Επιστολή (Αρ.27) του Φορέστη (Έξω από τα Κύθηρα 1 Σεπτεμβρίου 1807) προς τον The Right Honorable George Canning His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Foreign Department με την οποία τον ενημερώνει για την κατάληψη της Κέρκυρας από τους Γάλλους σε εφαρμογή της αποφασης της συνθήκης ειρήνης (του Τιλσίτ) μεταξύ Ρωσίας και Γαλλίας. Ο Φορέστης ενημερώνει πως αναχώρησε άμεσα (σχεδόν κρυφίως) από την Κέρκυρα με προορισμό την Μάλτα, όπου και θα ενημερώσει τον Collinwood για τη νέα κατάσταση των πραγμάτων που διαμορφώθηκε. Επίσης τονίζει την κυρίαρχη πλέον παρουσία των Γάλλων σε Αδριατική και Ιόνιο.
Συγκεκριμένα αναφέρει:
No.27
Off Cerigo September 1st 1807
Right Honorable George Canning His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Foreign Department
Sir,
In my last dispatch bearing date Corfu July 31st I had the honor to communicate to you the official reports of the last naval engagement between the Russian and Turkish squadrons. Since that time an event has occurred, which has not only deprived Russia of the effectual means of asserting and maintaining in future the former dignity and interests in the Levant, but has also had the further effect of preventing me until the present moment from transmitting to you the details of it.
The peace lately concluded between Russia and France has changed the destinies of the Septinsular Republic. The nature of this change was such as to render it necessary for me to terminate the British mission there with which His Majesty had graciously entrusted me.
It was no longer practicable or politic for an accredited agent of His Majesty, to reside at a Government or in a territory placed under the immediate control and protection of the determined enemy of Great Britain. To obtain the occupation and protection of the Seven Islands and chiefly of Corfu was an object more eagerly pursued by the enemy, as a measure of direct hostility and injury to the interests of His Majesty, than of humiliation and constraint to Russia, or of immediate national benefit to France; although such an object comprehended at one all these important effects. To ensure their realization every effort and possible provision has been made by Bonaparte and his first object was naturally to exclude or defeat all British influence there.
The official intelligence of this change was received by way of Otranto by the Russian Plenipotentiary Count Mocenigo, on the 9th ultimo by means of a Russian courier extraordinary accompanied by two French officers of distinction. On the day following Count Mocenigo communicated this intelligence to the Ionian Senate, informing it that the emperor, his Master, had renounced all his Rights and titles of sovereignty and protection over the Septinsular Republic to His Majesty the Emperor of France; that this new arrangement would be carried into immediate effect; that the Russian forces awaited only the arrival of the French troops to replace them, in order to evacuate the territories of the Republic.
The same day I forwarded a dispatch on the subject to His Excellency Sir Alexander Ball at Malta.
On the 11th I succeeded in forwarding similar dispatched to Their Excellencies Lord Collingwood and General Fox at Messina; of which I annex a copy. It had for its object to lay before these Honorable Commanders in Chief the reasons, in abstract, that called for an instant counteraction of this article of the Treaty by all the means in their power.
As the situation of Captain Campbell in the Adriatic, occupied as he was with the French armaments at Venice, became critical from the possession gained by the enemy of Bocche di Cattaro and from the reported cession of the Russian ships and stores there to the enemy, I contrived, though with great difficulty, to convey a letter to him, apprising him fully of the actual situation and tendency of things in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.
On the 12th perceiving no disposition on the part of the Septinsular Government to disclose or communicate its new political situation, I addressed a note to it, requesting an explicit declaration, whether the relations of the Septinsular government, hitherto subsisting between itself, Russia and France, had been modified or changed in consequence of the late treaty of peace between Russia, the power that protected it, and France. The enclosure no. 2 is copy of that note.
