IONIAN ISLANDS.

The Ionian Islands formerly constituted a small part of the Venetian dominions; and, by a fate somewhat singular, they were raised to the rank of an independent power without any efforts of their own, at the very period which witnessed the extinction of Venice itself, with Genoa, Ragusa, and many other small states which had existed for ages. These islands, which are seven in number, exclusively of some small dependent islets, are situated on the western and southern shores of Greece, between 36° and 40° of north latitude, and between 19° 40' and 23° 10′ of east longitude. Four of them lie in a group opposite the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth; two others, Corfu and Paxo, are situated about eighty miles north-west of this central group, from which Cerigo, the remaining island, is distant about 150 miles south-east. The subjoined table gives a view of their extent and population; but the measurements can only be considered as approximations, as, we believe, no accurate map of all the islands has ever been published.
[table]

According to this table, these islands contain about 150 persons to each square mile, a density of population nearly equal to that of the most populous countries of Europe, and very remarkable, considering how a great proportion of their surface is too rugged to admit of any species of cultivation.

The climate of the Ionian Islands resembles that of the continent of Greece, except that the surrounding seas temper in a greater degree the extremes of heat and cold, and render the atmosphere more humid. Snow often falls during the winter, and lies on the high grounds, but very rarely in the plains. The winter rains sometimes bring with them great quantities of a reddish sand, which the people think has been transported from Africa by the south wind. Sudden and furious squalls are frequent, and the Sirocco, or hot wind, which occurs at certain periods, produces the usual effects, a dull headach, lassitude, and a sense of oppression. The harvest, which is generally in May on the continent, is here in June. Earthquakes are very frequent, though not often very destructive. In Zante, two or three sometimes occur in a month; it is observed that they are preceded by a peculiar state of the atmosphere, producing a feeling of heaviness, or a sulphurous smell, and that they are generally followed by rain. Malaria prevails in low situations in the autumnal months; and the itch, which is common in some parts, instead of being eradicated by medical means, is rather cherished by the people, from a strange notion that it is a preservative against malaria. In other respects the climate is agreeable and healthy, and instances of remarkable longevity are known.^[2. Holland’s Travels in Greece, p. 20,37, 47 » Williams’s Travels in Greece, letters xlix. 1.; Turner’s Tour in the Levant, i. 202,204. ]

The rocks of all these islands belong to the same great calcareous formation which occupies the continent of Greece. They contain some, though very few, organic remains, and are disposed in highly inclined strata. The limestone, which is accompanied occasionally with beds of gray foliated gypsum, and with beds or masses of sandstone, is conjectured by Dr Holland to belong to the first floetz limestone of Werner. At one spot, ten miles south of the town of Zante, are found a number of pitch wells, agreeing in their situation and appearance with the description given by Herodotus two thousand four hundred years ago. They consist of small pools of water, fed by springs, in a marshy tract near the shore, having their sides and bottoms lined with petroleum in a viscid state, which, by agitation, is raised to the surface in flakes. It.is collected once a yea’, and the produce is about a hundred barrels.^[3. Holland, chap. i. and ii. ]

The surface of all these islands is so remarkably mountainous, that they do not contain a quantity of arable land nearly sufficient to afford corn to the population; and were it not that the vine, the olive, and the currant, enable them to extract a valuable produce from their rocks and declivities, they could support but a very small number of inhabitants. There is a considerable diversity, however, in the aspect and qualities of the surface of the different islands, which renders it necessary to speak of their topography separately. To begin with Corfu, the most northern, and the seat of the general government. This island, which is about forty English miles long, and fifteen in extreme breadth, lies opposite the coast of Albania, from which it is separated at one .point by a strait two miles broad. A range of mountains occupies the centre of this island, the highest summits of which, Mount Kassopo, must be nearly 4000 feet high, since the coast of Italy, at eighty miles distance, is visible from it. The island is rather bare of wood, and not abundant in good pasturage. Wheat is raised in some low situations near the coast; but though called “fruitful Corcyra” by Dionysius, and celebrated for its riches by other ancient authors, its inhabitants depend[7:12:341] chiefly on importation for corn, which they procure in exchange for their wine, oil, and salt. The capital, also named Corfu, which lies on the east side of the island, contains about 15,000 inhabitants, and is a pretty strong place. This island is the Phaeacia of Homer. A small bay, five or six miles south of the capital, is conceived to be the Alcinus Portus, where Ulysses, after his shipwreck, met with the daughter of Alcinous; and Fano, a small rocky islet seven or eight miles in circumference, lying twelve miles off the north-west coast of Corfu, is the island of Calypso.^[4. Memoirs of the Ionian Islands, by General Guilliaume de Vaudoncourt, translated by Mr Walton, chap. xi. ]

Paxo, the next in order, which is about seven miles long and three broad, lies eight miles south-east of Corfu, and twelve miles west of the coast of Albania. Its surface is highly beautiful, much enclosed, and nearly covered with olive trees. Its capital, St Gago, contains a great proportion of the population, amounting to 3948 persons, who depend very much on trade for their subsistence. Anti-paxo, an islet five or six miles in circumference, and inhabited by a few fishermen, lies near it.^[5. Vaudoncourt, chap. xi.; Williams, let. xlviii. ]

