Paris, 20 Turin, existed before I Jan. 1789, were recognised to be once more in force. By the subsequent Treaty of Treaty of Paris23, (20 Nov. 1815,) concluded between the four Nov. 1815. Allied Powers severally on the one part, and France on the other, it was declared that the relations reestablished by the Treaty of 30 May, 1814, between France and the Principality of Monaco, should be at an end, and that analogous relations should thenceforth exist between that Principality and the King of Sardinia. Those relations were subsequently defined by the Treaty of Turin, (Nov. 7, 1817,) concluded Treaty of between the King of Sardinia and the Prince of Monaco, almost literally in the words of the Convention of 1817. Peronne (mutatis mutandis). Thus the King of Sardinia is to maintain a garrison at his own expense in Monaco, which is to be under the command of the Prince of Monaco, as Governor for his Majesty, and the King is not to interfere with the Prince's rights of Sovereignty in other respects. The King of Sardinia undertakes to defend the Prince of Monaco against foreign enemies, to include his name in all treaties of peace, and to allow him to use the Royal Standard of Sardinia in time of war. The Principa lity meanwhile has its own commercial flag, and Consuls are accredited by the King of Sardinia to reside at Monaco in order to watch over the commercial interests of Sardinian subjects in that port, precisely as in the ports of other Independent States. The integrity of the Principality has been materially affected by the annexations of Mentone and Roccabruna to Piedmont in 1848, when the inhabitants of those districts, dissatisfied with the administration of the reigning Prince, voted their annexation to Piedmont. 23 Martens, N. R. II. p. 687. 24 Articles de Protection, Mar tens, Nouveau Supplément, II. 7 Nov. Mentone Cession of The annexation of these districts was accepted by the Sardinian Parliament and sanctioned by the King cabruna to of Sardinia, whilst the Prince of Monaco has recorded a protest 25 against the wrongful act of the Protecting Power. France. The Lord sen. $28. The Seignory or Lordship of Kniphausen ship of Kniphau- stands in a more anomalous relation to the Grand Duke of Oldenburg. The State of Kniphausen had originally been a sub-feudum of the Holy Roman Empire, held mediately by its Lord through the Feudal Court of Brussels. After the Emperor of the Romans had by the Treaty of Campo Formio 26, (17 Oct. 1797,) renounced possession of the Belgian Provinces, known as the Austrian Low Countries, in favour of the French Republic; and after this renunciation on the part of the Emperor had been further recorded with greater formality in the Treaty of Luneville, (9 Feb. 180127) Kniphausen was constituted an immediate fief of the German Empire by the Decree of the Deputation of the Empire on 25th Feb. 1803. Upon the subsequent dissolution of the Roman Empire of the Germans in 1806, which was a necessary consequence of the Treaty of Presburg, (26 Dec. 1805,) concluded between the Emperor Francis and the Emperor Napoleon, and which paved the way for the Confederation of the States of the Rhine, (Paris, 12 July, 1806,) the Lord of Kniphausen became an 25 These districts, as forming part of the arrondissement (circondario) of Nice have since been ceded by the King of Sardinia to the Emperor of the French, under the Treaty of Turin (24 March, 1860), whilst the remainder of the Principality of Monaco still continues to be an Independent State under the Government of the Hereditary Prince Charles III. By a subsequent Treaty concluded at Paris (Feb. 2, 1861) between the Prince of Monaco and the Emperor of the French, the Communes of Mentone and Roccabruna have been definitively ceded to France. 26 Martens, Recueil, VI. p. 421. 27 Ibid. VII. p. 296. Tilsit. Berlin, independent Sovereign Power. His independence however was of short duration. The Emperor Napoleon occupied the territory of Kniphausen, and subsequently transferred it under the Treaty of Tilsit to Treaty of the Emperor of Russia, who ceded it to the Duke of Oldenburg. Upon the restoration of peace in 1815, when the Sovereign Princes and Free Cities of Germany, feudatories in former days of the Germanic Empire, united themselves together on a footing of equality as members of the Germanic Confederation, the Lord of Kniphausen was not admitted into the Confederation, in deference to the objections of the Emperor Alexander of Russia. Negotiations however on the subject of Kniphausen were originated at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, and led to the conclusion of the Treaty of Berlin", (8 