the two empires. The command. ers of our armies, after every victory, hastened, by our order, to offer to it peace and friendship. Nevertheless, our efforts were always fruitless. It was not till he saw our standards displayed not far from his capitol, that the Sultan was at length sensible, from our conduct, that our object was not to overturn his throne, but to obtain the execution of the treaties. Being then convinced of the purity of our intentions, he held out his hand to receive that peace which had been so often proposed to him. It promises to Russia happy and prosperous results. The blood of our warriors is redeemed by numerous advantages. The passage of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus is henceforward free and open to the commerce of all the nations of the world. The security of our fron tiers, especially on the Asiatic side, is for ever guarantied by the incorporation with the empire of the fortresses of Anapa, Poti, Ak. haltzik, Atizkour, and Akhalkalaki.

Our preceding treaties with the Porte are confirmed by it, and reestablished in all their force; just indemnities are secured for the expenses of the war, and the individual losses experienced by our sub. jects. The scourge of the plague, which has so often threatened the

southern provinces of Russia, will, in future, be checked by a double barrier, by means of the establishment of a line of quarantine on the banks of the Danube, agreed to on both sides. Our solicitude has also been extended to the fate of the nations professing our religion, who are subjects to the Ottoman dominion. The ancient privileges of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia have been sanctioned, and

In announcing to all our beloved subjects this happy event, a new gift of the benedictions of heaven bestowed upon Russia, we addressed, with them, the most ardent thanksgivings to the Almighty, who has deigned, by his divine decrees, to raise our dear country to such a high degree of glory. May the fruits of this peace be developed and multiplied more and more to the advantage of our beloved sub. jects, whose welfare will always be the first object of our constant solicitude.

Given at St. Petersburg, the 19th September, (1st October,) the year 1829, and the fourth of our reign.

Address of the President of Greece to the Fourth National Congress. July 23, 1829.

Let every heart glorify the Most High: Let us celebrate his holy name.

Deputies of the Nation,

You have re-assembled in the fourth national congress at a time when the fortunes of Greece engage the benevolent attention and constant favour of the allied sovereigns of Europe.

Our circumstances are critical, but the sense of what they require being deep in all our breasts, God, we may be allowed to hope, will not abandon us.

His mercy has preserved Greece by miracles; and be most fully as sured that these miracles have not been wrought in vain.

Greece, after bearing the yoke of slavery for four centuries, has at length shaken it off. Assisted by the peculiar favour of heaven, and by human wisdom and foresight, she has struggled against nume. rous and terrible foes, and against incessant trials and disasters. Her courage, her perseverance, her misfortunes, roused simultaneously the Christians of both hemispheres: and at the moment when her accumulated distresses had brought her to the most awful crisis, she received from every quarter proofs of generous protection; and when she was still enabled to defend those sacred interests which she had laboured to shield under the law of nations.

At the same time sad experience has proved to Greece that all her noble efforts, all her bloody sacrifices, were unattended with any real and permanent success, so long as they were unaided by the august and powerful sanction of the European monarchs.

The convention of April, 1826, signed at St. Petersburg, the treaty of London of the 6th of July, 1827, and that ever memorable day the 8th (20th) of October, prove to Greece that Great Britain, France and Russia, acknowledge the justice of her cause, and interpose their powerful aid to terminate her long continued sufferings.

The election of the congress of Træzen of April, 1827, was commu.

nicated to me in June of the same year. I cannot better repay the confidence which the Greeks have reposed in me, than by endeavour. ing to be able to announce to them, ere long, with certainty, that the allied courts will not refuse their generous support, so soon as Greece, by restoring order in her interior, can give to the sovereigns a guaranty that she will also resume her national and political standing. With the design there. fore of seeking the opportunity and the means of preserving and consolidating these expectations, I undertook long journeys and distant embassies before touching the soil of Greece.

