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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Such a change being favourably entertained at home, would greatly excite the public mind and be productive of much mischief.

But as the right of initiation, the power of control, and the responsibility of execution do, in virtue of this constitution, rest in so high a degree with the protecting country-so the obligation is the more binding, the duty more sacred, for that country to exercise vigi- Jance and activity in pressing forward discreetly and rationally all measures tending to im- prove 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 con- sequent upon, but cannot safely precede, an improved stage of society-when a free, but not a licentious press may find less to censure than to approve in national institutions, and when a constitution based upon principles of rational freedom, shall concede those privi- leges and powers which it is right should be bestowed when they may become a boon-but which, placed prematurely in the hands of ignorance and prejudice, were neither prudent nor beneficial.

But this sacred duty will be but indifferently discharged, and these splendid prospects but imperfectly realized, if, whilst establishing, firmly, our military possession of these Islands, we do not evince a still greater solicitude to secure ourselves 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 any 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 condition of the people, have not been benefitted by British connection, so far as to protect us hereafter from the reproach of having attended less to their interests than to our own. Immense sums have been abstracted from their limited revenues, to adapt the military defences more particularly to objects of purely British policy: whilst the interior of the country has been suffered to remain in an un- healthy and unimproved state.

Superficial observers may see in the splendid military works we are constructing, in the improvements effected in this city, and in others, evident traces of the consequences naturally produced by the money expended in those undertakings; but I have often rejoiced that few have seen the proofs, which I have witnessed, and night adduce, of a very wretched and backward state of society in remoter parts of the several Islands, which would be greatly improved were larger portions of the revenue of these States devoted to works and purposes of internal improvement, and which cannot be effected without such aid.

Do not then, my Lord, let us wait until a case made out of such truths as these, be appealed, as undoubtedly they will some day be, to Her Majesty the Protecting Sovereign or Her Ministry, or forced, perhaps, upon the notice of Parliament, by the publicity, which may be given to opinions and observations, which are beginning already to make their way. If I shall be considered to have made out a case deserving of the special consideration of Her Majesty's Government, the munificence of our beloved Sovereign, and the liberality of Her Parliament, take the initiative, my Lord, in this great course. amount of the tribute paid by these States is scarcely calculable, in pecuniary terms, in The per centage the sum of upwards of £7,000,000 voted by Parliament, for the expense of the military establishment of the British Empire; but, remitted as it ought to be for political and moral reasons, it loses all its insignificancy, and becomes at once a consideration of the greatest inagnitude, as applied to the necessities, and laid out on the internal improvement of this country.

Such an act of munificence would place British protection and British possession, firm in the self interest, gratitude, confidence and affection, of this people; and it would preclude, effectually the representations which otherwise the Government of the country must be prepared to receive upon the amount and effect of the contribution, and its rate- ability with the amount of revenue, and the extent of the military establishment within the Islands. It would extend, vastly, the moral influence of Britain in all the circumjacent countries; and it would tend, in an eminent degree, to the honour and reputation of our Beloved country, everywhere and always.

The pecuniary obligation I should not propose to rescind. It would be better should Her Majesty be advised to forego exacting it, in its present amount, or wholly for any par- ticular period, that Her Majesty should state that, whilst duly appreciating the conduct of Luis Government in its wish to relieve Great Britain from the expense to which she is exposed in the military defence of these States, yet having received, from Her Lord High Commissioner, strong representations of the wants of the country and the necessities of the people, for which the limited revenue of these States is unable sufficiently to provide, Her Majesty has directed Her Lord High Commissioner to communicate to the Government of these States, that he is authorized to give up such part, or the whole of that sum for the ensuing year, or for five years, as the case may be, to be laid out in such works of internal improvement as may be deemed by the Senate, with the approbation of the Lord High Commissioner, most beneficial to the country.

I cannot help entertaining a belief that neither your Lordship, nor your immediate predecessors, would have approved of such an arrangement as the one now subsisting, had all the circumstances and hearings of the case, as I have represented it, been fully before the Government.

