Corfu has a denser population than any other part of Greece, more than 350 inhabitants to the square mile; and Zante ranks next with about 300. The city of Corfu, with its 25,000 inhabitants, is the third in size of the Greek towns, being exceeded only by Patras (Patrai) and Athens.

As the Ionian Islands have no geographical unity, their political unity is of comparatively modern date. A Septinsular or Heptanesian history, as distinguished from the individual histories of the seven islands, is consequently in its earlier chapters a mere conventional composition produced by gathering together a variety of scarcely connected facts. To a certain extent indeed the various islands have passed under the same succession of influences; they have been subjected to the same invasions, and have received accessions to their populations from the same currents of migration or conquest; but in the degree in which even what may be considered as common experiences have affected the individual islands there has been no small diversity. In the matter of population, for instance, the island of Corfu has undergone much more important modifications than the island of Ithaca. For such facts as the establishment of Ulysses in Ithaca, the settlement of a Corinthian colony in Corfu, and the origin of the Peloponnesian War in a dispute between the colony and the “metropolis,” the reader will consult the separate articles Corfu, Ithaca, &c.

The beginning of Heptanesian history may be said to date from the 15th century. Though it is true that Leo the Philosopher (about 890 A.i>.) formed all or most of the islands into a distinct province under the title of the Tema of Cephallenia, and that in this condition they belonged to the Eastern empire after Italy had been divided into various states, this political or administrative unity could not last long in the case of islands situated, as they were, in the very meeting place of opposite currents of conquest. Robert Guiscard, having captured Corfu (1081) and Cephalonia, might have become the founder of a Norman dynasty in the islands but for his early death at Cassopo. Amid the struggles between Greek emperors and Western crusaders that continued to fill the 12th century, Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, &c., emerge from time to time; but it was not till the Latin empire was established at Constantinople that the Venetians, who were destined to give the Ionian Islands their place in history, obtained possession of Corfu. They were afterwards robbed of the island by Leon Vetrano, a famous Genoese corsair; but he was soon defeated and put to death, and the senate, to secure their position, granted fiefs in Corfu to ten noble families in order that they might colonize it (1206). The conquest of Cephalonia and Zante followed, and we find five counts of the family of Tocco holding certainly the former island, and probably the latter as well as Santa Maura, as tributary to the republic. But the footing thus gained by the Venetians was afterwards lost, and through the closing part of the 13th and most of the 14th century the islands were a prey by turns to corsairs and to Greek and Neapolitan claimants. In 1386, however, the people of Corfu made voluntary submission to the republic which had now risen to be the first maritime power in the Mediterranean, and in 1401 (August 16th) the senate, with mercantile caution, secured their possession of the island from any claim which might be asserted by the kings of Naples through the duchy of Taranto by obtaining a ratification of their title from Ladislaus for the sum of 30,000 ducats. In 1485 Zante was purchased from the Turks in a very depopulated condition; and in 1499 Cephalonia was captured from the same masters; but Santa Maura, though frequently occupied for a time, was not finally attached to Venice till 1684, and Cerigo was taken only in 1717.

On the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797, the treaty of Campo Formio, which gave Venice to Austria, annexed the Ionian Islands to France; and in 1798 the French Government ratified the arrangement, and their division into three departments. But a Russo-Turkish force came to drive out the French at the close of that year; and in the spring of 1799 Corfu capitulated. By treaty with the Porte in 1800, the emperor Paul erected the Republic of the Seven United Islands, which, with various modifications, was but another name for anarchy and confusion, till a secret article in the treaty of Tilsit, in 1807, declared the Ionian Islands an integral part of the French empire. They were incorporated with the province of Illyria, and in this condition they remained till the decline of the French power. The British forces, under General Oswald, took Zante, Cephalonia, and Cerigo in 1809, and Santa Maura in 1810; Colonel Church reduced Paxo in 1814; and after the abdication of Napoleon, Corfu, which had been well defended by General Donzelot, was, by order of Louis XVIII., ceded to Sir James Campbell. By the treaty of Paris (9th November 1815) the contracting powers— Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia—agreed to place the “United States of the Ionian Islands” under the exclusive protection of Great Britain, and to give Austria the right of equal commercial advantage with the protecting country, a plan strongly approved by Count Capodistrias, the famous Corfiot noble who afterwards became president of the new republic of Greece.

