Abstract
The stormy history of self-government in the Canadas was contemporary with the development, elsewhere in the empire, of the illiberal system of Crown colony government. Unknown by that name before 1828,3 it existed in many different forms in the conquered colonies of the West Indies, Ceylon, Mauritius and the Cape and in the settled colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania. Although its beginnings were in wartime arrangements for conquered colonies, it had precedents of a kind in British imperial experience. The Quebec Act of 1774 had established a form of government that embraced every essential feature of Crown colony government.4 Similarly, other colonies had been left without representative institutions and sometimes without any local means of making laws. Georgia, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Grenada were all, at various times in the eighteenth century, under the rule of the Crown, legislatively as well as administratively.
Until the accession of his present majesty, with the exception of a few inconsiderable factories on the coast of Africa, and a few not less inconsiderable in India, no body of Englishmen had ever been established as a colony on foreign soil, without partaking the enjoyment of the British constitution. The smallest rock in the West Indies exhibited a sort of miniature of the British constitution.
Sir James Mackintosh in the House of Commons, 18191
The experience of Ireland and of the W. Indies proves … that of all bad Govts by far the worst is that carried on under popular forms by a minority constantly dreading a successful resistance of the great majority of the population.
Howick to Melbourne, 3 January 18392
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References
PD XXXIX, 496 (18 Feb 1819).
Howick to Melbourne, 3 Jan 1839, Grey of Howick Papers.
Murray, The West Indies 158, note 75.
See Chapter 2.
Stokes, Utilitarians and India, passim.
Ibid., XI.
Geo. III, c. 25.
PH XXV, 1266, 1293 (16 Mar 1786).
The law was settled in Campbell v. Hall (1774). See Chapter 2.
R. Pares, review of Harlow, Founding I, in EHR, LXVIII (1953), 284; R. Hyam, review of Harlow, Founding II, in Historical Journal X (1967) 116.
PD XL, 1077f. (10 June 1819).
PD XL, 272f. (10 May 1819).
PD XL 355f. (29 Nov 1819).
PD VIII, 249f. (25 Feb 1823).
Ragatz, Fall of the Planter Class Chapter 1; Penson, in EHR XXXVI, 373f.; Higman, in HS XIII, 1f.
H. T. Manning, British Colonial Government 298.
Portland to Grey, 5 Sep 1794, and Portland to Williams, 5 Sep 1794, CO 319/12; H. T. Manning, British Colonial Government, 341f.
E. Williams, History of Trinidad Chapters 5 and 7.
Quoted in Murray, The West Indies 68, from G. W. Jordon, An Examination of the Principles of the Slave Registry Bill (1816), 41. The statement was made between 1801 and 1804.
Picton’s instructions, 1 June 1801, CO 296/4.
Bolt, Victorian Attitudes to Race 80.
Picton to Hobart, 26 June 1801, CO 295/2.
Hobart to Picton, 18 Feb 1802, CO 295/2.
PH XXXVI, 854f. (27 May 1802); Hobart to Picton, 18 Feb and 26 June 1802, CO 295/2.
Hobart to Picton, 9 July 1802, CO 295/2.
Instruction, 16 Oct 1802, CO 295/3; dispatches in CO 295/5.
Hobart to Picton, 9 Jan and 2 Feb 1804, CO 295/8.
Gloster to Hislop, 4 July 1804, in Hislop to Camden, 9 July 1804, CO 295/8.
Hobart to Hislop, 3 Nov 1803, CO 296/4.
J. Stephen], The Crisis of the Sugar Colonies 189.
Instructions to Smith, undated [18081, CO 380/134; Castlereagh to Hislop, 6 Mar 1809, CO 296/4; Smith to Jenkinson, 14 May 1810, CO, 295/24; Smith to E. Cooke (Under-Secretary), 28 Oct 1809, CO 295 /22.
Liverpool to Hislop, 15 Mar 1810, CO 296/4; Jenkinson to Smith, 15 Mar 1810 (private), identified in Jenkinson to Hislop, 19 Mar 1810, both CO 296/4.
Hislop to Liverpool, 20 May and 19 July 1810, CO 295/23; Smith to Jenkinson, 13 May 1810, CO 295/24; Hislop to Liverpool, 19 July 1810, CO 295 /23.
Liverpool to Hislop, 27 Nov 1810, CO 296/4; Stephen to Liverpool, 1 Sep 1810, CO 295 /25.
PD XX, 1341., 610f. (14 May and 13 June 1811).
