of Russia. In Asia, the Czar was to obtain that portion of the coast of the Black Sea which lies between the mouth of the Kouban and the port of St. Nicholas, comprising a considerable extent of territory, and Anapa, Akhalzik, and other fortresses, along with the port of Poti. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were to be restored to the Porte, but their Hospodars were to be elected for life, and were not to be interfered with in any manner by the Porte or any of its officers. The people were to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, perfect security, and full liberty of conscience. Russian subjects were to be secured throughout Turkey in the entire freedom of trade guaranteed to them by previous treaties, and were to be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Russian ministers and consuls. Russian ships were not to be subjected to any search by the Turks, either at sea or in port. The trade and navigation of the Black Sea were not to be impeded in any way; and the passage of the Dardanelles was declared to be entirely open to all Russian vessels, and to all vessels trading with Russia belonging to powers at peace with the Porte. Finally, the Porte was required to pay an indemnity of £5,750,000 in ten annual instalments, and the Russian forces were not to evacuate the principalities until the whole of that large sum had been paid, and all the other conditions of the treaty could be considered as fulfilled.' The treaty of Adrianople was most unfavourable to Turkey, which was weakened in every department, and it was evidently intended to prepare the way for the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire; but the British Government, though greatly dissatisfied with its provisions and with the duplicity of Russia, could not interfere. 'The Duke of Wellington,' Lord Palmerston says, 'had a strong personal feeling of dislike to Russia.' He had violent quarrels with the Russian ambassador, Monsieur de Lieven and his wife, and thought himself not civilly received at St. Petersburg. He VOL. I. distrusted the designs of the Czar, disbelieved his professions before the war began, and was indignant at the severe terms which were imposed upon the Porte when peace was concluded. These feelings, as well as his strong dislike to all revolutionary movements, made him indifferent if not hostile to the cause of Greek independence, which Nicholas, unlike his predecessor, patronized. He disapproved of the treaty of London, which was concluded by Canning, and 'would execute it in the spirit of one who condemns it.' His sentiments were shared by Aberdeen, Ellenborough, and Bathurst, who all, says Lord Palmerston, would give anything to get out of the Greek treaty, which they hate. Huskisson, Dudley, and myself were for executing the treaty in the fair spirit of those who made it.' The first proposal of the Cabinet for the settlement of the question was that Greece should be restricted to the Morea and a few islands. The duke also proposed that the Greeks should pay a tribute of £200,000 a year, and an indemnity of £1,500,000, and that the Greek state should be bound to follow Turkey in peace and in war. The proposal of the duke was indignantly scouted even by his own Cabinet. declared, much to the Premier's annoyance, that he preferred independence to suzerainty, and that they had no data upon which to fix tribute and compensation. Everybody thought the tribute proposed by the duke was much too high; and Aberdeen said he knew that the whole tribute of the Morea was carried on the backs of twelve mules. Palmerston, supported by Lord Dudley and Charles Grant, expressed a strong objection to the narrow limits of the new state, as at variance with the spirit and principles both of protocol and treaty, because permanent pacification could not be looked for when large districts long in revolt were excluded from the settlement. The idea nor Missolonghi; which should exclude given up to the Sultan, that the naval and from its boundaries all the most inspiring records of national achievements whether in ancient or modern times,' was as distasteful to the people of Great Britain as to the Greeks themselves, and could not be regarded as either a satisfactory or permanent settlement of the question. The Porte continued doggedly to refuse its assent to the project for the establishment of a Greek state even in its most restricted form; but after the termination of the war with Russia, and a hostile army had advanced to within a few leagues of Constantinople, the Sultan, humbled by the disasters which his subjects had undergone, showed himself more inclined to accept the proposals of the allied powers. The conferences held in London by these plenipotentiaries, which had been suspended in consequence of the action taken by Russia, were now resumed. The ambassadors who represented these powers at Constantinople -Sir Stratford Canning, General Guilleminot, and Monsieur Ribeaupierre-met at Poros, an island in the Archipelago, to consider the arrangements which should be made for the separation of Greece from the Turkish empire. They agreed to recommend that the new state should consist of the largest extent of territory that had yet been proposed, that the tribute to be paid to the Sultan should be reduced to 1,500,000 piastres, and that the state should be governed by a Christian prince. These proposals were adopted at a conference held in London on the 22nd of March, 1829, by the plenipotentiaries of the three allies as a basis for negotiations, and it was agreed that they should in this form be submitted to the Porte. The Sultan very reluctantly, and under strong pressure, agreed to accept the treaty of London; but only on condition that the Greek state should include merely the Morea and the adjacent islands, that the tribute to be paid by it was to be proportioned to the revenue which had formerly been drawn from it, that the materials found in the fortresses were to be military force of the state should be merely