Santa Maura, about twenty miles long and eight or nine broad, lies so close to the coast of Greece that it was formerly joined to it by an isthmus. It is sixty miles southeast from Corfu, three miles from Ithaca, and five from the nearest point of Cephalonia. The surface consists of a range of limestone mountains, which rise to the height of nearly 3000 feet, and terminate on the south-west in the celebrated Leucadian promontory, where unhappy lovers, following the example of Sappho, came to cure themselves of an unrequited passion. The cliff is not very lofty, though sufficiently so for the purposes of despairing lovers. It is still the custom of the neighbouring mariners, when passing, to throw in a small piece of money as an expiatory offering. The island contains very little level surface. Its principal products are olives and vines; and salt is made on the coast. The capital, also named Santa Maura, containing 5000 inhabitants, is situated at the northern point of the island, where it is separated by a narrow channel from the continent. The ancient name, Leucadia, or, as it is now pronounced, Lefcadia, is still known among the inhabitants, and ought to be used to distinguish the island from its capital.^[6. Holland, chap. iii.; Vaudoncourt, chap. xi. ]

Theaki, the ancient Ithaca, the regal seat of Ulysses, consists merely of a narrow ridge of limestone, seventeen miles long and four in extreme breadth, rising into rugged eminences, with scarcely a hundred yards of continuous level surface in its whole extent. Near the middle it is intersected by a deep bay, which penetrates four miles inwards. Upon this bay the town of Vathi, the capital, is situated, containing 2000 inhabitants. The chief produce of the island is currants; but it yields also a small quantity of oil and wine, the latter much esteemed. The grain raised suffices only for three months’ consumption. On a hill near Vathi are some massive ruins of ancient walls, with a number of sepulchres, which are supposed to mark die site of the capital of Ulysses. Near the south-east end of the island is a cliff called Koraka at present, and supposed to be the rock Korax, mentioned in the Odyssey; and under it, in a secluded and picturesque spot, is a fountain, conceived to be that of Arethusa, where Ulysses met the faithful Eumaeus. The island is still named Ithaca by the more intelligent natives, which is corrupted into Theaki by some of the lower classes. Between Ithaca, Santa Maura, and the continent, are situated four small rocky isles, named Meganisi, Calamo, Atako, and Car to, besides several minute islets, of little or no importance.^[7. Ibid. chap. iii. ]

Cephalonia, three miles from the nearest point of Ithaca, is the largest of all the Ionian Islands. Its greatest length is forty English miles, and its greatest breadth twenty-four. A lofty chain of mountains, the Mount Aenos of antiquity, nearly 4000 feet high, occupies the centre of the island, and sends off branches to all the principal promontories. The wood which covered a part of these hills was wantonly burnt, about twenty years ago, during some internal disturbances. A deep gulf penetrates far inland from the south side of the island; and, upon the east side of this gulf stands Argostoli, the capital, containing 4000 inhabitants. Lixuri, the only other town, contains 5000 inhabitants; and there are in the island 175 villages.^[8. Turner, 192. ] The surface of Cephalonia is generally rocky; the soil thin, and less fertile than that of Zante. Its chief productions are currants, oil, and wine. Some ruins of Cyclopian walls mark the site of the city of Samus, mentioned by Homer; and there are some remains of Krani, Pronos, and other ancient cities. Vestiges of the altar of Jupiter Aenesius are said still to exist on the top of Mount Aenos.^[9. Holland, chap. ]

Zante, which lies ten miles south from the nearest point of Cephalonia, is about sixty miles in circumference. Unlike the neighbouring islands, its surface consists chiefly of a large plain, reaching from the southern to the northern coast, but bounded on the east and west sides by calcareous ridges about 1200 or 1300 feet high. This plain, covered with vineyards and olive groves, with only a few spots in tillage, presents the appearance of luxuriant fertility, and has procured for the island the title of the “Garden of the Levant.” The capital, Zante, situated on the eastern side of the island, contains 18,000 inhabitants. Zante contains very few antiquities; and, though smaller and inferior in population to some of the other islands, is the richest of them all.^[10. Ibid. chap. i. ]

Cerigo, the ancient Cythera, the last of the seven islands, is about fifty miles in circumference, and is situated near the south coast of the ancient Laconia, 150 miles from the nearest of its Ionian confederates. The face of the island is mountainous, and, though reported to be the birth-place of Venus, it is rugged, barren, and destitute of beauty. Its productions are similar to those of the other islands, but it is less commercial; and, abounding more in pasturage, it raises a considerable number of sheep and cattle.^[11. Galt’s Voyages and Travels, 1812, p. 137 î Holland, chap. iii. ]

