Discorso di sua eccelenza il Vice-re pronunziano allo Scioglimento dedlla Sessone del Parlamento in Corte, li 22 Dicembre 1795.

THE SHORT-LIVED ANGLO-CORSICA KINGDOM

[CORSICA IMPRINT, 18TH CENTURY ENGLISH PRESS]. [ELLIOT, Sir Gilbert, later first Earl of Minto.] Discorso di sua eccelenza il Vice-re pronunziano allo Scioglimento dedlla Sessone del Parlamento in Corte, li 22 Dicembre 1795. 4to, pp. [2] + integral blank leaf. In Corte [Corsica]: Nella Stamperia del Governo [1795].

One of what must be one of the few printed memorials of the short period when George III was King of Corsica. The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom came about during the French Revolutionary wars. It was short-lived, having been established in June 1794 after an invasion of the island, it reverting back to French control in October, 1796. "The Kingdom of Corsica was an ephemeral organization, a by-product of the wars of the French Revolution, lasting only two years, form 1794 to 1796, and then forgotten, even by history...Recently in the Rare Book Room of the Princeton University Library I came across some documents of this vanished kingdom. They are mostly laws, decrees and speeches. Although published at the time, they are now so rare that of fifty at Princeton only eleven are at the British Museum...Hardly had the British arrived when a general election was held, which produced an assembly, which in turn adopted a constitution, declared the country a constitutional monarchy, and offered the crown to King George III. The crown was accepted and Sir Gilbert Elliot became Viceroy of Corsica. Therre were jokes in the Paris newspapers about King George's new kingdom, but in Corsica and England it was taken seriously enough."-Robert R. Palmer, The Kingdom of Corsica and the Science of History in, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 105, No. 4 (Aug. 15, 1961), pp. 354-360. Pascal Paoli had been appointed governor of Cosica the previous year, but having been against the execution of Louis XVI, and French dictates, Paoli appealed to the British government for help, and after hard fighting, and the arrival of a strong British navel force under Sir Samuel Hood, Corsica acknowledged the sovereignty of King George in June 1794. On November 25, 1795, Elliot opened Parliament in an attempt to govern constitutionally. This speech, delivered less than a month later, must have been one of the few he gave, because the island was back in French hands by October, 1796. Elliot was a good friend of Horatio Nelson, and assisted Nelson's campaign to command the Mediterranean ports. But by the autumn of 1796 Elliot had withdrawn from Corsica to Naples. This is a short speech, a formal one, returning the thanks of King George III for the Parliament's loyal address. See, Luke Paul Long, Britain and Corsica 1728-1796: Political Intervention and the Myth of Liberty (online 2027). OCLC locates four copies in this country (Huntington; UCLA; Yale; LC), one in the UK (National Library of Scotland), and two in Canada, both at Toronto. COPAC adds BL & Oxford. OCLC records five official publications by Elliott printed in Corte, and five printed in Bastia, all rare, most recorded by a single copy. Nearly fine. 84684