CO885-(1-2) — Page 34

og kan

PUBLIC

RECORD

OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

44

duties, are placed upon a different footing in respect to what may be considered as the ostensible measure of their service, to wit, their pay, such a distinction should be felt as obnoxious by those whom it affects unfavorably; and must, consequently, tend to estrange the natives from our protection. Such a distinctive contrast is exhibited in the highest Judicial Tribunal, where the duties being identical, the two Ionians receive a salary of only £665 each, whilst the two British Judges receive each a salary of £1,065 sterling.

In the Senate, too, whilst pay is attached to the office, it is not too much in the senators, to expect to be placed in point of salary upon a higher footing than their secretary. This, however, is not the case; the secretary of that body for the general department, (being a British subject) has the same pay as a senator, (£765 per annum) whilst the secretaries of the two other departments contemplated by the constitution being Ionians, receive only £263.

I night enumerate other instances, and show that the offices of treasurer, auditor, collector, &c., held, as they are by Englishinen, are all favorably distinguished in this respect, and the functionaries filling them receive from the Ionian treasury (and this generally too in addition to half-pay from the British Government) equal or higher salaries than are enjoyed by the first local functionaries of the State-the Regents of the re- spective Islands, and the Judges of the superior courts.

In offering these remarks I need scarcely observe that it is far from my wish, or intention, to make any reduction of salaries, during the service of the present very meritorious individuals; but merely to point out the justice and expediency, prospectively, of equalizing, in some degree, the salaries of British and Ionian employés."

The existing distinction is a source of irritation to Ionians, and the disposition to displace British functionaries gains ground accordingly, since by so doing they attain a double object, namely abolishing a distinction offensive to their self-love, and in effecting which they can plead a greater economy of expenditure,

Having made this sacrifice,* I do not shrink from the responsibility of declaring further that in policy, as well as in equity, a nearer approximation in amount of salary, and a diminution of the number of offices to which natives of Britain are eligible, should take place in proportion as British connection teaches habits of business, and as the intelligence of the people is improved, practically, by the advancement making in education and learning. But it is perhaps the most deplorable effects of want of pecuniary means, that public instruction must, I fear, be checked; whilst there is the highest degree of political expediency, superadded to the soundest moral necessity, for pushing it with increasing vigour, under the particular circumstances in which these States are at present placed, in order to emancipate them, in the only rational manner, from that spiritual dominion which is exercised over them by the Head of their Church, the Patriarch of Con- stantinople; who, probably under the influence of Russia, is already endeavouring to thwart and obstruct the exertions I am making to promote learning and education in these States.

The foregoing observations are sufficiently plain and strong to show, the justice, and the expediency, of remitting some part of the contribution for the last financial year; and further, for taking into favorable consideration the propriety of remitting temporarily. or of making some diminution in the amount now paid, as certainly beyond the means of the State, and, therefore, not surplus revenue.

But I do not confine this appeal to a contingent remission or abatement of the con- tribution. I take the higher ground, at once, of most earnestly representing the vast expediency, for reasons above all pecuniary value, of declining to receive anything like a tribute exacted out of a revenue so limited, and raised chiefly by excessive duties on production and industry; which, on the contrary, should be reduced first, and repealed altogether so soon as other sources of revcuue may become available.

In my despatch of 2nd March last, No. 9, I represented, that the only way of en- abling these States to continue the payment of the contribution and other charges on necount of military proetetion, and at the same time to have disposable revenue for in- ternal improvement, would be to increase taxation; but this I am now advisedly and fully convinced is impracticable, and, if attempted, would occasion serious desorders, aggravate, excite, and accelerate the tendencies which I have represented as the resultants- of the present arrangement,

Either then the contribution must be remitted or diminished, or this country must remain unimproved.

I intreat your Lordship to bring these alternatives under the serious consideration of your colleagues as questions of vast importance. If they think fit, bring the subject before Parliament; move for the production of this despatch, or of such extracts as your Lordship may please to approve.

The case, in pecuniary terms, is before every Member of the House of Commons, by the contribution of £35,000 (being a part of £766,423 credited in the army estimates of 1838-91, paid out of a limited and inadequate revenue as "appropriation in aid" of the Parliamentary estinate of £7,524,185 for the military expenditure of the British Biopire.

