GREECE. (REVOLUTION.) 



549 



also to require a Brolongation of the armistice already 

 declared by the Turks, and a like cessation of arms 

 from the provisional government of Greece, and the 

 recall of the troops, which had gone beyond the line 

 drawn as above from Volo to Arta. The' three 

 powers to guarantee all these points. Though Russia 

 was to have no minister present at these negotiations, 

 they were to be conducted in her name, as well as in 

 those of France and Britain. It was near the 

 middle of July, before sir Robert Gordon and count 

 Guilleminot (the two ambassadors) arrived at Con- 

 stantinople. Their reception deviated from former 

 usages, particularly in the omission of the humiliat- 

 ing ceremonies to which Christian ambassadors were 

 formerly obliged to submit, which would have been 

 somewhat out of season at this time, when Diebitsch 

 had already descended the southern slope of the 

 Balkan. The history of their negotiations is of no 

 importance, because count Diebitch signed, with the 

 Turkish plenipotentiaries, a treaty, by the sixth ar- 

 ticle of which the sultan formally acceded to the 

 treaty of July 6, 1827. (See Russia, and Turkey.) The 

 protocol of the conference of March, 1829, could be 

 considered by the Greeks only as a calamity. 



The situation of the president, Capo d'Istria, had 

 been extremely difficult, as the reader can easily 

 imagine. He was without means, in a land torn by 

 discord ; yet his attention had been directed to every 

 thing useful the suppression of piracy ; the forma- 

 tion of a regular army ; the establishment of courts 

 of justice; of schools of mutual instruction; of a 

 system of coinage ; of means for collecting the 

 revenue, and providing for the subsistence of the 

 wretched remnants of the population. In November, 

 J828, he proposed to the Panhellenion, to take im- 

 mediate measures for calling together the fourth 

 national assembly. The assembly met at A rgos, and 

 the president, in a long address (July, 23, 1829), gave 

 an account of the state of the country and of his 

 measures. He directed the attention of the assembly 

 particularly to the organization of the forces and the 

 revenue. He says in the speech, " The decree re- 

 specting the organization of the regiments, the edict 

 relating to the marine service, and the measures to 

 establish a national bank, and a general college, 

 were the first steps towards the regulation of the in- 

 terior. The Archipelago has been freed from pirates; 

 our warriors are again united under their standards; 

 one division, under the command of admiral Miaulis, 

 has assured the free navigation of the Archipelago, 

 and conveyed to our distressed brethren in Scio every 

 consolation which it was in our power to offer. A 

 second division, under vice-admiral Sactouri, was 

 destined for the blockade, which the admirals of the 

 allied powers compelled us to abandon." The ad- 

 dress further refers to the plague brought by the 

 army of Ibrahim Pacha, which extended from the 

 islands to the Peloponnesus ; to the expulsion of this 

 pacha ; the efforts of admiral Codrington, and the 

 landing of the French ; adding, " The Greeks of the 

 continent, watching earnestly to see the borders of 

 the Peloponnesus passed, manifested their wishes in 

 this regard. We ourselves hoped to see them ac- 

 complished, for we were far from apprehending the 

 diplomatic act which decided it otherwise." It ac- 

 knowledges, with warm gratitude, the succours of the 

 French in men and money, and alludes, in general 

 terms, to the conferences with the ambassadors of 

 the allied powers at Poros. A statement of receipts 

 and expenditures, from January, 1828, to April 30, 

 1829, is also given. It is evident, from this address, 

 that, since the protocol of the conference of March 

 22, 1829, the military operations of the Greeks, both 

 by st>a and land liad been arrested by the interposi- 

 tion of the allies. In January, however, general 



Church had taken the town of Vonitza, and the cita- 

 del surrendered in March; as did the castle of 

 Rumelia, to Augustine Capo d'Istria, the brother 

 of the president, in March 26. On February 9, 

 Mahmoud, pacha of Livadia, with 3500 men, attacked 

 the Greeks, commanded by the chiliarch Vasso, in 

 their camp near Tolanti. The pacha was defeated. 

 Livadia and Thebes, where Omer Pacha commanded, 

 were evacuated soon after by the Ottoman troops. 

 Lepanto surrendered, April 22, and Missolonghi and 

 Anatolico on May 29. After the former had sur- 

 rendered, 3000 Greeks marched to reinforce the 

 corps then besieging Athens; but the operations were 

 soon after arrested, in deference to the wishes of the 

 allied powers. Immediately after the meeting of 

 the assembly at Argos, general Church resigned Ids 

 commission as commander-in-chief of the forces of 

 Greece. Such was the state of things when the 

 peace between Russia and the Porte was signed at 

 Adrianople, Sept. 14, 1829, and ratified by the Porte, 

 Sept. 20. The conferences between the ministers of 

 the three powers, at London, had now for their ob- 

 ject to select a prince to wear the crown of Greece. 

 It was offered to prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, 

 Feb. 3, 1830, and was accepted by him, as " sove- 

 reign prince of Greece," February 20. However, he 

 resigned this honour in a declaration dated May 21, 

 1830. The two reasons which the prince alleges 

 for his resignation are, the unwillingness of the 

 Greeks to receive him, and their dissatisfaction at 

 the settlement of the boundaries. He says that the 

 answer of the president of Greece to the communica- 

 tion of his appointment, in his judgment, announces 

 a forced submission to the allied powers, and even 

 that forced submission is accompanied by reservations 

 of the highest importance. The president of Greece 

 states, that the provisional government, according to 

 the decrees of the council of Argos, has no power to 

 convey the assent of the Greek nation; and the govern- 

 ment reserves to itself the power of submitting to the 

 prince such observations as they cannot conceal from 

 him, without betraying their trust towards Greece and 

 the prince. In regard to the boundaries, his language 

 is, that the uncompromising determination expressed 

 by the Greek senate, to retain possession of the pro- 

 vinces which the allied powers wish to exclude from 

 the limits of the new state, will oblige him either to 

 compel his own subjects, by force of foreign arms, to 

 submit to the cession of their estates and properties 

 to their enemies, or to join with them in resisting or 

 evading a part of that very treaty which places him 

 on the throne of Greece. That one or the other al- 

 ternative will be forced upon him is certain, because 

 the part of the country referred to (Acarnania and a 

 part of ^Etolia, which is now to be given up to the 

 Turks) is, together with the fortresses, in the peace- 

 able possession of the Greeks. It is the country from 

 which Greece can best supply herself with timber for 

 building ships. It is the country which has furnished 

 the best soldiers during the war. The chief military 

 leaders of the Greeks have been of Acarnanian or 

 ^Etolian families. Subsequently to the arrival in 

 Greece of the protocol of the 22d March, 1829, and 

 the publication of the assent of the Turks to the ex- 

 cluded frontier in the treaty of Adrianople, all the 

 families which had survived the war returned, and 

 commenced rebuilding their houses and towns, and 

 cultivating their lands. These people will never 

 submit again to the Turkish yoke without resistance, 

 and the other Greeks will not, cannot abandon them 

 to their fate. The newspapers loudly reproached the 

 prince for his resignation, ascribing it to fright at tlw. 

 picture which the president, Capo d'Istria, drew of 

 the state of the country, or to the hope of becoming 

 regent of the British empire, in case of the accession 



