auspices, new forms of administration were proclaimed both in 1803 and 1806. But by the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, the Islands were surrendered by Russia to Napoleon, when the Septinsular Republic "ceased to exist," and was incorporated with the French Empire. În 1809 and 1810, all the islands, except Corfu and Paxo, were captured by an English expedition, which was enthusiastically welcomed by the inhabitants. Paxo fell early in 1814; Corfu itself, saved from attack by its strong fortresses and large French garrison, was strictly blockaded until the fall of Napoleon, when one of the first acts of the restored Bourbons was to direct its surrender to the British forces. Finally, on November 5, 1815, a Treaty was signed at Paris by the Plenipotentiaries of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and England, whereby the Ionian Islands, of which England was then in actual possession -six by right of conquest and one by surrender from the French-were erected into "a free and independent state" under the immediate and exclusive protection of the British Crown. Moreover, the military command of the islands was reserved to the Protecting Sovereign, who was to be represented by a Lord High Commissioner, invested with authority to regulate the laws and general administration, the forms of summoning a Constituent Assembly, and its proceedings in drawing up a Constitutional Charter. Sir Thomas Maitland, the first Lord High Commissioner, was an officer of great talents and experience, and is well described by his usual sobriquet of King Tom. A Constitutional Charter drawn up under his direction was adopted by the Ionian Constituent Assembly in 1817. In it were embodied with great skill such principles of liberty as would enable the Protecting Power to grant, as soon as the people should be fitted to receive it, a complete system of self-government. Whatever may have been the defects of the Constitution of 1817, and of various functionaries employed under its provisions, it undoubtedly conferred on the Ionians thirty years of peace and prosperity, unparalleled in the history of their country. Justice was at last administered among them without corruption; the revenue was freed from peculation; life and property became secure; the people were no longer a despised or degraded caste; the native functionaries were treated with respect and courtesy; and every man, high and low, found in every representative of England a power with both the will and the means to support the right and redress the wrong. At the same time, every form of material prosperity received an impetus; excellent roads, previously unknown in the Levant, were made throughout the islands; harbours, quays, and aqueducts were constructed; trade and agriculture were encouraged; educational institutions for every class and grade were founded: taxation was light, and levied almost exclusively on imports and exports; direct and muncipal taxes of all kinds were nearly unknown. In 1848 and 1849, Lord Seaton, then Lord High Commissioner, introduced some sweeping changes into the Ionian Constitution, including vote by ballot, a very extended suffrage, and a liberty of the press practically less restricted than in any other country of the world. The relations between the protecting power and the protected people were not, however, so smooth and cordial after as before these reforms. For full information on the political history of the Ionian Islands, the reader is referred to the Parliamentary Papers published on the subject at various periods between 1816 and the present time. The Lord High Commissioner was the representative of the protecting sovereign, had a veto on all the acts of the Senate and Assembly, conducted the foreign relations of the state, and had under his own immediate control the police and health departments. He was represented in each of the six southern islands by an English functionary styled Resident, whose position, with respect to the local government, was as that of the Lord High Commissioner with respect to the general government. The Senate was the Upper House of Legislature, and also the Executive Council of the State. It consisted of a president, nominated for five years by the protecting sovereign, and of five members, one for each of the four larger islands (Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura), the three smaller islands supplying one senator in rotation. The members of the Senate were nominated by the Lord High Commissioner, and three of the five chosen out of the Assembly. The ordinary duration of the Senate, like that of the Assembly, was five years. The Assembly consisted of forty-two deputies; of whom Corfu, Cepha lonia, and Zante returned ten each, Santa Maura six, and Ithaca, Cerigo, and Paxo two each. It met at Corfu every second year. Besides the general government, of which Corfu was the seat, each of the seven islands had also a local government, consisting of a municipal council, elected by popular suffrage, and presided over by an Ionian functionary, styled Eparch. Since 1852, Greek has been the official language of the Jonian government and courts of law. Previously, Italian was used. A treaty was signed in London on the 29th of March, 1864, between Her Britannic Majesty, the Emperor of the French, and the Emperor of Russia on the one part, and the King of the Hellenes on the other part, by which the Queen, on certain conditions, consented to renounce the protectorate over the Ionian Islands; and in consequence of which Her Majesty, the Emperor of the French and the Emperor of Russia, in their character of signing parties to the convention of the 7th of May, 1832, and in accordance with the wish expressed by the Legislative Assembly of the United States of the Ionian Islands, recognized the union of those islands to the Hellenic Kingdom. It was stipulated in this treaty that Corfu and Paxo with their dependencies were to enjoy the advantages