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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 782: CESSION OF PARGA TO THE TURKS.
By Edward Farr
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The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

CESSION OF PARGA TO THE TURKS.

During this year a convention was concluded between Great Britain and Turkey by which the fortress of Parga, which remained after the war in British protection, was ceded nominally to the latter power, but in reality to its bitter foe, Ali Pasha. Considerable animadversion was excited in the political circles by the fulfilment of this convention. The Parghiotes were the last of the Christians in Epirus who had successfully resisted the tyranny of Ali Pasha. In 1807, after the treaty of Tilsit had given the Ionian Isles to Napoleon, they had solicited and obtained a French garrison from Corfu; and in 1814 they had placed themselves under British protection. During the command of General Campbell they enjoyed security; but his successor, Sir T. Maitland, after much intriguing with Ali Pasha, ordered them either to submit to the Albanian despot or to quit their country. Finding their fate inevitable, and knowing the vindictive nature of Ali Pasha, they chose the latter alternative. An estimate was made of their buildings, lands, and plantations, amounting to nearly £500,000; but the compensation ultimately obtained for them was less than a third of that sum. When this circumstance, and the harshness of all the decrees against this brave but unfortunate people are considered, it is no wonder that the whole continent rang with exclamations against the British government, and that they were reiterated even in our own country.