversant with
such matters, had no general guide before them, and
where the duties of the Conservator were, therefore, dis-
charged with difficulty and uncertainty.
The plans now presented are intended to supply in
some measure the above defect. They extend from
Putney-bridge to Gravesend. In the portion between
Putney and the river Lea below Blackwell, the pro-
posed river lines are marked, which, after our survey
and consideration, we concur in deeming as regular as
circumstances will admit, and therefore as advisable.
We reserve the right of correcting any errors. In
the portion above Vauxhall-bridge, we have conferred
with the parties principally interested. Between
Vauxhall and London Bridges, the lines arc, with
some partial and local modification, the same as I pro-
posed, and which formed the subject of the inquiry
before the Select Committee of the Session 1840.*

Between London-bridge and the River Lea, the
lines, where wharfs at present exist, are not such as to
admit of great variation, and from the knowledge of,
or professional engagement with, the owners of the
parts that are not yet wharfed, I do not anticipate any
very great objection.
The line from the Lea downwards to Barking Creek
is laid out with particular regard to the effect of re•
moving the nuisance caused by the mud opposite Wool-
wich Dock-yard, and the shoals in the navigation, the
worst in the course of the river. To effect the im-
provement suggested here of straightening the channel
of -the river by the removal of the quicksands above
Woolwich on the Essex side, and below Wool
wich on the Kent side, would be a public
work of great labour and cost, in which the
Admiralty must feel a strong interest, the means here-
tofore taken to effect this important object not having
succeeded ; nor are any similar measures which do not
increase the velocity of the tide close to the wharf wall
likely to do so. In stating this Ido not wish to be un-
derstood as saying that nothing less than the alterations
here proposed, in the course of the river, will effect
tae object ; and I beg to add that caution is, at the
same time, required to avoid producing a velocity which
might be inconveniently rapid.
In an extensive measure of this nature, a general
agreement of the owners of premises to extend at once
to the reeommended line is not to be expected, although,
for the public reasons I have stated, as well as on ac-
count of the addition to the extent of property, and get-
ting rid of the banks of mud, which affect so injuriously
the beauty and healthiness of the houses abutting upon
the river, the probability is, that even supposing the
extension to be optional, the applications for licenses
will be numerous, if parties know how far they may ex-
tend. To prevent doubt and all suspicion of partiality,
the terms and conditions should be defined, and made
generally known, and if the value set upon the ac-
quired ground (as was done where the Blackfriars em-
bankment was made) be understood to form a fund to
be exclusively appropriated to the purpose of improving
the river, the amount would generally be contributed
without grudging.
One of the improvements to which I refer, and for
which the funds will be applicable, is the removal of
shoals, where they consist of a material like stilth and
clay, the value of which will not pay for the removal.
In the works of Blackfriars and Westminster Bridges,
a surface of this nature, lying over the gravel has been
met with, but after this surface was removed, the gray, I
under it was taken up without any charge to the Com-
mittees. It will be essential, in the removal of shoals,
not to go under the i egular level, but to leave the bot-
tom, at a proper and uniform depth, with a small and
defined navigable channel in the middle, gradually well-
becoming shallower towards the sides.

* A lithographic plan is attached to the printed Re-
port of the Committee.

THE AFFAIRS OF GREECE.
NOTE ADDRESSED TO THE MINISTERS OF THE THREE
POWERS, GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA, IN

GREECE.

When the Government of his Majesty received the
note which, in accordance with your colleagues Mes-
sieurs les Ministres, &c., you addressed to him of the
date of the 20th of May (Ist of June) of this year, as
well as the second collective note which you wrote to
me on the 27th of September (9th of October) last,
concerning the still undecided affairs of Turkey, no
immediate reply was given, as Government was deli
roue in its reply to communicate to you at the same time
both the whole of the measures that it was about to
take, and the definitive period of those affairs which it
was occupied in arranging.

You cannot be ignorant, at the same time, that the
Cabinet of which I have the honour of forming a part
has devoted from the very first moment of its tin-motion
several weeks to the examination of these questions, and
the most proper manner of settling them.
Toe King, of the same opinion as his Council, de-
cided upon all these important questions, and proper
measures were taken in consequence for the execution
of the orders of his Majesty. lam happy, then, to be
able to communicate them to you officially, as well as
to your colleagues, in answer to your collective notes.
Permit me to commence by explaining the conduct of
his Majesty's Government from the beginning, as far as
regards the affairs of Turkey in Greece, as well as the
consequences eminently favourable to the subjects of
the Porte.

