Convention of Paris, 5 Nov. 1861. ther be incorporated into any other State, nor become the vassals of any Suzerain; but should enjoy a constitution which would secure their material independence; and as Great Britain could alone satisfy what he considered to be a right of the Ionians, it was the duty of Great Britain to accept the government of the Seven Islands. The result was embodied in three separate Conventions of identical tenor, executed at Paris, (5 Nov. 1815), between Great Britain and her three allies, Russia, Austria, and Prussia respectively, under which the Seven Islands were declared to form a Single Free and Independent State under the immediate and exclusive protection of the King of Great Britain and Ireland. The trading flag of the United States of the Ionian Islands was acknowledged by the contracting parties as the flag of a Free and Independent State, and none but commercial agents or consuls, subject to the regulations to which commercial agents or consuls are subject in other Independent States, were to be accredited to the United States. All the Powers which signed the Treaty of Paris, (30 May, 1814,) and the Act of the Congress of Vienna, (9 June, 1815,) and also the King of the Two Sicilies and the Ottoman Porte, were to be invited to accede to the Conventions. The King of the Two Sicilies recognised the Protectorate of the King of Great Britain by the Convention of London 32, (26 Sept. 1816,) and the Ottoman Porte by a Special Act33, (24 April, 1819,) renounced 31 The Austrian Treaty is in Martens, N. R. II. p. 663, and in the British and Foreign State Papers, 1815, 1816. The Russian Treaty is in the Annual Register for 1815. The Prussian Treaty is in the Collection of Treaties, (Preussen's Staatsverträge,) published in Berlin, 1852, p. 784. 32 Martens, Traités, N. R. V. p. 116. 33 Ibid. p. 387. its sovereignty over the Seven Islands and their dependencies in favour of the King of Great Britain, as the Sovereign Protector of the Islands. of a Pro State. § 30. The history of the Ionian Islands during the Neutrality late war between Russia and the Ottoman Porte is tected Inillustrative of the practical inconvenience of adopting dependent the epithet "Semi-Sovereign," as representing the International Status of a Conventional Independent State. The connection between the Seven Islands and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is purely personal. The King of Great Britain and Ireland exercises authority over the Ionian States not Jure Corona, but simply ex Pacto; and the Ionian People are Ionian subjects, not subjects of the British Crown. The Ionian States accordingly do not necessarily follow the fortunes of the Crown of Great Britain and Ireland in war and in peace; they may remain neutral, like other independent States, whilst the Protecting Power is engaged in hostilities with other Powers, and they do not participate in the advantages of any treaty-engagements entered into by the King of Great Britain and Ireland, until he has stipulated specially in behalf of Ionian subjects in his character of the Protecting Power of the United Ionian States. At the commencement of the war with Russia, the Executive Government of Great Britain, under a misapprehension that the Protecting Power of a so-called Semi-Sovereign State had certain paramount rights of Sovereignty over it, refused to recognise the neutrality of Ionian subjects, and a decision of a British Court of the Law of Nations 34 was invoked on behalf of Ionian subjects to clear away the misapprehension. The classification of this order of States under the head of Conventional Independent 34 The Leucade. Admiralty Prize Cases, 1854-56, p. 217. D 2 The Free of St. Pe 24 Oct. 1795. Vienna, 14 Oct. 1809. States, as already suggested, is calculated to prevent misapprehensions of a like nature in other cases by directing attention at once to their special character. § 31. Much confusion of thought has arisen from a similar cause respecting the International Status of the City of Cracow and its territory. On the dissolution of the ancient kingdom of Poland, the City of Cracow and the territory assigned to it was under Convention the Convention of St. Petersburg 35 (13 Oct. 1795) tersburg, evacuated by the Prussian Armies, and united to the Austrian Monarchy, from which it was again severed Treaty of by Napoleon, and by the subsequent Treaty of Vienna 36 (14 Oct. 1809) was attached to the Duchy of Warsaw, then belonging to the King of Saxony. This latter Duchy, being a new State created by the Emperor Napoleon, was in fact a fourth division of the ancient Kingdom of Poland in favour of a fourth