Constructing Ionian identities: the Ionian Islands in British official ...

Charles Grant, Lord Glenelg, was a liberal Tory, supporter of free trade and
Catholic emancipation, and was appointed Colonial Secretary in 1835 during
Melbourne’s administration. However, not all prominent Whigs, especially the Home
Secretary, Lord John Russell, supported Glenelg’s participation in the cabinet as
Glenelg had not voted for the Great Reform Act. Glenelg was considered liberal and
a humanitarian in the treatment of indigenous peoples in the Empire. In December
1835, Glenelg forbade Sir Benjamin D’Urban, governor of the Cape, to annex the
Queen Adelaide Province, a region predominantly settled by the indigenous Xhosa
population but coveted by white settlers. 81 Glenelg also opposed the influx of British
settlers into New Zealand partly because of his concern for the fate of the Maoris and
persisted in his policy until 1837. 82
In the Ionian Islands, however, Glenelg presented his authoritarian side and
was against altering the Ionian Constitution of 1817. It was one thing to be
humanitarian and liberal to the depredations of settlers against native peoples, but it
was quite another to relinquish imperial control over a European territory important
geopolitically and strategically for Britain’s policies in the Mediterranean. Glenelg
supported Douglas and believed “…the abolition of the existing restrictions would
rather be an injury, than a good to the Ionian people”. 83 But the Ionians’ cultural and
educational deficiencies were not the reasons Glenelg rejected their right to freedom
81 Lester A., Imperial Networks: Creating identities in nineteenth century South Africa and Britain,
(London and New York, 2001), chapters 2, 5.
82 Adams P., Fatal Necessity: British Intervention in New Zealand 1830-1847, (Auckland, 1977), p.
101.
83 Ibid.
169