PAR 
French, and on thofe Greeks and Albanians who had 
taken up arms, and joined the enemies of the Porte. 
Parga, however, fupported by a French garrifon, held 
out againft the pallia, until the inhabitants found an op¬ 
portunity of throwing themfelves into the power of the 
Ruffians, who fent a garrifon for their protection. 
In 1800 a treaty was concluded at Condantinople be¬ 
tween Ruffia and the Sublime Porte, by which the Seven 
Iflands were ereCted into an independent republic, under 
the fovereign protection of Ruffia ; and Butrinto, Parga, 
Previfa, and Vonitza, were ceded to the Porte in fovereignty 
for ever, on certain conditions favourable to thefe four 
places, and guaranteed to them by Ruffia. In confe- 
quence of this treaty, Abdullah Bey was fent from Con- 
ltantinople to govern them, and Previfa was immediately 
evacuated by Ali Pafha. The Parganotes, however, dub- 
bornly refilled fubmiffion to the Ottoman power until 
the end of 1800, when, by the perfuafion of the Ruffian 
ambaffador at the Ionian Iflands, they confented to re¬ 
ceive the bey, and continued, in quiet pofleffion of all 
their privileges, under the Turkilh dominion, for nearly 
fix years. 
In 1806 the war broke out between Ruffia and the 
Porte; and Veli Pafha, the fon of Ali, feized upon Pre¬ 
vifa, Vonitza, and Butrinto, by exprefs orders from the 
Porte; confifcated the poffeffions of the Ruffians; planted 
there feveral Ottoman families ; and drove the Chridian 
inhabitants into the interior. Parga, however, again ef- 
caped by calling from Corfu a Ruffian force for its pro¬ 
tection; and when, by the treaty of Tilfk, in 1807, 
the Ionian Iflands were delivered up to France, and Ber- 
thier was fent as the'governor-general of Corfu, he threw 
into the place a garrifon of three hundred Frenchmen. 
Ali Pafha, however, having information that the fecret 
indruCtions of Berthier directed him to occupy the Ionian 
Iflands alone, difpatched his effendi to Corfu, to infill 
on the French troops being withdrawn from Parga ; and 
the general, fatisfied of the juftice of his demand, in¬ 
formed the Parganotes that he was about to cede the 
place to the Turkifh government, to whom of right it 
belonged. Had this determination been carried into ef- 
feCt, the Parganotes were aware that they had little mercy 
to expeCt. The primates therefore repaired in a body to 
Corfu, and, throwing themfelves at the general’s feet, 
implored his compaffion for their unfortunate country¬ 
men, and befought him not to furrender them to certain 
dedruCtion. Overcome by their earned intreaties, the 
general recalled his orders, and permitted the garrifon to 
remain for the protection of the place, which the French 
continued to hold as an appendage to the Ionian Iflands. 
In 1814. the (tar of Napoleon was vilibly declining; 
and Ali, whom the circumftance did not efcape, marched 
an army to the confines of Parga, and took pofleffion of 
Aja, a village within the limits. In the month of March, 
when all the Ionian Iflands had fallen into the pofleffion 
of the Englifli, except Corfu, between which and Parga 
((till in pofleffion of the French) all intercourfe had be¬ 
come not only difficult but nearly impracticable ; and 
when the relief of the former place by French reinforce¬ 
ments was rendered almolt impoffible by the clofenefs of 
the blockade ; the Parganotes* apprehenfive that it was 
the intention of the French to deliver the fortrefs to Ali, 
fwho, as we mentioned above, had taken pofleffion of 
Aja,) fent a deputation to the Englifli commandant of 
the ifland of Paxo, requeding the affidance of the Britifh 
troops, and promifing to give up the fortrefs to them. 
