Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T22:03:06.471Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

XVI - THE CESSION OF THE IONIAN ISLANDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2011

Get access

Summary

TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY NEWS.”

Sir,—The cession of the Ionian Islands may now, I presume, be regarded as a settled thing, whatever difficulties of detail as to the mode and conditions may remain to be surmounted. One useless dependency is taken from our burden of empire; one issue of wasteful expenditure is staunched; one act of moderation has been freely performed; and now, I suppose, the prestige, the glory, the power of England are gone for ever. Those who love England and her cause hang down their heads; her enemies and the enemies of her cause exult. We are sunk in the scale of nations.

Let the advocates of aggrandisement tell us whether in the whole history of English diplomacy a more successful stroke has been made than this. People talk of moral force, of its superiority to physical force, and of the advantage of having it on your side. Now they see what moral force means. Now they see what it is, in an age when opinion is mistress of the world, to touch the heart and the reason of mankind.

“The case of the Ionian Islands,” said Sir W. Molesworth, “is a capital instance of the manner in which public money has been thrown away upon worthless Colonies on the absurdest pleas. In 1815 the great Powers of Europe, not knowing what to do with the free and independent states of the Ionian Islands, placed them under the protection of Great Britain.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Empire: A Series of Letters
Published in 'The Daily News', 1862, 1863
, pp. 245 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010
First published in: 1863

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×