The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-12 00:00:00

lONIAN ISLANDS.

COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM SIR J. YOUNG TO
MR. SECRETARY LABOUCHERE.
CORFU, June 10, 1857.
Sir,—My opening speech to the Legislative
Assembly, their reply, long considered and warmly
debated, and a few sentences in which I acknow-
ledged it, went forward to you on Tuesday last ;
and you will, I am persuaded, be well satisfied with
the good fortune which has attended this most
difficult matter—in fact, the turning point, or, more
accurately speaking, the " pons asinorum," of the
Assembly's first session.
After carefully composing the speech, I availed
myself of the suggestions and criticism of the Presi-
dent, and of the two or three other lonians I could
best confide in; and the result has been, as I am
informed by the residents of all the larger islands,
a very good impression on the minds and temper of
the people.
The prcof of this happy result is to be found in
the address of the Assembly, which you will see
makes no allusion to high police, no complaint
against the protection, mentions no infringement
of the constitution, of individual freedom, or of
liberty of the press. No Lord Charles Fitzroy
grievance of Austrian Police ; and yet also every
paragraph was penned and carried by so-called
members of the opposition. In a Parliament whose
election was, as all admit,perfectly free and untainted
by English influence; and in which there are only
places for a few,the opposition is,and must always be,
the majority. They confine themselves to complaints
about the judicature, public instruction, and the
pension law; all of which they are at liberty to
deal with, and existing interests held sacred, to
amend as they please.
All this is highly satisfactory ; still I do not an-
ticipate much practical advantage. They will not
assign sufficient salaries to the judges, so as to
enable the Government to avail itself of the best
men. Public instruction will, probably, remain
sacrificed to private interests and the desire for
patronage ; and the attempt to deprive all the
pension-holders, and, especially, the English, of
their acquired rights, will, probably, cause the
postponement of any beneficial change in that
quarter.
No doubt, by a very vigilant attention, by stand-
ing always on one's guard. by removing, as I have
endeavoured to do, topics of disagreement, and
striving, as I hope you will think, not without
success, to infuse somewhat of a calm and modera-
tion into the working of parties, a lull may be pro-
duced, under favourable circumstances ; but the
impression upon my mind is, that no permanent
benefit to England, or real satisfaction to the loni-
ans, can] accrue. England is in a false position
here, and the islands are too widely separased
geographically, and their interests too distinct, ever
to form a homogeneous whole, under foreign aus-
pices.
The small size and distance, one from the other,
of the islands render the growth of a common public
opinion impossible. The free press, consequently,
has no character of reality nor echo in the minds of
the people. Failing these important elements,
there does not exist the power necessary to control
and elevate the tendencies of the Legislative As-
sembly, which, without such enlightened guidance,
either in the press or the public, passes its time in
discussing quarrels between the different islands or
in the pursuit of individual interests. Napoleon
says, in one of his letters to his brother Joseph,
" What a nation hates is another nation," and this
sentiment poisons with suspicion, or chills with cold
reception, every benefit we confer and every ad-
vancement ; and if this dictum be true as to pro-
vinces acquired and governed as an integral part
of an empire, it is doubly so of dependencies held
by such tenure as England holds these islands ; the
sooner, therefore, she extricates herself from the
position the better for her own reputation, and for
I the cause of representative institutions generally.
If her Majesty's Government could find, or make,
an opportunity of discussing the subject with the
other powers that were parties to the Treaty of
Paris, I should most earnestly recommend its being
done.

Now is a good opportunity; a victory has been
gained over the discontent and unreasonableness
of those who are discontented without a cause, or
mi▪
sled by faction. The lonians complain of no
constitutional grievance—.of no abuse of power on
our part. England could retire from the protection
wi▪ th a good grace. I mean especially from the
Southern Islands, in which all the difficulties really
originate. With respect to one of them, Santa
Maura, it is not an island at all—it is a bit of the
continent. Grivas, the noted Greek chieftain, rode
from Greece into the citadel, to pay a visit, without
dismounting, some weeks ago. To part with it
would be a happy boon to the other islands ; for
while it does not half pay its expenses, and is a
heavy clog on the resources of Corfu, its preten-
sions for patronage and expenditure know no limits.
As to Corfu, it could scarcely be given up with-
out bad faith ; for its possession by Greece would
keep all Albania and Epirus in constant agitation ;
but it ought to be held by England in full
sovereignty as a colony ; and if so held, it would,
with its dependencies, form a most valuable and
beautiful possession. Corfu, as well as.its satellite,
Paco, more than pays all its expense
s ; has, indeed,
a large surplus revenue, though it is not halfi
peopled ; more than half waste, undrained, an
neglected. Under really British auspices, its agri-
culture, its commerce,
and its people, would receive
new life, and a vast impulse. Theisland would
become a garden, and its port the centre
o f the
commerce of the adjacent countries. This is well
known in Corfu, and in it alone, of all the other
islands, there exists no desire to be separated from
England.
I venture, however, to recall the question to your
attention, inasmuch as the present seems to me a
favourable conjuncture for entertaining it. At the
close of the war, the giving up the southern islands
might have been variously looked on as a surren-
der, a concession, or a withdrawal from a position
where:failure had occurred ; or, if Corfu were taken
in sovereignty, as a territorial acquisition, made at
the very moment when such an idea was studiously
disclaimed ; but now no such objections can occur ;
for the moment the ()Wade* to the working of the