GREECE. (REVOLUTION.) 



537 



daunts, until (he second National Assembly in Astro, 

 March, 14, 1823. With the greatest difficulty, 

 Mavrocordato and some prelates had succeeded in 

 giving somewhat of a federative constitution and a 

 central government to a country which was by no 

 means yet entirely freed from the Turks, and was 

 occupied by parties often hostile to each other. The 

 Western part of Greece Acarnania, ^Etolia, and 

 Epirus, sent thirty deputies to Missolonghi, who, 

 under the presidency of Alexander Mavrocordato, 

 formed a government or gerousia, November 4, 1821, 

 consisting of ten members ; the eastern part of the 

 main-land, comprising Attica, Boeotia, Euboea, Pho- 

 cis, Locris, Doris, Ozolae, Thessaly, and Macedonia, 

 sent thirty three deputies to Salona, who, under the 

 presidency of Theodore Negris, formed, on the 16th 

 of November, the areopagus of fourteen members. 

 The Morea, or the Peloponnesus, with the islands of 

 Hydra, Ipsara, Spezzia, &c., sent sixty deputies to 

 Argos, who assembled, December 1, under the pre- 

 sidency of prince Demetrius, and established the Pe- 

 loponnesian gerousia of twenty members. These 

 three governments were to prepare a permanent con- 

 stitution, which was to receive, in future, such 

 amendments as experience should suggest. For 

 this purpose, sixty-seven deputies from all the pro- 

 vinces of Greece formed the first national assembly 

 in Epidaurus, January 10, 1822, under the presi- 

 dency of Mavrocordato, which, January 13, the 

 Greek new year's day, proclaimed a provisionary 

 constitution. Its principles were the following : the 

 annual election of all chief magistrates of the pro- 

 vinces, districts and communities ; laws were to be 

 made by the concurrent vote of the deliberative and 

 executive councils ; the execution of laws was to 

 rest with the executive council, which appointed the 

 eight ministers ; the independence of the judiciary 

 was to be provided for ; this branch of government 

 was to be exercised by the district, provincial and 

 supreme courts. The congress then elected the 

 thirty-three members of the legislative and the five 

 members of the executive council. Mavrocordato 

 was elected proedros, or president ; Theod. Negris, 

 secretary of state of the executive council ; Ypsil- 

 anti, who had expected this place, was appointed 

 president of the legislative council, but never dis- 

 charged the duties of his office, Finally, the con- 

 gress of Epidaurus issued a manifesto, January 27, 

 1822, in which they pronounced the union of the 

 G reeks under an independent federative government. 