June 1825,) Treaty of between Count Bentinck of Kniphausen, and the 8 June, Duke of Oldenburg, under the mediation of Russia, 1825. Prussia, and Austria. Under this Treaty the Count agreed that the Duke of Oldenburg should exercise over him and his family, as territorial Lords of Kniphausen, a supremacy analogous to that which had appertained to the Emperor of Germany before the dissolution of the Empire. The Seignory of Kniphausen, by virtue of this conventional subordination of its Lord to a member of the Germanic Confederation, became appurtenant to the lands of the Confederation; and the Treaty itself was guaranteed by the Germanic Confederation in its character of an European Power. The result of these treaty-engagements was twofold. Under the Treaty of Berlin the Duke of Oldenburg was bound to discharge towards the Counts of Kniphausen duties of Protection analogous to those which the Emperor of Germany had dis28 Meyer, Staats-Acten des Deutschen Bundes, II. p. 289. The United States of Islands. Constanti ; charged, whilst the Empire existed, towards his feudatories whilst the Germanic Confederation was bound under the Federal Act to defend the territory of Kniphausen against foreign aggression, by virtue of its recognised subordination to a member of the Confederation. The State of Kniphausen meanwhile retained its own commercial flag, but the Duke of Oldenburg, under the ninth article of the Treaty of Berlin, was constituted the political representative of the Lord and his subjects in their relations with Foreign Powers. 29. The United States of the Ionian Islands are, the Ionian on the other hand, an instance of an Independent State placed by the provisions of a general treaty under the immediate and exclusive Protection of another Independent Power. The Seven Islands had formed a portion of the maritime possessions of the Republic of Venice antecedent to 1797, when they passed under the sovereignty of the French Republic. They were subsequently occupied by the joint forces of Russia and the Ottoman Porte, and were constiTreaty of tuted under the treaty of Constantinople 29, (21 March 1800,) concluded between those two Powers, tribunople, 21 March, taries of the Sultan, as their Suzerain and Protector, in like manner as the Republic of Ragusa had been an Independent State under the protection of the Sultan since the 14th century. The Seven Islands were subsequently recognised as an Independent Treaty of Republic in 1802, under the Treaty of Amiens 30. Under the secret articles of the Treaty of Tilsit, the Emperor of Russia, in contempt of his guaranty towards the Ottoman Porte, transferred the Seven Islands in full sovereignty to France. During the subsequent course of the war, Great Britain acquired 29 Martens, Recueil, VII. 41. 30 Martens, N. R. III. p. 13. 1800. Amiens. Treaty of possession of six of the Islands, but Corfu remained in the hands of the French down to 1814, when it was ceded under the Treaty of Paris to the Four Allied Powers, and was consequently reserved for their joint disposal, in conformity with the provisions of the Treaty of Pilnitz, as an acquisition made by them in common during the war. Although, therefore, the six smaller Islands were by right of conquest at the absolute disposal of Great Britain, Corfu could only be disposed of with the common consent of the Four Allied Powers; Great Britain, as it appears from Lord Castlereagh's Memoirs 29, had contemplated in 1814 that a direct Sovereignty over these islands should be given to some acknowledged European Power, and preferred either the King of Sicily or the Emperor of Austria. On the other hand, Count Capo d' Istrias, a native of Corfu, who was in the intimate councils of the Emperor Alexander, suggested to that Sovereign that the Islands should be recognised as an independent State, and be placed under the protection of Great Britain. The Emperor Francis repudiated altogether the notion of a strictly continental Power like Austria embarrassing itself with the charge of insular possessions. Great Britain on the other hand was extremely reluctant to accept the position of a Protecting Power30, and at first withdrew the Six Islands, over which she had an absolute right of disposal, from the proposed common arrangement. Great Britain at last consented to accept the charge of Protector of all the Seven Islands at the urgent instance of the Emperor Alexander, who stated in Conference with the other Powers, that he had pledged himself that the Islands should nei 29 Letter of Lord Castlereagh to Lord Liverpool, vol. x. p. 224. PART I. 30 Lord Bathurst to Lord Castlereagh, vol. x. p. 441. D |