ABSTRACT
When approaching a complex political issue, William Gladstone’s characteristic modus operandi frequently involved first analysing documents in detail, then corresponding with experts and then usually writing a reflective article or volume on the subject. But, in the words of Robert Holland and Diana Markides, on his return to Britain after his mission as Extraordinary High Commissioner in 1859, ‘the Ionian Islands were never to merit the book, or even the review; they were, after all, mere dots on a map’.1 Certainly their strategic importance for Britain’s interests in the Mediterranean, which had made them highly desirable at the beginning of that century, was by the 1850s waning; and for a rising politician such as Gladstone there were more pressing matters that required his attention. There is however another account of this episode, according to which ‘his three massive and elaborate reports, printed for the use of the Cabinet, faded into obscurity. It was felt that, in the circumstances of the Italian war, it would be inexpedient to lay documents before parliament which bore on the question of the rights of subject people within the jurisdiction of the public law of Europe’.2 The issue of empire within Europe was indeed a most delicate one.