of perpetual neutrality. The judicial power is lodged in Civil, Criminal, and Police Courts established in all the Islands with an appeal to the Court of Arcopagus at Athens. The Greek Church was restored by the Constitution of 1817 to its proper position as the dominant creed of the Ionian Islands. Some of the Sees are very ancient, and the names of Ionian bishops appear in the records of the early ecclesiastical councils. Each of the seven islands possesses its own bishop, elected by the clergy, approved by the Holy Synod of Greece, and confirmed by the King. The prelates of three smaller islands enjoy the title of Bishop ('ЕTíσкоTоs) simply; whereas the Bishops of Corcyra, Cephalonia, Zacynthus, and Leucas are styled Metropolitans (MnτpoTOλîTα), and, though without suffragans, have the rank of archbishops. There is a Roman Catholic Bishop at Corfu; but the number of Latins in all the islands amounts only to a few thousands, of whom the greater part are aliens, or descendants of aliens. The Anglican communion is represented by a chaplain stationed at Corfu, and by one likewise at Zante. Titles of Honour.-About fifty Ionian families enjoyed the title of Count, conferred on their ancestors in former days by the Venetians for civil or military services, but according to the Greek constitution such titles cannot be recognized. The English Order of St. Michael and St. George was founded for the purpose of decorating distinguished Ionians and Maltese, and such British subjects as should have filled high offices in those islands and in the Mediterranean. The principal Public Institutions are established at Corfu. Such arethe Penitentiary, constructed on a plan which admits of the introduction of the most approved systems of classification and prison discipline; the Lunatic Asylum, in the suburb of San Rocco, near the Penitentiary; the civil Infirmary, Foundling Hospital, Poor-house, &c. Education.-Primary schools have been established in all the chief villages; and in each island there are also a Secondary or grammar school, a lyceum, and a gymnasium, supported by Government. The University, founded at Corfu, in 1823, by the late Earl of Guilford, an enthusiastic Philhellene, has been suppressed since the amalgamation of the Ionian Islands with the Greek kingdom. A small collection of antiquities is preserved in the basement story of what was the seat of the University, a building at the southern end of the Esplanade, formerly a Venetian barrack. There is also a tolerably good Library in it. The character of the Ionian population has been summed up as follows by General Sir Charles Napier, who was resident in Cephalonia for several years:-"However full of faults the Ionians may be, I maintain that they have not more than might be expected from the corruptness of the Venetian domination, from those human frailties which are so conspicuous in small societies, and from a natural vehemence of character which distinguishes the Greek people; but, on the other hand, they are endowed with virtues that are no less prominent. If they have received much evil from education, they have received much good from nature; and I found more of the latter than the state of society led me to expect. The richer classes are lively and agreeable in their manners; and, among the men, many are wellinformed. The women possess both beauty and wit in abundance, but their education has been, generally speaking, much neglected. The poor are not less industrious than other southern nations; and an extraordinary degree of intelligence characterises all ranks. A spirit of commercial enterprise distinguishes the hardy mountaineers of Cephalonia; they are full of pleasant humour and vivacity; and their resemblance to the Irish people is striking in everything but their sobriety; for, though the Cephalonian labourer drinks freely of the potent wines, which his mountains so abundantly produce, yet a drunken man is seldom to be seen, and, amongst the rich, inebriety is unknown.* Such is the character of the people with whom I have passed the most pleasant years of my life."Napier's Colonies,' London, 1833. 2. CLIMATE, SOIL, &c. The Climate of the Ionian Islands is generally temperate, but subject to sudden changes. Their winter is rather too rainy, and their summer is rather too hot, but their spring and autumn are delicious. The average range of the thermometer is from 44° to 91° Fahrenheit; the annual average of rainy days is little short of 100. It is not, however, from variations in the barometer and thermometer that the climate can at all be appreciated, the most minute registers often failing to account for the sensations which are communicated to the feelings by the various winds; and a stranger must have resided some time in the islands to be able to describe or even imagine them. The Scirocco, which blows from the south-east is the most depressing and disagreeable. Frost is rare; and snow seldom falls except on the tops of the hills. Hurricanes (called here borascas) are frequent; as are also earthquakes, especially in Zante, Santa Maura, and Cephalonia. These islands have, generally speaking, rugged irregular coasts, and a Temperance is certainly a very general virtue of the Greek race. The Byzantine writers ridiculed the "unwieldy intemperance" of the Western nations, "If," says Gibbon, "i may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks" (chap. lili,). very uneven surface. Their geological formation is mainly limestone, intermixed with grey gypsum, and masses of sandstone; and there are few organic remains. The soil is more favourable for olives and vines than for corn, which is chiefly imported from the shores of the Black Sea. More than three-fourths of the surface available for tillage is laid out in currant-grounds, vineyards, and olive-plantations. Cattle and sheep are imported in numbers from Greece and Albania. Agriculture is not very far advanced, especially in Corfu, owing in great measure to