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

Newcastle), Lord Dalhousie and Edward Cardwell, who shared “common
characteristics” such as “proven exceptional ability, high moral integrity, marked
seriousness of purpose”. 3 Peelites, believed the “status quo could only be conserved
by an enlightened policy that took fully into consideration the claims of natural
justice and political economy”. 4 If people were treated fairly and intelligently they
would accept the rule of their betters. The object of the Peelites was to strike a
balance between the extremities of the Manchester school and the Whigs, and to
make institutions work more efficiently. 5 Although not all Peelites promoted reforms,
a juncture of this group, with the younger Whigs and Radicals, helped to revive a
metamorphosis of the old Whig-Liberal party. The formation of the Peelite-Liberal
coalition under Lord Aberdeen in December 1852 was testimony to this and Young
became Chief Secretary for Ireland and a privy councillor. 6 He retained his office
until 1855 when he was appointed Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands.
Young assumed his office in the Ionian Islands on the 13 April 1855 during the
Crimean War, during which most Ionians were sympathetic to the Greek kingdom,
which was allied to Russia. 7 Hostilities between Russia and the Ottoman Empire
3 Conacher J. B., The Peelites and the Party System, 1846-1852, (Newton Abbot, 1972), p. 16.
4 Ibid., p. 174.
5 Ibid., p. 178.
6 I was unable to find Secondary material regarding Young’s policies on Ireland that allowed me to
draw comparisons with Ionians. This included Farnsworth S., The Evolution of British Imperial
Policy. Ireland, however, figured prominently in many of his examinations of the Ionians’ character
and political behaviour. For example, on his failed Land legislation in the Septinsula, Young noted the
differences between the Irish and the Ionian Assemblies, of which the latter reverted to old Venetian
laws that kept “property in the hands of the present possessors”. See Young to Labouchere, 22 July
1857, CO 136/159.
7 Pratt M. L., Britain’s Greek Empire, p. 141; Young was concerned about the safety of his
communications with Britain during the course of the war. See Young to Labouchere, 22 March 1856,
Young Papers, Add. MS 62940.
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