Justice, and every thing relating to the Laws, the Judges, and to all points connected with so important a branch of the Government.

The Judicial Body is no sooner appointed by the Executive, than it becomes altogether independent of that Power, and the People are thereby secured against the encroachments of despotism;—a regulation which also conduces to the due separation and balance of the Powers of the Government.

The mode of Election in general is so regulated, that (without granting too much latitude to those who are, comparatively, but little interested in seeing the franchise beneficially exercised,) every Citizen will enjoy a certain number of rights, and be eligible progressively to attain the highest Offices in the State, according to the measure of his merits and qualifications. The Electoral Bodies of the Islands, moreover, who are sufficiently numerous for the objects which they are destined to fulfil, are directed to choose for their Representatives in Parliament, those amongst the more distinguished Members of the Community, who are best qualified to promote the interests of the Nation.

The Parliament will nominate the Senate, subject to certain important and effectual restrictions, and the Senate is empowered to appoint the Judges, and the respective Heads of the Local Administrations of the various Islands, The appointment of the Municipal Officers exclusively belongs to the Syncleti.

The effect of all these regulations cannot fail to inspire the noblest and most useful spirit of emulation.

In the firm conviction that the honour and happiness of a People principally depend upon its morals, and that the worship of the Divinity is closely connected with the inculcation of principles upon which morality can alone be founded, such measures have been adopted on the subject as cannot fail to exercise the most important influence in regenerating the Nation.

Our religion and our language are rendered independent of, and are placed before, those of the Protecting State; provision has been made for the education of our children: special arrangements have been made for the instruction of those who are destined for the sacred calling of the Priesthood; and there is every reason to hope that the generosity of the Protecting Sovereign may extend so far, as to exempt us from the burthen of maintaining his Troops, a subject which, owing to its connexion with our most immediate interests, has been one of the first to receive the attention of the Council.

A few omissions, which you will probably observe, will be supplied by Resolutions of the Senatus consulti organici, but which the Parliament will have the right of modifying or amending.

A perfect System of Government is not the portion of Man; and if what has been asserted be true, namely that, in the most insignificant works, sufficient occasion may be found for casting blame upon the

Authors of them, how much easier must it be to find materials for censure in the work upon which we are now employed.

Pride, prejudice, and personal interest, have always been opposed to the developement of truth: it is experience alone which renders to it tardy but inevitable justice.

It may, however, be proper to observe that, as this Constitution has not been adopted, nor even the Project of it presented to the Assembly, we are not yet called upon to regard it as a sacred Act, to which it is unlawful to object. We are at full liberty to express our sentiments upon its contents, and any Individual, who was a Member of the Primary Council, is not thereby disqualified from offering his opinion as a Citizen. But let every good Greek, in examining this Charter, remember, that one of his own Ancestors confessed, that he had been obliged to give to the Athenians, not such Laws as were best in themselves, but such as were most suitable to the condition of the Country.

The word Independence, which is very imperfectly defined in the vocabulary of Individuals of uncultivated minds, cannot be applied, absolutely and without qualification, to a Nation which does not, politically speaking, constitute a Sovereign State. No Nation can form a Sovereign State, which does not possess the exclusive, positive, and absolute power of adopting the measures necessary for its own defence, of alienating any portion of its Territory, of altering its political limits, of adding a Province to its Dominions, of declaring War and concluding Peace, of sending Representatives to Foreign Powers, of entering into Negotiations, of concluding Treaties of Alliance, Neutrality, Peace and Commerce, of raising Troops from amongst its Inhabitants, of subsidizing or calling in the aid of Foreign Troops, of arbitrarily disposing of its own Forces, &c. The Governors, Magistrates, Judges, and Delegates of such a Nation, cannot, therefore, be considered as absolutely independent, in any one branch of the Administrative Government, of the Monarch, who is invested with the rights of supremacy which have immediate relation to the various powers above enumerated, and to many others which are dependent upon them.

The Nation, which is now called upon to fix and determine its Constitution, should be particularly upon its guard against confining its predilections within a sphere traced by any party spirit, which is always, in its nature, diametrically opposed to public spirit. It should endeavour to identify its interests with those of the Sovereign, upon whom Europe has imposed the duty of providing for its welfare. It should generously lay aside all pretensions which, being repugnant to truth, experience, and the public good, instead of consolidating the State, would plunge it into the midst of divisions, which would inevitably lead to the destruction of its Government.

In these impressions, the Council have unanimously concurred; they are fully prepared to demonstrate the correctness of them, and are persuaded that they will obtain the approbation of the intelligent

Inhabitants of the Ionian Islands, and put an end to the calamities which have so long desolated this beautiful portion of Greece.