 The operation of this was not so beneficial as had 

 been expected. A people so long enslaved, and so 

 deficient in civilization, could not at once establish a 

 wise and firm government. The central government 

 fixed its seat at Corinth, and, at a later period, 

 again at Argos. The Porte was now obliged to 

 divide its forces. One army was unsuccessfully em- 

 ployed in Armenia on the Euphrates, against the 

 Persians ; another was stationed on the Danube, to 

 observe the Russian army in Bessarabia. But All's 

 fall encouraged the Porte, and it was with difficulty 

 that the Austrian and English ministers could con- 

 vince the divan of the peaceable intentions of Alex- 

 ander. But, in 1 822, at the request of Russia, the 

 sultan ordered the restoration of some Greek 

 churches, and the election of a new patriarcli in the 

 usual way. The choice fell upon Anthymos, bishop 

 of Chalcedon. He was treated with respect, for the 

 purpose of inducing the Greeks to accept the am- 

 nesty. The Asiatic hordes, in May, 1822, evacuated 

 the principalities of Walachia and Moldavia, after 

 committing every kind of excess ; in July, new hos- 

 podars were appointed Ghika for Walachia, and 

 Stnrdza for Moldavia ; both were Boyards, and 

 Greeks were excluded from ail offices in the princi- 



palities. The new hospodars were under the super- 

 intendence of Turkish seraskiers, and European 

 Turks continued to occupy the principalities ; they 

 were, however, withdrawn from Jassy, which they 

 burned and pillaged, August 10, 1822, enraged at 

 the orders of the divan. Meanwhile, the year 1822 had 

 produced important results in Greece, because both 

 parties had followed, in some sort, a military plan of 

 operations. After All's fall, Khurshid Pacha in Thes- 

 saly determined to collect reinforcements from Rume- 

 lia, in order to conquer Livadia and the Morea, whilst 

 in February and March, 1822, a Turkish fleet, under 

 Hali Bey, was to reinforce the garrisons in the 

 Morea, so that Jussuf Pacha, from Patras and Le- 

 panto, could support Khurshid's attack upon the 

 isthmus and his invasion of the Morea. But the 

 attempt of the Turkish fleet to reduce the Morea by 

 fresh troops, totally failed, and the opposition of the 

 Suliots kept back the seraskier in Epirus. These 

 events gave Colocotroni tune to shut up the troops 

 which had been landed in Patras, and to send assis- 

 tance to Acarnania. At the same time, new insur- 

 rections broke out in several places, which, again 

 divided the power of the Turks. The misfortune 

 of Scio saved the Greek main-land. The numerous 

 Greek population of the flourishing and defenceless 

 island of Scio (see Scio) had declined every invita- 

 tion to engage in the revolution ; but, in March 23, 

 1822, a Greek fleet from Samos, under Logotheti, 

 liaving appeared upon the coasts, the peasants, 

 who laboured under the greatest oppressions, took 

 up arms. Great disorders occurred, and the 

 Turks, after having taken eighty hostages from 

 among the richest inhabitants of the city, retired into 

 the citadel. At this moment, the Turkish fleet 

 made its appearance. In order to punish Scio, the 

 capudan pacha abandoned his plan of operations 

 against the Morea, and landed (April llth) 15,000 

 of the most barbarous of the Asiatic troops, after the 

 Sciots had rejected the offer of amnesty. The island- 

 ers were beaten, and in a few days the paradise of 

 Scio was changed into a scene of fire and blood. It 

 was with great difficulty, and at the risk of their own 

 lives, that the European consuls (among whom the 

 courageous French consul Digeon was distinguished), 

 and the captains of some European vessels, were able 

 to save a few hundred Greeks. Part of the people 

 escaped to their vessels ; others continued the strug- 

 gle of despair in the mountains. The European con- 

 suls, by means of a pastoral letter of the archbishop, 

 and by the written assurance of the surviving host- 

 ages, that the Sciots might trust the offered amnesty, 

 if they would deliver up their leaders and their arms, 

 finally effected the submission of the peasants. Still, 

 murders, burnings, and pillaging did not cease. Ac- 

 cording to the Turkish lists> down to the 25th of May, 

 41,000 Sciots, mostly women and children, were sold 

 into slavery. A similar fate was prepared for Ipsara, 

 Tine, and Samos. But the Ipsariots, having already 

 made preparations to send their families to the Morea, 

 hovered round the Turkish fleet with seventy small 

 vessels, among which were several fire-ships, called 

 hephcestia, which were as ingeniously constructed as 

 they were skilfully directed. Forty-three Ipsariots 

 and Hydriots devoted themselves to death, rowed 

 with their scampavias (a kind of gun-boats) into the 

 midst of the fleet of the enemy, which still Jay in the 

 road of Scio ; and in the night of June 18, 1822, cap- 

 tain George attached fire-ships to the ship of the ca- 

 pudan pacha and to another vessel of the line. The 

 former blew up, with 2286 men; the latter was saved. 

 The capudan pacha was mortally wounded, and car- 

 ried on shore, where he died. The Turks were at 

 first stupified ; but their rage soon broke out, and the 

 last traces of cultivation, the mastic villages, so 