H. T. Manning, British Colonial Government, 376f.; Bathurst to Woodford, 27 Sep 1813, CO 296/5.
Liverpool to Eldon, 4 Sep 1811, quoted in Murray, The West Indies 81; H. T. Manning, British Colonial Government Chapter 14.
Peel to Goulburn, 12–15 Aug 1812, quoted in Gash, Mr Secretary Peel 93f.
PD XXXI, 772f., 1127f. (13 June-5 July 1815).
Geo. III, c. 12.
Schuyler, in Political Science Quarterly XL, 1f.
Geo. III, c. 12.
PH XXXII, 944f., 991f. (11 Apr 1796); Hobart on Perceval and Law to Hobart, 14 Dec 1801, CO 324/65; H. T. Manning, British Colonial Government 72.
CO 29/30; Bathurst to Manchester, 13 Aug 1816, CO 138/47.
Ragatz, Fall of the Planter Class 31f.
Edinburgh Review XLIII (1825–6), 433f.
Stephen to Bathurst, 12 June 1815, Bathurst MSS., BM 57 /9.
PD XXXI, 772 (13 June 1815).
Journal of the Jamaica House of Assembly XII, 696 (31 Oct 1815); Murray, The West Indies 96f.
PD XXXIV, 910 (30 May 1816).
Manning, British Colonial Government 505.
June 1816, CO 29/30.
Reports on the Acts, CO 323/40; Goulburn to Bathurst, Nov or Dec 1821, Bathurst Papers, BM 57 /13.
Geo. III, c. 120.
Schuyler, Parliament and the British Empire Chapter 4.
H. T. Manning, British Colonial Government 509.
PD IX, 257f. (15 May 1823).
Bathurst to Murray, 28 May 1823, CO 112/5.
Bathurst to Woodford, 28 May 1823, CO 296/6; Bathurst to Officer administering St Lucia, 28 May 1823, CO 254 /6.
CO 29/30; PP, 1824, XXIV, 433.
Secret and confidential dispatches of 28 May 1823, CO 29/30.
Ragatz, Fall of the Planter Class 413; Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship 81.
Goulburn to Bathurst, 26 Dec 1820, Bathurst Papers, BM 57 /13.
Edinburgh Review XL (1824), 226f. and XLIII (1825–6), 419f; Ragatz, Fall 430f.; New, Brougham 289f.; PP 1826–7, XVIII (554); Catton Papers, under Sir Benjamin D’Urban.
Herbert Taylor to Bathurst, Liverpool to Bathurst, Duke of York to Bathurst, Wellington to Bathurst, Bathurst to George IV, 11, 13 (twice) and 14 Oct, and 6 Dec 1823, all in Bathurst Papers, BM 57/14; Wellington, Despatches, Correspondence and Memoranda, II, 151.
Edinburgh Review XLI (1824–5), 209f.; New, Brougham 441.
CO 29/30; PP, 1824, XXIV, 438.
Memorandum by Stephen, 30 Mar 1823, CO 111/13.
Bathurst to Murray, 9 July 1823, CO 112/5.
Orders-in-council of 10 Mar and 14 Aug 1824, CO 111/47. D’Urban to Bathurst, 4 June 1824, CO 111/44; Bathurst to D’Urban, 20 Sep 1824, CO 112 /6.
Woodford to Bathurst, 26 Aug 1823, CO 295/59; Bathurst in the Lords, 2 PD, X, 1046, and Canning in the Commons, ibid., 109 (16 Mar 1824). Bathurst to Governors, 14 July 1824, CO 138 /47.
Mathieson, British Slavery 136f.
Dispatches listed in Ragatz, Fall of the Planter Class 416, note 3; Liverpool to Bathurst, 2 and 12 Jan 1824, and Liverpool to Canning, 9 Jan 1824, in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report of the Bathurst MSS. 560f.; Canning in Commons, 2 PD XIV, 973 (1 Mar 1826).
Wilmot-Horton to Huskisson, 26 Jan 1824, quoted in Murray, The West Indies, 131.
PD X, 1098 (16 Mar 1824).
Liverpool to Canning, 9 Jan 1824 (enclosed in Liverpool to Bathurst 12 Jan 1824) and Canning to Bathurst, 14 Feb and 15 Mar 1824, Bathurst MSS., BM 57 /15.
Quarterly Review, XXXII (1825), 516f., and XXXIII (1826), 413f.
Westminster Review I (1824), 337f.
New, Brougham 442.
Edinburgh Review XLIII (1825–6), 432f.
New, Brougham 441; Edinburgh Review XLI (1824–5) 209f.
Ragatz, Fall of the Planter Class 417.
