IV. Note on the Origin of Lord John Russell's Despatch of Oct. 16, 1839, on the Tenure Of Crown Offices in the Colonies

1928 ◽  
Vol 2 (03) ◽  
pp. 248-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. M. Butler
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Canadian History ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mother Country ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
Public Record ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
A Minor ◽  
British Colonies ◽  
Colonial Office

No system of self-government at all resembling the practice of the mother country was possible in the British colonies so long as the heads of the colonial departments and the members of Governors' councils held their offices nominally during His Majesty's pleasure, but actually for life. Hence it has been generally recognised that Lord John Russell's despatch of October 16, 1839, to Governor-General Poulett Thomson, which put an end to this state of affairs, marks a stage of immense importance in the transition to Responsible Government. The Colonial Office papers in the Public Record Office show that the pronouncement of the new principle, made at a turning-point of Canadian history, originated in a decision on a minor incident in a remote and lately colonised part of the empire.

Emigration and the New Poor Law: The Norfolk Emigration Fever of 1836

Rural History ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Howells
Keyword(s):  
Poor People ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Poor Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Potential Safety ◽  
Surplus Labour ◽  
Public Record ◽  
British Colonies

In 1836 under the auspices of section 62 of the New Poor Law, 3,069 poor people from Norfolk were assisted to emigrate to North America. Their passages, and various other requirements including spending money, travel to the port, equipment for the voyage and settling of debts, were paid for out of the poor rates. The rationale for this outflow of people revolved around the issue of surplus labour, which was believed to have a corrosive and unsettling effect upon the state of rural society. Emigration had long been seen as a potential safety valve for surplus labour. Clause 62 can be traced back to the vigorous debate about assisted emigration associated with Robert Wilmot Horton. For one emigration season, it looked as if parochial government were capable of rising to the challenge of solving its surplus labour problems and simultaneously satisfying the needs of the labour-hungry British colonies. This paper examines the Norfolk emigration fever by using a previously unused data set of nineteenth-century emigration (Ministry of Health files held at the Public Record Office). It argues that assisted emigration was the result of a concerted rational policy, applied by the parish officers aimed to benefit emigrants and those left behind. The policy was neither haphazard nor accidental and, though inspired by fear of the consequences of implementing the New Poor Law, was not a panicked response. It argues that the arrangements for assisted emigration resulted in a process of interchange and interaction between rich and poor which makes a mockery of the term ‘shovelling out paupers’. The poor emigrants who were targeted were assisted because they were good labourers, not useless indigents incapable of providing for themselves. The findings shed further light on the nature of emigrating populations, the emigratory process and the mindset of both rich and poor at the time of the introduction of the New Poor Law.

The Alien Office, 1792–1806

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Sparrow
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
International Network ◽  
The Public ◽  
Secret Service ◽  
Public Record ◽  
Prior Intention

This investigation and my ability to describe alien office structure is due more to chance than prior intention as it arose out of a difficult examination of the life of Thomas Pitt, second Lord Camelford (1775–1804). Lacking direct sources about him, I turned to an examination of his friends and associates and gradually a pattern emerged: an international network of secret agents. But who directed them, and from where? For a time the answer eluded me, and I was not helped by the statement in the guide to the public record office, that no alien office correspondence remains. In fact there is a considerable quantity, but with the exception of H.O. 5, which is entirely alien office, it is scattered in other H.O. classes as well as various F.O., W.O., and A.D.M. classes. But the late Alfred Cobban provided a lead and he had clearly recognized 1792 as a turning point in secret service. Others who have written before on this subject limited themselves to an examination of one of William Wickham's principal agents, Dandré, no doubt chiefly because at the time they wrote, much material that I have been able to consult was not then available to the public; i.e. a large part of the Wickham collection; the Talbot papers and the residue of Lord Grenville's papers.

scholarly journals Exploring the linguistic landscape of Cameroon: Reflections on language policy and ideology

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-324
Author(s):  
Martin Pütz
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
African State ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Public Places ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
A Minor ◽  
British Colonies

This contribution focuses on the study of Linguistic Landscapes in the Central/Western African state of Cameroon, with particular reference to its capital, Yaoundé. Linguistic landscapes is a relatively recent area of research, and can be broadly defined as the visual representation of languages in public space. This paper will show that the field of linguistic landscapes can act as a reflection of linguistic hierarchies, ideologies and acts of resistance in multilingual and multicultural communities. At the same time, the sociolinguistic situation in the country will be investigated, which is paramount to understanding the linguistic and ideological conflicts between the anglophone minority and the francophone government. Cameroon’s linguistic landscape will be explored via the various spaces that English, French, Pidgin English, Camfranglais and, to a minor degree, indigenous African languages occupy in its sociolinguistic composition. The methodological design is quantitative in nature, involving collecting more than 600 linguistic tokens (digital photos) in various public places mainly in and around the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé. It will be demonstrated that the deployment of languages on signs and linguistic tokens, apart from serving informative and symbolic functions for the audiences or passers-by they target, also has social and political implications in an ethnically heterogeneous and linguistically hybrid society such as Cameroon. Whereas in some other former British colonies there are indications that the public space is being symbolically constructed in order to preserve some of Africa’s indigenous languages (e.g. in Botswana, Rwanda, Tanzania), in Cameroon the linguistic landscape almost exclusively focuses on the dominant status and role of one single language, i.e. French, and to a lesser extent English, whose speakers therefore feel marginalized and oppressed by the French government.

scholarly journals The significant past and insignificant archaeologists. Who informs the public about their ‘national’ past? The case of Romania

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cătălin Nicolae Popa
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fundamental Component ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
A Minor

AbstractThis paper addresses the role of archaeologists in informing the public about a fundamental component of contemporary Romanian identity: the Dacian heritage. I start by exploring how the Dacians and Romanians came to be connected, a process that resulted from a combination of nationalistic zeal on behalf of archaeologists and the nationalist propaganda of the Ceauşescu regime during the 1970s and 1980s. I then move to the present-day situation, where I argue that archaeologists have reduced themselves to having a minor role in the public sphere, while discussions about the Dacians are dominated by two main players: pseudoarchaeologists and re-enactors. This state of affairs delegitimizes Romanian archaeology and places self-declared specialists and enthusiasts in the position of experts. Some of the Dacian narratives produced in this environment are infused with strong nationalist messages and have the potential to fuel extreme right-wing and even xenophobic movements. Consequently, in the final part of the paper, I recommend that Romanian archaeologists should challenge the representations and interpretations of pseudoarchaeologists and re-enactors. Moreover, academics should make it a priority to re-engage with the public and disseminate their work to a broad audience in a convincing manner.

Tradition and revolution. In search of roots: Uri Zvi Grinberg's Albatros

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 130-158
Author(s):  
Judith Winther
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Phenomenal World ◽  
Creative Force ◽  
Lyric Poet ◽  
A Minor

Although Uri Zvi Grinberg had published poetry in both Hebrew and Yiddish from 1912 onward, it was with the appearance of the Yiddish volume Mefisto in 1921 and his Albatros in 1922–1923 that the new idiom, expressionism was introduced. In seeking to explain the transformation of Uri Zvi Grinberg from a minor romantic lyric poet in Yiddish and Hebrew into an Expressionist bard who emerged in the 1921 Mefisto, critics have advanced a number of elaborate and sometimes contradictory theories. His own special “creative force” in interplay with the highly eclectic dynamic of Yiddish modernism, spurred a turning point, which witnessed the return of his artistic attention, as of his confreres to the realities of the phenomenal world, in confrontation with symbolism (aestetic romanticist) and impressionist art.

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