ance to gain time for the purposes of preparation; and the allies might at the same time be amused with propositions which would at once assert the honour of the Porte, and delay the appeal to arms, till its forces were ready to act. Accordingly, the Reis Effendi communicated to the British ambassador on the 8th November, and to the ambassadors of France and Russia on the 9th, the final resolution of the Turkish government,comprehended in three demands, viz:-That the allied courts should desist from all interference in the affairs of Greece; that the Porte should receive an indemnity for the loss sustained in the destruction of its fleet;-and that the sultan should receive satisfaction for the insult which had been offered to him. To these demands the ambassadors, on the 10th returned for answer, that the Treaty of the 6th of July, which had not been annulled, forbade the allies to abandon the question of Greece; that the Turkish fleet gave occasion to the battle of Navarino, which destroyed every claim of the Porte to an indemnity; that the Porte had the less reason to expect satisfaction, as it had been informed in due time that an event such as that at Navarino might occur, if it did not listen to the counsels of moderation, or if it should be the first to attack. All hope of accommodation seemed thus to be at an end; and as the demands of the Porte had been accompanied with a declaration, that, till they were complied with, all intercourse between it and the representatives of the three allied courts was to cease, the ambassadors prepared in earnest to leave Constantinople. The Porte, however, whose object now very clear VOL. LXIX. ly was to gain time, and avoid, as long as possible, a step which bore so much the appearance of an open rupture, detained them till the beginning of December with new propositions, but all of them of such a nature as not to admit of serious deliberation. On the 5th of December, they intimated to the merchants that no hope any longer remained; and informed them, that, in all probability, there would be no impediment to their embarking, if they desired it, at the same time with the ambassadors, though it was not likely that they would be permitted to carry their property with them. The feeling of many of the merchants, on learning the state of affairs, was, that they ought to remain on the spot for the protection of their property. The Turkish authorities, on their part, manifested great anxiety to detain them, and a communication to some of the more eminent of them was even made from the Reis Effendi, who promised them security both of person and property, and further, that the English dragoman should be allowed to remain, in order to keep up, so far as commercial affairs were concerned, the usual communications with the Porte. The fears, however, of the majority of them were too strong to allow them to listen to any representations of this kind. The ambassadors left Constantinople on the 8th of December. On their departure, they were treated with the respect and courtesy due to their characters. On the day preceding their departure, another attempt was made to detain them, by a proposition, on the part of the Turkish government, to grant a general amnesty to the Greeks. This not being the sort of concession which the ambassadors were [Y] instructed to require, it was not listened to. The Russian minister repaired to Odessa; those of Britain and France to the Ionian isles. The sultan might thus consider himself at war with the three greatest powers of Europe. He continued, with great activity, his military preparations; but, to all sensible men, his surest hope must have been found in the circumstance, that, if one of the three powers now united against him had been work ing, through a long course of neverchanging policy, to accomplish his ruin, the two others, though at present apparently the instruments of its ambition, were deeply interest ed in counteracting its designs. While these events were taking place in Constantinople, and at Navarino, no occurrence of any moment happened on the continent of Greece. The fortresses of Na poli di Romania had been occupied by two leaders of the names of Grivas and Fotomare, who, happening to be rivals, as was by no means uncommon among their compeers, hazarded the security, and destroyed the peace, of the town by their incessant quarrels. The government, unable to induce them to give up the fortresses, had deserted the city. In the month of August a decree was issued, declaring all officers and soldiers who did not obey implicitly the orders of general Church, to be in a state of rebellion. The generalissimo, having received this decree, ordered Grivas to evacuate the fortress of Palamidi, leaving his younger brother in garrison in it with two hundred men, and Grivas returned a very submissive answer. General Church himself repaired to the camp at Corinth, now the centre of the military preparations of the Greeks. Nikitas and Coliopulo still shewed themselves in western Greece, and in August and September, gained some advantages over detached bodies of Ibrahim's Arabians. But they were uniformly checked by the want of ammunition and provision; and they were unable to oppose any resistance to Ibrahim, when, a month later, he perpetrated the havoc which brought down upon him the vengeance of Navarino. "I only beg for cartridges," wrote Nikitas; "cartridges and bread and we shall have plenty of men." The National Assembly had closed its labours on the 17th of June, after passing a decree authorizing their new president, Capo d'Istria, to negociate, if he could, a loan of five millions of crowns, part of it to be applied in paying the interest of the two preceding loans. But, after the disclosures of the preceding year, no man had the hardihood to bring it into the market. The committee on whom the government devolved, when the assembly separated, transferred its seat again to Egina; for, although, as already mentioned, the submission or promised submission of Givas, had in some degree re stored Napoli to tranquillity, the committee declared it not to be a favourable spot for devoting their cares to the interests of the country. "The agitation still remaining," said they, "after such great disorders, and the fear of new disagreements, would engage almost the whole attention of the government at Napoli." When they thus honestly confessed the weakness of their authority even in the seat of government, they could not be expected to exercise any control over the freebooters, who, under the Greek flag, carried piracy into every corner of the Levant. fleet they had, but that fleet did nothing: many of the vessels which occasionally joined it to fight a battle, were at other times pirates, or the abettors and partners of pirates. The government accepted of the interposition of the allies with joy, agreed to the proposed armistice, and recommended its religious observance to their subjects. But, in despite of it,fpiracy continued to increase to such a degree, that, in the month of November, the British government, by an order in council, adopted the strong measure of commanding his majesty's ships in the Mediterranean to seize every vessel which they should meet with at sea under the Greek flag, or fitted out and armed at any Greek port, with the single exception of ships of war belonging to, or acting under the orders of, the persons exercising the powers of government in Greece. This order proceeded upon a statement, that his majesty had in vain applied for the prevention of the outrages which rendered the navigation of the Levant highly perilous to the Greek government that that government, however willing, was not able to repress them and that, therefore, until a government should be established in Greece competent to put an end to these excesses, the most efficacious protection for commerce would be, to prevent any armed vessels bearing the Greek flag from putting to sea. CHAP. XIII. UNITED STATES.