Exporting a Prince, Ideas and Institutions to Greece, 1862–4: Mid–Victorian Perceptions of Britain's Stand and Mission in the World

Abstract

The expulsion from Greece of King Otho in 1862 and the Greeks’ decision to offer the throne of their kingdom to Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria, provided a good opportunity for commenting on national progress for the following two years. Through the description of the gloomy condition of Greece, all the errors and omissions that a state should avoid in its struggle for political stability and material improvement were exhibited. Moreover, British comments celebrated the ‘exemplary’, the principles of government, the material and the scientific advancement that had given Britain its world supremacy. On the whole, British confidence in the reforming power of economic progress remained strong enough to enable writers to believe in the abilities of the Greeks to advance in ‘modern civilization’. In a sense, the debate occasioned by the case of Greece was enlarged upon in the question of the elements of national strength. Within this wider perspective, commentary and judgmental pronouncements on other European nations facilitated the discovery and display of elements that could be widely accepted as constituent parts of British national identity and international success in the mid–Victorian era, such as free institutions, industrial progress and a ‘liberal character’.