Hibbert to Speaker, House of Assembly, Jamaica, 7 Oct 1825, Bathurst Papers, BM 57 /16.
Enclosed in Hibbert to Bathurst, 10 Apr 1826, Bathurst Papers, BM 57 /16.
Memorandum by Stephen, no date [1826–71, CO 320/4.
PD X, 1046f. (16 Mar 1824).
Bathurst to Wilmot-Horton, 16 Aug 1826 and 17 Sep 1828, Bathurst Papers (ML).
Geo. IV, c. 113.
Lushington to Bathurst, 10 June 1824, Bathurst Papers, BM 57/15; letters from acting governor, CO 295/78, other correspondence in CO 295/84; Woodford to Bathurst, 29 Sep 1825, CO 295 /67.
Bathurst to D’Urban, 6 Oct 1824, CO 324/73.
Taylor to Howick, 23 Apr 1832, Grey of Howick Papers; Canning to Bathurst, 20 Oct 1815, Bathurst Papers, BM 57 /10.
Memorandum by Bathurst, 16 Nov 1825, CO 320/5; Bathurst to D’Urban, 25 Feb 1826, CO 112/6; D’Urban to Wilmot-Horton, 9 Mar 1825, Catton Papers.
Murray, The West Indies 131f.; Mathieson, British Slavery 157f.
PD XIV, 1139f. (7 Mar 1826).
PD XV, 1308f. (19 May 1826).
PD XIV, 1140 (17 Mar 1826); Bathurst to governors, 11 May 1826, CO 29/31; PP 1826–7, XXV, 61; noe by Stephen, 11 May 1830, CO 323/46.
Bathurst to Codrington, 29 May 1826, Bathurst Papers, BM 57 /16.
Bathurst to Huskisson, 21 Mar 1826, Bathurst Papers, BM 57/16; Minute by Bathurst, 25 Aug 1826, CO 324 /15.
Murray, The West Indies, 158; Murray to governors, 15 Sep 1828, PP, 1829, XXV (333), 8.
Murray to D’Urban, 4 Feb 1831, CO 112/7.
Minute by Howick, 16 June 1832, Papers of the third Earl Grey, Colonial Papers, Colonial Policy, No. 1; Penson, in Transactions of the RHS, I X, 126f.
Stephen to Goderich, 3 Feb 1831, CO 323/213.
PP 1831–2, XLVI, 93f.; Ellice to Howick, no date [1832], Grey of Howick Papers.
Ragatz, Fall of the Planter Class 440f.
CHBE II, 483f.; PP 1831–2, XX (381) and XXXI 382.
PP 1831–2, XLVI (279); Papers of the third Earl Grey, Colonial Papers, Emancipation, No. 56.
Goderich to Belmore, 1 Mar 1832, PP 1831–2, XLVII (285), 39.
Stephen’s report, 21 Nov 1832, CO 323/46.
PP 1831–2, II (721); Taylor to Howick, 23 Apr and 15 Aug 1832, and Ellice to Howick, Nov 1832, Grey of Howick Papers; Howick’s plan, CO 320/1; Taylor, Autobiography I, 125f.
Memoranda by Stephen, Howick and Goderich, Apr 1832, Papers of the third Earl Grey, Colonial Papers, Slavery, Nos. 37, 38, 39; Howick to Goderich, Feb 1832, Goderich to Howick, 4 and 8 Mar 1832, Grey of Howick Papers.
Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship, 94; Goderich to Howick, 26 Apr 1832 (private), Grey of Howick Papers.
Goderich to Howick, 4 Mar 1832, Grey of Howick Papers; Francis Baring to Wilmot-Horton, no date [ 1832 ], Catton Papers; Higman, in HS, XIII, 16.
Rough copy of Howick to Grey, 7 Feb 1833, Papers of the third Earl Grey, Colonial Papers, Slavery, No. 30.
Draft order of 19 Oct 1833, CO 318/117; order-in-council of 19 Mar 1834, PP, 1834, XLIV (152).
T. F. Elliot, ‘A Few Remarks on the Causes of the Unpopularity of the Colonial Office’ (July 1848), CO 325/47.
See Chapter 5. Wilmot-Horton to Woodford, 12 Oct 1825, CO 324/98; Woodford to Wilmot-Horton, 31 Dec 1825, CO 295/67; minute by Bathurst, no date [1825], CO 320 /1.
Wight, The Legislative Council 67, note 1.
PP 1826–7, XXIII (883), 37.
Wilmot-Horton to Bathurst, 22 Nov 1825, Bathurst Papers, BM 57/16; H. Craig, Trinidad and Tobago, 17.