-Discussions in Congress on the Colonial Trade.— SOUTH AMERICA-Progress of the War between BRAZIL and BUENOS AYRES Battle of Ituzaingo-Advance of the Republican Army towards Rio Grande-Naval Operations-Preliminaries of Peace signed at Rio Janeiro-The Treaty is rejected by the Government of Buenos Ayres, and the President Rivadavia resigns-Pretensions of the Provincial Governments-Finances.-COLOMBIA-Arrival of Bolivar at Bogota, and his departure for Venezuela-He re-establishes Tranquillity in that Province-He resigns the Presidentship-Congress meets-The Vice-president, Santander, likewise, proffers his Resignation-Congress refuses to accept either- A National Convention ordered to be convoked-Revolt in the Southern Provinces-Bolivar returns to Bogota-Finances-MEXICO-Revolt of the Province of Texas-Conspiracy of Arenas-Measures directed against Spanish Inhabitants Arrests on account of a New Conspiracy-Insurrection in the Province of Durango-Finance.-PERU-Revolution in the Government, and Election of a new President-Dismissal of the Colombian Envoy-Finances-GUATEMALA-Progress of the Civil War. IN N our last volume we gave an account of the discussions, which had been carried on between the British government and that of the United States, regarding the terms on which the latter should be admitted to share in the colonial trade of the former. While the United States demanded to be received in the colonies, not merely on as favourable terms as other foreign nations, but on as favourable terms as the mother country herself, they imposed discriminating duties on British ships arriving in their harbours from British colonies; and, by another class of duties, obstructed the voyages of British vessels, which, after landing cargoes from Great Britain in the United States, were bound onwards to the colonies. Upon this display of an unfair and encroach ing spirit in the commercial policy of the United States, Great Britain withdrew from the merchantmen of that republic the privilege which, by an order in council, had been tendered to the ships of all nations-viz. that of trading to our colonies on the same terms, with regard to the shipping of those foreigners, as British ships themselves were subject to, provided that the ships of Great Britain should be equally favoured in their turn, on entering the port of the foreign state accepting the said privilege from Great Britain. The American government insisted, that the trade of foreigners with the colonies of Great Britain should be considered as an open subject, upon which any foreign government had a right to insist on negotiating with the parent state. The British minister, with a more strict adherence to the known principles of colonial and commercial policy, declared the resolution of Great Britain to reserve to herself the indisputable right of admitting foreigners to traffic with their colonies, on whatever condition she might herself think proper to ordain. His majesty, therefore, by an order in council, excluded the United States from the list of those foreign countries whose merchantmen should be admitted to the ports of British colonies being the only foreigners who had abused the privilege by an unfair treatment of British ships in return. pretensions which America had set up to the colonial trade. It was necessary, said the committee of the senate, that the interdict should be universal in its prohibition against all persons, and in its application to all the colonies. The British order in council, indeed, excluding the United States from the colonies, had left open' to them those of the British North American possessions; but that exception was intended only to serve the partial interests of Great Britain, by drawing from the United States to the harbours of Canada or Nova Scotia, the provisions required in the West Indies, and thus still supplying them to the islands in her own shipping. But if these ports were The American executive, em- closed, as well as those of the barrassed by the weakness of their colonies which would otherwise be cause, or anxious, from the im- supplied through them, then, as portance of the case, to remove the colonies could not subsist withthe responsibility from themselves, out these articles, the American laid the whole papers connected trade would be concentrated in withthenegotiation before Congress, some of the ports adjacent to the for its consideration and decision. colonies, and would be carried on In consequence of the report of a in American vessels; for, it was committee to which they had been taken for granted, Britain would referred, a bill was introduced into never attempt to intercept the trade Congress, the effect of which was, between these intermediate ports from and after the 30th September, and the colonies. By permitting 1827, to close the harbours of the the productions of the United United States not only against States to reach the colonies either British Ships proceeding from directly in foreign vessels, or cirBritish colonies, but against those cuitously through the British ports of all other nations bound from of North America, the United the colonies to the republic. It States would lose the carrying was in fact a non-intercourse act, trade, and gain nothing in return; excluding all the British posses- by closing their harbours against sions in the western hemisphere, all vessels, whether British or the settlements on the coast of foreign, coming from the British Africa, the Mauritius, Ceylon, colonies, their productions carried New Holland, and Van Diemen's in their own vessels, would find a land, from all commercial commu- ready market, their interdict would nication with the United States, be felt, and the only operation of unless, on or before the 30th the British prohibition would be, September, the British govern- to add to the pressure under which ment should admit the extravagant the colonies were already sinking. |