DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0533
CHAP. XX.]
CORFU.
219
of the island, was scarcely visible in the faint light of a young
moon, but is said to be populous and prosperous.
In the morning we passed by Parga, and about noon came to
an anchor in the harbour of Corfu.
Here was a sudden and most pleasant change, from nations
humbled by slavery and enervated by vices, or restless with rev-
olutionary fever ; to the calm, strong, solid power and influences
of our own glorious country. England's flag was flying on the
citadel; England's martial music filled the air; and English hearts
and hands welcomed us to Christendom. Friends whom I had not
seen for years met us on the pier, and escorted us to our hotel.
Although this .pretty town has been remodelled and almost re-
built in the course of the thirty years that have elapsed since the
Septinsular Republic came under the British protectorate, there
still remains enough of the architecture and the habits of its an-
cient masters to give it interest and novelty. On some of the
more ancient buildings the Lion of St. Mark still remains, while
the piazzas, narrow streets, and numerous cafes, have all a Vene-
tian character. The Italian language, too, predominates over
Greek and English in the Babel of the streets, and the greater
number of the shops are lettered in the same tongue.
As England is the greatest commercial country in the world,
it follows that her colonies should be the most numerous and flour-
ishing.* Yet wealth and protection are among the least of the
advantages that they derive from the mother country : English
character, energy, industry, and tolerance, furnish all the quali-
fications essential to the increase and stability of a colony. Such
has been the case in North America and Australasia ; at the
Cape, also, and in the East and West Indies, as far as a British
population has extended. At Corfu, however, as at Malta and
Gibraltar, there is no attempt at colonization : not only is there
no agricultural settlement, but there are no great commercial
houses to weave the only inseparable links that unite dissimilar
nations. If England were to abandon her Mediterranean posses-
* England and her colonies occupy about one-sixth of the inhabited world.
Queen Victoria rules over about 100,000,000 of people directly, and at least
an equal number of subsidiaries.
CORFU.
219
of the island, was scarcely visible in the faint light of a young
moon, but is said to be populous and prosperous.
In the morning we passed by Parga, and about noon came to
an anchor in the harbour of Corfu.
Here was a sudden and most pleasant change, from nations
humbled by slavery and enervated by vices, or restless with rev-
olutionary fever ; to the calm, strong, solid power and influences
of our own glorious country. England's flag was flying on the
citadel; England's martial music filled the air; and English hearts
and hands welcomed us to Christendom. Friends whom I had not
seen for years met us on the pier, and escorted us to our hotel.
Although this .pretty town has been remodelled and almost re-
built in the course of the thirty years that have elapsed since the
Septinsular Republic came under the British protectorate, there
still remains enough of the architecture and the habits of its an-
cient masters to give it interest and novelty. On some of the
more ancient buildings the Lion of St. Mark still remains, while
the piazzas, narrow streets, and numerous cafes, have all a Vene-
tian character. The Italian language, too, predominates over
Greek and English in the Babel of the streets, and the greater
number of the shops are lettered in the same tongue.
As England is the greatest commercial country in the world,
it follows that her colonies should be the most numerous and flour-
ishing.* Yet wealth and protection are among the least of the
advantages that they derive from the mother country : English
character, energy, industry, and tolerance, furnish all the quali-
fications essential to the increase and stability of a colony. Such
has been the case in North America and Australasia ; at the
Cape, also, and in the East and West Indies, as far as a British
population has extended. At Corfu, however, as at Malta and
Gibraltar, there is no attempt at colonization : not only is there
no agricultural settlement, but there are no great commercial
houses to weave the only inseparable links that unite dissimilar
nations. If England were to abandon her Mediterranean posses-
* England and her colonies occupy about one-sixth of the inhabited world.
Queen Victoria rules over about 100,000,000 of people directly, and at least
an equal number of subsidiaries.