The administration of the Ionian

Islands was prosperous and tranquil. Of the acts of the Ionian parliament, the most important was that which settled the ecclesiastical administration, and established the power and the jurisdiction of the hierarchy of the orthodox Greek church. It consisted of 73 articles, of which the following were the principal:

"The hierarchy consists of four metropolitans, one archbishop, and two suffragans. Each of the metropolitans shall be invested in rotation with the dignity of exarch of the Greek Church during one session of the legislature.

"The prelates can in no case correspond with a foreign power, except through a governor-general. "No prelate can, without permission of the government, introduce into his diocess new regulations in ecclesiastical matters.

"No Ionian ecclesiastic can be consecrated out of the Ionian states.

"The government will fix the bounds of the parishes.

"Every prelate is bound to visit the churches of his diocess at least once every three years.

"No prelate shall interfere in matters belonging to the civil authorities.

"The prelates receive a fixed salary from the State.

"Whenever it is intended to build a new church, the plan is to be laid before the government."

The other articles related to the institution of the ecclesiastical tribunals, the rights and duties of vicars and curates, and the means of carrying the provisions of the act into execution.

Another most important law wrought a complete change in the state of landed property. The . preamble stated, that "It being one of the principal objects of the government to encourage agriculture, and experience having demonstrated that one of the greatest impediments to its progress is the existence of property rendered inalienable by means of feudal restrictions, therefore, with a view to put an end to this evil, increasing at the same time the prosperity of the state and of private persons, by the authority of his excellency the president of the most illustrious senate, with the assent and advice of the most noble legislative assembly of the Ionian islands, in the second session of the second parliament, and with the approbation of his excellency the lord high commissioner of the sovereign protector, it is ordained and enacted as follows." The law itself, in seven articles, provided for the abolition (partly immediate and partly gradual) of all feudal tenures or restrictions,

hindering or impeding the alienation of landed property.

The relations between Turkey and Russia still continued on an ambiguous and critical footing: though no step towards hostilities was taken on either side, and abundant professions were made of a mutual desire to maintain peace. An insult having been offered at Constantinople to the Russian flag, Mr. Minziacky immediately demanded and obtained satisfaction.

Both the populace and the Janissaries were in a state of great fermentation. The discontent with the ministers was violent, and led to various changes in the administration. In February, four ortas of Janissaries, in which signs of insubordination had appeared, received orders to proceed to Thessaly, and join the corps opposed to the Greeks; but they unanimously refused to march. "We will not march," said they, "till the heads of three of the sultan's ministers have been delivered to us." Some of the leaders in this insurrection were executed privately.

In April, Abdul Hamed, the son of the sultan, and the heir of the Ottoman throne, died of the small pox. He was only fourteen years of age; but the Janissaries had formed, it was supposed, a project of deposing his father, and placing him on the throne: and to them his death was a subject of regret.

During the winter, the Greeks had been occupied much more with their own internal dissentions, than in making preparations to meet the common enemy. To such a height did these dissentions arise, that, after the close of the campaign of last year, the Moreots, dissatisfied with the individuals who were at

the head of affairs, broke out in an open insurrection, at the head of which were Colocotroni and his sons, Niketas, Demetrius, and Nicholas Deliyanni, general Sessini, Andrea Zaimi, Andrea Londo, and Giovanni, and Panageola Notapopuolo. The government immediately called in the aid of the Roumeliots, two of whom, generals Izonga and Goura, aided by the counsels and presence of John Coletti, member of the Executive body, took command of their forces. The Moreots carried on the civil war with considerable spirit for some time, and proceeded even so far as to attempt the capture of Napoli di Romania; but at length, after some delay and bloodshed, the insurgents were dispersed, and the rebellion was quelled by the end of the year. The leaders sought safety in flight: some of them were seized: others left the Morea, and took refuge in Kalamos, an island appointed by the Ionian government for the reception of Grecian refugees. Some (and among these was Colocotroni) surrendered to the government. The same vessel which brought Conduriotti from Hydra, to resume his functions of president of the Executive counsel at Napoli di Romania, returned with the chiefs of the rebellion on board; for the government had resolved to confine them in Hydra, as that island was more remote from the scene of action, and less liable to afford them occasions of creating fresh seditions. Accordingly, on the 18th of February, Colocotroni and his companions embarked on board the Gorgo, and in a few days landed at their destination; their new asylum being the monastry of St. Elias, on the craggy summit of one of the wildest hills of Hydra. An extraordinary commission of

nine members had been previously appointed to try the rebels.