occupant. The issue of the campaign of 1812, placed the Emperor Alexander in possession of the various portions of territory, which had served by their union to make up the Duchy of Warsaw, and which were subsequently redistributed between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, under two separate treaties, Treaties of concluded between Russia and the two other Powers Vienna, 3 May, respectively at Vienna (3 May, 181537). An addi1815. tional treaty 38 of the same date, concluded between the three Powers, provided that the City of Cracow with its territory should be regarded (sera envisagée) for ever, as a free, independent, and strictly neutral city, under the protection of the three High Contracting Powers. The Three Courts under the sixth article engaged themselves to respect, and cause to be 35 Martens, Traités, R. VI. p. 171. 36 Ibid. N. R. I. p. 211. 37 Martens, Traités, N. R. II. p. 225. 38 Ibid. p. 251. respected on all occasions, the neutrality of the Free City of Cracow and its territory. An armed force was not to be introduced into it upon any pretext whatever at any time. In return, it was understood, and expressly stipulated, that there should not be granted within the Free City or upon the territory of Cracow any asylum or protection to fugitives from justice, or to deserters from the dominions of any of the Three Contracting Powers, but that such persons should be immediately surrendered upon a demand of extradition made by the competent authorities. It was further provided, that the City of Cracow should not have the right of levying custom duties, but only pontage and road tolls upon the transit of goods and cattle, according to a tariff regulated by the Commissioners of the Three Powers. The other Articles of the Treaty regulated the political constitution of the Free City, and settled various matters of civil and ecclesiastical administration. A further Treaty between the Three Allied Powers of the same date completed their mutual engagements in relation to the Duchy of Warsaw and the various territories which had made up the ancient Kingdom of Poland, as it existed in 1772. Under this Treaty, each of the Contracting Parties was to be at liberty to establish Consuls or Commercial Agents in respect to the Duchy of Warsaw, subject to the usual recognition under the Constitution as approved by the Three Powers; but no similar provision is found in the Treaty relative to Cracow, and the omission of all provision in regard to Consuls or Commercial Agents is an important peculiarity in that Treaty. nal Consti 32. The Internal Government of the Free City of Its InterCracow and its territory was to reside in a Senate tution a consisting of Twelve Senators and a President. The subject of Treaty. Act of the Vienna. Legislative Power was committed to the Senate and an Assembly of Representatives, the latter body having the right of controlling the administration by examining the accounts, voting the budget, and impeaching the public functionaries, if suspected of peculation. The Peace of the City and the Police of the Roads was to be maintained by a civic militia. This Constitution was annexed to the Treaty, which placed it formally under the common guaranty of the Three Contracting Powers. It has been a matter of subsequent diplomatic discussion upon what principle the European Powers, who took part in the Congress of Vienna, acted in admitting this Treaty between the Three Powers to be inserted in the text of the Principal Principal Act of the Congress. A slight modification Congress of was made in the language of the Article respecting the City of Cracow and its territory as inserted in the Principal Act, namely, the City of Cracow is declared (est declarée instead of sera envisagée) to be for ever a free and independent and strictly neutral City under the protection of Russia, Austria and Prussia. With this exception, the language of the Article in the Triple Treaty and in the Act of the Congress is identical. It is known that the introduction of the provisions of the Triple Treaty into the General Act of the Congress was objected to by Austria, as devoid of political meaning, and as inconsistent with the intention of the Protectorate, and that the Emperor Francis reluctantly admitted its insertion in deference to the reiterated instances of the Emperor Alexander. It was subsequently maintained on behalf of the Three Courts 39, when their common intention to supCourts as press the independent existence of Cracow was an39 Despatch of Prince Met- 6 Nov. 1846. Martens, N. R. ternich to Count Dietrichstein, Gen. T. X. p. 55. View of the Three to the Sup |