Landed property, in all the islands, is in the hands of a comparatively small number of persons, who form a proud, oppressive, and rapacious aristocracy. The Venetian senate, whilst it possessed these islands, kept all the more solid advantages to its own citizens, but bestowed titles, which cost nothing, profusely upon the petty insular chieftains; and nobles, destitute of education, honour, or property, are as common here as in Italy. The lands are generally let by the year, the tenant paying half the produce to the landlord; a species of tenure almost universal in rude countries. In Cephalonia, where property is pretty much divided, the largest proprietor has not above L.800 or L. 900 a year; but in Zante there are estates of more than double this value.^[12. Holland, 36. ] In the rural economy of the Ionian Islands, corn is an object of secondary importance, and farming is conducted on the rudest principles. Barley, wheat, maize, and oats, are cultivated, but the quantity of grain of all kinds raised does not exceed one half, and in some of the islands is not one third, of the annual amount of consumption. Of the corn raised in Ithaca, one tenth is wheat and nine tenths barley. The [7:12:342]returns of the former are estimated at six or seven, and of the latter at eight or nine, for one.^[13. Williams, Appendix, No. iii. ] Flax and cotton are cultivated to a small extent in several of the islands. Cephalonia is computed to yield of the latter 100,000 pounds annually, of an excellent quality.^[14. Vaudoncourt, 438. ] The number of oxen, sheep, and goats, is considerable in the islands less adapted to the cultivation of the currant, vine, or corn; but others, such as Zante, have very few, and all are partly supplied with cattle and poultry from the Morea. Milk cows are rare, the milk of goats being preferred for ordinary use, as well as for the manufacture of cheese. The produce of wax and honey in some of the islands is very great. Cerigo is stated to have had 1280 hives in 1811, and 60,000 or 80,000 pounds of honey of an excellent quality are collected annually in Cephalonia.^[15. Vaudoncourt, 437; Holland, 43. ]

The cultivation of vines and olives is an object of greater attention to the inhabitants than that of corn, and is more skilfully conducted. Nine sorts of olives grow in Zante, differing considerably in their qualities. The fruit begins to ripen in November, but does not fall off till towards the end of December or the beginning of January. This is the time when they are gathered, but in some places they are plucked with the hand, and not allowed to fall. They are carried to the mill in April, but the harvest is not entirely at an end till the month of May. The oil is carried to the sea-ports in sheep-skins. Olives are cultivated to the greatest extent in Corfu, where the produce collected every two years amounts, in middling seasons, to 700,000 jars or 90,000 barrels^[16. The barrel rather exceeds the millerole of Marseilles, or 59 ’ 7 litres (Vaudoncourt); and, according to Williams, is equal to 128 English pints. These accounts agree, and the barrel may therefore be considered as one fourth of a hogshead. ] annually. Zante produces about 30,000 barrels; Cephalonia, 30,000; Leucadia, 3000; Paxo, 8500; and Ithaca, 1500. Including Cerigo, the annual produce of olive oil will not be much less than 200,000 barrels. While the Venetians were masters of the island, and retained a monopoly of the oil trade, the price averaged from forty to forty-three livres of Corfu (6s. 8d. to 7s. 2d.) per jar; but in 1802 it rose to sixty livres (10s.); and in 1807 (a dear year) was seventeen and a half dollars per barrel, or about 19s. per jar. The oil is of four different qualities, the finest of which is fit for the table, and the other three species are used in various manufactures.^[17. Vaudoncourt, chap. xii.; Holland, chap. ii. and iii.; Williams, p. 173, and Appendix, No. iii.; Walpole’s Memoirs relating to Tw~ kay, p. 288. ]

Wine is made in all the islands to a small extent. In Zante, forty species of grape arc distinguished, but the small black species, known under the name of currants, is the only kind extensively cultivated. Ithaca produces about 12,000 barrels of wine annually, of a quality superior to that of the other islands, and which sells at about twenty dollars per barrel. Cephalonia produces from 30,000 to 35,000 barrels of good wine. Zante yields only about 4000 barrels; Leucadia 1000. The produce of the other islands is not known.^[18. Holland, p. 22; Vaudoncourt, chap. xii.; Williams, Appendix, No. iii. ] Oranges, lemons, and citrons, are raised in several of the islands, both for domestic use and exportation; and salt is supplied for exportation in large quantities from Corfu and Leucadia.

The currant is the staple produce of Zante, where it occupies nearly two thirds of the cultivated land. It is raised also in Cephalonia and Ithaca, but does not succeed in Corfu or Leucadia. Its culture is conducted with great neatness, and when the flower is out, the aspect of the great vineyards is singularly rich and beautiful. It thrives best in a deep rich soil, at the foot of mountains. The currants are gathered about the beginning of September, somewhat sooner than other grapes; are spread abroad for eight or ten days, and are usually ready for packing by the end of September. The annual produce of Zante is from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 pounds, the price of which in the island varies from 14s. to 18s. per hundredweight. Cephalonia yields from 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 pounds, and Ithaca 500,000. The whole produce of the Ionian Islands in this article may therefore be estimated at 13,000,000 or 14,000,000 pounds.^[19. Holland, chap. ü. and iii.; Vaudoncourt, chap. xii. ]

Mr Williams gives the estimated value of the annual produce of the three islands, Zante, Paxo, and Ithaca, in corn, wine, oil, currants, honey, and flax, the chief productions, but excluding minor articles, such as cheese, fruit, &c. The estimates appear to be official, and as they are probably deduced from surveys made for the purpose of taxation, they are entitled to some degree of confidence; but it would have been more satisfactory had he stated upon what basis they were formed. The annual produce of Zante, in 1815, is stated at 1,066,145 dollars, or L.234,000; that of Ithaca, 98,896 dollars, or L.22,000; that of Paxo, 104,018 dollars, or L.23,000. These three statements give, on an average, L.6 sterling of produce for each inhabitant; but as some of the other islands are less favourably situated, L.5 is probably high enough as a mean; and if we compute the annual value of the produce of the whole on this principle, it will be L.970,000,^[20. Williams, 72-183, and Appendix, No. iii. ] or, in round numbers, L.l,000,000 sterling; and this is exclusive of what is derived from commerce and the mechanic arts.

