Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

president, for good reasons, no doubt, from filling a situation which had been promised to him.

But of Mr. Hume's special friend, Martinengo, we have something more to say, premising, however, that, instead of his being one of the ancient nobility and of a family of the first consideration,' the council of Zante refused to inscribe his name in the Libro d'Oro among the nobility of that island, alleging that he was a bastard. This man, under the Venetian government, obtained a ducal order, that no criminal accusation should be brought against him in the island of Zante, (a privilege which was also extended to his three brothers,) but that his accusers should present themselves at the seat of government in Venice. We need not point out the dangerous consequences likely to result from such an indulgence, in an island where bravos were regularly kept, and assassins hired to commit murders at so much a head. The French government had a summary way of settling matters of this kind by a military commission, and under their sway the Martinengos had the prudence to remain quiet. On the arrival of the Russians in 1799, Martinengo crept out of his hole, and so conducted himself that he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, on a charge of conspiracy against the government, and attempting, like another Guy Fawkes, to blow up the council of Zante. His accomplice was led out and shot; but Martinengo, being possessed of enormous wealth, found the means of proving his innocence, and escaping execution, (chiefly through the influence of Count Macri with the Russian commandant,) and not only of escaping, but, through the same influence, of becoming a member of the local government; nay, he actually seized on the government of the island in consequence of the weakness of that Septinsular republic,' so greatly lauded by Mr. Hume; and, by way of maintaining himself in power, he pretended to be in communication with the British government, and hoisted the flag of that nation. A Colonel Callender, once of some notoriety, acted the part of delegate from the British government; and this farce was successfully carried on for nine months, when it finished by the disappearance of Colonel Callender, and at the same time of all the cash in the treasury.

[ocr errors]

This man's character could not long be concealed from Sir Thomas Maitland, with whom he made several attempts to ingratiate himself. Failing in this, he had recourse to his old tricks. Associating with a few other malcontents, and seconded by active and daring agents belonging to the bands of assassins before mentioned, he endeavoured to stir up the people of Zante to an insurrection against the constitutional government; but the most he could accomplish was to prevail on a very few per

[blocks in formation]

sons, assembled for the purpose, and at the instigation of a fellow of the name of Cuchi, to pelt the clergyman with stones, who had been sent to notify the arrival of the Protopapa; but the people, who had promised to join him at a midnight rendezvous, and to fire the island from one end to the other,' beginning with the murder of the Protopapa, broke their engagement, and positively refused to have any thing further to do with the business. Cuchi, therefore, was forced to inform his old master Martinengo, that all his arts and influence could no longer effect revolutions and insurrections in Zante; and thus was the renewal of the machinations, which had been attended with temporary success at Santa Maura the preceding year, completely frustrated.

But scenes of this kind were no longer to be passed over with impunity. Martinengo and his instrument were brought to public trial before the competent tribunal, at which no less than eight judges were present; and all those with whom Cuchi had tampered came forward and gave the fullest and most complete evidence against him. Martinengo was sentenced to twelve years confinement in a fortress, and Cuchi to six years hard labour in chains; but both sentences were mitigated by the clemency of the sovereign, at the recommendation of Sir Thomas Maitland:that of Martinengo being reduced to banishment from the Ionian states for the period of three years; in consequence of which he betook himself to Venice, where he formed one of the band of illustrious suffering patriots,'-a band not consisting of 'hundreds,' as the zeal of Mr. Hume has been pleased to imagine; but of the worthy in question, Count Flamburiari, Mr. de Rossi, and four others.

The case of one of these, however, we must not omit, as he is represented as a bishop, and, wonderful as it may appear, though a bishop, is deplored by Mr. Hume. He is called the bishop of Cefalonia,' though he is not, nor ever was, bishop of that or any other of the islands-but, as he styles himself, a bishop in partibus of Tripoli in the East-a nomination procured for him by General Sebastiani at Constantinople, in defiance of the patriarch, against whom this Agathangelo Tipaldo (for that is his name) was actively intriguing. Being banished from Constantinople, he presented himself to Sir Thomas Maitland as a Cefaloniot in distress, was assisted with money, and appointed temporary head of the church of Cefalonia; in return for which, he urged the people to join in the insurrection of the Morea, put up prayers for the destruction of the Ottoman empire, and engaged in a traitorous correspondence with his brother, who was secretary to Demetrio Ipsilanté. On Sir T. Maitland's arrival at Cefalonia, the local government

government complained bitterly of this man's conduct, and earnestly requested that he might be removed. He was therefore told that a gun-boat was at his service to carry him to Corfu, when the senate notified to him that his services as provisional head of the church at Cefalonia were dispensed with, and that he might dispose of himself just as he pleased. This notification did not much disturb the soi-disant bishop-he had been accustomed, he said, to great vicissitudes through life, and had seen many revolutions-and if he had added, that he had actively contributed to most of them, he would only have spoken the truth.

Sir Robert Wilson thought fit, towards the close of the session of 1822, to call the attention of the House of Commons to a certain petition prepared at Zante, and found on the person of Mr. De Rossi. It was seized by Sir Patrick Ross while De Rossi was secretly carrying it about at night for the purpose of obtaining signatures; and the motive of the seizure was not only the information conveyed to him of its calumnious and libellous nature against the whole government, but the further assurance that the first two names were those of Count Flamburiari and Mr. de Rossi, (the one attorney-general, the other a judge,) with their offices affixed to their signatures; and that the intention was to smuggle it into England, (contrary to the charter, which requires all petitions to pass through the hands of the Lord High Commissioner,) as soon as it had received forty signatures.* The mode in which it was to find its way to the place of its destination (as appears by a document which we have seen) is ridiculous enough. Mr. Strani, brother-in-law to De Rossi, and Swedish consul at Patrass, was to stuff it into a barrel of currants, containing 560 pounds, as the Custom-house in England would not pass one of less weight, and to consign it to the care of Mr. Ugo Foscolo, who was evidently a stranger to the whole transaction, and who, therefore, Strani observes, ought to be previously advised of what is to be put into the barrel :—but a difficulty occurs to Mr. Strani as to the person to whom he should address this precious casket, to avoid suspicion; he knows, he says, a Mr. Booth, but then Mr. Booth is engaged in literary pursuits and might not willingly lend himself to such proceedings-' pero questo é un giovane letterato, che non si presterebbe volontiere a simili operazioni.'