The terms of the treaty were unfortunately not only of indefinite import, but, if not actually self-contradictory, at least susceptible of contradictory interpretation. And, still more unfortunately, instead of interpreting the other articles in harmony with the first, which declared the islands one “sole free and independent state,” the protecting power availed itself of all that they contained in support of the extension of its authority. The first lord high commissioner, Sir Thomas Maitland, who as governor of Malta had acquired the sobriquet of “King Tom,” was not the man to foster the constitutional liberty of an infant state. The treaty required, with questionable wisdom, that a constitution should be established, and this was accordingly done; but its practical value may be judged of from the fact that the budget presented to the assembly of representatives in 1840, without risk of discovery, consisted of so much blank paper,—duly bound, it is true, in purple velvet. The constitution, which came into force in January 1818, placed the administration in the hands of a senate of six members and a legislative assembly of forty members; but the real authority was vested in the commissioner, who was able directly to }τrevent anything, and indirectly to effect almost anything. Sir Thomas Maitland was not slow to exercise the control thus permitted him, though on the whole he did so for the benefit of the islands. The construction of roads, the abolition of direct taxes and of the system of farming the church lands, the securing of impartial administration of justice, and the establishment of educational institutions are among the services ascribed to his efforts. These, however, made less impression on the Heptanesians than his despotic character and the measures which he took to prevent them giving assistance in the Greek war of independence in 1821. He was succeeded in 1823 by General Sir Frederick Adams, who in the main carried out the same policy, though he showed more favour to the aristocracy. It was under his government that the new fortifications of Corfu began to be constructed, and that some of the most important public works which still do honour to the English protectorate were undertaken. In Cephalonia the credit belongs, however, to Colonel Napier, one of the most able and arbitrary Englishmen who had to do with the islands. Lord Nugent, who became commissioner in 1832, began by allowing the parliament greater freedom, but was afterwards compelled to revert to the previous method of management. Sir Howard Douglas, his successor (1835-1841), had a stormy reign. He ruled with a firm, too often with a high hand; and he was met by continual intrigues, contentions, and calumnies. The parliament was prorogued in 1831, 1841, and 1842, the principal exponent of the opposition being the famous Mustoxidi (who died in 1861). A complete change of policy was inaugurated by Mr Mackenzie (1841-43), but his relations to the home Government, rendered more embarrassing by a bold act of his own, led to his speedy resignation. Lord Seaton (1843-49) was induced by the European disturbances of 1848 to propose and urge on a number of important reforms in the constitution; and in 1848 liberty of the press was granted by statute. Freedom of election, both parliamentary and municipal, a large extension of the franchise, and the restoration of voting by ballot were among the concessions of 1849. The assembly (the ninth) first elected under the extended franchise had to be twice prorogued by Sir Henry Ward (1849-1855), and was finally dissolved in 1851; and the growing hostility to the Government was vainly met by banishment of members of assembly and editors of papers. The party which wished for union with Greece was rapidly growing in vigour and voice. Serious insurrections of the peasantry, especially in Cephalonia, had to be put down by military force both by Lord Seaton and Sir Henry Ward. Sir John Young (1855-1859) found the tenth parliament of the same temper as the ninth: in its first session it passed a resolution in favour of immediate union with Greece. The hostility of the unionist party to the commissioner himself was increased by the publication (1858) of one of his despatches (stolen from the colonial office), in which he recommended that “Corfu and Paxo should, with the consent of their inhabitants, be converted into English colonies, and that only the southern islands should be handed over to Greece.” About the same time, however, the hopes of the unionists were roused by the appointment of Mr Gladstone as high commissioner extraordinary to investigate into the condition of the islands. From his eminence in Greek scholarship, and his known sympathy with Greek independence, it was their expectation that he would support if he did not satisfy their pretensions. But after a tour through the principal islands Mr Gladstone came to the conclusion that the abolition of the protectorate was not the wish of the mass of the people, and the cordial reception which he owed to his own reputation and character was too much ascribed by him to the general goodwill of the Ionians to the English Government. For a few days in 1859 he held office as lord high commissioner, and in that capacity he proposed for the consideration of the assembly a series of reforms. These reforms were, however, declared inadmissible by the assembly; and Sir Henry Storks (February 16, 1859), who succeeded to the difficult post which Mr Gladstone resigned, began his rule by a prorogation. The contest continued in the same style between the assembly and the protectorate. The English Government was slow to realize the true position of affairs: as late as May 1861 Mr Gladstone spoke of the cession of the islands as “a crime against the safety of Europe,” and Sir Henry Storks continued to report of tranquillity and contentment. The assembly of 1862 accused the commissioner of violation of the constitution and of the treaty of Paris, and complained that England remained in ignorance of what took place in the islands. During this time there had been considerable agitation in Greece owing to the disfavour in which King Otto (of Bavaria) was held. On the abdication of that prince in 1862 the Greek people by universal suffrage voted Prince Alfred of England to the throne, and when he declined to accept the crown England was asked to name a successor. The prince proposed was William, brother of the Princess of Wales; and the English Government declared to the provisional Government of Greece that if they accepted him (which they did) his power would be strengthened by the long-refused cession of the Ionian Islands. In 1863 the commissioner laid before the parliament (the thirteenth) the conditions on which the cession would be carried out. The rejection of one of those conditions— the demolition of the fortifications of Corfu—led to a new prorogation; but none the less (on November 14, 1863) the plenipotentiaries of the five great powers signed the protocol by which the protectorate was brought to a close. The neutrality which they attributed to the whole of the islands was afterwards (January 1864) confined to Corfu and Paxo. On May 30 of that year the lord high commissioner handed over the archives of the state to General Zaimis, the Greek plenipotentiary; and on the following day he left Corfu with the English troops and men-of-war. King George (Prince William of Schleswig-Holstein) made his entry into the capital on June 6th. The eighty representatives of the Ionian Islands took their places in the national parliament in July.