The situation of the Ionian Islands gives them naturally, and in some measure necessarily, a commercial character. Their position near the coast of Greece, where the tyranny of the Turks renders property so insecure, tends to make them a medium of communication with that country, and an entrepôt for its commodities. The narrowness of their territories, which obliges them to import provisions, and the peculiar nature of the soil and climate, which are better adapted to raise other productions than corn; their insular situation, and long connection with the Venetians; all dispose them to engage largely in commercial transactions. The trade of the islands, considering their extent and circumstances, is, in truth, considerable, and has increased greatly since it was freed from the shackles imposed upon it by the monopolizing spirit of the Venetians. The exports consist of olive oil, currants, wine, honey, wax, salt, soap, oranges, lemons, tobacco, cheese, &c. The imports are corn, woollen, cotton, and linen goods, velvets, cured fish of various kinds, sugar, coffee, iron, lead, dyestuffs, paper, drugs, spices, &c. Zante, in 1815, exported goods to the value of 591,000 dollars. Cephalonia has 250 vessels of various sizes. The little island of Paxo has 56 vessels, and exported goods to the value of 96,000 dollars in 1815. Ithaca, in 1815 or 1816, had 3598 tons of shipping, which, with boats belonging to the island, employed 823 men, and 74,360 dollars of capital. The little island of Cerigo, the least commercial of the whole, had, in 1809, only about twenty-five vessels, nearly all boats, employing 230 men. The number of Ionian vessels that trade with Turkey was estimated, in 1816, at 250, of which 200 were under their own flag, and fifty under the Russians. We should probably not err much if we estimated the exports of the whole islands at something more than double those of Zante, or about one third of the computed gross produce of the land, namely, L.300,000 sterling. A great number of their vessels trade with the Russian ports in the [7:12:343]Black Sea, for corn; others with Malta, Greece, Italy, France, and Spain. In the intercourse between the islands which lie near one another, a species of long, slender boat is used, named Monoxylon, made of a single piece of wood, preserving both the form and the name of the vessels used in the earliest and rudest stage of Greek navigation.^[21. ζ 0t . t , er, ≡ book iii. chap. xiv. ] The interest of money, in common cases, is ten per cent. The merchants are generally poor and unenterprising, but a few individuals have accumulated considerable fortunes.^[22. Williams, vol. ii. 183. ] One individual, a nobleman, is mentioned, who is said to possess a million of dollars. If these islands continue to enjoy tranquillity, and if their internal economy is improved, it is probable they will attract a considerable part of the trade which now centres in Salonica, Hydra, Specchia, and other Turkish ports, where the merchants are exposed to loss and vexation from the rapacity and violence of the Turkish government.^[23. √v∙ι.. d, clia P∙∙∙ 111 ∙’ Vaudoncourt, chap. xii.; Turner, vol. iii. Appendix. ]

The public revenue arises from a tithe or impost on the various species of produce raised within the country, grain, wine, oil, flax, and cattle; from a tax on hearths or inhabited houses, a tax on oil presses, and from duties of customs on articles exported and imported. The produce of these various duties, in 1815, was as follows:
[table]

EXPENDITURE.

Dollars.

Zante 102,6b8

Cephalonia 64,174

Leucadia 34,973 *

Ithaca 5,403

t’axo 6,107

Cerigo 1,956

Parga 4,267

219,568, equal to L.48,500.

Revenue 304,265

Surplus 84,698^[24. Wuhams’s Travels, Appendix, Nos. ii. and if f. ]

This small expenditure appears to include only the charges of the civil government, and perhaps not the whole of these. The body of 3000 troops, chiefly British, kept in the islands, would alone evidently absorb a larger revenue. And although it was fixed by the constitution that the islands should defray the expense of their own military establishment, it appears, in point of fact, from a parliamentary paper (dated 25th of February 1820, No. ≡0, that the British government incurred an expense of L.145,203 in the Ionian Islands in 1817, and L.120,045

in 1818, for purposes chiefly military, but partly civil. It is difficult to conceive that there can be any British objects in that quarter requiring such an expenditure, or that the money has been advanced provisionally, to be afterwards repaid, since the revenues of the islands must now be on a permanent footing. There remains but one admissible supposition, that these islands are to form a permanent burden on the people of Britain; and yet, at a period when our own expenditure presses so heavily, it seems little less than infatuation to increase our difficulties gratuitously, by relieving a distant country, less heavily taxed, of the expense of defending itself.