CONSTITUTIONAL CHARTER of the United States of the Ionian Islands.-Ratified by the Sovereign Protector, the King of Great Britain, the 26th of August, 1817.

GEORGE the IIIrd., by the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, King of Hanover, &c., &c., &c., To all and singular to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Whereas, by the IInd, IIIrd, and IVth Articles of a Treaty, signed at Paris, on the 5th day of November, in the year of our Lord, 1815, between His Majesty and their Imperial and Royal Majesties, the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the Emperor of all the Russias, and the King of Prussia, purporting to be a Treaty fixing the destiny of the Seven Ionian Islands, it was declared, that the United States of the Ionian Islands should be placed under the immediate and exclusive protection of His Britannic Majesty, his Heirs, and Successors; that the United States of the said Islands should, with the approbation of the Protecting Power, regulate their internal organization, and that, in order to give to all parts of this organization the necessary consistency and action, His Britannic Majesty should appoint a Lord High Commissioner, to reside there, invested with all the necessary power and authorities, and to ground the political re-organization of the United Ionian States, upon the organization then actually in force; and that the said Lord High Commissioner of the said Protecting Power should regulate the forms of Convocation of a Legislative Assembly, in order to draw up a new Constitutional Charter for the States, which His Majesty, the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, should be requested to ratify: And whereas our right trusty and well-beloved Councillor, Sir Thomas Maitland, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, a Lieutenant-General of our Armies, and Commander-in-Chief of our Forces in the Mediterranean, appointed by Us the Lord High Commissioner in virtue of the aforesaid Treaty, has regulated the forms of Convocation of a Legislative Assembly: And whereas, the said Legislative Assembly, convoked in conformity with the Provisions of the Treaty aforesaid, has drawn up a new Constitutional Charter for those States, and has laid before Us, by a Nobleman from each of the 3 principal Islands of the Ionian States, the said Constitution so established as aforesaid, duly signed by the various Members of the said Legislative Assembly, which Constitutional Charter here follows in Original, in the Italian Language, with an authenticated Translation of the same thereunto annexed in the English Language.

COSTITUZIONE degli Stati
Uniti delle Isole Jonie.

CAP. I.-ORGANIZZAZIONE GENE

RALE.

ART. I. GLI Stati Uniti delle Isole Jonie sono composti da Corfù, Cefalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Itaca, Cerigo, Paxò, e dalle altre piccole Isole situate lungo le Coste dell'Albania, e della Morea, le quali precedentemente appartenevano al Dominio dei Veneziani.

II. Il luogo della Residenza del Governo Generale degli Stati Uniti delle Isole Jonie, sarà permanentemente fissato nella città Capitale dell'Isola di Corfù.

III. La Religione Dominante di questi Stati è la Religioné Greca Ortodossa. Ogni altra forma di Religione Cristiana, come verrà in appresso spiegato, sarà protetta.

IV. La Lingua stabilita di questi Stati è la Greca; e viene quindi dichiarato, essere cosa di somma importanza, che la Lingua Nazionale divenga al più presto possibile, quella in cui si debbano scrivere tutti gli Atti del Governo, e tutti i processi giudiziarii; e che sia in fine riconosciuta per la sola Lingua da usarsi in ogni scritto uffiziale.

V. Non essendo però agevole il dare immediata esecuzione a tale massima, a motivo che tutti gli affari del Paese sono stati finora principalmente trattati in Lingua Italiana, viene decretato, che tutti gli affari pubblici durante il 1° Parlamento sieno trattati in

CONSTITUTIONAL CHAR-
TER of the Ionian Islands.*

CHAP. I.-GENERAL ORGANIZA

TION.

ART. I. The United States of the Ionian Islands are composed of Corfù, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo, and Paxo, and the other smaller Islands situated along the Coast of Albania and the Morea, which formerly belonged to the Venetian Dominions.

II. The Seat of the General Government of the United States of the Ionian Islands is declared to be permanently fixed in the Capital of the Island of Corfù.

III. The Established Religion of these States is the Orthodox Greek Religion; but all other forms of the Christian Religion shall be protected as hereinafter stated.

IV. The established Language of these States is the Greek; and in consequence it is hereby de. clared to be an article of primary importance, that the Language of the Nation should become, as soon as possible, that in which all the Records of Government should be held, all Processes of Law alone conducted, and, in fact, the sole recognized Language for Official Proceedings within these States.

V. It being impossible, however, from the circumstances of the case, to carry the above principle into immediate effect, the whole business of the Country having been hitherto conducted principally in the Italian Language, it is ordained that, during the first

* Translation, as laid before the British Parliament, 1818.