Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-01-06
THE GAZETTE.
THURSDAY MORNING, JANUARY g. 1859.
"PUNCH' TAKES OFF" SIR Z. Bull
WER LYTTON.

L. IL
70 our little bird in the Colonial Office mot
Mr.. Wellington Guernsey We are enabled to
Law before a hungrily expectant public the
passages of the great Lytton Despatch to the
Commissioners of the Ionian Islands, which
were omitted from the copy officially made
public. ,,
After expressing the hope-(sce published
despatch)-that with time and forbearance
the supposed iealousies of race would vanish
amid congenial institutions and common In
terests," Sir f. B. Lytton's powerful maniteS-
TO- in the copy sent to Sir John Young, pro-
ceeds as follows
THAT a race, individually gifted, however
weak politically, the seignory of which has
passed through SO many and various phases,
from the iron sceptre of the Macedonian con-
auerer to the law-reverencing fasces of lmpe-
rial Rome and thence from the enervate
grasp of the degenerate Byzantine to the stern
but glorious guardianship ofthe Lion of Saint
Mark and the tortuous tyranny of the Mus
covite that Byzantine Of the eighteenth CEN
fury in whom alone among the nations, the
craft of Constantinople has not excluded the
sternness of the Scyth, and the rapacity OF the
Roxolane-that such race-alternately the
oppressed of the Cross and the dccimated of
the Scvmitar--should chafe under the mild
incidence of British rule is a phenomenon
which might well provoke the incrcdulity,
if it did not engender the visibility, of the
historic student. But in the contemplation
ofthe Real We must suspend our reverence tor
The Abstract; and submit ourselves to the
stern dominion of The Fact. even when 1t
conflicts most with the Siren-like suggestions
of The Idea.
''The Beautiful has ever found her favorite
home among the purple islands of the Blue
Egean, but the Rational has spurncd those
seductive shores for the more Indictment re-
gions of the north. From the wave that
crisps along the yellow sands of Cythera arose
the Homeric Aphrodite-the Foam-bcrn--
and fancy still loves to trace in the Actual,
the faint but fascinating traces of The Mythc.
Aphrodite-the daughter of the toam--stlll
haunts these shores, but no longer as the In
carnation of The Beautiful. As an embOdi-
ment of The Unreal she dispOrts herself In
the senate of Corfu, and paints the bright but
impossible future of a Septinsular Republic
upon the bubbles blown by the breath of II
Preas too soon set free. while she floats for
ward before the popular breezes unwisely
famed into an occasionally tempestuous exis-
tence bv the Seton Constitution of 1919.
''IIer Majesty's government have viewed
with regret these unexpected results of Il
policy, which, if it partook largely Of The
Rash, cannot surely te refused the praise
Justly due to The Confding. From ground
still hallowed by the recollection of the Car
den of Alcinous, they had hoped for fruits
less repulsive in rind, and less acrid in flavor.
They had fondly imagined, that the descend
ants of those who owned the gentle sway OF
the Phoenician monarch would have initiated,
at least, the household virtues of his daugh-
ter. and like Nausican have washed the fami-
" linen, without calling upon Europeto wit
ness its foulness. Her Majesty government
had not anticipated, that the factions, whose
bitterness, in the Corcyra of the PclOponne-
sian Compaign, had taxedthe pen of Thucy-
dides, would, in this, our more philosophic
day, have called forth the reprObatiOn otone
who, did he not reverence Thucydides, so pro-
foundly, might also venture to inscribe his
own name in the emblazoned and undying
roll of Hellenic Historians The senators of
the Isles Of Greece will surely pardon me for
reminding them that it cannot be grateful to
the author of Athens and the Athenians. to
be chosen as the organ for conveying to them
the opinion of England and the English upon
their councils and their conduct. But they
will not, trust, confound the language OF adj
vice, however unwelcome, with that OF ill-wiii,
however iustifable. If Eros led the passion
ate poetess of Hellas to the white rocks OF
Leucadia, affection for the Helcnes may well
urge the Colonial Secretary of England to
sacrifice popularity on the altar of truth
Sappho sank but to sing again. 1.-the waves
of septinsular execratiOn close tor awhile
over the name of Lytton, may still look for
comfort to the fate of Sappho, and bear my
&c. no Cnyllann hoIvl nt
Corcyrean execration, and the turbld out
pourings of anonymous detractlon.
But her Majesty's government would APP
neal to the gentler elements of the Hellenic
race. which still, they would fain hope, find a
home where Odysseus garnered the wisdom
culled in a life-havest of travel and anthro-
nolopic observation and where Eumeus
practised the contemplative occupation OF
guardian of the royal swine. They trust they
are not unreasonable in their hope that the
power of drawing the long bow is not the on
" legacy left to his descendants by the sagacl
ons Basileus of Ithaca, and that her Majesty
government may find some better precedent
for action in this crisis than that furnished by
the constant and cautious Penelope, for UNI
doing in 1859 the web woven with such pains
by the Lord High Commissioner, in the first
wear of the decade which is about to expire,
since the Seton Constitution was bestowed.
The despatch then continues, as printed
"These are the general principles and SEN
timents entertained by her Majestys govern
ment with reference to the question which at
present asitates the Ionian mind, &c.
tits believed that the omission ofthePassage
we have supplied is due to the narrow notions
of Sir John Young and Mr.. Bowen, that as it
was unintelligible 20 them, it was not likely
to produce any wholesome effects upon the
Ionian Senate.
They seem to have forgotten that what a
scholar and poet writes to the collective wis,
dom of Hellenic people may be-indeed
ought to be-Greek, and therefore when Sir
John states-as he is understood coarsely to
have stated-that the omitted passage was
$50 much heather Greek to him, he was pro
nouncing at once its highest eulogy and most
conclusive justification.
HIOTICE TO WHARF BUILDERS AND
IN CONTRACTORS.-Seaed Proposals will be
received through the Post Office, addressed to
Thomas Smith, and marked Wharf Proposals,
until IL o'clock NJ, the 18th of January inst Tor
A. Con,tructng and Filling q Wharf, and Drcdg