You are all aware, gentlemen, what was her condition at that pe. riod. You are not ignorant of the basis on which the provisional government of Greece was founded, with the approbation of her council and the kind feelings of her inha. bitants.

I shall now present you with an account of our proceedings, and it will be for you to judge of them.

After having established the council, we wished to gain that knowledge which would maintain in trust the authorities to which the nation had once more confided its peculiar interests.

We wished likewise to convince Europe that Greece sighed for order, and that the government to expedite the fulfilment of this wish considered it indispensably neces. sary to own no allegiance to any ar. bitrary power, and to pay particular regard to our army, to our navy, and to our political economy.

The decree respecting the organization of the regiments, the edict which relates to the marine service, as well as the measures

taken to establish a national bank, and a general college, have been the first steps towards the regula. tion of the interior. After the pub. lication of these edicts, the national cabinet obtained from the bank a loan of 2,034,660,03 piastres.

The Archipelago has been freed from the pirates who infested, it and who cast unmerited infamy on the Greek navy. Our valiant soldiers, having re-assembled at Træzen and Megara, are again united under their standards; those very men, I say, who, dejected by the vicissitudes of fortune, and exhausted by fatigue and sufferings, amid the confusion, might naturally have forgotten every feeling of duty. One division under the command of Admiral Miaulis insured the free navigation of the Archipelago, and conveyed to our distressed brethern in Chios, every consolation which it was in our power to offer. A second division under vice-admiral Sachtouri was destined for the blockade which the admirals of the allied powers compelled us to abandon.

Scarcely were these measures taken, scarcely had we begun gra. dually to spread over all the provinces of the country, the renova ting influence of a moderate and well regulated administration, when every arrangement was destroyed by an evil of a new and dreadful species. The soldiery of Ibrahim Pacha brought the plague among us, spreading it over the islands of Hy. dra and Spezzia, even to Argos and other provinces of Peloponnesus. The nation supported this novel calamity with characteristic fortitude and admirable resignation, struggling even with this invincible

Laza.

sented to the internal organization of the provinces almost insurmoun table difficulties, still however it was effected. Primates, their adjuncts in ordinary, and provisional governors were appointed. rettos, ports, a civil police,and cus. tom houses, were established. At this time, the very moment when our treasury was at the lowest ebb, Divine Providence sent us consola. tion.

Their majesties, the king of France and the emperor of Russia, in the kindest manner furnished us with pecuniary supplies: those of France being accompanied by a minister plenipotentiary to the Greek government. Thus, every hope that we had fondly entertain. ed whilst presenting the prayers of Greece to the allied sovereigns, every hope, I repeat, began to be realized.

The accomplishment of our ex. pectations was no less due to the magnanimous efforts of admiral Codrington. This noble friend of Grecian liberty had resolved, in Alexandria, on the expulsion of the Egyptian force from Peloponnesus; when the French exhibition, having made a descent on Chersonesus, effected the complete deliverance of our country.

The Mussulmans having in effect evacuated the fortresses of Mesene and Achaia, the inhabitants of those places-those, at least, who had survived their protracted misfortunes-have at length taken possession of the ruined mansions and desolated fields of their beloved country; all that the enemy has left of their once flourishishing cities and thriving towns, of their fertile and cultivated plains.

Thanks to the French troops; to their valour, to their deeds, to the

abundant relief which was expe. rienced wherever they spread their tents!

The fortresses of Coron, of Mo. don, of Mio-castro, and of Patras, have risen as it were by magic from their ruins, and are even now possessed of all their former strength. In November the plague again visited the province of Calavrita, and threatened Chersonesus with new calamities. But the French soldiers, at the first summons of their generous leader, abandoned their tents, and having established a sanitary cordon, over which General Hygonet presided in person, in the midst of dangers and sufferings of every description, afforded food and clothing to thousands of unhappy people, and in a short time wholly destroyed the germ of this frightful epidemic. The French army halted in Chersonesus. The Greeks of the continent, watching incessantly to see the borders of Peloponnesus passed, manifested their wishes in this regard. We ourselves hoped to see them accomplished, for we were far from apprehending the diplomatic act which decided it otherwise.