His Majesty's Government, faithful to its principles
of observance of the protocols and treaties to which the
unanimous agreement of the protecting Powers has
given rise in the affairs of Turkey and Greece, ever since
its appointment, has ordered the undersigned, as Royal
Commissioner, to take possession of the fortresses of
Negropont, Athens, Caravala, and Zeitoun, and to pub-
lish a proclamation, in which it guaranteed to the Mus-
sulmau population the enjoyment of the same advan-
tages which are granted to the Christian subjects of
his Majesty the King of Greece.
His Majesty's Government, taking into serious con-
sideration the clauses of the protocols relative to emi-
gration, has not confined itself solely to leaving at per-
feet liberty the Ottoman inhabitants of his kingdom to
emigrate at will, even after the end of the period fixed
for this purpose by the protocols, but it has carried its
tolerance upon this point so far that at this moment it
is still in the power of every Ottoman, as every one
knows, to emigrate openly, and with the certitude of
obtaining for this purpose every possible assistance and
facility from the competent authorities.
The Porte, on the contrary, has pursued an opposite
line of conduct ; not only has it never consented to per-
mit the families having the wish and the right to emi-
grate to do so after the period fixed upon to this effect
by the protocols, but, by doing everything to paralyse
the measures of those who have expressed the intention
of emigrating during the prescribed period, it has never
chosen to conform to the tenour of the protocols upon
this point. Not being able to declare that it did not
choose to submit to the measures prescribed by the
London protocol of the 30th of January, 1836, with
regard to emigration, it avoided their execution by not
sending until the very day before the termination of the

period permitted the firmans necessary for the governor
of the provinces of the empire, and by wording those '
firmans in such a way that the sense, and even the ex-
pressilna of the protocol, were completely changed and
disfigure
_

His Mijesty's Government, being desirous of giving
the purchasers of Mussulman property in Greece the
the necessary security for these sorts of transactions,
and consequently greatly facilitating these operations in
the interest of the vendors, subjects of the Porte, es-
tablished in the very commencement of its formation a
commission for the purpose of verifying the titles of the
vendors, and issuing a formal declaration in each espe-
cial case, after a preliminary examination, to prove that
the estate was not one of those that were transferred to
the State of Greece by the protocols, and the Govern-
ment put forward no claims to it.

The Courts judging all the causes according to the
order of their inscription upon the list, and the date of
their presentation, the Government was desirous (by
especial favour fur the Ottoman subjects) of obviating
the delays which are inseparable from this manner of
proceeding on account of the quantity of business. h
issued consequently an especial law, in virtue of which
every personal cause whatever, concerning any Ottoman
subject whatever, either as plaintiff or defendant, was
declared urgent and necessary, so that as soon as a
Mussulman had presented his cause before the Court,
the Court was obliged to try it immediatcly,whilst every
cause of the same kind between Greek subjects was
forced to wait its turn, according to its inscription upon
the list of the Court.

The Greek Government, in accordance with the rei-
terated requests of the Commissioners of the Port,
and animated by the most kind intention towards all
Ottoman subjects, consented shortly afterwards to take
from the ordinary Courts all personal causes of Turks,
and lay them before the mixed Commission already ap-
pointed for the purpose of taking into cognizance all real
causes between Mussulmans and Greeks.

It had fixed a certain Inpse of time, during which all
causes were to be laid before this mixed Court, in order
that this altogether exceptional state of things, altoge-
ther contrary to the common law, should not continue
indefinit.,ly. It afterwards consented, by an express
law, to prolong this period of time.
The measures prescribed by the law for the execu-

tion of the verdicts of the Court, entailing likewise
much delay, on account of the numerous forms accom-
panying this proceeding in all countries, his Majesty's
Government again endeavoured to meet the impatience
of the subjects of the Porte by ordering an especial
mode of proceeding for the execution of the verdicts
of the mixed Commission, and permitted to this end
bodily arrest, which the common law of Greece does
not authorise in similar cases.