The payment of a fixed tribute, exacted for the "military occupation" of an inde-

⚫ Page 38. Namely, of reducing a considerable number of British employés.

45

pendent State, the people of which are admitted to no participation in the honours or emoluments of the service to which they are bound to contribute, places that State in the condition of a conquered and subjected country, not in the friendly relations of a protected people, taken under the generous, liberal, and paternal wing of a great nation.

suin of

Let the appeal be thus made. Let it be shown that the enormous £1,163,409* sterling has altogether been abstracted from the revenues of these States, on account of British protection and management, since the establishment of the Constitutional Government in 1817, to the last financial year, exclusive of the charges for 1815 and 1816, of which no correct accounts have been kept. Let it be explained, that, during the last year, £35,000 was paid for military protection; £15,000 for the civil list of the Lord High Commissioner, his residents in the Islands, his secretary, the British judges, and other functionaries; and, moreover, £4,019 for the payment of other British employés in the service of these States; amounting altogether to £54,000,† or thirty-three and a third rent. on a revenue of £162,000, extracted, as I have shown, upon the worst of principles, that of taxing industry and production, by laying heavy imposts on the shipment of the staple productions of the country to external markets.

per

The average amount of duties levied on the exports of oil, currants, and wine, during the four last years, are

Oil Currants Wine

£31,900 44,800 3,291

amounting together to £79,991, which is about forty-eight per cent., or about half the

revenue.

No one who reads this statement but must admit the uncommon liberality of the Ionian Government and Parliament, in contributing so largely towards the military ex- penditure and British management of these States; and it cannot but be admitted, that taxation is pushed to an inordinate extent to enable them to do so.

These burthens are very unequally distributed, according to the existing finance system. The Islands of Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo, and Paxo, so far from contributing anything to the State, require to be assisted by it for the payment of their establishment.

First, Santa Maura to the average extent of

£4,462 9 11 2,671 0 10 2,966 10 11 3,838 4 7

Ithaca Cerigo

PAXO

a year; so that the larger Islands are taxed, to an enormous amount, not only for the expence of their own municipal establishments, and the general Government, but for the civil establishments of the minor Islands, and the payment of the contribution to the Pro- tecting State.

It was wisely said by His Majesty's Government, when application was made to reduce the duties levied, in the United Kingdom, on the importation of currants and other productions of these countries, that the duties at this end of the voyage, those upon export, should first be reduced or repealed.

The reproach was most just; and I have always felt it quicken my endeavours to make a gradual transition from the vicious and self-destructive principle of raising revenue upon industry and production, to the better mode of levying it on importation of articles for general consumption.

But how is this to be done? manifestly by diminishing the expenditure of these States, since the revenue cannot be increased.

I did not presume, my Lord, to make this appeal for a diminution in the payment inade by this Government to Great Britain, until I should have succeeded in diminishing. in other respects, the expenditure. This has now been effected to the net amount of £18,000 sterling a year. Shall it be said that these States are by thus much the able to pay the contribution to England? What, reduce situations and salaries, diminish greatly, or entirely suspend, the execution of public works, of the first necessity, to meet the exigencies of a declining revenue, that the payment to Great Britain may remain

constant.

more

Were the contribution diminished or remitted, the relief afforded might be imme- diately applied, in the most beneficial and fostering manner possible, to the sources of a better system of taxation, by enabling the Government to reduce vicious and self- destructive duties on exportation, and, eventually, to repeal them altogether.

The whole duties on export of oil and currants are nineteen and a half per cent., of

• Paid on account of military protection from February, 1818 to the end of 1837

X673,409

Ditto on account of the civil establishments of the Lord High Commissioner, his

official establishment, residents, judges, and othera Ditto paid on account of military protection and management for 1815-16

440,000

50,000

£1,163,409

The civil list of the Ionian States provides also for the payment of the General Officer com- manding the troops, relieving by so much the British Treasury of the expense it would otherwise have 10 bear for that service.

+ Despatch from Colonial Department, No. 30, Mareli 98, 1823.

N

4