.
42
acting covertly in accordance with the wishes of the worst enemies of British connection and of British interest, here and elsewhere.
To enable your Lordship to judge precisely of the paralysing effects that must be produced on the internal improvement of these islands, by the inability of the Government to undertake or execute those public works, and to form and uphold institutions of the first necessity to the improvement of the country, I shall here state, that above one-third of the revenue of these States is absorbed in payments incidental to British protection and management. This I shall show hereafter in detail.
The above fact is sufficient to explain the moral and political detriment which this enormous abstraction of revenue is calculated to inflict upon the character of Great Britain, by enabling the enemies of British connection to show what a vast burthen is imposed permanently upon these States on that account, and in a great measure for British objects.
This enormous proportion of their revenue is certainly far greater than these States can afford to
pay, under present circumstances, with due regard to the wants of the country and the necessities of the people; and, consequently, far beyond what it is creditable for Great Britain to accept: and the exaction of such sums explains why, after above a quarter of a century of British protection and management, so little has been done to aid improvement in the interior by draining, and to relieve the people from the serious ills to which they are exposed in their health and social condition, by allowing to remain uncultivated and unim- proved, a naturally fertile territory.
It is true that a good deal has been done towards internal improvement, by the con- struction of great roads, and by some progress having been made in public instruction. But the former are, as yet, limited to the trunks, they do not extend to the branches, by opening communications with the far greater number of villages: and statute labour having been repealed before my time, there is no way of executing these works but by revenue means, and these are so insufficient that, far from extending the great roads, and construct- ing branch roads to the villages (without which the former are comparatively of little use) the existing roads are actually falling into a state of deterioration.
In the cities and towns, there is some appearance of an improved and more comfortable condition of society: but that contrasts unfavourably with the general backward state of the rural population, from causes I have mentioned.
The revenue of the country having been almost entirely appropriated to charges for British protection, and to keep up the establishments by which to employ the upper classes, little or nothing has been available to works of internal improvement; and this, by indis- posing or detering proprietors from residing on their properties, has tended to widen, the gap which, in this island more especially, has so long separated the inhabitants of the town from the rural population. This estrangement is perpetuated by the undefined, compli- cated, and vicious system of land tenure, which by rating the rental or contribution of the holder in perpetual lease, by the ratio of improvement, weighs upon the industrious and falls lightly upon the slothful, checks progression, and excites discord between the pro- prietor and occupant: and, in its tendency and effects upon society, may be regarded as a counterpart of the arrangement which I am now deprecating politically. Nor can the foundations of a sound and healthful state of society, in a statistical sense, be brought about but by a gradual execution of those great works of internal improvement which I have already brought before your Lordship, and with your approbation submitted to the Legisla- tive Assembly. These can only be undertaken and accomplished by disposable revenue means, which this Government does not possess and never can possess, until material amelio- rations are made in the industry of the country, and in the system of finance, ameliorations remote, if not impracticable, unless the charges for protection be remitted (at least for a time) or very considerably diminished.
Several important Parliamentary enactments were passed during the last session, in conformity with my recommendations, but little or no progress can be made in carrying these into effect, without assistance from the public purse; and, unhappily the great defalcation in the revenue, occasioned by the late ungenial season, not only puts this out of the power of the Government, but has obliged them to suspend all the public works actually under exe- cution, and amongst these I particularly regret the stoppage of an organic work of the first importance to the improvement of the statistics of the country, I mean a survey of the Islands, trigonometrical, statistical, topographical, without which nothing relating to division of property, great works of drainage, &c., &c., can be properly laid down, organized, and executed.
I am well aware of the great importance which Her Majesty's Government, and your Lordship in particular, attach to the erection of suitable prisons, and to well-arranged systems of prison discipline in all countries under British management or control. Here, in Corfu, the only prisou for criminals is the ruined buildings in Fort Abraham, where, without the space or conveniences necessary for classification or solitary confinement, criminals of all de- grees, and of all ages, are mingled together; and these wretched abodes are the only asy- Jums which these States have been able to provide for the idiot and the maniac, of which
4:3
there are a great many in these Islands, and of whom several may be seen at large in the country, and in the streets of the cities.