Whilst the Greek Government was acting in the in-
terest of the subjects of the Ottoman Porte, the Porte
not only refuse to conform equally on its own side to
the measures prescribed by the protocols in favour of
families having the right to emigrate into Greece—not
only did it resist concluding with Greece the treaty of
commerce according to the clauses of the protocol upon
the subject, but it would not even consent to listen to
any mention of this treaty, whilst the Greek Govern-
ment had already sent long ago a Plenipotentiary to the
capital of the Ottoman empire, expressly for the pur-
pose of negotiating this affair.
It may be clearly seen, by what precedes, how ami-
cable and favourable to Turkey were the dispositions
of the Greek Government, and how desirous it was
strictly to execute the treaty, and to arrange promptly
and definitively the aFairs of Turkey in Greece ; how
anxious, in fact, it had been to neglect nothing that was
in its power to arrange matters, although it was by no
means obliged by the protocols to make all these con-

cessions.
Among the number of the different pretensions put
forward by the Turks, however, there are some which,
with the hest inclinations on the part of his Majesty's
Government, it was impossible to satisfy with the same
promptitude as the others. The arrangement of these
affairs, of the importance of which you will be able
hereafter to judge, could not therefore take place until
now, and it is of their nature and of the causes which
delayed their completion until now that I am desirous
of having the honour of now addressing you.
These affairs are three in number—those which con-
cern sales of proporty formerly belonging to Turks and
situated in the province of Thebes ; those of estates
possessed by Turks in the ancient province of Zeitoun,
at present a district forming a part of the Phthiotide ;
and those of the Vacoufs Ady of Eubosa, with regard to
which the protocols had determined that Ottoman sub-
jects should have the power of disposing of the advan-
tageous interests which they had reserved for themselves
in them by the vavinames or constitutive titles of these
pious purposes.
I am about to have the honour of laying before you
successively the resolutions taken by his Majesty's Go-
vernment, and already put into execution, with respect
to all these matters.
As regards the first, the Greek Government has con-
tested, in virtue of the very stipulation of the protocols,
the right of Mussulman inhabitants of the province of
Thebes to sell property they had possessed there for-
merly. These protocols only grant to Mussulmans the
power of disposing of those of their estates situated
in Thebes, from which it received the legal revenues,
provided that this district were occupied by Ottoman
troops at the time of the agreement of the Porte to the
arrangement of Feb. '2, 1830.
Neither the Porte nor the Commissioners with whom
this question had to be treated, however, proved this oc-
cupation ; nor could they have done so, since it is ge-
nerally well known that after the battle of Petra, fought
the 13th of September, 1829, the Ottoman troops were
obliged to quit the who's, province of Thebes, and only
kept the little fortress of Caravels, which does not be-
long to it, but which is situated opposite the fortress of
Negropont, besides about 30 soldiers stationed at the
port of Oropo.
From this time no new occurrence, no expedition, no
incursion whatever took place on the part of the Turks
to change the state of things established by the above-
mentioned battle, and which lasted up to the time when
the Porte agreed to the protocols.
The Greek Government had moreover, in its hands
several official documents proving the military occupa-
tion by Greeks, and among others two declarations of
the residents of the Three Powers accredited in Greece,
one of which was addressed to the Government, and
the other to Hadji Ismail Bay, 'then Commissioner of
the Porte. In these declarations the residents, who
were on the spot, and able to judge the affairs, declare
that the claims of the Mussulmans, formerly propietors
in Thebes, are exorbitant, and could scarcely be ex-
tended even to the lands situated immediately round
the fortress of Caravel-i. In spite of its incontest-
able rights in this affair, the Greek Government,
being desirous of forming a definitive arrangement of
all these differences with Turkey, and of preserving
in a satisfactory state their connection as good neigh-
bours between the two countries, being actuated also by
feelings of humanity for the Mussulmans formerly pro-
prietors in the provinces of Thebes, who had been ruined
by the war, consented to offer the Porte the consider-
able sum of 3,850,000 Turkish piastres, to be applied
to the aid and succour of the above-mentioned Turkish
families of Thebes formerly possessing the estates in
question, in order to bring the affair to a final settle-
ment. It happened, however, that some of these
estates had been sold by their possessors, and the hod-
jets, or deeds of sale, given into the hands of the pur-
chasers.
The Commissioners of the Porte would not consent
to annul these hodjets, alleging that it was forbidden by
the law and their religion to do so. They consented,
however, to subtract from the sum offered by the Greek
Government as much as might bear a relative proportion
to the estates sold, and to accept the rest ; and as re-
garded the ulterior fate of those estates already sold,
they left it to the Government to arrange as it would
with the individuals Arkie had purchased them.
An agreement was consequently come to at Athens
on the ad (15th) of September, 1897, between the
Commissioners of the respective Governments, and af-
terwards ratified by those Governments; and the Porte
then declared that it withdrew, as well for its subjects
as itself, all claims whatever, and all right to the pro-
perty situated in the provinces in question.
This Act is authentic, and was published in the Go-
vernment Gazette of the year 1838.
Thus this question, which was definitively terminated,
as far as regarded the Ottoman Porte, emains still un-
decided relative to the number of estates already sold,
and respecting which the Ottoman Commissioners had
refused to enter into an agreement. The Greek Go-
vernment had evidently the same rights with regard to
the purchasers of these lands as they had towards those
Mussulmans who had sold them. They had, moreover,
this consideration against them, that they bad made
these purchases not only without the knowledge of the
Greek Government, which had not authorised by any
proclamation any sale of the kind in the province of
Thebes, as it had done for the other provinces, but had
made this speculation whilst the Government was in
possession of these lands, and continued to maintain
itself in their possession, and had thus been unwar-
ranted purchasers (de mauvaise joi).
The Government being desirous, however, of proving
itself equally generous and kind towards those pur-
chasers, his Majesty came to the determination to have the
sums paid by them to the Turkish vendors reimbursed
in the course of five years, and at fixed periods, and to
grant them moreover upon presentation to the compe-
tent authorities of the papers proving the payment of
the price of these purchases, and the period at which it
was paid, the interest of 8 per cent from the time of
the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty of the 3d
of September, and for those who only paid at a sub-
sequent period from the day when that payment was
made.
With respect to the third point, I have already had
the honour to enter into a negotiation relative to this
affair with the Minister of the Porte at Athens.
The question of Vacoufs Ady of Eubtioa had already
been canvassed in the year 1839, between the Com-
missioners from the Porte, Koadi Effendi, and Said
Effendi, of one part, and those appointed ad hoc by his
Majesty. They succeeded after much difficulty, not
in ascertaining the category to which each Vacouf be-
longed, nor to fix the amount to which the owners were

