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

Representative Constitutions” and Britain. 54 Stanley saw the influence of the
Canadian experience on Seaton’s Constitutional reforms in the Septinsula.
After the negative response from the Colonial Office, Seaton momentarily let
the matter rest. The following year, leadership in the Colonial Office changed, with
Gladstone becoming Colonial Secretary from December 1845 to June 1846. Seaton
focused his reports on the economic, moral and educational improvements his
reforms had achieved. He explicitly represented rural and urban Islanders as active
and industrious, lively and secure, gaining in intelligence, continuing his campaign
to improve perceptions of the Ionian character. 55
The theory of responsible government and the Ionian Islands.
In June 1846 Henry George Grey, the third Earl Grey, became Colonial
Secretary. A liberal Whig, he had championed Catholic emancipation and
parliamentary reform. During his six years as Colonial Secretary, Grey’s liberal
colonial principles would change Britain’s relationship with the Empire. He
advocated local control of municipal government, which he believed was a necessary
step towards responsible government. He was familiar with the workings of the
Colonial Office, having been appointed parliamentary Under-Secretary in 1830
during his father’s ministry. As Under-Secretary, Grey exercised considerable
influence and pursued his own reformist initiatives. 56 He resigned in 1832 after a
dispute with Lord Stanley over the system of apprenticeship for slaves in the West
54 See minutes in Seaton to Stanley, 1 January 1845, CO 136/123.
55 Seaton to Gladstone, 14 April 1846, CO 136/124.
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