repair to Yanina, to treat with a Commissioner to be sent thither by Sir T. Maitland, for the definitive cession of Parga. This was a most extraordinary arrangement, and certainly cast "ominous conjecture" on the whole affair. What! send Commissioners to treat under the very Pasha's nose, in his capital, exposed to all his insidious manœuvres, intrigues, and cajoleries, for the cession of a place which he had never lost sight of for a moment during all the events and changes of twenty of the most memorable years in the history of the world! And yet, with equal impudence and presumption, it has been averred, that "it was neither with Ali Pasha that the negociations respecting Parga were conducted, nor to Ali that it was to be surrendered!" These are the words of the Quarterly Review, and they are the mere echo of Sir Thomas Maitland's "In respect to its (Parga's) being ceded to Ali Pasha, I positively deny that such a thing ever took place!" Now this, however strongly asserted, is too ridiculous to gain even a moment's credit. Who had all along shown such an anxiety to get possession of Parga? It was Ali Pasha. To whom was Parga at length delivered up? It was to the troops of Ali Pasha. Who paid what, with cruel mockery, has been called the equivalent ultimately awarded to the inhabitants for the property they were to abandon? It was Ali Pasha. And who was Ali Pasha? The most powerful of the Turkish Pashas, who had hardly preserved the semblance of a nominal subjection to the Porte,-who had a court, a capital, an army, and a territory of his own,-who had once already been at open war with the Grand Seignior, and who, not many months after the completion of this disgraceful transaction, was declared firmanlee by the Divan, and attacked by the whole disposable force of the Turkish Empire. But fortunately we can contradict this assertion on the best possible authority-that of Sir Thomas Maitland himself! In a letter to Colonel de Bosset, dated the 2d of April 1817, Sir Thomas thus writes: "You always mention to me the Vizier, but, upon the present occasion, HOWEVER

MUCH WE MAY BE AWARE THAT TO HIM ULTIMATELY PARGA WILL FALL, still the Commissioner from the Porte is the only person with whom we can officially treat in regard to it. And though it is necessary that I, in Corfu, should endeavour to keep Ali Pasha in good humour, YOU AT PARGA MUST NEVER MENTION HIS NAME, but that of the Commissioner nominated by the Porte, viz. Hamed Bey." We leave these matters to make their own impression!

Upon the arrival of the Hadgee Khan Hamed Bey at Yanina, the Lord High Commissioner, aware that Ali Pasha was assembling troops, and justly afraid that he would play one of his old “tricks," surprise the garrison, and thus cut short the negociations, deemed it expedient immediately to reinforce Parga by a detachment of 300 men, and to give the command of the fort to Colonel de Bosset, a highly-respectable officer, who had performed some distinguished services under General (now Sir John) Oswald at the capture of Santa Maura, and been appointed, by that discriminating judge of merit, to the command of Cephalonia. He also nominated Mr Cartwright (then British Consul at Patras, and subsequently Consul-General at Constantinople) to treat with Hamed Bey in quality of British Commissioner, and to arrange all matters relative to the cession of Parga. After a residence of two months at the Pasha's capital, these Commissioners signed a convention, by which it was agreed, that they were both to repair to Parga, ascertain the number of inhabitants who wished to leave the country after the cession, and to value their property "in a prompt and equitable manner." While this was going forward, the Pasha was not idle: he endeavoured to sow jealousy and division among the Parguinotes, and to excite them to some act of violence against the British garrison; and he caused a report to be circulated, that, for " a consideration," as the old miser Trapbois says, the British were to put him in possession of Parga, and to pocket the money. In this, however, he was unsuccessful, chiefly, as it should seem, by the firmness, mo

deration, and integrity of Colonel de Bosset.