Meanwhile, at a time when the army was preparing to leave this country, which it had saved from destruction, we received new marks of generosity from Charles X. This monarch benevolently continued to supply us with money, whilst the French soldiers provided a garrison for the fortress of Mesene. To them also we are indebted for training our young soldiers to military discipline, with which they were before entirely unacquainted.

The beneficence of his majesty the king of France did not end

here. All the unfortunate men who had been carried slaves into Egypt, by his interposition regained the blessings of liberty, and returned to the embrace of their country.

A body of learned men of the French Institute, and of distinguished artists, are commissioned to explore the classic grounds of Greece; and while they will be engaged in the discovery of all that relates to archæology, to geography, and to the arts and sciences, Greece will reap the whole fruit of the precious labours.

The representatives of the allied sovereigns arrived at Poros in September, and requested us to furnish them with the information which they deemed suitable to answer the claims which the mediating powers should make, in conform. ity with the articles of the treaty of London.

This duty we performed, keeping always in view the instructions which the congress of Epidaurus delivered to the diplomatic committee, and acting, as far as was possible, in pursuance of those in

structions.

Their majesties, the emperor of Russia and the king of Great Britain, also honoured Greece by sending ministers plenipotentiary to her government.

In the autumn of last year, the conferences of London resumed their activity. The protocol of the 16th November was signed. This act, however, was not officially communicated to us.

You will be made acquainted with the communications which were sent to the Greek govern. ment on these great and interesting matters, and I trust that you

also will approve of the considerations which we have submitted to the allied kings.

You will perceive that we endeavoured to adhere to the principles which governed the national assembly of Epidaurus, without, however, neglecting those which are a necessary consequence of the position of Greece relative to her. self, to the mediating powers, and to the Ottoman Porte. The treaty of the 6th July contains distinctly all that applies to these relations; thus the present negotiations tend to settle them for ever.

I deem it useless to address you concerning the causes which have prevented the complete execution of the laws of the assembly of Epidaurus, of Astræa and of Træzen. We are of opinion that the same causes will operate so long as formal treaties do not determine the boundary of the Greek territory, and our relations with the mediating powers, and with the Ottoman Porte. Until this is accomplished, it appears to me that we can only regulate provisionally the internal police; insure, by just and severe means, those rights which our citi. zens have purchased with their blood, and occupy our attention in the revision of the fundamental laws, by a conscientious improvement from the lessons of experience.

Such are the views which have dictated all the provisional regulations forming the body of laws of the present government.

The Secretary of State will lay before you all the documents, as soon as you may desire it.

The organization of the judiciary is scarcely commenced; and having, on our part great difficul. ties to surmount, we have succeed.

ed, as far as was possible, in an. swering satisfactorily, the questions which were frequently addressed to us from the provinces. They express their acknowledgments to us in a manner which does honour to the character of members of the Greek family. Many disputes have been settled to the satisfaction of contending parties, on which the tribunals would otherwise have been obliged to pronounce judgments. Some of these call for particular regulations. We have published one on old debts; there are others which, doubtless, you may deem equally necessary.

The church has suffered a large share of the national evils; and it should be a part of our duty to acquire an accurate knowledge of its real condition. For this purpose an ecclesiastical commission has been appointed, and we wait for its report.

Since we arrived in Greece, our attention has been occupied with a number of children, whom them is. fortunes and losses of their country have rendered idle and vicious. The hospital of Egina contains already five hundred orphans; and the schools of mutual instruction which have been founded in seve. ral provinces, extend their bene. fits to more than six thousand children. A normal school will be established at Egina, in which pupils will be rendered capable of teaching according to the Lancasterian system.

We hope, with the favour of God, and the assistance of the generous friends of Greece, to extend the benefits of elementary schools through every town and every province of the state. When this first object shall be effected, it will be