Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/221

 I O W I O W 207 to be twice prorogued by Sir Henry Ward (1849-1855), and was finally dissolved in 1851; and the growing hostility to the Govern ment 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 resolu tion 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 &quot;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. &quot; 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 con dition of the islands. From his eminence in Greek scholarship, and his known sympathy with Greek independence, it was their expec tation 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 lonians to the English Govern ment. For a few days in 1859 he held office as lord high com missioner, and in that capacity he proposed for the consideration of the assembly a series of reforms. These reforms were, however, de clared inadmissible by the assembly; and Sir Henry Storks (Feb ruary 16, 1859), who succeeded to the difficult post which Mr Glad stone resigned, began his rule by a prorogation. The contest con tinued 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 &quot; a crime against the safety of Europe,&quot; and Sir Henry Storks continued to report of tranquillity and contentment. The assembly of 1862 accused the commissioner&quot; 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 lie declined to accept the crown England was asked to name a suc cessor. 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) liis 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 proroga tion ; but none the less (on November 14, 1863) the plenipoten tiaries 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 insularwn Archipelagi (written about 1500 ; sur la Moree et les iles de Ceriyo, Jdra, et Zante, Paris, 1808; Holland, Travels in the I. /., ifcc., London, 1815; Vaudoncourt, Memoires sur les iles lonienne.s, English translation, London, 1820; De Bosset, Parga and the I. I., London, 1822; C. J. Kapler. The Colonies, London, 1833 ; Gifford, Visit to the I. I., London, 1837; Sir George Uowen, The J. 1. under British Protection, London, 1850; I)r Davy, /. /., London, 1842, containing many physical observations ; H. Cook, The I. I., Lon don, 1851; Liebetrut, Reise nach den. lonischen Jiiseln, Hamburg, 1850; Lunzi, Delia republica settinsulare, and various other works on the history of the islands by the same author ; Ansted, The I. /., Lomlon, 1863 ; Viscount Kirkwall, Four lears in the J. I., London, 1864, vol. i. containing a chronological history of the British protectorate; F. Lenormant, La Grece et les iles loniennes, Paris, 1865; P. Hiotis (Xuorts), Hist, des iles Sonienne?, Zante, 1815-64. Mardo s Sayjio diuna descnzione, (jtoyrajko-storica delle Isole, Corfu, 1865, is mainly geographical. De Uosset s Description des monnaies d lthaqm et de Cephalonie, London, 1815, is an early contribution to the subject, fully treated by Postolakas. KaraAo-yos rut* apxaiuiv voiJ.i.a-fj.dTu&amp;gt;v r&amp;lt;av v^trtav Ke picvpas, AeixcaSos, ifec., Athens, 1868. For the linguistic peculiarities of the islands reference may be made to Tsitsclis, T&amp;lt;aa-&amp;lt;rdpi.ov Ke^aAA^uxs, Athens, 1876. IOWA, one of the north-western States of the American Union. Its boundary lines are on the S. and N. the parallels 40 36 and 43 30 of N. lat, en the E. the Mississippi river, and on the W. the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers. The south-eastern corner projects slightly below the parallel of 40 36, the boundary following the Des Moines river down to its mouth. The neighbouring States are Minnesota on the north, Wisconsin and Illinois on the east, Missouri on the south, and Nebraska and Dakota on the west. The length of the State from north to south is about 200 miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west 300 miles. Its area is 35,228,800 acres, or 55,045 square miles. The State lies entirely within the prairie region of the Mississippi valley, and has a level or undulating surface. Its mean height above the sea is 925 feet, ranging from 500 in the south-east to 1700 in the north-west. About 24,600 square miles of the area rise less than 1000 feet above sea-level. _ The surface presents very little relief. A broad eleva tion (1700 feet at the north boundary, and decreasing gradually southwards) separates the waters of the Missis sippi from those of the Missouri. The position of this &quot; divide &quot; is, for the most part, near the western border of the State, giving to the branches of the Mississippi long courses and an easy fall, while those of the Missouri have comparatively short courses and a rapid fall. Near their sources, these branches, both of the Mississippi and Missouri, flow in broad, shallow valleys. Farther down their courses, however, bluffs develop, and increase gradually in height, while the valleys in general become narrower. The bluffs bordering the valley of the Missis sippi, range in height from 200 to 400 feet, the valley between them being usually from 4 to 8 miles in width, although in a few places, as at Dubuque, they close in upon the river on both sides. On the Missouri, the bluffs range from 200 to 300 feet in height, enclosing a bottom land 5 to 12 miles in width. Rivers and Lakes. The Mississippi and Missouri are the only navigable rivers. They have ample depth of water for all purposes of inland navigation. At two points upon the former river, indeed (at Rock Island and near Keokuk), there are rapids which at low water form partial obstruc tions to navigation ; but at high water steamers can run them in either direction. A canal is now being made to facilitate the passage of the lower or Des Moines rapids, and works are projected for the improvement of the upper or Rock Island rapids. The other rivers are the Upper Iowa, Turkey, Maquoqueta, Wapsipinicon, Iowa, Cedar, Skunk, or Checauqua, and Des Moines, flowing into the Mississippi, and the Chariton, Nodaway, Grand, Nishna- botany, and Little and Big Sioux, flowing into the Missouri. None of these streams are navigable. A few small lakes are found in the north-west, on or near the divide between the two great rivers. The area of swamp and marsh sur face is proportionally small, and is rapidly diminishing. Forests. As in most of the prairie region of the Missis sippi valley, there is in this State but little forest, the timber being confined to the bottom lands of the streams and the faces of the bluffs. The commonest trees are the oak, elm, cotton wood, black walnut, hickory, maple, and linden. Upon the bluffs is found a sparse growth of pines and red cedar. Geology. The geology of tho State is remarkably simple ; excepting in the north-western quarter, where the formations are so covered with Quaternary drift as to be unrecognizable, there is from north-cast to south-west a succession of belts, from the Lower Silurian to the top of the Carboniferous, varying in breadth and extending north west and south-east. The Silurian occupies but a com paratively small area in the north-eastern corner. A strip of Devonian follows, 40 to 50 miles in width, ex tending from Davenport on the Mississippi north-west ward to the northern boundary. The south-western