Late on the evening of the 13th I received an answer from the Secretary of State announcing the important event, that the Republic by the said Treaty of Peace had passed under the Protection France, that it would be garrisoned by French troops, whose arrival was imminent, and that the Islands would be forthwith evacuated by the Russian Forces.
Such a total change in the political relations of the Ionian Republic, hitherto so correspondent to the wishes and interests of His Majesty, left me no other alternative but to terminate my mission and demand my passports as per enclosure no.3.
His Majesty’s instructions to me, the last of which bears date October 14th 1804, were as inadequate to guide me in this new order of things, as the new circumstances that instantly resulted from it, were destructive of my utmost efforts to discharge with effect the duties of the mission entrusted to me.
A change so wholly unlooked for and so rapidly effected, astonished and confounded the public. Those, who were not formally known to be of the French party and those who were even of an opposite sentiment, now endeavored, with decency, to embrace the new order of things. This maxim became so general that it was not without the greatest difficulty that I would procure the means of forwarding the above dispatches to Malta, Messina and the Adriatic; no vessels could be freighted; no assistance obtained – a vessel engaged in my service for public occasions afforded me the only means of embarkation; a measure which I felt it incumbent on me to take without delay, not only because I was now deprived of all means for making known the important occurrences going forward at Corfu to His Majesty’s government or agents abroad; but also because the prudence and policy of such a step were not only evident but recommended to e also by the suggestions of persons on whom I had reason to know full reliance and trust might be reposed.
To obstruct however these intentions the Government, with the secret advice of the Russian plenipotentiary, seconded by the French agents already there, found various insufficient pretexts for delaying the issue of the passports I had demanded.
Such proceedings were not only contrary to the dignity, but to the interests of His Majesty, and any further acquiescence therein on my part would have been to commit them more effectually.
I determined therefore to await no longer the further subterfuges of the Government. I embarked on the evening of the 15th six days after the official annunciation of the change I have stated, without passports. They were indeed superfluous, as derived from a state under the entire domination of His Majesty’s enemy.
As it was of the utmost consequence to His Majesty’s interests that His Excellency Lord Collingwood should be immediately and fully acquainted with the change of affairs at Corfu, now so hostile in its effects to the permanent interests of the British nation, and to the immediate command of His Lordships in the Adriatic; constrained as I was personally to leave Corfu, and prevented on my sudden departure from communicating more fully to His Lordship, than in my dispatch above referred to of the 11th August, the various urgent reasons that demanded an instant opposition, on the part of His Majesty’s government, to the execution of the article in question (even had I found the proper means of conveying such a communication) I determined, in this emergency, to deviate from my intended passage to Malta and to proceed first to His Lordship then in the Archipelago.
Contrary winds have hitherto prevented my accomplishing this purpose; and I have ascertained that the same cause have also retarded the progress of my first messenger for the same destination.
Penetrated with the great importance of the position of Corfu, under the present circumstances of the continent, and of the expediency of preventing the enemy from gaining a firm footing there, I have made it my immediate duty to draw up a full statement, deducing the immense advantages, both temporary and permanent, that France will there acquire from consolidating Her newly acquired power in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas; the injurious effects that it cannot fail to produce on the interests of the British Empire; and the means and arguments for effectually counteracting and defeating such an evil. I beg to annex this paper for the information of His Majesty’s Government and so soon as I shall have been enabled to forward, or lay it before His Excellency Lord Collingwood, I shall lose no time in proceeding to Malta to await there the further pleasure of His Majesty; and in the general disappointment felt by all persons, the promoters and supporters of god government, by the prevalence of causes that have rendered ineffectual all efforts to rescue Europe from the injustice and violence of France, it will be Sir, my best consolation to know that the conduct I have hitherto adopted for promoting and upholding His Majesty’s interests, as far as they have been entrusted to me, and the principles also on which that conduct has been grounded, shall have meet with the gracious approbation of His Majesty.
I have the honor to be with the greatest respect,
Sir,
Your most obedient and humble servant,
Spiridion Foresti