Without pursuing all the details and doublings of this affair, it is sufficient for our present purpose to mention, that when, after many difficulties and negociations, the Commissioners reached Parga, it was found that the people had unanimously determined to abandon their country, rather than put themselves in power of Ali Pasha. Nothing now remained but to value the property of the inhabitants " in a prompt and equitable manner;" and, had the intention been to proceed fairly to work, this might have been greatly facilitated by the preliminary estimate, or approximate valuation made, under the superintendance of Colonel de Bosset, by the inhabitants themselves. A dreadful outcry has been raised against poor de Bosset for this proceeding, and even Sir Thomas Maitland sneers at the " rare sagacity" which could suffer people to value their own property. We shall soon see how groundless this clamour was, and with how much rarer sagacity this Whig Lord High Commissioner proceeded in respect to the valuation made by individuals appointed by himself, and who had not been guilty of any such bêtise as allowing the people to have a voice in estimating the value of their own property. According to the approximate valuation made by the inhabitants, under the inspection of Colonel de Bosset, there were 839 houses, and 81,321 olive trees of all descriptions: according to the valuation made by the four gentlemen of respectability in the Island of Corfu," the houses and cottages amounted to 852, and the olive trees to 89,933; which considerably exceeds the numbers which the Parguinotes themselves had specified. The value of this property the Parguinotes stated at £.500,000, which he asserts was "thrice as much as it was worth," and of which £.200,000 were for the olive trees alone; the

Corfu Commissioners, appointed by Sir T. Maitland himself, fixed it at £.280,000, which is more than half the Parguinote valuation; and the Commissioners on the part of the Sultan made it so low as £.56,756. Let us now attend, for a moment, to the principle on which such a valuation ought to be constructed.

"The value of an olive tree," says Mr Goodisson," when once it begins to yield its crops, is very great, in proportion to the ground it covers; and the labour and expence which it afterwards requires is very inconsiderable, compared with the gain from its produce." (p. 18.) " Will any traveller in Greece," asks the Rev. T. H. Hughes, or any other person acquainted with the subject, say that 81,000 of the finest olive trees in the world (as the district in which Parga is situated is called Eliatis by Thucydides, κατ' ἐξόχην, for the abundance and excellence of these trees) are not alone worth more than the whole sum given by Ali Pasha for the Parghiote territory? This, I will venture to say, without any fear of contradiction, that the gathering of the fruit alone, in an abundant season, is worth more than was given for the trees." "An acre planted with vines, or olives," says Michaelis, on the Laws of Moses," however arid or rocky the soil may be, will very easily be worth ten times as much as an acre of the richest corn land." Now, according to the Parguinote valuation, 81,000 olive trees were estimated at £.200,000, or about £.2, 9s. each tree, which, taking into consideration what we have just quoted from different writers, does not appear to be very extravagant. Again, 839, or, according to the Corfuote estimate, 852 houses, with about eighteen square miles of the richest territory, to say nothing of the fortress and the public buildings, do not appear to have been rated very high at £.300,000*; at least according to any idea of the value of property in

those parts, which we have been able to form. At all events, it would certainly have been desirable, had Sir Thomas Maitland and his defenders furnished us with some certain data on which we could have proceeded in forming a correct judginent between the conflicting valuations; that of the Sultan's, or rather Ali's Commissioners, being, as we have seen, little more than one-fifth of the Corfuote, and one-tenth of the Parguinote estimate. This horrid discrepancy did not, however, surprise Sir Thomas Maitland in the least, for, in his justificatory despatch, he remarks, with the most bewitching naiveté of manner, "that certainly the difference of £.130,000 was not more than the state of the case gave us full reason to anticipate!!" We do not happen to know exactly what idea the Lord High Commissioner attached to a 66 difference" but it occurs to us, that £.130,000, being nearly the half of the Corfuote estimate, and more than double that of Ali's Commissioners, were, after all, no such trifle as he seems to imagine; and that to 2700 people this sum (or "difference") must have been a matter of rather serious concernment. The parties were certainly most grievously at issue in this business: and how does Sir T. Maitland bring them to an adjustment? Why, he at once proposes to accept £.150,000 Sterling, or 666,000 dollars, in lieu of all claims; and to this sum the Porte, or rather Ali, ultimately agreed. This, to be sure, was £130,000 less than the "four respectable gentlemen," appointed by himself, had agreed on, and rather a serious" difference" upon so small a concern; but still it was something, and would have done the people a great deal of good, had they received it without farther deduction. This, however, was by no means the case: and lest we should be supposed to anisrepresent Sir Thomas Maitland,

