Commanding in Chief further commanded me to observe that it was, in his opinion, fortunate that the inspection of the 38th Regiment had so opportunely brought you to the island, where your personal direction and authority have been exerted with so much advantage to the public service."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

EFFECTS A COUP D'ÉTAT.

THOUGH taking a wide range, Sir Howard's hospitalities had a limit: the doors of the palace were shut against such of the English functionaries and residents as had formed loose connexions. To have extended the same rule to the Ionians would have been to proclaim an interdict, and hence he was more rigorous with the English, by whose example he hoped to put the prevailing corruption to shame. He had conceived the design of raising the Ionians to the English level-as near as might be; and proposed to base their regeneration on a scheme of general education and a new system of laws. The difficulty of such a work may be understood from the character given of them by Sir Thomas Maitland, than whom no one knew them better:-"To a British mind," he writes, "the feelings of the people of these countries are equally repugnant and revolting, and it does require a positive experience and knowledge of their character to be able to make up one's mind to the belief that people exist with principles so degrading and feelings so debased. . . . . They are much fonder of Russian than of British liberty, and they would prefer any Government, however corrupt and tyrannical, to the only one Great Britain can ever wish to give them-one that would tend to their

general happiness, prosperity, and security. I doubt much, to say the truth, whether the character most dreaded and most detested in these countries is not that of an honest and upright man.'

Sir Thomas Maitland's description is corroborated by a French traveller, M. Lacour, who visited Zante in 1832, and notices the islanders in an account of his travels published two years later:-"Aussi à nous Français confient-ils qu'ils détestent souverainement les Anglais, et Zante serait en notre pouvoir; qu'ils adresseraient aux Russes les mêmes vœux et les mêmes plaintes. Le Grec est l'homme le plus vain, le plus ingrat, le plus léger de tous les hommes. Le Zantiote sous ce rapport est plus que Grec; il porte ses vices de lâcheté, de perfidie, et de fanatisme a l'extrême."

The French opinion of the Greeks will not be raised by their tender of the Crown to Prince Alfred, but this has shown them in a better light in England, and corroborates the testimony they received from Sir Howard-that their vices are caused by their rulers, and show a redeeming margin. He was not for leaving this barbarism unchecked in the case of the Ionians, but sought to effect a reformation. The principles he kept in view are unfolded in a despatch to the Colonial Secretary, on the 25th of April, 1839:

"A sense of national dignity, and all the high and noble sympathies which so peculiarly distinguish our country, unite in requiring us to show that we are not actuated solely by selfish motives in retaining possession of these islands, and that we recognise the moral obligation that rests with us, above all

others, to dispense the blessings of internal improvements, education, and civilisation which Great Britain has it so much in her power to confer, and which may realise to these people, and exhibit to adjoining nations, the peculiar advantages which accrue to all who have the happiness to be connected with our great nation.

"As the right of initiation, the power of control, and the responsibility of execution, rest in so high a degree with the protecting country, so the obligation is the more binding, the duty the more sacred, for that country to exercise vigilance and activity in pressing forward discreetly and rationally all measures tending to improve the moral and political condition of these States, to bring the people to that point which may admit of such modifications and changes in their constitution as should be consequent upon and cannot safely precede an improved state of society.

"But this sacred duty will be but indifferently discharged, and these splendid prospects but imperfectly realised, if, whilst establishing firmly our military possession of these islands, we do not evince a still greater solicitude to secure ourselves as firmly in the affections and confidence of the people by devoting ourselves to the internal improvement of the country, and by treating the people in all respects with as much favour as we show to the interests of the inhabitants of our other possessions. But truth and a strong sense of duty compel me to declare that the internal state of the country, the moral and physical state of the people, have not been benefited by British connexion so far as to protect us hereafter from the

reproach of having attended less to their interests than our own."

It might seem there could be no opposition to a ruler so alive to his duties, and so sensible of what had been left undone. But this was a character the Ionians did not want. They saw in him an enemy of abuses and a promoter of economy, while they were all looking for a job or sinecure. He aimed at the public good, and they at their private advantage, raving about their country, but offering to sell it for a mess of potage. They could not understand benevolent designs framed to elevate a wretched community, and everything Sir Howard proposed with such a view appeared to them a deception and snare. He had urged the Colonial Secretary to remit the tribute of 35,000l. paid by the islands towards the military expenses, and represented that a fund would thus accrue for internal improvements; but he did not allow the fact of his having made an application to transpire, fearing that it might be rejected, as proved to be the result. The same reserve was not practised in England, and the secret oozed out, whence it might be expected that the Ionians overwhelmed him with gratitude. But the effect was very different. The Cavalier Mustoxidi accused him of seeking the remission of the tribute by stealth, in order to get it into his own hands, and thus secure the means of covering appropriations from the revenue applied to his private use !1

1 Lord John Russell thus speaks of this charge in a despatch to Sir Howard Douglas of the 4th of June, 1840:-"I can only therefore reprobate conduct so unworthy of respect, and assure you of the continued confidence of the Queen whom you have the honour to serve."