The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-03 00:00:00

MR. GLADSTONE'S 1111SSIO.Y.

(From the Morning Herald.)
No thinking man can view with any feeling-but
repugnance the discreditable course adopted by- the
Times and other Opposition journals on the subject
of the lonian Islands. It is far from our intention
to seek to prescribe limits to public discussion, to
direct the tactics of our opponents, or to ask any
favour at their hands. The journalist, wielding
great power, owes to his country a great responsi-
bility. Whatever his predilections, whatever his
antipathies, it is his duty not to attempt to em-
barrass the Executive in its dealings with foreign
states ; not to excite hostilities disturbing the peace
of any population united directly or indirectly with
our own ; and not to sacrifice, for the gratification
of partisan spite, important Imperial interests,
which every statesman to whatever party he may
belong, is bound to guard with jealousy, and to
preserve to the best of his power and ability. The
Times, now well known as the servile organ of the
effete Whig faction, in its review of the past year,
has assumed a tone and evinced a spirit dia-
metrically opposed to the tone and spirit of honest
journalism. The influences brought to bear on our
contemporary are too well known, and the effects
produced by them upon its prestige have also become
apparent. Still, we do not anti ipate, as the climax
of political subserviency, a proclamation of ignor-
ance as to public feeling so glaring as a re-adoption
of the Cardwell motion or a distortion of facts so
deliberate as the version given by our contempo-
rary of Mr. Gladstone's mission, its cause and effects.
In the face of the faithful report sent by its own
correspondent, in the face of Mr. Gladstone's address
to the Hierarchy of Zantc, this organ has declared
Mr. Gladstone's experiment to be a hopeless
failure," and "his extraordinary deference to the
local ecclesiastics" as one of the causes conducing to
such result. ' But our contemporary has neither
begun nor ended with this declaration. After re-
peated articles condemnatory of Mr. Gladstone's
mission, in which falsehood has been strangely
mixed up with distorted truths, the journal
to which we refer displays its ignorance by
describing the title of Mr. Gladstone as " Lord
High Commissioner Extraordinary," and by advo-
cating the policy of violence and repression so dear
to the heart of its present masters—a policy our
contemporary has formerly condemned, and which
has proved to be inefficacious, dangerous, and ab-
surd.
The present constitution, the same authority has
justly remarked, was bestowed on the islands by an
" unlucky caprice." It is one of those pseudo-
liberal abortions which the Whig Cabinet of Lord
J. Russell imposed on Europe contemporaneously
with Lord Mintes mission to Italy and our notable
" intervention" tactics of the last revolutionary
years. The inopportuneness of the Grey-Seaton
constitution became at once manifest. " The in-
trigues and violence of native demagogues" de-
nounced by our contemporary led to disturbances
more grave than mere seditious language. Sir H.
Ward adopted " the determination to enforce on the
lonians the necessary condition of order and sub-
mission." His conduct was stigmfttised by the
same journal in no measured phrases. The present
Government have adopted a policy of firmness tem-
pered with conciliation. Printed documents have
attested to this fact. Yet our contemporary assails
the Government in terms of no measured hostility,
and hurls at the lonians, whom it knew to be willin g
to accept our advances, language of invective and
hostility which no civilised people should utter and
which no free community could accept. Nay,
more, improving the opportunity afforded by a
fraudulent publication of confidential documents,
accepting the co-operation of Mr. Wellington
Guernsey, the Times seeks to excite the ammo-
sales of the inflammable lonians, and labours to
accumulate the difficulties which true Englishmen
would lend their best endeavours to remove.
If the public wish to have an honest account of
Mr. Gladstone's mission we think we can furnish
them with one, perhaps less embroidered, but cer-
tainly more authentic than that of war contem-
porary. The Grey scheme of 1848-49 contained
all the germs of misgovernment. Under the garb
of a free constitution a raw theory was intro-
duced, combining every influence the most in-
congruous, without any unity of design or pur-
pose. Each branch was rendered independent of
its neighbour. Functions were mixed which should
be kept distinct. Municipalities were created into
sovereign legislatures. Legislatures were invested
with executive attributions. Veins of absolutism
ran through a system of the wildest democracy.
The press was free, and yet subject to arbitrary
restrictions. Island jurisdiction conflicted with
septinsular authority. Classes were commingled, in-
terests jumbled, ambitions excited, while no career
was opened to ability but the restricted sphere and
emolument of lonian official life ; no new branch of