I have appropriated the buildings of another old fort, which is sentenced to demo- lition, for the temporary reception of the lunatics now in the prisons of this Island; but these, as well as the criminals in Fort Abraham, must be withdrawn, whenever those forts are taken on hand, according to the military arrangements now decided upon. And although your Lordship is already in possession of all particulars of the circumstances which have so long protracted the building of a prison in Corfu, and the very serious consequences of such a want, yet I cannot dismiss the subject here without expressing in the strongest possible terms, that, when Forts Abraham and Roque shall be taken in hand, the one for the purpose of being fortified, the other for demolition* (and orders are every day expected by the engineers to do this), the prisoners must be removed from the one, and the lunatics from the other, and there is no other locality of any kind that can be substituted, even as a tem- porary receptacle, so that I am really at a loss to know, how, or in what manner these un- fortunate persons are to be provided for.
In Santa Maura the only receptacles for criminals are the casemates of the Fort, There, tou, as well as in Cefalonia and Zante, there are no other asylums for the insane than the prisons, no penitentiaries; no asylums for the blind; no poor-houses; and the civil hospitals everywhere are defective, for want of suitable buildings."
I may be allowed here to make a comparison with a neighbouring Island, which did not come by cession or Treaty, but by conquest, under British dominion.
The amount defrayed by the Government of Malta, from public funds, for institutions,
and purposes of charity was, last year, £24,333 8s. 1d.; or upwards of two-thirds of the contribution paid by the Ionian Government for military protection. Or, in other terms, the Government of Malta for necessary institutions appropriated about a fourth of its reve- nue, and for military purposes less than a twentieth, whilst the Ionian Government is obliged to pay nearly a fourth for military purposes, and to suspend all outlay for useful and neces- sary works and charities, to enable it to meet that charge.
The impolicy of this, not to use a stronger term, becomes still more apparent when it boru in mind that the Maltese at least are admitted into both branches of the service, whilst there is no instance of an Ionian holding rank in either.
With respect to the number of employés in these States, there is a necessity and political expediency not to limit the civil establishments, absolutely and high degree of rigidly, to the number of persons necessary to do the work; but to employ be taken into the service of the Government, so far as is consistent with a far distribution of expenditure to the different means of the State.
as many as can
The moral necessity to do this, consists in finding employment at home for the youth of the Islands, of which vast numbers are at present unemployed, and of encouraging, in this manner, education, particularly homet education, by affording young men opportunities of applying it usefully in their own country. The political expediency of doing this is manifest, when it is considered how large a portion of their means is applied to British functiona- ries and British objects; and that, of the hundreds of young Tonians out of employment, the majority either feel, or represent the exclusion of which they complain, as the con- sequence of British connection, and look forward to certain political changes as essential to the opening of professional careers to them in their own land. In a confederation of insular States, at considerable distances from each other, this principle, viz: of employing numbers of their youth require still greater extension than in a union of continental provinces ; whilst here in particular, it is in the highest degree necessary to propitiate the municipal bodies of the several Islands, by employing therein considerable numbers of their influential persons, giving them consideration and importance.
In pressing the expediency of this, I would not be understood to advocate the creation of sinecure places to provide for idle or incompetent persons; but that the revenues of the Islands, respectively, should be as much as possible applied to the advancement of industry, and the improvement of local institutions by the appointment of fitting persons who would give their time and attention to so laudable an object. But so far from regulating the number of Ionian functionaries by these considerations, I see myself obliged to urge reductions of emoluments, and the abolition of several situations, as absolutely necessary to enable these States to pay the contribution to Great Britain.
It has been a subject of great regret to me to find myself under the necessity of letting this retrenchment take its full course with respect to British subjects in the service of these States; but justice demanded the sacrifice; for, in addition to the objection of reducing natives, whilst an undue proportion of foreigners is in the pay of the State, a considerable degree of soreness is naturally felt by Ionians at the favour shown to natives of Great Britain holding appointments in the Ionian service, by the higher salaries which they generally enjoy. This may have been necessary at first, and may be justifiable still; but it is natural that where natives, filling similar situations, and performing like
* In Corfu....
In Cefalonia
In Zante..
7
In Santa Maura
7
In Pazo
7
In Ithaca
1
* Address and Message to Assembly, Session 1837.
Brought under notice of Government in despatch to Lord Glenelg of 21st April. 1896. No. 125. ↑ Despatch Home, 29th July, 1835.
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