The officer in command refufed to fend a force to take 
pofleffion of it, until a written declaration was brought 
from the principal inhabitants, to fhow there was no 
treachery. Two frigates, the Bacchante and the Havan- 
nah, then took on-board a detachment of troops to form 
the garrifon ; and, on their landing with a party of ma¬ 
rines, the French made little or no refiftance; and the 
Britifh troops occupied Parga. But no ftipulations what¬ 
ever were entered into by, or in behalf of, the Britifh go- 
G A. 435 
vernment, with the Parganotes; no other promifes made, 
no other aflurances given, than fuch as held out to them 
generally a continuance of fecurity and protection lb long 
as the Britifh flag fliould fly on their fort; and fo far was 
Gen. Campbell from accepting the offer “ to follow the 
fate of the Seven Iflands,” with which they concluded 
their declaration, or from giving any encouragement to 
the deputation of primates, who fubfequently went to 
Corfu to implore him “ that the fate of Parga might be 
united for ever to that of the Ionian Iflands,” that he 
told them in plain terms, (as fir James Gordon had done 
before him,) that he could accede to no fuch condition ; 
but that they might rely on the protection of the Britifh 
flag, until their fate fhould be decided at a general peace. 
It is indeed perfectly obvious that no ftipulation of this 
kind could be made; for Corfu was, at the time, in full 
pofleffion of France; and no man would or could, under 
thofe circumftances, have been abfurd enough to deter¬ 
mine by implication that the revival of the Septinfular 
Republic would form a part of the ultimate arrangements 
of the allied powers. 
General fir James Campbell reported to his government 
the ftep which he had taken, and in which he had been 
guided by the double motive of humanity and policy; 
of faving thefe unfortunate people from an unconditional 
furrender to Ali, and of obtaining a temporary pofleffion 
of a fpot which might affift in the effectual blockade of 
Corfu. The Britifh government approved of his conduCl; 
and directed him to continue to hold Parga provifionally 
in pofleffion, as he already did feveral of the Ionian 
Iflands, “ until their final deftination fliould be arranged 
at the conclufion of a general peace.” 
At the Congrefs of Vienna, and at Paris in 1815, the 
governments of Ruffia, Auflria, and Pruffia, after much 
deliberation, offered to Great Britain the fovereign pro¬ 
tection of the Ionian Republic ; and in November of the 
fame year, a treaty W'as figned, by which the Ionian 
Iflands and their dependencies, as defcribed in the treaty 
of 1800 between Ruffia and the Ottoman Porte, were 
placed under the protection of England. By this treaty 
of 1800, the continental poffeffions of Parga, Previfa, 
Vonitza, and Butrinto, were reftored in full fovereignty 
to the Porte, and were no longer to form a part of the 
Ionian Republic, then placed under the fovereignty of 
Ruffia. In reference to it, the iflands of Corfu, Cepha- 
lonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo, and Paxo, 
with their dependencies, (but to the exclufion by name 
of the four places above mentioned,) were ereCted into a 
free and independent ftate, under the immediate protec¬ 
tion of Great Britain. In the difcuffion that took place, 
the treaty of 1800, which had been renewed and confirmed 
in 181a by that of Buchareft, between Ruffia and the 
Porte, made it incumbent on the allied powers to refpeft 
the territorial rights of the Porte to the continental pof¬ 
feffions of the late Venetian Republic ; and they were 
excluded from the Septinfular Republic, of which, in faCt, 
they had never confiituted a part. Thus, when Great 
Britain was called, in 1815, to the protection of the Io¬ 
nian Republic, Parga formed no part of that Republic. 
Parga, of courfe, followed the fate of the other three ex- 
Venetian dates, and became, like them, united to the 
Turkifh empire. 
It does not follow that, becaufe, in the treaty of Great 
Britain with the other powers of Europe in 1815, a re¬ 
ference is made to the treaty between Ruffia and the 
Porte of 1800, for the purpofe (and for no other) of de¬ 
termining the limits of the Ionian Republic, and becaufe 
Parga had fallen by other means, and by the feeking of 
the inhabitants, with a view to their own fafety, into her 
provifional occupation ; it does not therefore follow, we 
fay, that Great Britain was bound in the mod didant 
manner to interfere, or to fee that the conditions which 
had been dipulated by the Porte with Ruffia, and which 
are detailed in the treaty of 1800, fliould be fulfilled to¬ 
wards the Parganotes. There is no article in the Britifh 
treaty 
