Colonial Connections 1815-1845: Patronage, the Information Revolution and Colonial GovernmentThis groundbreaking book challenges standard interpretations of metropolitan strategies of rule in the early nineteenth century. After the Napoleonic wars, the British government ruled a more diverse empire than ever before, and the Colonial Office responded by cultivating strong personal links with governors and colonial officials through which influence, patronage and information could flow. By the 1830s the conviction that personal connections were the best way of exerting influence within the imperial sphere went well beyond the metropolitan government, as lobbyists, settlers and missionaries also developed personal connections to advance their causes. However, the successive crises in the 1830s exposed these complicated networks of connection to hostile metropolitan scrutiny. This book challenges traditional notions of a radical revolution in government, identifying a more profound and general transition from a metropolitan reliance on gossip and personal information to the embrace of new statistical forms of knowledge. The analysis moves between London, New South Wales and the Cape Colony, encompassing both government insiders and those who struggled against colonial and imperial governments. |
Common terms and phrases
appointment April August Bathurst Beresford to D'Urban Blue Books Bourke's Britain British colonial Broughton Buller Buxton Cape Colony civil servants Cloete collection colonial administration colonial governance colonial information Colonial Office colonial secretary colonists council Darling December despatches Dick Bourke Dick to Richard Diemen's Land Eastern Cape Edward Edward Deas Thomson Emancipists emphasised empire envoys February Gipps Glenelg governors Grahamstown Grey Hay's Horse Guards Howick humanitarian Ibid important influence interest James Macarthur James Stephen January John July June legislative letters lobbying London Lord March McLeay metropolitan government military Mitchell November October Office's Papers parliament parliamentary patronage Philip Plasket political private correspondence Report returns Richard Bourke Richard to Dick Riddell Robert Hay senior September 1835 settlers Sir George Sir George Murray South Wales Spring Rice Stanley statistics Stockenström Thomas Thomas Mitchell Tory under-secretary unofficial correspondence Van Diemen's Land Wellington Whig William Xhosa
Popular passages
Page 218 - Rivers, 1831), and Observations on the rights of the British colonies to representation in the imperial parliament (Three Rivers, 1832); and an early Upper Canadian imprint, The Lower Canada watchman (Kingston, 1829), is attributed to him.