The existing constitution of the Ionian Islands, which was sanctioned by its own legislative assembly in 1817, vests the supreme power in the high commissioner, the senate, and the legislative assembly, which have jointly the title of the Parliament of the Ionian Islands. The legislative assembly 7 consists of forty members, of whom twenty-nine are elective and eleven integral, and all must belong to the class of syìiclitoe, or nobles, the common people having nothing to do with the laws but to obey them. The eleven integral members consist of the president and members of the old senate, with the regents or governors of the five largest islands, all of whom are substantially, though not directly, nominated by the high commissioner. The twenty-nine elective members are chosen by the nobles of the different islands, from prepared lists sent down by the primary council, in the following proportions:

Corfu 7

Cephalonia 7

Zante 7

Leucadia 4

Ithaca 1

Cerigo 1

Paxo 1

28

And each of the last three in rotation elects a second member, which makes twenty-nine. The legislative assembly elects its own officers, fixes the amount of the supplies, and all its members have the power of proposing new laws or regulations.

The primary 7 council, mentioned above, which acts only during a dissolution of parliament, consists of the president and members of the last senate, with five members of the last legislative assembly 7 , nominated by the high commissioner.

The senate consists of five members and a president, the latter appointed directly by the high commissioner. The five members are elected by the legislative body out of its own number, and confirmed by the high commissioner. If he negative the election of an individual, another is elected; and if he negative the second also, the vacancy is filled up by his nominating two individuals, of whom it then falls to the legislative body to choose one. This senate is an executive council as well as a deliberative body. It nominates most of the officers under the general government, such as judges, regents, archivists, &c.; but its nominations must be confirmed by the high commissioner. It makes regulations during the recess of the legislative assembly, which have, pro tempore, the force of laws; and it deliberates and decides upon all propositions submitted to it by 7 the high commissioner, or sent up from the lower house, but its members have not a power to initiate legislative proceedings.
[7:12:344]

The legislative assembly and the senate are elected for five years, but may be dissolved at the lapse of a shorter period by the high commissioner. The appointments of judges, regents, and other officers, are also for five years.

The high commissioner is nominated by the protecting sovereign. He appoints the president of the senate, who has the initiative.of all proceedings in that body. He appoints a resident for each of the islands, who has the power of suspending any proceeding of the local government. He nominates a number of officers, and has a negative, direct or indirect, upon the appointment of most of those whom he does not nominate. He has a veto on all propositions which have passed the two houses; but though he give his sanction to any specific measure, there is still another veto behind, lodged in the king of Britain, who may annul the proceeding at any period within one year of its enactment.

Each island has a local government, consisting of a municipal council of five members, selected by the regent (with the approbation of the high commissioner), out of a list of ten, chosen by the synclitoe. And besides these, there are five active functionaries, a regent, secretary, fiscal, archivist, and treasurer, all, except the last, nominated by the senate, and confirmed by the high commissioner.

The judicial power is lodged in a supreme court at the seat of government, consisting of four ordinary and two extraordinary members. Of the former, two are native Ionians, named by the senate, and approved of by the commissioner; and two, directly named by the commissioner, may either be British subjects or Ionians. When these four are equally divided on any question, reference is made to the two extraordinary members, who are the high commissioner and president of the senate. Subordinate to this supreme court are twenty-one inferior tribunals, that is, a civil, a criminal, and a commercial tribunal in each island. And under these, again, are justice of peace courts, for minor offences, and small civil suits. Besides the general appellant jurisdiction which the supreme court has over the local tribunals, it is empowered to send a delegation of its members on circuit on special occasions, when thought necessary by the senate and high commissioner. The number of judges in the local courts is not fixed by the constitution.

The sanita, or health establishment, is under the sole direction of the high commissioner. The army, consisting entirely of the troops of the protecting sovereign, is also under the orders of his representative. The expense of the army is to be defrayed by the islands if the number does not exceed three thousand men. There is, besides, a national militia, commanded by native officers.

Individuals, or bodies of men, have the right of representation or petition to the protecting sovereign or his ministers.

We have described this constitution more in detail than its importance merits; for, without exaggeration, it may certainly be pronounced to be the very worst among the numerous plans of representative government framed within the last thirty years. It is, in fact, little else than a compact between the British government and the petty despots of the islands, settling in what proportions the power, patronage, and taxes of the country are to be shared between them. The rights and interests of the mass of the people, for which even the German princes in their new constitutions profess a decent respect, are not the object of one single stipulation in this long and detailed instrument.