Memorandum by Wilmot-Horton, 19 Jan 1827, CO 320/4.
P. 93.
Bathurst to Wilmot-Horton, 21 Jan 1827, CO 325/35.
Memorandum by Stephen, no date [1826–7], CO 320/4.
Memorandum by Bathurst, no date [1827], CO 320/4.
Bathurst to Bentinck, 26 Apr 1815, Portland Papers, quoted by McLachlan, in HS, XIII, 484.
Young, The Colonial Office 18.
Snelling and Barron, in Studies in the Growth of Nineteenth Century Government 140f.
Taylor, Autobiography I, 117.
H. T. Manning, British Colonial Government 367f.; Penson, in Transactions of the RHS IX, 113f.; CO 116/137 and 116/165 on the constitutions.
Carmichael to Secretary of State, 3 May 1812, CO 111/13; Penson, in Transactions of the RHS, 120f.; Carmichael to Liverpool, 28 Apr, 3, 4, 15 and 28 May, and 5 June 1812 (CO 111/12), and 11 and 12 Oct 1812 (CO 111/13); Harlow and Madden, British Colonial Documents, 102f.
Penson, in Transactions of the RHS IX, 124.
Memorandum by Bathurst, no date [1826], CO 111/58.
Memoranda of 1 Jan and July 1826, and 30 Sept 1828, CO 111/98.
Twiss’s memorandum has to be collected from Stephen to Twiss, 25 Aug 1830, CO 111/98.
Stephen had considered a ‘blended’ legislature earlier. See Chapter 5.
Draft order-in-council, CO 380/134.
Orders-in-council etc., prepared but not sent, CO 380/134 and 380/37; Murray, The West Indies, 163, 168.
Stephen to Twiss, 25 Aug 1830, CO 111/98; Law Officers to Goderich, 2 Feb 1831, CO 111 /118.
PD VI, 110f. (16 Aug 1831).
Goderich to D’Urban, 18 Mar 1831, CO 112/15.
D’Urban’s commission, 4 Mar 1831, and instructions, 5 Mar 1831, both CO 381/19; Goderich to D’Urban, 18 Mar 1831, CO 112/15, and 6 June 1832, CO 112 /16.
D’Urban to Goderich, 7, 11 and 12 April 1832, CO 111/121, and 8 Sep 1832, CO 111 /122.
Goderich to D’Urban, 6 June, 29 Sep, 22 Nov 1832, CO 112/16 (Howick’s corrections, CO 111/122); Penson, in Transactions of the RHS, IX, 132.
Commission and instructions, 21 Mar 1831, CO 381/74.
Known as the legislative council from 1863. Wight, The Legislative Council, 59, note 5.
Note by Adam Gordon, Chief Clerk, Aug 1831, CO 380/134. On New South Wales, see Chapter 5.
Howick to Goderich, 11 Oct 1832, Grey of Howick Papers.
Goderich to Grant, 25 May 1831, CO 296/10.
Goderich to Grant, 30 Jan 1832, CO 296/10.
Taylor to Douglas, 4 Oct 1832, Grey of Howick Papers.
Taylor’s minute to Stephen, no date, CO 295/96, quoted in Murray, The West Indies 170.
Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship 129; Greville, Memoirs II, 347.
Howick and Goderich, 11 Oct 1832, and Taylor to Howick, 4 June and 23 Dec 1831, 1 and 7 Oct 1832, Grey of Howick Papers.
Goderich to Howick, 4 Jan 1833, Grey of Howick Papers.
Stephen to Howick, 31 Aug 1832, Grey of Howick Papers.
For example, 3 PD XIV, 648f. (23 July 1832).
Goderich to Mulgrave, 5 Feb 1833 (CO 138/54), to McGregor, 11 Feb 1833 (CO 395/5), to L. Smith, 7 Mar 1833 (CO 29/33); Howick to Stephen, 29 Aug 1832, Stephen to Howick, 31 Aug 1832, and Goderich to Howick, 4 Sep 1832, Grey of Howick Papers.
Quoted in Parry and Sherlock, Short History of the West Indies 213.
Burnley to Stanley, 19 Oct 1833 (CO 295/100), and 28 Jan and 11 Feb 1834 (CO 295/105).
Stanley’s minute of 12 Mar 1834, CO 295/105; Lefevre to Spring-Rice, 2 Oct 1834, CO 295 /105.
Spring-Rice to Hill, 17 Oct 1834, CO 296/11.
