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

causes was not unknown in Britain where, throughout the 1850s, British liberals and
radicals had shown moral, material and political assistance for the Polish, Hungarian,
and Italian nationalists. 30 In August 1859 a dispatch from Foreign Secretary Russell
was published in which he argued “the people of Tuscany… have the right which
belongs to the people of every independent State, to regulate their own internal
government”. 31 From 1859, British politicians and diplomats began to work towards
the formation of a unified Italian state which supported Britain's foreign and
diplomatic interests in the region. 32 There were increased expectations concerning
the issue of annexation to Greece after another dispatch from Russell to Sir James
Hudson, Britain’s representative in Turin, was published in October 1860 in which
Russell advocated British support for the ongoing process of Italian unification,
arguing Italians were the “best judges of their own interests”. 33
Despite his support for Italian unification, Russell argued this doctrine did not
extend to the Ionian Islands, a Protectorate “imposed” on Britain “in the interest not
only of England but of Europe”. He feared unification between the Ionians “to that
section of the race which forms the present Kingdom of Greece” would cause a
“disturbance of the Political arrangements of all South-Eastern Europe, without
30 O'Connor M., The Romance of Italy, Chap. 3; Brock, P. “Polish Democrats and English Radicals,
1832-1862: A Chapter in the History of Anglo-Polish Relations”, in Journal of Modern History, 25
(June 1953), pp. 139-56; Finn, M. After Chartism, Chapters 4 and 5.
31 Wolff H. D., Rambling Recollections, (London, 1908), p. 368.
32 Russell, Palmerston, and James Hudson were particularly active in promoting a unified Italy.
O'Connor M., The Romance of Italy, pp. 127-36.
33 Wolff H. D., Rambling Recollections, p. 369; Beales D., England and Italy, 1859-1860, (London,
1961); Clarke J., British Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, 1782-1865: the National Interest, (London,
1989), chapter 5; Woolf S., The Italian Risorgimento, (London, 1969); O’Connor M., The Romance of
Italy, especially chapters 3 and 5; Finn M., After Chartism., chapter 6.
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