The style of building in the Ionian Islands is chiefly Italian, and the interior of some of the cities shows great neatness. The streets are generally narrow; the houses some of wood, some of stone, are three, four, or even five stories high, with open latticed windows. The shops are tolerably well supplied with manufactured and colonial articles; and the persons employed in them display more alertness and civility than the indolent shop-keepers of Spain, Portugal, and Sicily. The churches, as in Greece are disproportionately numerous. Some of them have steeples, others have merely an elevated façade. The population, in consequence of the long dominion of the Venetians, is, in manners and habits, as well as in costume and language, intermediate between the Greek and Italian character. Though enjoying more liberty, they are, in some respects, inferior to the continental Greeks. Their exterior is less dignified, their manners more corrupt, and they show less capability of again becoming a people. This degradation of character may be attributed chiefly to the vicious nature of the Venetian government. The governors and judges whom it sent out to the islands were very often nobles of decayed fortune, who undertook the duties as a speculation to retrieve their affairs. Bribery was practised openly; toleration for a crime might easily be purchased; and the laws, imperfect in themselves, were rendered wholly null by the corruption of the judges. The petty insular aristocracy separated into factions, which trampled on the laws and oppressed the people. The Venetian government, by a detestable policy, encouraged their feuds to prevent their combination, and exposed the country to all the evils of a continued civil war. As happens in all countries where justice is denied by the laws, private revenge and assassination prevailed to a frightful extent. In the island of Zante alone, with 33,000 inhabitants, the number of assassinations sometimes exceeded one for each day of the year. Many of the nobles, indeed, kept assassins in their pay; and others of them fitted out privateers for the trade of general piracy, in which the vessels of their own countrymen were not spared. These nobles are generally educated in Italy, and speak the Italian language; but in knowledge and refinement they are scarcely on a level with the middle ranks in England. The lower classes, like the continental Greeks, use the Romaic language, but with a larger mixture of Italian words; and, like them, too, they are active, ingenious, adroit, loquacious, subtle, and intriguifl⅛. Physic and law are favourite professions, and the better order of lawyers and physicians, who have been educated in Italy, form the most intelligent part of society. The clergy are extremely numerous, but less informed, and inferior in respectability to the two former classes. They were very active in resisting some of the reforms attempted by the British. When Major du Bosset introduced the culture of the potato in Cephalonia, they laboured to persuade the peasants that this was the very apple with which the serpent tempted Adam and Eve in paradise.^[25. Holland, 41. ] The women, as in Greece, are almost entirely secluded from society, and are, of course, ignorant, superstitions, and feeble in their character.^[26. Holland, chap. i. ii. ] In all that regards the intercourse of the sexes much laxity of morals prevails, but the poor are less corrupted than the rich. Most of the nobility have mistresses, and the laws allow them to legitimate the issue of these connections by a subsequent marriage. A sort of agreement is not unfrequent, by which a young woman is made over by her parents, with her own consent, to her admirer, at a stipulated sum. This species of concubinage, which frequently terminates in marriage when the girl is respectable and has children, is, on other occasions, [7:12:345]the cause of much infidelity and unhappiness.^[27. Williams, letters xlvii. xlviii. ] In the country the Greek dress is generally used, though with some modifications; but in the towns the Italian dress prevails, as well as the Italian fashions in the style of furniture and in the - modes of social intercourse. It was a leading object in the policy of the Venetians, indeed, to extinguish the national spirit of the Ionians, to deprive them of the means of education, and to brutalize their character by every method in their power, that they might convert them into passive instruments of their sovereign will. But, after three centuries of such policy, there can be no doubt that the Venetians lost more by the odious nature of the innovations attempted than they gained in security by the result.^[28. Vaudoncourt, chap. ii. xii. ]

The attachment of the Ionians to the Greek religion, however, has effectually resisted the innovating spirit of their masters. The Catholic worship is tolerated, but the national faith has lost little of its influence upon the minds of the people. Each island has its patron saint, in the efficacy of whose intercession the people are taught to believe. The British authorities humour the popular superstition in this particular; and, in Corfu, the patents from the health office bear to be “in the name of God, and by the intercession of Saint Spiridion.” Ceremonies and processions, with fasts, frequent and severe, take the place of piety and good works. A ruffian engaged in a project of assassination has refused to taste animal food during the season of the fast. As in many other countries, the lower orders are comparatively strict in their religious observances, while indifference and infidelity are common among the higher classes. But, if religion is in a low state, it is not from the want of priests and churches, the number of which is out of all proportion to the number of inhabitants. The little island of Paxo, with 4000 inhabitants, has thirty-six churches; and Cerigo, with 9000 inhabitants, is said to have the incredible number of 260 churches or chapels, and 165 priests. These swarms of priests are a sort of privileged mendicants. They are, in general, too illiterate to understand religion themselves, and, of course, they are incapable of teaching it to others. But as they derive their subsistence chiefly from fees for absolution, and from gifts and offerings, they find it necessary to support their influence by filling the minds of those under their care with a thousand idle or pernicious superstitions. Besides the secular clergy, there are a number of regular religious in convents scattered over the islands, but of their number or condition we have seen no satisfactory account.^[29. Holland, chap. i. ii.; Williams, letters xlvii. xlviii. ]

