“By the Civil and Military Government of Dalmatia, Ragusa, and Cattaro.
“Baron Tomasić, Feldmarschall-Lieutenant.
“By authentic copy.
“Milutinović, General-Major.
“Zara, July 7.”
This proclamation was received respectfully and in silence. Only one noble, Marchese Francesco Bona, tried to raise a rebellion among the peasants, and was at once arrested and imprisoned in the Forte San Lorenzo. On August 29 the Municipal Council was summoned to elect a deputation to the Emperor-King. Milutinović had returned to Cattaro, and although Wittmann, who was in charge, was present at the sitting, it proved a stormy one. Count Pozza-Sorgo declared that if a deputation were sent to the Emperor of Austria, another should also be sent to the King of England, whose forces had contributed at least as effectively as those of Austria in driving out the French. But as Marchese Michele Bona was already on a mission to the Allies it was useless to send another; the choice of the delegates was therefore adjourned, and the motion accepted by ten votes to eight. Caboga summoned the Council again on September 1, when the delegation was chosen; the Council was about to break up when the Mayor, Bosdari, received a sealed packet. On opening it he found that it contained the solemn protest of forty of the nobles who had signed the act of January 18. “It is we,” they declared, “who have been constituted from that day the sovereign Council, and have the sole authority to speak in the name of our country.” Wittmann took the protest and forwarded it to Zara, and he also informed Milutinović of the occurrence. The next day all the signatories of the document were arrested save eighteen, who fled to the islands under British protection. At 11 A.M. Milutinović arrived, and issued a proclamation describing the protest as an “act of frenzy,” and inviting the people to sign a counter-protest. This was done, and Bosdari requested the General to liberate all the nobles who were willing to sign a declaration of submission to the Emperor. Milutinović agreed, and included the fugitives in the amnesty, on condition that they returned within eight days. The nobles signed the oath, and on September 15 an assembly of the people elected a deputation to go to Zara and swear fealty in the name of all. Milutinović then addressed a very severe admonition to the nobles, and all of that order who occupied judicial positions were dismissed.[543]
The Ragusan archipelago remained under British protection until July 16, 1815. On August 3, 1816, Dalmatia and Ragusa received a definite organisation by Imperial rescript, and Baron Tomasić was appointed Statthalter or Military and Civil Governor, and Milutinović departed from Ragusa. The Emperor assumed the title of Duke of Ragusa, which his successors still bear.
Thus ends, after more than twelve hundred years, the history of the Republic of Ragusa. Its Government and citizens may have had their defects, but they were full of a real, if somewhat narrow, patriotism. The State conferred a prosperity and happiness on its inhabitants which have fallen to the lot of few peoples during that long and troubled period, while the peculiar, and almost unique, position occupied in European history and polity by the tiny Commonwealth may perhaps justify the appearance of this volume.
