A full and detailed Statement of the whole Receipt and Expenditure for the past Year, the latter divided into ordinary and extraordinary, and enumerating every item, will be laid upon your Table by the General Treasurer.

I recommend that a Committee, as usual, should examine these Statements with all their relative details; and on their report to the Assembly, such a resolution may be passed as the result of the investigation may appear to require.

The state of your financial affairs presents a favourable aspect, notwithstanding the expenditure within the Year has been considerable; but it is fitting that I should apprise the Assembly, that the Government will be immediately called upon to defray some heavy charges. I allude to the indispensable necessity of erecting publick Prisons in the several Islands, and of making Roads, particularly in the Island of Corfu. There is also a balance (which I mentioned to you on a former occasion) due to the Malta Government, which must be immediately settled.

In respect to the receipt, the substantial benefit that has accrued from abolishing the farming of the Revenues continues to display itself in the most striking colours; and to this in a great measure, should be attributed the progressive increase of the Receipt, as in fact no tax whatever has been laid on the People since the establishment of the Constitutional Government of 1817: for I continue to maintain, that the Regulations of 1818 were nothing more than a general modification of the then existing Taxes, and cannot be considered in the light of additional burdens on the People.

Acts of the Executive Government, during your adjournment, of a legislative nature, are already laid on your Table by the Secretary of the General Department of the Senate, in order that they may become the Law of the Land, if confirmed by this Assembly.

The Civil List will also be submitted to you 6 days after your meeting, according to the provisions of the Constitutional Charter.

Towards the close of the last Session a Resolution passed the Assembly for the erection of the College of these States in the Island of Ithaca, authorizing the Executive Government to expend such monies in this object as might be necessary; and in consequence an Engineer was employed to fix on the site, and prepare the several estimates. The Government, however, has thought fit to pause for the time in the prosecution of this useful undertaking. The object in view was as much for the benefit of the young Men of the neighbouring Countries, as for those belonging to the Ionian Islands; and in the present unfortunate situation of the whole of Greece, it becomes a question what course it will be prudent to pursue. During the present Session the Executive Government will make a detailed communication on this subject to the Assembly, with the view to the adoption of some definite Resolution

in regard to it. In the mean time, it will be seen in the detail of the Expenditure, that considerable sums have been expended in the last Year in the encouragement of the establishment of Primary Schools in the various Islands.

It will also be my duty in the present Session to make a communication to the Assembly on the important subject of the Religious Establishment of the States. It is highly expedient that the nomination of the Archbishops and Bishops should take place in the several Islands immediately; for it is impossible that they can be allowed longer to remain under provisional heads of the Church, instead of Dignitaries regularly appointed to superintend the interests of religion, and to whom the People might look up as their permanent guides. This is a measure equally necessary to the decorum and stability of the Govern ment, and which has been only delayed from the difficulties that presented themselves in strictly fulfilling the Article in the Constitutional Chart on this subject, and which difficulties of late have been considerably increased from the repeated violence and change to which the Patriarch at Constantinople has been exposed.

At the same time too that the arrangements relative to the Dignitaries of the Dominant Church are carried into effect, it will be proper also to come to a definitive settlement in respect to the heads of the Roman Catholick Church, which under the Constitution is in these States specially protected.

It would be of no avail to particularize the circumstances which have prevented, even to this day, the substitution of new Civil and Criminal Codes with their relative Procedure, in the room of those now existing, and which were declared by the Constitutional Charter to be generally deficient and inapplicable to the Ionian People; but I may be allowed to express my deep regret at the delay which has taken place, in a point of such vital importance to the Country.

The formation of a new Criminal Code was the principal reason of my visit to England in the early part of last year, accompanied by one of the Ionian Members of the Supreme Council of Justice; but at the time when I entertained sanguine hopes of completing it I was obliged suddenly to return, in consequence of the extensive revolution in the neighbourhood of the Island. It is therefore not at present in the shape in which I think it ought to stand: but it gives me peculiar satisfaction to think (and I say it after due reflection) that I am most thoroughly convinced that the late general measure of prohibiting the bearing of arms in these States without license, making a careful selection of those to whom the licenses are given, will of itself do more to annihilate those melancholy scenes of violence, homicide, and murder, which have at all times unfortunately prevailed, to such an extent in these Islands, than any other measure which the Legislature could devise; and on this subject it is my intention forth

with to bring in a Bill, to be submitted to your consideration: in the mean time, the Procedure must undergo further revision on some material points in which it lately has been found defective, for which purpose it is now laid on your Table.

We are now, Mr. President and Gentlemen, arrived at the Opening of the 5th and last Session of the first Parliament held under the Constitutional Charter of 1817; and I should here close the observations I have thought it necessary to make, did not the unfortunate state of my health render it but too probable, that I shall be obliged to seek relief by a temporary absence from the States, antecedent to the end of the present Session.

I cannot therefore delay executing a religious duty that I owe to you, to the Senate, and to the People at large of the Ionian States, by avowing in the most open and in the strongest manner, the deep sense I entertain, not only of the purity, but of the moderation and temper of this Assembly; which has essentially contributed to the attainment of that progressive prosperity which these States now enjoy.

The uniform harmony and good understanding constantly maintained between you and the Senate, evince the patriotism which has guided you throughout, whilst it affords the most substantial proof of the wisdom of that illustrious Body.