The Ionian Islands make no considerable figure in ancient history. Cephalonia, Zante, Ithaca, and Santa Maura (then joined to the continent), formed part of the kingdom of Ulysses; and, if we may judge of their condition from the armament which their prince carried with him to the Trojan war, we should conclude that they were less populous and less improved than the continental parts of Greece. These islands, along with a part of the opposite continent, furnished only twelve ships, whilst the little island of Salamis, not one twentieth part of the extent, sent as many.^[30. Iliad, lib. ii. 631. ] They were then, as at this day, under the power of a number of petty chieftains; and it is a proof of the accuracy of Homer’s geographical knowledge, that their relative numbers, as stated by Telemachus,^[31. Odyss. lib. xvi. 249. ] correspond tolerably well with the actual extent and importance of the islands, Cephalonia having twenty-four, Zante twenty, and Ithaca twelve. At a later period, the Corinthians planted colonies in Leucadia and Corcyra, and probably in some of the other islands over which they maintained some degree of authority. The Leucadians sent 800 men to fight the Persians at Plataea, and the Cephalenians of Pale 200.^[32. Herodotus, lib. ix. ] The Corcyreans, from their favourable situation, rapidly became strong by sea, and not only shook off their dependence on the parent state, but committed depredations on the commerce of the other Grecian cities, till the Athenians, shortly after the battle of Marathon, attacked them and broke their naval strength. The jealousy between the Corcyreans and Corinthians, about forty-five years later, led to hostilities between the parties, in which the Athenians were drawn in to take the part of the former; and the extension of this petty quarrel at length produced the celebrated Peleponnesian war. The Corcyreans had 120 triremes when the contest began, and were the second naval power in Greece.^[33. Thucydides, lib. i.; Xenophon, Hist. lib. vi. ] The Źacynthians also, who were a colony of Achaeans, and the Cephalenians, were generally leagued with the Athenians, and afforded them assistance in the expedition against Syracuse. The Leucadians we find adhering to the Corinthians.^[34. Ibid. lib. ii. iii. vii. ] When the Spartans invaded Corcyra, about thirty years after this, the country is represented as richly cultivated, finely planted, and abounding in wealth and luxury.^[35. Xenophon, Hist. lib. vi. ] Cerigo, from its situation, was almost always an appendage to Laconia. These islands, with the rest of Greece, at length fell under the dominion of the Macedonians. In the wars between Philip and the Aetolians, however, we find the latter occasionally making use of the naval forces of the Cephalenians.^[36. Polybius, lib. iv. 6. ] ° When the Romans established themselves in Greece, these isles, from the position between that country and Italy, were early occupied; and Corcyra is often mentioned as a station of their fleet in their subsequent wars.^[37. Livy, lib. xxiv. xxxii. xxxvi. xxxviii. ] They continued to follow the fortunes of the Roman empire nearly to the latest period of its decline; and they suffered from the ravages of the Goths, Wallachians, and other barbarous tribes, till they fell into the hands of the Venetians, some of them in the twelfth, and others in the thirteenth century. This nation also conquered various maritime towns on the continent of Greece, of which, as well as of some of the islands, the Turks occasionally dispossessed them. The Venetians first acquired the Morea in 1417, and lost it finally in 1715. The Turks, at this latter period, took Cerigo, and besieged the city of Corfu; but the Venetians becoming masters at sea, regained Cerigo, repulsed the Turks from Corfu, and took several continental towns.^[38. Abrígė Chronologique de l’ Histoire Ottomane, par Μ. de Lacroix, i. 172, ii. 700. ] The treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797), which annihilated the state of Venice, transferred to France the Ionian Islands, with their continental dependencies, consisting, at that time, of five sea-port towns, Butrinto, Go-menitza, Parga, Prevesa, and Vonitza. When the invasion of Egypt led to hostilities between France and Turkey in 1798, Ali, pasha of Albania, besieged and took Prevesa and the other continental towns, except Parga; and the islands, having been reduced by the fleets of Russia and Turkey, were erected into an independent state, by a treaty between these powers, dated 21 st March 1800. They were placed under the protection of the Porte, as its vassals, and were to pay it an annual sum of 75,000 piastres.^[39. Annual Register, 1800; State Papers, p. 278. ] The towns on the continent were ceded to the [7:12:346]Porte, of four of which it obtained possession. But the inhabitants of Parga, dreading the merciless disposition of the Albanian pasha, took up arms in their own defence, and, favoured by the strength of their position, repelled his assaults. A constitution was given to the republic in 1803, which it is unnecessary to describe, as it has since been superseded. It is sufficient to say, that it was drawn up by Russian ministers of state, ignorant of the circumstances of the islands, and contained such a specimen of republican principles as might be expected from Muscovy. The war between Russia and the Porte in 1806 led to the occupation of the Ionian Islands by the former; but by a secret article of the treaty of Tilsit (June 1807), they were made over to France. The French, during their first occupation of the islands, had abolished the use of the Italian language in public acts, and re-established the Romaic. Connecting these possessions with his projects against Turkey, Napoleon was anxious to revive the national spirit of the Greeks. A Romaic newspaper was set on foot, and has been continued by the British; establishments for promoting scientific education were projected; and, to crown these schemes by a piece of French extravagance, the reckoning by olympiads was introduced. These projects held out only a distant prospect of good, but the expense of the large military force stationed by the French in the islands was a real and immediate grievance. In 1810, a British force, under General Oswald, took possession of Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Cerigo, almost without opposition; and also of Santa Maura after some resistance. Corfu and Paxo having garrisons too strong to be attacked, were merely subjected to a maritime blockade, which, however, could not be so rigorously enforced as to reduce them. They were surrendered to the British after the general peace in 1814. The Turkish government now renewed its claim to Parga, under the treaty of 1800, though that claim had been virtually set aside by subsequent circumstances. That government had entirely failed in affording the Ionian Islands the stipulated protection, since it had suffered first the Russians, and afterwards the French, to occupy them with a military force. It had been a party to subsequent treaties, by which this had been in substance annulled. The original treaty bound the Turks to protect the Pargui-notes; and it was now obvious, from the fate of the other towns, and from the feelings of the inhabitants, that its surrender would be equivalent to a warrant for its destruction. Lastly, the British had no right to make over Parga to the Turks, for it was not reduced by our arms, but its inhabitants put themselves under our protection by a voluntary act, and upon the express condition that their town was to remain attached to the Ionian republic. From ignorance or inattention to these circumstances, however, the Congress of Vienna had resolved that Parga should be given up. And, in obedience to the mandate of this conclave of sovereigns, the soldiers of Ali took possession of the bare walls in June 1819; the inhabitants, amounting to 5000, having, to a man, emigrated to Paxo and the other islands, after receiving a very inadequate indemnity for the loss of their property.^[40. Edinburgh Review, No. lxiv. art. i.; Holland’s Travel}, chap. ii.; Treaty between Britain and Russia, oth November 1816. ]

