[French Pecuniary Indemnity.] No. 90.-DEFINITIVE ARRANGEMENT between Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia, for regulating the mode, and the periods of Payment, of the last 100,000,000 francs of the Pecuniary Indemnity to be provided by France. Paris, 2nd February, 1819. (Translation.*) Payment of Indemnity. THE Courts of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, having approved and accepted the projêt of Arrangement annexed to the Protocol which was signed at Paris the 12th December, 1818, having for its object to determine the mode of payment of the last 100,000,000 francs, which France is to furnish to the Allied Powers, under the head of Pecuniary Indemnity, and the undersigned Ministers having met this day, in virtue of their Powers, to regulate its execution, have agreed that the Arrangement above-mentioned is definitively settled in the words of the Annex to the present Protocol. Paris, 2nd February, 1819. LE BARON DE VINCENT. CHARLES STUART. ANNEX. Reference to Convention of 9th October, 1818. Existing circumstances having rendered it necessary to seek the means of diminishing, as much as possible, the mass of the Inscriptions of Rentes, on the Great Book of the Public Debt of France, which may immediately be brought into the market at Paris, it has been agreed as follows: ART. I. The Inscription of 6,615,944 francs of Rentes, made over by France to the Courts of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, conformably to Article V. of the Convention of the 9th of October, 1818 (No. 82), shall remain in deposit in the hands of the Commissioners of the said Courts, till the 5th of *For French version, see "State Papers," vol. vi., p. 20. [French Pecuniary Indemnity.] June, 1820. In consequence, the Contract entered into between the Courts of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, and the houses of Hope and Company, and Baring, Brothers, and Company, for the realisation of the capital of the said Inscription of Rentes, is considered as null and void. ART. II. In pursuance of the above Article, the Inscription of 2,205,314 francs, which the four Special Commissioners had remitted on the 2nd of December, 1818, to the houses of Hope and Co., and Baring, Brothers, and Co., in execution of the contract of sale above-mentioned, shall be returned by these same bankinghouses to the four Commissioners, who will return to them in exchange their engagements for the same value. The said Inscription of 2,205,314 francs, shall be transferred by the Royal Treasury of France, and shall be united under the names of the four Special Commissioners, to the Inscription of 4,410,630 francs, which remains in their hands. ART. III. On the 1st of June, 1820, France shall remit to the above-named Courts, in exchange for the above-mentioned Inscription of 6,615,944 francs of Rentes, Bons of the Royal Treasury, for the sum of 100,000,000 of francs; the said Bons bearing interest at 5 per cent. payable in nine months, in equal portions, from day to day; to commence the 1st of June, 1820, and to finish the 1st of March, 1821. The two first thirds of these Bons shall not be negociable; but the last third may be negociated from the period of the 1st December, 1820. ART. IV. The Commissioners of the Courts of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia will receive the arrears of the said Rente of 6,615,944 francs, inscribed with interest from the 22nd of September, 1818, which will fall due from that day until the 1st of June, 1820, inclusive, on which day the successive remittances will be paid to the parties interested. ART. V. It is agreed that the above arrangements shall not interfere with those concluded between the French Government and the above-mentioned houses, Hope and Co., and Baring, Brothers, and Co., nor with the modifications which may be given to them by virtue of the present arrangement. ART. VI. It is agreed that at the period of the negociation of the last third of the Bons which shall be placed at the disposal of the Courts of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, in pursuance of Article III. of the present arrangement (provided that these Courts shall be disposed to make use of this [French Pecuniary Indemnity.] power), the French Government shall be informed thereof, and on the same condition shall enjoy the preference of negociating such Bons. Done, in five parts, at Paris, 2nd February, 1819. LE BARON DE VINCENT. LE MARQUIS DESSOLLES. CHARLES STUART. H. DE GOLTZ. [Ionian Islands and Parga.] No. 91.-ACT OF RATIFICATION by the Sultan, of the Cession of the Ionian Islands to Great Britain, and of Parga to Turkey. Signed at Constantinople, 24th April, 1819. (Translation.*) WE, by the Grace of the Supreme Master of Empires, of the immutable Founder of the Solid Edifice of the Caliphat, and by the miraculous influence of the Model of Saints, of the Sun of the two Worlds, our Great Prophet Mahommed Mustapha, as well as by the co-operating assistance of his Disciples and Successors, and the whole series of the Saints. (Seal.) Sultan, son of a Sultan, and Emperor, son of an Emperor, Mahmoud Han, Conqueror, son of Abdulhamyd Han, Conqueror, son of Ahmed Han, Conqueror, whose noble diplomas are decorated with the Sovereign title of Sultan of the two Worlds, and the Supreme Acts with the name of Emperor of the two Seas, and whose duties, belonging to our Imperial dignity, are the administration of justice, the care of governing well, and the security of the repose of our Peoples, Master and Guardian of the most noble of the Towns of the Universe, towards which the good wishes of all nations are directed, the two sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, of the internal Sanctuary and of the Holy Land, Supreme Caliph of the vast regions and provinces situated in Anatolia and Roumelia, in the White and Black Seas, in Arabia, in Chaldea, and glorious Sovereign over numberless fortresses, castles, places, and towns: Declare : That, considering the perfect intelligence and perpetual friendship between our Sublime Porte of eternal duration, and the most glorious among the great Princes, believers in Jesus Christ, the model of the august personages of the nation of the Messiah, the reconciler of the interests of the States of Christian Nations, decorated with the robes of Majesty and Glory, and covered with the marks of grandeur and of high renown; His Majesty, bur most esteemed, ancient, intimate, loyal, and constant friend, the King (Padichah) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and * For French version, see "State Papers,” vol. vii., p. 832. [Ionian Islands and Parga.] Ireland, and of a great number of countries depending thereon, George III., whose end may it be glorious, both Courts actuated by the most perfect and eager desire of confirming the bases of friendship, and of strengthening more and more the ties of good understanding and intimacy between them. Therefore, it is of public notoriety that the districts of Prevesa, Vonitza, Butrinto, and Parga, situated in the neighbourhood and on the coasts of Albania, one of the Imperial Provinces, having, in times past, by the wise measures of our Sublime Porte, come into our possession and annexed to our Imperial States, one of those districts, Parga, on account of certain vicissitudes had passed into other hands, and after some time was delivered by Great Britain. It is equally well known that that District having been reckoned among the States of our illustrious Empire, the Court of England, whose loyalty towards our Sublime Porte is as clear as the day, and whose proofs of sincere friendship multiply more and more, has just made over to our Sublime Porte the Place of Parga, with all its Dependencies and Appurtenances, and as the Islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, St. Maura, Ithaca, and Cerigo, known under the name of the United Seven Islands, as well as the small Islands depending thereon, and some of which are inhabited and others desert, have also in times past been under the Sovereignty of our Sublime Porte, and recognised as being its tributaries and under its protection, and thus through the circumstances of the times that state of things has undergone a change; and that finally those Islands have also passed into the hands of Great Britain, this Court has signified that, with the exception of the four districts above-mentioned, which form part of our Imperial States, the said Islands have been placed under the immediate and exclusive Protection of His Majesty the King (Padichah) of Great Britain, according to the arrangements made solely on the subject of the above Islands, between the Four Great Powers [5th November, 1815] (No. 39). Consequently, the said Court of England has amicably requested that in future His Majesty should be recognised as the Sovereign Protector of those Islands, and that their inhabitants shall be considered as Protected Subjects; that the same treatment shall be extended to them as to British subjects, and that when the said subjects may wish to frequent the States of the Turkish Empire, and to transact commercial business there, they may be free from all impediment and molestation; that their affairs may |