industry was developed, no channel for the restless
activity, the impetuous talent, and the hot southern
blood of an excitable and intellectual people. With
this introduction no wonder that the reaction turned
against those who had thus loosened beyond control
the floodgates of Greek passion. Legislators they
had, but small scope for legislation—administrators,
there was but little to administer. The professions
were overcrowded. Politics was the only refuge
for the unemployed. Island politics were too cir-
cumscribed. There was no space for activity, so the
lonians naturally became turbulent. The lonians
turned round on the Frankenstein of their imprac-

ticable constitution. They were met under the
orders of a Cabinet which included Lords Palmerston
and Clarendon by a syston of repression on which
we shall offer no opinion, but which the Times de-
clared to be " more cruel and inhuman" than that of

llaynau or Radetzky. v By this process the islands
were pacified. Their press, their freedom of speech,
were left them, but no attempt was made to improve
their material interests. They might ask, but no-
thing was given ; they might knock, but no one
would open. They could speak, but could not gain
more bread than before. Theorists had thought to
satisfy them with words. The lonians were ill con-
tent with this Barmecidc feast. They spoke, and
were coerced. They rebelled, and were oppressed.
They subsided, and we regret they have met with
but sorry treatment even from those whose official
duty it was to reconcile them by kindness to our
rule. Kindness and conciliation go farther in
the lonian Islands than elsewhere. The attempt
has been once made, and successfully. In Cepha-
lonia, esteemed the most turbulent of the islands,
where Colonel Talbot as resident treated the in-
habitants with the courtesy due from a gentleman
and a ruler,
. his name is still held in affectionate
and enthmastic remembrance.

It was with the view of adopting a new system—
a system that can never fail, one of kindliness,
courtesy, and Christian sympathy, that Mr. Glad-
stone went forth on his arduous mission. Numer-
ous difficulties beset MS path, difficulties incalcu-
lably augmented by the unfortunate publication of
Sir John Young's deTatchcs. Yet manfully and
straightforwardly has he persevered in the task
which he has undertaken, never swerving from the
course prescribed, temperately but firmly putting
aside all visionary schemes, and devoting his great
intellect to the improvement of the people whose
welfare he has espoused.. And, notwithstanding
numerous obstacles, his course has been attended
with marked success. At Zante, where his arrival
was as enthusiastically greeted as elsewhere, cries
for "union with Greece" were loud and oft•repeatcd.
Yet on his departure, after his decided rejection of
any plan with that object in view, while cheers and
acclamations greeted his approach as before, the
cry for union was not once heard. A fact like this
speaks for iL elf, and furnishes a sufficient answer
to the cavils and taunts of defeated factions.
If the state of the lonian Islands has not hitherto
been brought before the public, it was because for
years we have had no Minister at thet eCooslonsitault-eosffi orco
capable of appreciating the value of h
the obligations due to them from us, arising out of
our treaties with other European powers. Sineo
Sir Edward Lytton's accession to power he has done
much to make his name remembered in the annale
of his department. Not among the least of the
successes already recognised in the colonies and in
ttle
importance,
affairstance, of
b
this country is the selection of a statesman of Mr.
u tae nation,min
t
eminent
from
n numerical
calibre to settle
small pe
from geographical position and historic associa-
tion. By this time the inhabitants of the lonian
islands are aware that annexation to Greece is be-
jend Europe does not
want it.;
Great Britain
t
ofcircle
Britain does not intend it; nor, we
believe, dots even Greece d estre it. Ere long we
believe that the constitution improvements : ar,l
the material advantages effected by Mr. Gladstone
will induce the lonians to lay aside their poetic
dreams. They
will seen learn to respect their po-
sition as an independent though protected state am
higher than that of a provincial division of the
Greek kingdom. Increased courtesy on the part of
our officials, mutual forbearance and good offices,
will speedily generate mutual good will. Notwith-
standing the denunciations and prophetic croakings
of the Times we do not despair. ere long, of seeitkg
t lie lonian States as well affected as any of those with
which Grc at Britain has relations of alliance or
supremacy.