the minute divisions of property. The land is principally in the hands of small proprietors, who let it out to the peasantry on the métayer system, receiving a stipulated portion of the produce as rent. The people of the southern islands are more industrious than the Corfiots, partly because they are encouraged by the gentry residing on their estates during some part of each year; whereas in Corfu, the taste for a town life, universal under the Venetian régime, still exercises general influence. The Corfiot proprietor has hitherto resided but little in his country house; and his land has been neglected, while he has continued in the practice of his forefathers, who preferred watching opportunities at the seat of a corrupt government to improving their fortunes by the more legitimate means of honourable exertion and attention to their patrimony. In this respect, however, as in so many others, a material change for the better has taken place since the Islands came under British protection. The Ionians possess no manufactures of importance. A little soap is exported from Zante; and earthenware, silk, blankets, and goat-hair carpets are also made to some extent in the islands. The wives of the peasants spin and weave a coarse kind of woollen cloth, sufficient for the use of their families. Some pretty jewellery is made in the towns, especially rings and brooches exhibiting the emblems of the seven islands, as found on ancient coins and medals. 3. PACKETS. For an account of the steamers from Trieste, &c., sce GENERAL INTRODUCTION, b. The quickest communication between England and Corfu is by Brindisi. Letters, &c., can arrive by this route in three and a half days from London. There are post-offices in all the islands. That at Corfu is near the Waterport. There is also a telegraph office. Austrian steamers keep up a communication once a week between Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Paxo, Santa Maura, and Cerigo. There is likewise, twice a week, communication between those islands and between some of them and the Isthmus of Corinth, by means of the Hellenic Steam Navigation Company's vessels. The communication between Corfu and Brindisi is by Italian steamers, and by those of the Austrian Lloyd's. A steamer leaves Brindisi every Friday at 1:30 P.M., and one every Sunday at 2 P.M., for Corfu (1871). Sailing boats can always be hired in all the islands for excursions among them, or to the mainland. (See GENERAL INTRODUCTION, h).* 4. MONEY. The money in general circulation in the Ionian Islands is : Gold coins.-All gold coins, especially British Sovereigns and Halfsovereigns, and French Napoleons and Half-Napoleons. * English steamers call at irregular intervals, but with more or less frequency, at Corfu, Zante, &c., and afford travellers the convenient means of returning by sea to Liverpool, or to some intermediate port, or of sending extra luggage, or purchases, to England, Silver.-British Crowns and Half-crowns, Shillings, and Sixpences, and German, Sicilian, French, and Mexican dollars, and all other coins specified in the Greek tariff. Spanish Pillar dollar (Colonnato) Mexican and South American dollar Copper.-Lepta, of which ten equal 1d. 8. d. = 4 4 4 4 = 4 2 = 4 0 N.B.-Small accounts are often calculated in oboli, an imaginary coin, of which two equal 0-1 of a penny. In the Ionian Islands, as elsewhere in the Levant, bargains are generally made in Spanish dollars, or colonnati, in Greek ▲íorŋλλα. There is an Ionian bank established at Corfu, with branches at Cephalonia and Zante, as also in Patras and Athens. The principal direction is at 31, Finsbury Circus, London, S.E. The Ionian Bank notes are printed in Greek, and are current in all the Seven Islands. They can be changed at Athens and Patras, as elsewhere in Greece. Mr. J. W. Taylor, as also Barff and Co., and Mr. Courage, are private bankers at Corfu. 5. SHOPS, SERVANTS, &c. There are very few English shopkeepers and tradesmen at Corfu. It has been already stated, that it will be the better course for travellers to make Athens their head-quarters; but those who prefer to begin their journey on the mainland from Corfu, must procure their travelling equipage and hire a servant, to act as guide and interpreter, before leaving that island (see GENERAL INTRODUCTION, h, j). Among the many individuals who will offer themselves, the traveller should engage no one who is not well recommended by his previous employers, for much of the comfort of his journey will depend on his selection. It is absolutely necessary that the servant chosen should be thoroughly acquainted with the districts to be visited, and be possessed of knowledge of the places where horses are to be hired and lodgings procured, of the people, the roads, the distances, &c. He should be able to speak Albanian as well as Greek. He should likewise understand cooking, and be capable of taking upon himself the trouble and responsibility of making bargains and purchasing everything that is required. The person selected should be strong, active, and able to undergo great fatigue. The usual wages for a good servant are one dollar a day, exclusive of board. Many will go for less, and some will demand more; it is never wise or, in the end, economical, to take an inferior servant, and be perpetually annoyed by his blunders, ignorance, and delays (GENERAL INTRODUCTION, ƒ). 6. INNS, AND ACCOMMODATION FOR TRAVELLERS, &c. The best hotels at Corfu are The Hotel de St. George, The Club Hotel, the Hôtel d'Europe, the Hôtel d'Orient, and La Bella Venezia. Here, as in the S. of Europe generally, a bargain should be made for meals and accommodation. Saddle-horses may be hired at Corfu for about a dollar a day; if taken for a week or a month, the charge diminishes in proportion. Carriages may likewise be engaged in the same manner. There is a small inn at Argostoli, the chief town of Cephalonia ;"and another in Zante, the accommodation in which is very bad. There are no |