sufficient to preserve internal order, and that no Greek was to be permitted to leave the Turkish dominions and to settle in the new state. The French and Russian plenipotentiaries, at the conference held in London on the 19th of September, were of opinion that these conditions were at variance with the whole spirit and object of the treaty, and insisted that the Porte's acceptance of the protocol and treaty must be complete and unreserved. The British representative, whose object was to get rid of the protocol, strove hard, but unsuccessfully, to convince his colleagues that the acceptance of the Porte was quite satisfactory, and he had in the end to give way. After the treaty of Adrianople had been signed the prompt settlement of the Greek question became a necessity, for Russia was quite prepared to take it into her own hands. The British Government were still bent on cutting down the Greeks,' as Lord Palmerston expressed it; but the other two allied powers were equally determined to carry out an opposite policy. Aberdeen suggested to the Premier that Greece should be divided into two states, under separate governments. 'This,' he said, 'would be agreeable to the Porte; it would be more in unison with the declamations of the classical dreamers; but, above all, it would operate as a check upon the encroaching and restless spirit of Greek ambition.' But this absurd proposal seems to have met with no encouragement from any member of the Cabinet. The duke then proposed to restrict the Greeks to Attica, and to give the Turks the adjacent islands of Euboea and Crete, in addition to suzerainty, tribute, and indemnity.' 'Should the Turkish power,' he said, ‘be ever good for anything, the possession of Candia and Euboea ought effectually to control Greece.' But this proposition was deemed utterly inadmissible by the other parties to the treaty of London. In the end the British Government were obliged to give way on every point. It was arranged | did Prince Charles of Bavaria, the nominee that the boundaries of the Greek state were to extend from Thermopyla on the one side to the mouth of the Aspropotamos on the other; and that Greece was to be entirely independent of the Porte, and governed by a hereditary sovereign. The result of these protracted negotiations, though satisfactory as far as the extent and position of the new state were concerned, reflected no credit on the Duke of Wellington's policy, and contributed not a little to discredit and weaken his administration. As might have been expected, the selection of the sovereign for the new kingdom led to a great deal of intrigue and contention. The choice of the prince,' said Wellington, 'is very important; but that choice will not rest with us. It will be carried against our views and interests.' So it proved. The British Foreign Secretary proposed Prince Philip of Hesse Homburg; but his nomination was not approved either by France or by Russia. Prince Frederick of Orange was next suggested; but he intiinated that, if chosen, he would decline, as of the French Government. The Archduke Maximilian, mentioned by the British representative, was positively objected to by the French plenipotentiary. The crown was then offered to Prince John of Saxony, but was declined by him. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, the widower of the Princess Charlotte, was the next choice of the representatives of Russia and France, acquiesced in with considerable reluctance by the British Cabinet; and after some negotiations and explanations he agreed, in the month of April, to accept the offer. But difficulties arose connected with the internal condition of the country and its foreign dangers, and on the 21st of May the prince finally and conclusively declined the crown of Greece. It was not until the year 1832 was far advanced that the three powers at last succeeded in obtaining a sovereign for the new kingdom in the person of Prince Otho, a younger son of the king of Bavaria, a youth of only eighteen years of age, every way unfit for a position so critical and responsible. Affairs of Ireland-Affray between the Roman Catholics and Orangemen at Armagh and Clare-Depression of Trade in Great Britain-Great Distress among the Manufacturing Classes-The Unpopularity of the Government-Its Commercial Measures blamed for the Depression-Proposed Reduction in the Public Expenditure-Want of Confidence in the Government by the King--The Duke of Wellington's Remonstrance-The Morning Journal's violent Attack on the Ministry-The Editor imprisoned and fined-Parliamentary Reform-Proposals of Lord Blandford and Lord Althorp-O'Connell's Bill to establish Triennial Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and Vote by Ballot-Lord John Russell's Resolutions on the Reform of the House of Commons -Proposal to Repeal the Civil Disabilities of the Jews— Death of George IV.-His Life and Charaeter. THE expectation so confidently expressed that the repeal of the Roman Catholic disabilities would restore peace to Ireland was doomed to disappointment. The redress of one grievance was not likely to establish public tranquillity in a country filled with a pauper population, and torn for ages by internal dissensions. Remedies of a different and much more extensive character were required to relieve the squalid misery of the mass of the Irish people, and to free the country from that spirit of faction which was the prime source of all its calamities. O'Connell, no way conciliated by the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, renewed his agitation as the avowed and bitter enemy of the Government, recounting all the misdeeds, real or imaginary, of the ministers, holding them up every where to public odium, and employing all the powers of his eloquence and his unscrupulous mendacity to rouse the passions of the ignorant peasantry against their Protestant fellowcountrymen, and their connection with Great Britain. There was no gratitude felt for the boon just bestowed, and no inclination to unite in peaceful