Nor can I persuade myself that the unfortunate aberrations of the People in some of the Islands, already detailed to you in the preceding part of this Address, were grounded on the slightest dissatisfaction towards their own Government, although an enthusiasm, much to be lamented, in an attempt equally rash and unfortunate, led them to despise its injunctions and violate its Orders, calculated, as every one I believe must now confess, for their own benefit and salvation.

It is the fact, of your having now for the first time lived, since the fall of the Venetian Rule, for a considerable period under a regular Government; and the experience I have derived of the general character and feeling of your Population, that lead me to express in the most unequivocal manner, my thorough belief that you will see at the close of the present Year, what never happened in this Country before-the whole of the Government of these States constitutionally lapse, and then re-established under the Provisions of the Charter itself, without the slightest difficulty of any sort whatever.

In respect to that Charter, it is the basis to which we must ever look as the life and support of our Constitutional Fabrick. On the whole, it has been found as perfect as reasonably could be desired, and to answer in practice, so as to gratify its most sanguine well-wishers; but should some partial changes be judged advisable in its Provisions, such modifications as the Parliament may agree to, will be constitutionally laid for Ratification before the Protecting Sovereign, my Gracious King

and Master, of whose benign intentions towards this People, it is superfluous to speak, after the repeated proofs that the universal benevolence, which in such an extraordinary degree distinguishes the elevated mind of that most August Monarch, has ever been directed, in the most earnest manner, to the promotion of the welfare of the United Ionian States, happily placed under his sole and exclusive protection. By command of His Excellency,

FREDERICK HANKEY.

Secretary to the Lord High Commissioner.

NOTE of the Spanish Envoy, to the Secretary of State of The United States, respecting Captures of Vessels arising out of the Spanish Blockade of the Coast of Venezuela.

SIR,

(Translation.)

New York, 11th December, 1822. I HAVE had the honour to receive your Note of the 11th of last month, together with a printed Copy of the Decree of the Judge the District Court of South Carolina, for the restoration of the Spanish Privateer Palmira.

Before I proceed to reply to the other points embraced in your Note, I shall make the remarks to which the Decree gives rise.

The Judge acknowledges the illegality of the Capture of the Pal mira, and orders her restoration. I cannot conceive how that opinion can be reconciled with what is stated in the Decree itself, that the conduct of Captain Gregory in this affair is deserving of praise. But what is still more extraordinary is, that a Decree, whilst it releases the Crew of the Palmira, detains in custody those Sailors charged with having robbed the American Vessel Coquette. That decision esta blished so dangerous a principle to all Maritime Powers, that I cannot persuade myself it has escaped your penetration. It is a principle which The United States have resisted with great and laudable energy; a principle, in short, which this Republick has repelled at the expense of a sanguinary War.

The Palmira was carried into Charleston upon the pretence of being a Pirate; after a mature deliberation, she has been pronounced innocent of that offence by the competent Judge, and recognized as a Spanish Privateer, duly authorized, that is to say, as a Spanish Vessel of War. If a part of the Crew are detained for an alleged misdemeanour against Citizens of The United States, it is obvious that the principle and right are thereby established to search friendly and neutral Vessels, and take therefrom such Individuals as it is supposed have trespassed upon the property appertaining to Subjects of the Invading Power, in order to bring them before her TribuI submit to your consideration, Sir, whether that opinion concurs

with the repeated declarations of your Government, that it would never assent to such a principle; and with the able Documents that have emanated from the Department of State of The United States, and their Agents, repelling the pretensions of England to examine American Vessels, and take away, not American Citizens charged with committing depredations on British Commerce, but their own Deserters, in which there is certainly a wide difference; and ultimately, whether it was to be expected that a Judge of The United States Court shoul attempt to establish a doctrine which this Republick has so gloriously resisted at immense sacrifices. It is, therefore, important in the highest degree to Europe, and more especially to Spain, to be informed of the sentiments of the Government of The United States on so momentous a subject, and I believe I shall only anticipate your answer by saying I am persuaded, that, in accordance with all Writers on Publick Law, you will indignantly repel a line of proceeding which has already been attended with such fatal consequences, and still holds out a principle so hostile to the tranquillity of the World.

In the aforesaid Decree, the Judge, after stating the reasons upon which he founds his opinion for exonerating the Palmira and her Crew from all responsibility for the robbery of the Coquette, and only holding those Individuals answerable who committed that act, decides, that neither the Palmira nor her Crew, who he acknowledges to be innocent, are entitled to damages for the deaths and wounds inflicted upon them, and for the enormous losses sustained by the Proprietors. I am ignorant of the Laws on which the Judge established that decision, but the dictates of common sense point out, that whoever is acquitted of an imputed crime, and has been maltreated and oppressed, has a right to indemnity for the evils he has unjustly suffered. In short, it is evident that if the Palmira was a Pirate, the Individuals attached to her should have been convicted as such; but if, on the contrary, it is proved that she is a Spanish Vessel of War, her detention (even laying aside all the other circumstances attending it) has been criminal and illegal, and therefore her Proprietors are entitled to damages, and Spain to satisfaction for the outrage committed on her Flag. For these reasons I deem it my duty to request anew from the justice of the American Government, that satisfaction and a compensation for the losses suffered by the Proprietors of the Palmira; and more especially that the Individuals charged with having plundered the Coquette may be delivered up to the Vice-Consul of Spain at Charleston, that he may send them to The Havannah or Porto Rico, with such evidence as may be furnished him of said offence, in order that the Spanish Tribunals may apply the necessary punishment to the Offenders in case they shall be convicted.

The assurance you are pleased to give me of the regret the President has experienced at the occurrence of the event of the Palmira,