we shall give the statement in his own words: "The original stipulation was £.150,000, or 666,000 dollars, in the ultimate adjustment of the affair; however, I deemed it advisable to remit 33,000 dollars out of the 666,000, on condition that the money was all paid in Spanish or Imperial dollars, instead of the current coin of the kingdom of Turkey." Now it was never minted at, pending the discussion, that the Parguinotes were to be paid in a debased or depreciated coin; on the contrary, it was all along understood that the payment was to be made in Sterling money, or Spanish dollars; and how Sir Thomas Maitland could take upon him to make such a deduction, is more, we confess, than we have been able to understand. It is true, he enters upon a most extraordinary calculation, intended to prove, that, even with this deduction, the Parguinotes obtained more than if the valuation by the "four respectable gentlemen" had been adopted and carried into effect: and this calculation is as follows: Property, he assures us, (and we have nothing but his ipse dixit for the fact,) is 33 per cent. less valuable in Parga than in Corfu, according to the standard in which latter place the valuation was made; while 25 per cent. were to be deducted, "in consequence of immediate payment of the whole purchase-money in cash;" making a deduction or abatement of 58 per cent. in all, and leaving just £.117,000 of the £.280,000 to reach the pockets of the unhappy Parguinotes! The Quarterly Review says, that the 33 per cent. difference between Corfuote and Parguinote property were determined by the rule in force, even under the Venetian Government," which, the reader will remember, expired in the year 1797; but no explanation is attempted, either by the Lord High Commissioner or his defender, of the extraordinary abatement of 25 per cent., or

one-fourth for ready money; and therefore we must leave this part of the calculation as we found it. We presume, however, the Parguinotes never contemplated any, far less this enormous discount, and considered, that, when they abandoned their country and their homes, the victims of the most mischievous and jugg ling policy, they were entitled to the immediate payment in cash of the value of the property they surrendered. By this decisive logic, Sir Thomas Maitland proves, to his own entire satisfaction, that the Parguinotes, who might have been paid with £.117,000, were liberally dealt by in receiving £.150,000, subject to the deduction of 33,000 dollars, or £.7432. But by referring to the rate of exchange between Constantinople and London, at the period when this transaction took place, it will be found that £.150,000 would produce 670,494 dollars, or 4494 dollars more than the estimate of Sir T. Maitland, which, with the 33,000 dollars, as above stated, makes a total diminution of 37,494 dollars from the sum fixed by Sir T. Maitland himself; an error no doubt occasioned by his superlative skill in financial operations. "I then ask," says the Lord High Commissioner, "whether having given the Parguinotes £.93,244 more than the valuation made by their fellow-countrymen, (The Ottoman Commissioners of the purchaser, Ali Pasha!) under all the depreciating circumstances in which that property was then placed, with the certainty of the whole being immediate ly paid in cash, was either an unfair or an inequitable arrangement?" With all deference, we would remark, that Sir Thomas Maitland was required to "give" nothing but justice, or, in other words, cause the property