measures for the redress of the grievances that remained. The Orangemen, on the other hand, returned hatred for hatred, and railing for railing; and for the purpose of displaying their strong dissatisfaction with the Irish policy of the Government, they resolved on celebrating the 12th of July with the usual rejoicings. The triumphant Romanists, elated by their recent victory, and regardless of the public peace and welfare, resolved to stop these celebrations by force. In an attack which they made upon an Orange procession in Armagh, ten men lost their lives; and in a pitched battle which took place in Clare, one Protestant was killed and seven were wounded. Similar outrages were reported from almost every district of Ireland. The magistrates in various quarters declared their inability to quell the riots that had taken place, and it was with difficulty that the united efforts of the military and the police prevented a civil war breaking out between the Orangemen and the Roman Catholics. While Ireland was in this state of chronic agitation, Great Britain was suffering severely from depression of trade in all its branches, and of course the agricultural interestslandlords, farmers, and labourers—were sharing the general distress. All the farmers in Kent, Sir Edward Knatchbull said, were insolvent. Another member of Parliament declared that a very large portion of the working classes were approaching starvation. They wanted food and clothing; the best workmen could not find employment, and were obliged to apply for charitable distributions of food to eke out their existence. The large farmer was reduced to a small farmer, the small farmer was becoming a labourer, and the labourer was becoming a pauper.' The poor rates in the fertile vale of Aylesbury amounted to thirty shillings an acre. In one parish the rates had swallowed up the whole rental except £40. In another there were 1000 paupers out of 1900 residents. In Sussex, labourers were paid threepence and fourpence a day for working on the roads. In Huddersfield the average wage was only twopence a day. In some agricultural counties, such as Hampshire and Cheshire, the peasants were seen harnessed to waggons; and the bishop of Bath and Wells stated in the House of Lords that in his diocese he had seen men 'yoked together like oxen, and engaged in drawing coals from the pits in the neighbourhood.' 'I saw a friend who had recently returned from one of the largest districts in the county,' said a member of Parliament, who told us both masters and workmen were fast coming down to despair. I know that labourers perform most painful works, and that after fourteen hours of hard and constant labour, they can only earn a few shillings, utterly insufficient to maintain themselves. The retail dealers are sinking into distress for want of customers, and are unable to pay rates, rent, and taxes, and trade is altogether unprofitable; wretchedness, ruin, and misery, swallow up all in their vortex. Every week in the Gazette is a long list of bankrupts, and a longer list of declared insolvents.' In one district in the county of Warwick,' said another member, there was a parish containing a mixture of manufacturers and agriculturists. The population amounted to 7100 persons. Of these there were 2000 receiving parochial relief, 2100 not receiving relief, but not able to contribute anything to the rates, the whole weight of which was borne by 400 heads of families, the representatives of the other inhabitants.' The condition of the manufacturing classes, if not quite so degraded, was equally distressed. The silk trade had suffered severely, both from the stagnation of business and the effect of recent legislation reducing the duties on foreign silks. The Somersetshire silk weavers were dragging on a 'miserable existence on two shillings and sixpence a week.' In Coventry, 4000 persons engaged in this branch of manufacture were out of employment. The operatives in Macclesfield, Rochdale, Manchester, and other seats of manufacturing industry, were in the same condition. The silk weavers of Bethnal Green were suffering distress even more severe. They are all weavers,' wrote Greville, forming a sort of separate community; there they are born, there they live and labour, and there they die. They neither migrate nor change their occupation; they can do nothing else. They have increased in a ratio at variance with any principles of population, having nearly tripled in twenty years-from 22,000 to 64,000. They are for the most part out of employment and can get none; 1100 are crammed into the poorhouse, five or six in a bed; 6000 receive parochial relief. The parish is in debt; every day adds to the number of paupers and diminishes that of ratepayers. These are principally shopkeepers, who are beggared by the rates. The district is in a state of insolvency and hopeless poverty, yet they multiply; and while the people look squalid and dejected, as if borne down by wretchedness and destitution, the children thrive and are healthy.' It need excite no surprise that the poor creatures reduced to such a state of misery should become restless and turbulent, and attempt to destroy the machinery to which they erroneously ascribed their sufferings. The Protectionists in Parliament, quite as ill-informed though with much less excuse, advocated a return to the old system of higher prohibitory duties. But the Ministry expressed their determination to reduce the duties rather than to increase them, and the machine-breaking riots only made them the more resolute in adopting this measure with all possible speed. interests of the manufacturers,' said Peel, 'the interests of the workmen themselves, and the public tranquillity, called for the immediate passing of the bill. The outrages which had recently taken place were, he knew, perpetrated for the purpose of intimidating the legislature against agreeing to this measure; and he was convinced that every day it was delayed would add to the number of these outrages.' Although strenu The |