tten a private
letter, wholly withdrawing this advice and substituting for it the exact
opposite, the suppression namely of such freedom as the islanders
possessed. This second fact the public did not know, nor would the
knowledge of it have made any difference. The published despatch stood
on record, and say what they would, the startling impression could not
be effaced. Well might Lytton call it an inconceivable misfortune. It
made Austria uneasy, it perturbed France, and it irritated Russia, all
of them seeing in Mr. Gladstone's mission a first step towards the
policy recommended in the despatch. In the breasts of the islanders it
kindled intense excitement, and diversified a chronic disorder by a
sharp access of fever. It made Young's position desperate, though he was
slow to see it, and practically it brought the business of the high
commissioner extraordinary to nought before it had even begun.

He learned the disaster, for disaster it was, at Vienna, and appears to
have faced it with the same rigorous firmness and self-command that some
of us have beheld at untoward moments long after. The ambassador told
him that he ought to see the Austrian minister. With Count Buol he had a
long interview accordingly, and assured him that his mission had no
concern with any question of Ionian annexation whether partial or total.
Count Buol on his part disclaimed all aggressive tendencies in respect
of Turkey, and stated emphatically that the views and conduct of Austria
in her Eastern policy were in the strictest sense conservative.

Embarking at Trieste on the warship _Terrible_, Nov. 21, and after a
delightful voyage down the Adriatic, five days after leaving Vienna
(Nov. 24th) Mr. Gladstone found himself at Corfu--the famous island of
which he had read such memorable things in Thucydides and Xenophon, the
harbour where the Athenians had fitted out the expedition to Syracuse,
so disastrous to Greek democracy; where the young Octavian had rallied
his fleet before the battle of Actium, so critical for the foundation of
the empire of the Caesars; and whence Don John had sallied forth for the
victory of Lepanto, so fatal to the conquering might of the Ottoman
Turks. It was from Corfu that the brothers Bandiera had started on their
tragic enterprise for the deliverance of Italy fourteen years before.
Mr. Gladstone landed under a salute of seventeen guns, and was received
with all ceremony and honour by the lord high commissioner