Bibliography.— Bondelmonte, Liber insularum Archipelagi (written about 1500; published by Sinner, 1824); Benedetto Bordonè, I solario, venice, 1528-34-62; T. Porcacchi da Castiglione, L'isole piu famose del mondo, Venice, 1590; Rul-hières, Essai sur les îles de Zante, de Cerigo, <fcc., Paris, 1799; Castellan, Lettres sur la Morée et les îles de Cerigo, Idra, et Zante, Paris, 1808; Holland, Travels in the I. I., «fcc., London, 1815; Vaudoncourt, Mémoires sur les îles Ioniennes, English translation, London, 1820; De Bosset, Parga and the I. I., London, 1822; C. J. Napier, The Colonies, London, 1833; Gifford, Visit to the 1.1., London, 1837; Sir George Bowen, The 1.1, under British Protection, London, 1850; Dr Davy, 1.1., London, 1842, containing many physical observations; H. Cook, The I. I., London, 1851; Liebetnit, Reise nach den Ionischen Inseln, Hamburg, 1850; Lunzi, Bella republica settinsulare, and various other works on the history of the islands by the same author; Ansted, The 1.1., London, 1863; Viscount Kirkwall, Four Years in the I. I., London, 1864, vol. i. containing a chronological history of the British protectorate; F. Lenormant, La Grice et les îles Ioniennes, Paris, 1865; P. Hiotis (Xιωτις), Hist, des îles Ioniennes, Zante, 1815-64. Mardo’s Saggio di una descrizione geografico·storica delie Isole, Corfu, 1865, is mainly geographical. De Bosset’s Description des monnaies dl Ithaque et de Cephalonie, London, 1815, is an early, contribution to the subject, fully treated by Postolakas, Κατάλογος τών αρχαίων νομισμάτων τών νήσων Κέρκυρας, Λευκάδας, <fcc., Athens, 1868. For the linguistic peculiarities of the islands reference may be made to Tsitβelis, Γλωσσάριου Keφαλληviαs, Athens, 1876.