The Ionian Islands, either as a separate state or as a dependency of Great Britain, are of little importance. The interest felt in their fate was founded partly on classical associations, and partly on the means they were supposed to afford for restoring the Greeks to their existence as a nation. But, under the political system established in the islands, the hopes raised on the latter ground proved almost entirely chimerical. The Ionian Greeks must be enlightened and improved themselves before they can become useful auxiliaries in the work of enlightening and improving the rest of their countrymen. To effect this change in their character, and to create and nourish a national spirit, three things are indispensable, with which their new constitution leaves them entirely unprovided; a system of national education, a free press, and a free government. The British ministry, in patronizing a plan for erecting a university in the islands, began its operations at the wrong end. The first and most indispensable step is to increase the small number of schools at present in existence, till they become sufficiently numerous to afford common education to the whole population. A university may then be useful; but the Greeks can never be enlightened by giving a learned education to a few individuals, whilst the mass remains sunk in ignorance and superstition. On the other hand, when a moderate degree of knowledge is generally diffused, ardent spirits will emerge from the multitude, and rise to eminence by their native force, while their countrymen will then be better prepared to reap advantage from their exertions. At present a well-informed Greek finds his acquisitions useless. Again, without a free press in their native language, the Greeks cannot receive that political instruction which is necessary to fit them for becoming once more a nation; knowledge cannot be rendered popular, nor of course useful; and a university will become a mere establishment of sinecures, or an engine for propagating corrupt and servile doctrines, worse than ignorance itself. It is no solid objection that the Ionian Greeks are mere children in literature, and could not make a discreet use of the press. Feeble as their powers may be, they will continue children still, if they do not use them. Their own blunders will often be better instructors than the mature wisdom of others. With general education and a free press, should be conjoined the invigorating spirit of a popular government; not a government bottomed on close corporations and privileged classes, but one broadly republican in its forms and spirit. Whatever may be the defects of such a government, it is calculated, beyond all other human inventions, to call forth the energies of man. It was this inspiring power that carried forward the ancient Athenians in their brilliant career of improvement and glory; that raised the Italian and Dutch republics to sudden wealth and power; and that is already giving a new aspect to the vast continent of North America. The people are ignorant and disorderly, but probably not more so than the Athenians in the time of Solon, or the Italians in the thirteenth century, who were, nevertheless, found capable of supporting republican institutions. The errors into which their ignorance might have led them would most probably have soon cured themselves. And, at any rate, the Ionians are in that precise situation which would have divested such institutions of the dangers usually supposed to attend them. The natural influence of the British government, as the protecting power, would have moderated the violence of factions, and preserved the government stable amidst their struggles. Had a free, active, and enlightened community been raised up in these islands, speaking the language of Greece, and almost m contact with the country, the emancipation of the continental Greeks would not only have been secured by the joint operation of moral and political causes, but so much light would have been diffused among them, and such a good model set before them, that they would have been in a condition to make a wise and safe use of their independence, and step at once into the enjoyment of a free constitution. As matters have been managed, however, it would be foolish to expect that these islands will contribute [7:12:347] in any material degree to the improvement of the Greeks. Exclusively of the prerogatives of the high commissioner, all power is vested in the nobles, who are universally described as the most worthless part of the population. Votes alone will command office; and the mass of the people, who have no votes to give, though not expressly, will yet be substantially excluded from every place of trust and honour, and kept in the same state of vassalage as under the Venetians. Public burdens will naturally accumulate, because those who impose taxes have a separate interest from those who pay them; and abuses will multiply, because the nobles, hanging on the government for support, are gainers by a system of waste and profusion. A free press, which would have corrected some, of these evils, has been jealously guarded against by the constitution; and as for the right of petition, in a government so constructed, it must be an empty name. In all probability, then, the Ionians will consider the Turkish practice of insurrection as the only effectual method of making known their grievances. Accordingly, since the new constitution was promulgated in 1817, several attempts at insurrection have been made. But whether these have originated in the factious spirit of the nobles, or the discontents of the body of the people, has not been clearly explained. Yet though but little comparatively has been done for the people, the change has certainly been for their advantage. The administration of justice has improved; the private wars and open rapine of the nobles have been restrained; and the powers taken from these persons, and conferred on the commissioner, have been more beneficially exercised for the inhabitants at large. But a much more stable foundation would have been laid for good government, had the people been furnished with constitutional rights to protect themselves, even although they had not made a very wise use of those rights in the first instance.