the Septinsular government, should be conducted to the common place of execution, and then and there shot, after the military manner, until death.' Happy and gentle Septinsular Republic! But what did Count Anino with those prisoners, who were not only found within the territories of the Republic, but with arms, in a state of open rebellion? They were tried by a commission of eighteen of the most respectable inhabitants, and unanimously condemned to death; and orders were received from the general government to carry the sentence into execution; which was only done in the case of Metaxa and two others, the acknowledged ringleaders of the rebellion. Prince Spiridion, the president of the government, publicly thanked Count Anino for the services which he had rendered to his country, and the government conferred on him the rank of Brigadier-General. Yet, will it be believed, that, in appointing this nobleman a member of the Primary Assembly, Sir Thomas Maitland has been accused of employing a murderer in the public service? We acquit Mr. Hume of any participation in this atrocious calumny. It proceeds from a foreigner-one, it grieves us to say, who wears the British uniform, and one on whom Sir Thomas Maitland had heaped benefits; but who, being warmed and cherished under his protection, turns round, like the snake in the fable, and stings his benefactor.

And now it may not be amiss to state, who, and what these other worthies are- those men of talent and immense fortunes, of interest in their country,' who, as Mr. Hume says, ' have been neglected.' Fortunately for our inquiry, he has had the indiscretion to publish their names; their number amounts to seven; among whom are Count Roma, Mr. Metaxa, and Count Flamburiari, three of the four senators who were dismissed by order of the king in council: the remaining four are, Count Silla Sicuro, Mr. Antonio Martinengo, Mr. Miccalizzi, and Count Stefano Theotoky, brother of the Baron Theotoky, president of the senate. Of the first, we only know that he is an advocate and a staunch supporter of revolutionary principles. The character and conduct of Metaxa rendered it impossible to employ him. It was a near relation of his who, in despite of the neutrality adopted by England between the Turks and Greeks,-in the teeth of an act of the Ionian parliament, rendering a breach of that neutrality subject to banishment and confiscation of property,conspiring with four or five others, published a regular manifesto in the Morea, styling and signing themselves,' commanders and chiefs of the combined forces of Cefalonia and Zante.' The name of Miccalizzi was submitted to the electors of Zante, but he was rejected; and Theotoky was prevented by his brother the president,

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.

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

G 2

sons,

sons, assembled for the purpose, and at the instigation of a fel low 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 hun-, dreds,' 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.

6

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 Eng land 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.

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 perwith 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.'

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