The Industrial Review, Social and Political. — 1878-08-10 (London, England)

ENGLAND AND CYPRUS.  THE selection of Sir Garnet Wolseley as Governor of Cyprus was, perhaps, a strong testimony to the difficulties of such a post. It required an experience such as he had acquired in West Africa to enter upon a task so little hopeful in a ruined island of the Mediterranean. Like other generals, he begins with being hampered by those who have sent him, and by the neglects and blunders of a stupid commissariat at Malta. The first send him instructions though he is on the spot, and they perfectly ignorant, and the last send him carriages without a linch-pin ! As to the Indian soldiery whom Government have left on the general's hands, they are a burden at Cyprus, and yet to send them home at this season might decimate them with fever, and convert those who reached India into so many seeds of dangerous disaffection. Thus to raise the devil is ever more easy than to lay him when raised. Moreover, Cyprus is not a spot to which telegrams, letters, and newspapers find their way every day in the week. At the end, or nearly, of July, the English on that island had seen nothing more than the papers they carried with them on leaving Malta. Sir Garnet, however, only waited instructions in order to send his district commissioners on their travels over the island. These gentlemen are not to disturb more than necessary existing laws and usages, or displace present officials, who, however, are to be restricted from inflicting punishments not in accordance with British ideas of fitness. The instructions speak ominously of "mixed commissions of Christians and Turks." Several refer to the subject of taxes and their collection. These commissioners are to sit as assessors in all the courts, and to ratify or suspend the infliction of criminal sentences ; providing reports in grave cases to the Lord High Commissioner. In his decision, each district commissioner will report on the character of the population, the proportion of Christians and Mahommedans, the nature of their avocations and habits, and the police, or other arrangements, it may be necessary to institute. He is to state the number of public functionaries now doing duty, the duty they perform, and the emoluments they receive, and what in his opinion should be the establishment of magistrates and other officers. He is to make such sanitary arrangements as may appear expedient. To ascertain how far the law is carried on under written regulations or in accordance with unwritten custom recognised by the people, and how far the people, or any class, are dependent on the arbitrament of magistrates or courts. 11. e , is to specify the town best suited to be the headquarters of his district; to report whether it is advisable to have troops quartered, specifying the most eligible localities.  Reports are required on public buildings—churches, monasteries, convents, or mosques; towns' and villages, in order of importance, returns of populations and proportions of creeds; extent of land under cultivation, nature of crops and soil, and seasons of sowing and reaping; extent of land uncultivated, and whether belonging to the State or to individuals; extent of forests, and regulations for their protection; ports and harbours, their depth and nature, number and class of ships frequenting them; exports and imports, markets and fairs, prices of labour, corn and cattle, and so forth. Is the population armed, and with what arms? Is there any restriction on the people, either Christian or Moslem, in respect to carrying or possessing arms. In fine, these and many more points are embraced in a series o instructions and interrogatives designed to exhaust the whole subject under all its phases, and to place a universal knowledge of the island at the disposal of the new Governor; and the interesting communication containing them left Sir Garnet Wolseley very anxious to get rid, as soon as practicable, of some eight hundred prisoners in fever-stricken Nicosia, of whom the majority are villains convicted as murderers !