It would not become me to communicate to any person, except your Lordship, the a. st rem is expression of these opinions; and it would not be consistent with my feelings

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and duty towards your Lordship, that I should clothe this despatch in an official form. without your Lordship's sanction and approbation,

If your Lordship be deterred from this by any apprehension of giving unbrage to the noble person by whom I was instructed to complete the pecuniary arrangement which now subsists between Great Britain and these States, according to the project which originated before his Lordship's time; your Lordship might not perhaps be averse to communicate with that noble person, and even with his immediate predecessors, upon this subject. And I most sincerely hope that they, as well as your Lordship, will admit that nothing but the pecuniary sacrifice, can be objected to the course I recommend, and that it will be deemed the minor consideration.

Lord Glenely.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

No. 19.

Sir Howard Douglas to Lord Glenelg,

HOWARD DOUGLAS.

My Lord,

Corfu, February 15, 1839. AT the sitting of the Senate, which took place on the 7th of the present month, Dr. Plessa, the Senator for Zante, moved that "the new constitutional clause relative to the expenditure for military protection should be printed." lie said, "he considered this clause as interesting in itself, and in the application which it might require in respect to the measure of contribution which fluctuates with the revenue. He added, that whilst acts of much less importance were printed, this, which made a part of the constitution, could not be objected to." He further declared, "that it was his intention to make an ulterior proposition to the Senate in reference to the said clause."

Owing to the unavoidable length of the interval between the ratification of the consti- tutional arrangement in 1886 and the communication of it to the Legislative Assembly at the commencement of the ordinary session in the following year, the terms of the ratified clause became matter of general notoriety, and losing the interest of novelty before His Majesty's pleasure was officially made known to the Assembly, the expediency of printing it was overlooked in the hurry and pressure of business inseparable from the opening of session which could not but be important, and threatened to be tempestuous. But the remedy is obvious and simple. Printed copies of the charter have become so scarce as to render a new edition, if not absolutely necessary, at least, highly desirable. I shall, there- fore, recommend to his Highness the President to admit Dr. Plessa's demand, and to give it effect by proposing that a new and corrected edition of the Charter, which shall contain the new Article, be forthwith prepared and printed.

Thus the substantive part of Dr. Plessa's motion is easily disposed of, not so the measures of which he has given notice.

The members of the actual Senate being about to quit their high position and take their places in the Legislative Assembly, as integral members of that body, naturally wish to regain the eminence from which they have descended, and various are the means by which they propose to attain their object. Dr. Plessa having been a hollow friend during the quinquenium, is now one of those who hope to frighten the Government into compli- ance with his wishes, by devoting his oratorical powers and the influence which he exer- cises over a certain class of his countrymen, to popular opposition, and with that view has fixed upon the new Article of the Constitutional Charter for his coup d'essai. He may perhaps have overrated both his talents and his importance, but it must be admitted that he has betrayed no want of skill in the choice of his point of attack; and in the present state of affairs he must be far less dexterous than I suppose him to be, if he fail to pro- duce a powerful effect, not only in the Assembly but in the country at large, and all to the prejudice of the Protecting Power,

I am yet ignorant of your Lordship's sentiments with regard to the opinions set forth in my private and separate despatch of the 21st June last, and have hitherto care- fully abstained from pressing for an avowal of them. Nevertheless the subject of that letter has continued to receive my most serious attention; and the result of more mature consideration, aided by six months of additional experience, is a more decided conviction of the soundness of my views and the necessity for again urging your Lordship to take some measure grounded upon them. Therefore the motion of Dr. Plessa, although it affords an argument of no small weight in favour of the canse I advocate, can scarcely be said to have induced me to recur to it on the present occasion.

The points principally dwelt upon in my former appeal are, the unclue ratio which the sum paid for military protection bears to the average revenue of the country. The conse- quent impossibility of applying any part of the revenue to public improvement, or even to provide the means of assisting the poorer inhabitants in the evert of their suffering from any of those visitations to which these Islands are subject-the withdrawing of two battalions from the command subsequently to the completion of the arrangement; the general want of employment; and the equally general penury.

The remedies recommended were a modification. if not a remission, of the contribu

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