Though the provisional government was strong enough to suppress these disturbances, they had the effect of making the people of the Morea, who placed their confidence almost exclusively in Colocotroni, backward and slack in the approaching campaign. Another disastrous result of them was, preventing the reduction of the fortress of Patras, which, it was supposed, might easily have been taken during the winter. But in consequence of these internal dissentions, it was the middle of January before a few vessels sailed up the Gulf of Corinth, and, aided by some land forces, recommenced the blockade. The blockading squadron was raised to the number of thirty vessels: and the garrison began to be straitened for provisions: so that hopes were entertained that this important fortress, which, with Modon and Coron, were the only forts in the Morea now occupied by the Turks, would be forced to surrender. On the other hand, the Porte made all the preparations it could for a vigorous campaign. Aware of the importance of the Albanians for the conquest of Western Greece, a person was appointed to the command of that district, who was supposed to have influence with the soldiery. For this purpose, Omar Pacha was removed to Salonika, whilst Redschid Pacha was transferred from Larissa, as a person qualified to accomplish the views of the Porte in the Pachalic of Jannina and Delvinatsi, to which the Sultan promised to add Roumelia, with Missolonghi and Anatolia, in the event of his subduing them. Being furnished with full power and means to raise the requisite troops, he immediately

commenced to do so at Larissa, intending afterwards to pass over to his new Pachalic; and, having there likewise increased his army, to descend upon Missolonghi with his united forces, levying soldiers as he passed along by Prevesa and Arta. While he was to advance from the North, the troops of Mahomet, Ali Pacha of Egypt, who had by this time succeeded in suppressing, for the present, the insurrection in Candia, were to land in great force upon the Morea. As they were disciplined in the European manner, and were well supplied with all the necessaries of war, the irregular troops of the Greeks would be unable to stand before them; and by these means the Morea, it was expected, would again be brought under the yoke of its old masters.

Mahomet Ali's fleet, which wintered in the harbour of Suda in Candia, set sail under the command of his step-son Ibrahim Pacha, on the 23rd of December, for Rhodes, where it arrived on the 1st of January, 1825. There 5,000 disciplined soldiers awaited him: with these he was to return to Candia; and, having completed his armament there, to sail for the Morea without delay. At the same time, transports with provisions, were actively fitting out at Constantinople for the use of the garrisons at Modon and Patras.

The blockade of Patras was now going on with vigour; orders were issued daily for the collecting fresh troops, and the sending of additional ships from Hydra; and the direction of the forces both by land and sea, as well as the presidency of the government, was conferred on Conduriotti. check the approach of Redschid Pacha, Nota Bozzaris, and generals

To

Suka and Milios were sent forward with a body of troops to occupy the pass of Makrinovo, the ancient Olympus, through which it was necessary he should pass. As frequent letters from Crete informed the government of the return of Ibrahim Pacha from Rhodes, and of the vigour with which he was hastening the completion of his preparations, the progress of the blockade at Patras, was observed with double interest; for its fall was daily expected, and there was no probable means of checking the armament of the Egyptians, except by withdrawing the squadron which was cruising before the fortress. At length advices arrived of the departure of the expedition from Candia: further delay was impossible; and the Greek squadron sailed from Patras, but unfortunately too late. Such was the deficiency of communication across the Morea, that almost on the same day that the fleet sailed from Patras (24th of February), the Egyptian squadron of four corvettes, and numerous brigs and transports, in all 30 sail, anchored off Modon, and disembarked 6,000 soldiers, infantry and cavalry, well disciplined and commanded chiefly by European officers. These troops immediately encamped round Modon, whilst the ships returned without delay to Suda, in Candia. A few days after, Ibrahim Pacha, at the nead of 800 men, advanced to the summit of the range of hills, which rise at the back of Navarino. The inhabitants flew to arms, whilst 700 Roumeliots, under the command of general Ciabella, hastened into the fortress. The Pachas object, however, appeared to be merely to take a survey of the situation of the fortress: he remained quietly at his station for

some hours, and then returned to his encampment.