Stanley to Smyth, 22 Feb 1834, CO 112/18; Penson, in Transactions of the RHS, IX, 133; Murray, The West Indies, 215, 217.
and 4 William IV, c. 73, s. 23.
Stephen to Lefevre, 6 Jan 1834, CO 71/70; Knaplund, James Stephen, 107f.
Murray, The West Indies Chapter 12.
Aberdeen to Smith, 1 Mar 1835, CO 112/18, quoted in Murray, The West Indies, 218.
Stephen to Glenelg, 22 Feb 1837, CO 323/52, quoted in Knaplund, James Stephen, 119f.; Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship, 192f., 326f.
Murray, The West Indies 222–9.
Stephen to Howick, 25 Oct 1835, Grey of Howick Papers.
Ibid.; draft of Glenelg to Sligo, 15 July 1835, quoted in Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship 293.
Glenelg to Sligo, 15 Sep 1835, CO 138/57; Glenelg to Sligo, 17 Sep 1835 (confidential), CO 138/57; Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship, 294f.
Ibid., 314, 336; Glenelg to Sligo, 31 Mar 1836, CO 138/59; Sligo to Glenelg, 23, 25 and 27 May 1836, CO 137/211; assembly’s protests, CO 140 /126.
Confidential circular, in Bell and Morrell, Select Documents 401f.; public circular, 2 Apr 1838, CO 318/141.
and 2 Vict., c. 19; Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship 355, note 2; Burns, History of the British West Indies 631f.
See Chapter 6.
PD XLIII, 87f. (28 May 1838); Burn, Emancipation and Apprenticeship 352f.
PD XLIII, 376f. (3 June 1838).
Bell and Morrell, Select Documents 404f.; CO140/29.
Curtin, Two Jamaicas 180.
and 2 Vict., c. 67.
Smith to Glenelg, 3 Dec (private), and 17 Nov 1838, CO 137/230; Murray, The West Indies, 186.
Smith to Glenelg, 24 Dec (private), and 25 Dec 1838, CO 137/230.
[James Spedding], ‘The Jamaica Question’, in Edinburgh Review LXIX (1839), 527f.
Taylor, Autobiography, I, 250; Papers of the third Earl Grey, Colonial Papers, Jamaica, No. 5; Taylor to Grey, 5 Apr 1876, Grey of Howick Papers.
Taylor, Autobiography I, 244, 250.
Taylor to Grey, 5 Apr 1876, Grey of Howick Papers.
Journal of the third Earl Grey, 28 and 30 Jan 1839.
Grey to Taylor, 30 May 1885, Taylor to Grey, 7 June 1885, and Howick to Melbourne, 30 Jan 1839, all in Grey of Howick Papers.
Journal of the third Earl Grey, 28 Jan 1839.
Jan 1839, Papers of the third Earl Grey, Colonial Papers, West Indies, No. 5; Journal of the third Earl Grey, 30 Jan 1839.
See Chapter 6.
Minute by Stephen, 22 Feb 1837, CO 323/52, reprinted in Knaplund, James Stephen, 119f.
Taylor to Howick, 27 Nov 1832, Grey of Howick Papers.
PD XLVII, 459f., 573f., 765f.(23 and 26 Apr, 3 and 6 May 1839).
Gash, Sir Robert Peel 220.
Torrens, Melbourne II, 480.
Curtin, Two Jamaicas 73; Burge, Speech; 3 PD XLVII,4591 (23 Apr 1839).
Schuyler, in Political Science Quarterly XL, 1f.
Greville, Memoirs IV, 199.
Journal of the third Earl Grey, 7 May 1839; D. Southgate, The Passing of the Whigs, 71; Curtin, Two Jamaicas, 97.
PD XLVII, 973f. (7 May 1839).
See Chapter 6.
PD XLVII, 1105f. (30 May 1839).
Journal of the third Earl Grey, 15 and 17 May 1839. It became law as 2 and 3 Vict., c. 26.
Sydney Herald 28 Aug 1839.
Normanby to Smith, 15 Apr 1839, CO 137/238.
Gardner, History of Jamaica 395.
King, Sir Richard Bourke 245f.
Metcalfe to Russell, 29 July 1840, CO 137/256.
Morrell, British Colonial Policy in the Mid-Victorian Age Chapter 13.
G. Grey to Grey, 15 Apr 1849, Grey of Howick Papers. Cf. Shaw, in JBS, IX, 92f; Edinburgh Review, XIX (1839), 527f.
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Ward, J.M. (1976). The Crown Colony System. In: Colonial Self-Government. Cambridge Commonwealth Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02712-5_4
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