entitled, according to the terms of the protocols, but
they agreed, subject to the approbation of their respec-
tive Governments, upon an arrangement comprising the
Vacoufs in the aggregate presumed to be Ady or Eu-
lats, and engaging on the part of the Greek Government
to pay a specific sum for the entire.

When this arrangement was submitted to the Royal
Government, it was found that it was expected that a
considerable sum was to be paid on vague, inaccurate,
and insufficient data.

In the first place, the Mussulman subjects in whose
name the Commissioners of the Porte demanded com-
pensation could not produce their title deeds. The
Ottoman Commissioners did produce a few vacfinames,
observing that the others had fallen a prey to the
flames, and without proving that the missing documents
related to the property in question, or without proving
in any manner that those properties belonged effectively
to the category of Ady or Eulats Vacoufs. It is, more-
over, to be observed, that the authenticity of the docu-
ments produced was not proved to the satisfaction of the
Greek Government, neither did the Turkish Commis-
sioners prove that the claimants were alive. On the
other hand, the King's Government had before them
several depositions duly proved, and showing that
several of the Vacoufs in question belonged to the cate-
gory of the Vacant Chery, and had consequently her
come the property of the Greek Government. The
King hesitated, therefore, to ratify this arrangement.
His Majesty, seeing that the necessary proofs were
not furnished, and desiring to conclude the affair, re-
solved to offer the Turkish Government a mode of
arranging the question forthwith, and empowered Inc
to propose to give a sum of 500,000 piastres as an in-
demnity for the Vacoufs Ady, payable at different pe-
riods within two years, deducting this sum from the
value of the aforesaid Eulats Vacoufs, which the for-
mer Commissioners sold in fee, though it was admitted
that the proprietors possessed only a limited interest
in them.

The Ottoman Minister not being satisfied with the
sum offered, I was obliged to demand the communica-
tion of some vacfinames in their hands.
There appears to be no doubt but that this difficulty
will be shortly arranged, as it merely refers to a prin-
ciple already recognised.
It results, from the preceding facts, that the Greek
Government has undertaken, not only more than was
prescribed by the protocols and treaties concluded, but
likewise took every possible pains to arrange the three
last cases in that spirit of good feeling towards the Sul-
tan's subjects with which it is animated.
If it required longer time to arrange them, it was be-
cause they were more difficult in their nature.
But when we consider that in acting so the Greek
Government have renounced many just rights, and made
more than one sacrifice to advance the interests of the
Porte, they trust that the Foreign Powers will inter.
fere, in order that the Porte may fulfil her obligations
with the King of Greece ; and not only that they will
induce the Sultan to recal the violent measures ho has
commenced to the prejudice of the Greek navy, but that
they will invite him to enter into a treaty of commerce,
based upon the principle of the protocols, and on the
same terms which the Porte grants to other nations.
Have the kindness, Sir, to transmit a copy of the pre-
sent to your Government, and accept the assurance of
my consideration. RIZOS.
Athens, Dec. 8 (20), 1841.