of Parguinotes to be fairly and equitably valued, and to secure to them the price of it. But it is singular enough, and deserves the particular attention of the reader, that every operation he performs is clearly and incontestibly for the benefit of the Pasha, and to the injury of the poor people, who were about to forsake their hearths, and carry their household gods into a strange land; and that nothing can surpass the ingenuity with which he lays hold of every pretext, and presses into his service every expedient, however absurd or extraordinary, in order to reduce more and more the sum which would ultimately fall to be paid, by his good friend Ali, to these "fellows" of Parga. It is a great evil for men to be compelled to abandon the country of their forefathers, the spot where they first drew breath, and which a thousand associations have endeared and embalmed in the deepest affections of the heart. The cost of such a sacrifice cannot well be estimated in dollars or piastres. would not, therefore, have been too much to expect, that, if a stern policy, which makes no account of human feelings, rendered such a measure imperative, a full pecuniary recompence, for the actual property left behind, would at least have been secured; and, farther, that opportunities would not have been anxiously sought for to gratify the cupidity of a wretch, who had shed more blood, and caused more misery, than any despot of his time, one only excepted. "If a fair estimate had been made of the Pargiot property," says Mr Hughes, whom we have already quoted, “ I know Ali Pasha enough to say, that he never would have become the purchaser!"

It

But Sir Thomas Maitland feels

that the deduction of the 33,000 dollars has an awkward and ugly aspect; he therefore recurs to the subject, and asks, "Were the Parguinotes taken by surprise on the subject?" Here we meet him at once, and say most decidedly, that they were taken by surprise. Let the reader mark the proof. In his proclamation, dated the 4th of March 1819, the Lord High Commissioner informs the Parguinotes, that the sum of £.150,000 had been definitively fixed on as a full indemnification, and that each individual would receive a ticket in writing, stating the amount of his share; but he makes no mention of any modification or deduction whatever; and the tickets which were at the same time delivered, were calculated on the full sum of £.150,000. Parga was delivered over to Ali Pasha on the 10th of May following, and the emigration of the inhabitants had, as a matter of course, been completed a few days earlier: but no intimation of the above-mentioned deduction was given till the 9th of June, thirty-six days after their arrival in Corfu! Now, Sir Thomas himself admits, that the deduction was first contemplated when he received from Ali Pasha the £.150,000, and consequently, after the Parguinotes had arrived at Corfu; with what face, then, can it be asserted, that "the Parguinotes were not taken by surprise," and that "it was left to their option either TO REMAIN AT PARGA, or to accept the money?" This is adding insult to injustice, and is, moreover, no bad specimen of the blundering impetuosity of which the whole defence furnishes so many striking examples.

But we have not yet done with deductions!!! A fifth part, viz. £.28,400, was directed to be withheld until the expenses of the commission, as well as the expense of transporting the money from Preveza to Cor

fu, in a king's frigate, were known, and cleared off; and in the memorial of the Parguinotes to Earl Bathurst, dated the 8th of January 1820, it is stated, that, "notwithstanding his Excellency's engage ment, and this first deduction, (viz. the 33,000 dollars,) the Commission obliged every proprietor, who received a sum above £.700 sterling, To TAKE ONE-FOURTH IN TURKISH MONEY, and to suffer the consequent exhorbitant loss *." These are indeed "heavy charges," and even yet call loudly for investigation. It is remarkable that, in his defence, Sir Thomas Maitland cautiously avoids even so much as alluding to them; and, we think, with very good rea

son.

The story of the Spanish dollars, in which the greater part of the payment was effected, being procured from Constantinople" by the voluntary liberality of Hamed Bey, at the expense of 33,000 dollars," is obviously an entire fiction; for it was Ali Pasha, who had enormous treasures secreted in all his seraglios and strong places, who was to pay what has been facetiously called the equivalent; and even if the Porte had engaged to pay the money, it would never (as Col. de Bosset justly observes) "have been sent from Constantinople; but, as is the uniform practice in money transactions "between the Porte and its provinces, Ali would have received an order to advance the money, and deduct it from the annual amount of tribute due from his Pashaliks."

In a speech to the Legislative Assembly of the Ionian States, soon after the completion of these memorable transactions, Sir Thomas Maitland says, "I flatter myself it (the cession of Parga) presents a strong instance of British humanity and British consideration;" God forbid ! He is nearer the truth, however, when he says it came to an issue