local nobility, the equality of the social and religious communities (Orthodox, Catholic, and Jewish) and the installation of democratic regimes and local self-government on the islands. The French also created the islands' first public education system, and introduced the first printing press in what is now Greece. Inevitably, the French presence was resented by the local aristocracy, now deprived of its privileges, while the heavy taxation and anti-clericalism of the French soon made them unpopular with broad sections of the common populace as well. Following the French invasion of Egypt furthermore, the French presence in the Ionian Islands aroused the opposition of the Ottomans and the Russian Empire, allied with the British, as part of the War of the Second Coalition. No less than the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory V, issued a proclamation to the Islanders denouncing the "ungodly" French, calling upon them to rise in revolt, and promising, on behalf of the Ottoman Porte, to allow the Islands to choose their own form of government. In autumn 1798, a joint Russo-Ottoman fleet evicted the French from the other islands and finally captured Corfu on , while the autonomous Ottoman strongman Ali Pasha of Yanina took the opportunity to seize Butrinto, Preveza, and Vonitsa from the French. Establishment of the Septinsular Republic Restoration of the nobility In all the islands they occupied, the Russians at first installed provisional administrations of nobles and burghers alike. On 22 March, however, the Russian authorities invited assemblies of the nobles to undertake the governance of the Ionian Islands, thereby restoring the previous status quo. On the next day, the Great Council of Corfu was reconstituted; its very first action was a vote of thanks to the Allied rulers, the Ottoman Sultan, the Russian Emperor, and the British King. In Zakynthos, however, the local noble council preferred to direct its thanks exclusively to the British, an expression of the strong pro-British tendency on the island, due to the close commercial links centred on the currant trade. On , the commanders of the two fleets announced that the Ionian Islands would comprise a single state, governed by a Senate (Γερουσία) in Corfu city, composed of three representatives each from Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zakynthos, two from Lefkada, and one each from Ithaca, Kythira, and Paxoi. The Venetian nobleman Angelo Orio, the last Venetian provveditore of Argostoli, was appointed head of the Senate, and entrusted with the creation