The factious nature of this paper, and its illegality, determined Sir Thomas Maitland to transmit it to the senate, who immediately dismissed Count Flamburiari and M. de Rossi from their respective functions; they then sent it to the legislative assembly, who, under the authority vested in it by the constitution, * When seized, it had not reached thirty, most of them Greeks from the Morea.

[blocks in formation]

expelled the former from the assembly, which had been grossly libelled in the petition; and such was the indignation of these two bodies, that they at once determined to prosecute the offenders before the competent tribunal. Here, however, Sir Thomas Maitland thought it right to interfere, stating his intention to lay the case before his Majesty's government; he did more-at his express solicitation, his Majesty was graciously pleased to signify his command, that no further proceedings should be had against them:-but, that Lord Bathurst ever expressed his regret at the treatment which Flamburiari had received, is too ridiculous to deserve a denial.

The senate, however, most urgently requested that these persons, with four others, might not, for a time at least, be permitted to inhabit Zante. To this Sir Thomas Maitland was reluctantly compelled to assent; and it was notified to the parties, that they were at liberty to go wherever they pleased, but that, for the present, they could not be allowed to return to Zante. De Rossi had already decamped on his own accord, and the whole of them assembled at Venice, where, (as we observed above,) with that exemplary person, Antonio Martinengo, they make up that'sacred and tender-hefted band,' who, Mr. Hume says, are 'weeping over the tyranny under which the Ionian islands are groaning.' That such dangerous characters could not be allowed to remain, must be quite clear, when the situation of the Ionian people, at the moment, is considered; exposed, on one side, to the destructive doctrines of the Italian Carbonari, and on the other, to the insidious attempts of the insurrectionary Greeks, through the medium of profligate adventurers, and worked upon by the misrepresentations and falsehoods of which we have only noticed the smallest part. Such, however, since their removal, has been the general tranquillity and prosperity of the islands, that Sir Thomas Maitland, in his speech to the Ionian Assembly, in March last, recommends to the executive government to recal to their native island (Zante) those misled and turbulent individuals; expressing his conviction that their pernicious doctrines (such is the good disposition of the people, and the confidence they repose in the government) can no longer do any harm,We are not quite so sure of this, as Sir Thomas Maitland: Jacobins and Carbonari are never cured. The tranquil and happy state of the islands, however, is a triumphant answer to all those calumnies and false accusations of the tyranny under which the Ionians are groaning.'

[ocr errors]

And here we might rest the case, as a complete refutation of the general charge of oppression, on the part of the protecting power; and more than enough has been said, to show the value of Mr. Hume's assertions. To go through the whole, would be

trespassing

trespassing too far on our limits; and we must therefore omit many of the minor charges, even at the hazard of being ourselves accused of slurring over such of them as we knew to be unanswerable. One of the charges, scarcely worth repeating, is that of the Lord High Commissioner having, by transfer of the commerce in grain to the collector of the customs, raised the price of bread 30 per cent. higher at Corfu than on the opposite continent, only six miles distant. A monopoly of grain! What a fertile subject of abuse! And accordingly the agents of the Carbonari in Italy wrote a circular, to say, 'You have now a fine subject to descant upon! Do not lose the opportunity of showing to the whole world, what the poor Ionian people have to expect from this most cruel, most oppressive and grinding monopoly of coru, in the hands of the government.' Mr. Hume was undoubtedly favoured with one of these circulars; but the price of bread on the continent, only six miles off,' must have been excogitated by himself, to show that, among his various acquirements, he is not unacquainted with geography! his discovery in this line, that the mountain Albanians feed on wheaten bread, is equally novel and important. This monopoly in grain,-which was confined to Corfu,-which was restricted to wheat not eaten generally by the inhabitants,-which was a temporary measure to save the islands from famine, at a time when there was only three days' corn on the island; certainly took it out of the hands of forestallers and regraters, who had it in their power to raise the price at pleasure, and at any time to create a famine; but so far from creating, it was the means of abolishing a monopoly, and of throwing open the market for grain, though at a very considerable loss to the government of the country, in the same manner as Sir Thomas Maitland has thrown open the trade at Malta to the merchants. The immediate effect of this measure was, that prices, instead of constantly fluctuating, became steady; and that, instead of 30 per cent. dearer than on the opposite continent,' and in the other islands, the common rate of twenty-four pounds of bread was one obolo (not quite a halfpenny) more in Corfu than in Zante, and one obolo less in Corfu than in Cefalonia; and considerably less than in all the other islands; and the ultimate consequence of this destructive monopoly' has been, that supplies of grain for the last two years have been sent from Corfu to Zante and Cefalonia, by which the price of bread has been kept down in both islands.

We pass over the absurd and contemptible accusations respecting the disturbance of property by unjust laws, (of which, however, the senate and representatives of the people are the framers ;) of converting mortgages into simple contract debts; of discon

G 4

tinuing

« AnteriorContinuar »