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

eginning of a multiplicity of voices in British debates in the early nineteenth
century regarding the ways in which Britain should rule her European territories.
Chapter three describes the contrasting policies, attitudes and treatment of the
Ionians of two British governors, the liberal and philhellene Lord Nugent (1832-
1835) and the conservative Sir Howard Douglas (1835-1841). In the 1830s Ionian
opposition was mostly confined to demands for liberal constitutional reform
expressed by the Ionian Liberali. In 1839 Douglas’s persistent refusal to listen to
Ionian demands for representative institutions, such as the freedom of the press, and
the system of elections, led to Andreas Mustoxidi’s (a Deputy of Ionian Parliament),
mission to London. The Colonial Office under Lord John Russell’s leadership
rejected Mustoxidi’s requests, but briefly considered more liberal forms of
government without any effect.
Chapter four explores the administration of John Colborne - Lord Seaton -
(1843-1849), a Canadian veteran of the Empire. Seaton expressed a new liberal line
in British policy in the Ionian Islands allowing, for example, the establishment of
political clubhouses, political gatherings and printsing houses. In May 1848 he
reformed the Ionian constitution, allowing a free press and the control of the finances
by the Ionian Assembly. Existing historiography has explained Seaton’s liberal
policies as reactions to the revolutionary movements of 1848 that took place in
Europe. It does not consider how he carried the Canadian reform agenda for
representative government with him to the Ionian Islands, and from his arrival in the
Islands in 1843 advocated devolution of authority rather than centralised colonial
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