As it was now clear that Navarino and the adjacent country was to be the immediate seat of war, the storming of Patras was abandoned, and the troops were drawn off to be marched farther south. Upwards of 2,000 soldiers, principally under the command of Hadji Christo Joannes Mavromichales, son to Petro Bey of Maina, were thrown into Navarino; a small corps of artillery, amounting to 50 or 60 men, were sent off with all haste from Napoli; and the command of the fortifications was given to major Collegno, who lost no time in assuming his post. Provisions were sent in from all parts of the Morea, sufficient for a long siege; large bodies of Roumeliots, under the command of their respective generals Giavella, Karatasso, Constantine Bozzaris, brother of Marco, and general Karaiscaki, took positions in the rear of the enemy. While Conduriottis and Prince Mavrocordato prepared to set out from Napoli with fresh troops, Ibrahim received reinforcements from Candia; in March a second debarkation took place, which made his force amount to upwards of 15,000 men: and before the end of that month, a battery had been erected against Neo-Kastro, or Navarino.

This place, which had been taken by the Greeks in the first year of the war, instead of having been repaired and strengthened, so as to be an effectual protection to the harbour, which, in respect of its capaciousness and commodious situation, was one of the most important in Greece, had been left nearly in the same state in which it was, when taken from the Turks, in 1821. Its defences

were a low wall without any ditch, flanked on the land-side by some small bastions, and still weaker towards the sea. Opposite to it is the island of Sphacteria, two miles in length and a quarter of a mile broad; and separated from Navarino, at its South Eastern extremity, by a channel six hundred yards wide, which leads into a noble basin six miles in circumference. The northern end of the island is separated by a channel of about a hundred yards in width, from a peninsular, promontory anciently called Coryphasium. A ruined castle of the middle ages, which stands upon the summit of this headland on the site of the ancient Pylus, and is known by the appellation of old Navarino, was occupied by the Greeks; the hill is steep and rocky, and a large lagune on the land side, separated from the sea at either end of the promontory by a narrow strip of land, renders the position naturally very strong. But the castle, having neither been repaired nor armed, was incapable of long defence against a very superior force; and being commanded, at the distance of one thousand yards, by the highest point of Sphacteria, there remained little hope to the Greeks of preserving either of their posts at Navarino, unless, by the assistance of their ships, they could retain possession of the island.

By the middle of April, Conduriottis had succeeded in assembling about 6,000 men at Cremidi. But after several desultory actions with small bodies of the Greeks, Ibrahim, on the 19th of April, attacked, and completely defeated in their position, all the troops which the president had been able to collect. To take Sphacteria, was the next object of the

Pacha; but it was not until the return of his, ships from Suda in Candia, whither they had gone in order to transport a third division of land forces, that he could attempt to put this part of his design into execution.

A third was

On Sunday the 1st of May, the Egyptian fleet, amounting, transports included, to 65 or 70 sail, came out of the port of Suda, where it had been for some days closely watched by a Greek squadron of 29 sail, under Miaoulis. The latter immediately endeavoured to oppose their progress, but the light breezes were unpropitious to his purpose. There was a distant cannonade kept up for some time with little or no effect, and two fireships were sent off by the Greeks without success. more fortunate. The rigging of a large frigate was seriously injured, and a large portion of her crew, who leaped overboard in their terror, were either taken prisoners, or perished in the waters. The Greeks having failed in their principal object, the Egyptian fleet succeeded in reaching Modon, whence 46 ships, followed by Miaoulis, proceeded to cruise off Navarino. In the harbour of Navarino there was then only one Greek vessel, the brig Mars, commanded by the Hydriote captain Tsammados. It was engaged in provisioning the fortress and in covering the landing of the water, which was brought in boats from the coast of the modern province of Arcadia. Miaoulis, shortly after his arrival, sent in seven vessels, of which Tsammados was to take the command, and to proceed with them to reinforce the squadron of five ships which remained off Patras. On Sunday, the 8th of May, the squadron of Miaoulis