“Their regret is increased by finding that General Grivas, who so recently engaged in open rebellion against the Throne, has been appointed to succeed him.”
As to this point, one would have thought the King of Greece was himself the best judge.
“Her Majesty’s Government do not propose to interfere in the matter; since, however unjust the deprivation of General Church may have been, and however injudicious the elevation of his successor, these acts were certainly within the competence of the Greek Government.”
This is very handsome and candid.
“But,” continues the non-interfering Minister, “though her Majesty’s Government abstain from interfering, they deem it an imperative duty on their part—considering the position in which Great Britain stands with regard to Greece, as a creating and guaranteeing Power, to express—”
They do not interfere— “to express in the strongest terms their sense of the injustice done to Sir Richard Church, one of the best, most disinterested, and most efficient supporters of Greek independence, by an abrupt and ungracious dismissal, unaccompanied by any word of commendation or acknowledgment of his great services to Greece, and also their sense of the excess of imprudence and impolicy exhibited in the appointment to one of the most responsible offices under the Crown of a man whose recent conduct has shown him to be an enemy to the Throne, and a deliberate perverter of order and discipline.”
This was written by the Minister who never interfered with the internal arrangements of other Powers.
“Her Majesty’s Government,” continues this mild despatch, “consider themselves fully warranted by the overt acts of General Grivas himself, in instructing you to make known these sentiments distinctly in their name to the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as to the King himself—as well as to the King himself, should a favorable opportunity present itself and at the same time to warn His Majesty seriously—seriously and solemnly of the danger to which he will expose his country and his Throne by a perseverance in so fatal a line of policy as that which he has lately pursued.”
The writer of this despatch condemns me for my despatch of the 19th of July, 1846, addressed to Sir Henry Bulwer—a despatch which was not to be communicated to the Sovereign; and the concluding paragraph of which the Right Honorable Baronet might as well have read, when he read the other portion of it, because after stating to Sir Henry Bulwer that, having just come into office, we thought it was essential that we should explain to him the views we entertained as to the position of Spain, and as to the conduct of the Spanish Government, the despatch concluded with the following passage:
“It was certainly not for the purpose of subjecting the Spanish nation to a grinding tyranny, that Great Britain entered into the engagements of the quadruple alliance of 1835, and gave, in pursuance of the stipulations of that treaty, that active assistance, which contributed so materially to the expulsion of Don Carlos from Spain. But her Majesty’s Government are so sensible of the inconvenience of interfering, even by friendly advice, in the internal affairs of independent States, that I have to abstain from giving you instructions to make any representations whatever to the Spanish Ministers on these matters. But, though you will, of course, take care to express on no occasion on these subjects sentiments different from those which I have thus explained to you; and although you will be careful not to express those sentiments in any manner or upon any occasion so as to be likely to create, increase, or encourage discontent, yet you need not conceal from any of those persons who may have the power of remedying the existing evils, the fact that such opinions are entertained by the British Government.”