British Intervention Against the Taiping Rebellion

1959 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
John S. Gregory

Practically all accounts of British intervention in support of the Manchu rulers of China against the Taiping rebellion present it as a calculated and deliberate change of policy by the British government which followed more or less immediately upon the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin and of the Convention of Peking at the end of 1860. Having forced extensive commercial and diplomatic concessions from the Manchu government by these treaties, so the usual argument runs, the Western powers in China, led by Great Britain, quickly set about helping this just-defeated enemy suppress a domestic rebellion which, in the view of many modern historians, offered a more hopeful and progressive alternative to the Chinese people than did the continuance of Manchu rule, but which was regarded as a threat to their interests by these powers.

1989 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 259-277
Author(s):  
Donal A. Kerr

In the spring of 1848 a number of respected English vicars-general, William Bernard Ullathorne of the Western District, John Briggs of the Northern District, and Thomas Brown of Wales decided that one of them, together with Fr Luigi Gentili, the Rosminian missioner, should proceed immediately to Rome. Their object would be to support, by personal intervention with Pius IX, a memorial drawn up by Briggs, signed by twenty Irish and three or four bishops in Great Britain, which was solemnly presented to the Pope by Thomas Grant, President of the English College in Rome. This memorial ran: we most... solemnly declare to Your Holiness that British Diplomacy has everywhere been exerted to the injury of our Holy Religion. We read in the public Papers that Lord Minto is friendly received... by Your Holiness At this very time, however,... the first Minister of the British Government, the Son in Law of Lord Minto is publicly manifesting in England, together with his fellow Ministers, his marked opposition to the Catholic Religion and the Catholic Church. Another cause of our serious alarm is the very general hostile and calumnious outcry now made in both houses of our Parliament and throughout Protestant England against the Catholic Priests of Ireland, falsely charging them with being the abettors of the horrible crime of murder whilst as true Pastors they are striving t o . . . console their... perishing people and like good shepherds are in the midst of pestilence giving their lives for their flocks.


1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney Brazier

BEFORE the dawn of the millennium new legislative and executive authorities will have been established in Edinburgh, Cardiff and (subject to further political and other progress) in Belfast. This article analyses the nature of these constitutional initiatives, and examines their place in the unitary state which is the United Kingdom. It begins by tracing the history of constitutional union between England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The legal effect of the 1998 devolution statutes is examined, in particular on the legal sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament. A triple constitutional and legal lock exists in the Scotland Act 1998 to ensure that the devolution settlement is the final step away from the pure unitary state which has enfolded Scotland in Great Britain. The nature and likely success of that lock are analysed in some detail. The lawmaking powers of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, and the Northern Ireland Assembly are assessed. The similarities and differences between each of the three devolved governments and the British Government are highlighted, and consequences and possible lessons for future government-making at Westminster are drawn. The article concludes with a peer into the possible constitutional futures for the United Kingdom.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233339282093232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Boretti

Here, we review modeling predictions for Covid-19 mortality based on recent data. The Imperial College model trusted by the British Government predicted peak mortalities above 170 deaths per million in the United States, and above 215 deaths per million in Great Britain, after more than 2 months from the outbreak, and a length for the outbreak well above 4 months. These predictions drove the world to adopt harsh distancing measures and forget the concept of herd immunity. China had peak mortalities of less than 0.1 deaths per million after 40 days since first deaths, and an 80-day-long outbreak. Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, or Great Britain flattened the curve at 13.6, 28.6, 9.0, 10.6, and 13.9 deaths per million after 40, 39, 33, 44, and 39 days from first deaths, or 31, 29, 24, 38, and 29 days since the daily confirmed deaths reached 0.1 per million people, respectively. The declining curve is much slower for Italy, the Netherlands, or Great Britain than Belgium or Sweden. Opposite to Great Britain, Italy, or Belgium that enforced a complete lockdown, the Netherlands only adopted an “intelligent” lockdown, and Sweden did not adopt any lockdown. However, they achieved better results. Coupled to new evidence for minimal impact of Covid-19 on the healthy population, with the most part not infected even if challenged, or only mild or asymptomatic if infected, there are many good reasons to question the validity of the specific epidemiological model simulations and the policies they produced. Fewer restrictions on the healthy while better protecting the vulnerable would have been a much better option, permitting more sustainable protection of countries otherwise at risk of second waves as soon as the strict measures are lifted.


1957 ◽  
Vol 10 (39) ◽  
pp. 298-324
Author(s):  
Edith M. Johnston

From 1700 to 1767 it was customary for the lord lieutenant of Ireland to reside in the country only during the period when the Irish parliament was actually in session. Before the amendment of Poynings’ law in 1782 the parliamentary session had lasted approximately six to eight months in every second year. On its prorogation the viceroy had returned to Great Britain for the intervening eighteen months, placing the government of Ireland in the hands of three prominent Irish politicians known as the lords justices. For some years before 1767 the British government had been considering the appointment of a permanently resident lord lieutenant in order to instil stability into the Irish political administration and to remove the necessity for the appointment of Irish politicians as lords justices.In 1767 the Pitt-Grafton administration appointed George, Viscount Townshend, lord lieutenant of Ireland. On his arrival the new viceroy found that the government of the kingdom was in the hands of the great borough proprietors, many of whom were connected with the influential whig families in Great Britain. These Irish politicians were accustomed to carry through, or undertake, the king’s business in parliament in return for a generous share of administrative patronage, which they used to increase their political power and family prestige. This patronage was mainly connected with the control of the revenue board of which John Ponsonby, speaker of the Irish house of commons, brother of the earl of Bessborough and closely connected with the duke of Devonshire, was the first commissioner.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-86
Author(s):  
Louisa Perreau

As the saying goes ‘good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere!’, whose origin is uncertain, sometimes attributed to American actress and screenwriter Mae West, sometimes to editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurvey Brown, it was taken up as a slogan by feminists who denounce the sexual norm imposed on women by religions. At a time when the influence of religious fundamentalism on State policies seems to be gaining ground (retreat on abortion laws in the United States, in Poland; Sharia courts in Great Britain, etc.), the object of this research note will be to question the articulations between British Muslim women, State multiculturalism and legislation. In Britain, since the 1980s, a network of sharia councils has developed to resolve disputes between Muslims, including resolving family problems. Sharia councils thus reveal the place of Muslim women in the United Kingdom on the issue of divorce. Extremely patriarchal, rarely feminist, often undemocratic, the sharia councils appear as places of power. The latter are often compared to Islamic courts, so-called ‘counseling’ religious services or ‘Islamic family services’ to which Muslims wishing to respect divine law and their religious precepts go – especially women. What does this mean for British Muslim women who use these services? How is the British government responding?


1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-312
Author(s):  
Marie Donaghay

In March 1786 a special envoy from Great Britain, William Eden, notified the French foreign minister, the comte de Vergennes, of his arrival. Eden's appearance in France represented the culmination of three years of careful diplomacy designed to force the British government into serious commercial negotiations. Ostensibly, the negotiators were to replace the moribund commercial convention of Utrecht (1713) with a new agreement that would extend Anglo-French trade. But for Vergennes, the negotiations involved more than trade: they formed an essential part of his post-war English policy – a policy designed to maintain British isolation and demonstrate the possibilities of Anglo-French co-operation while bringing Great Britain under French influence through penetration of the British economy. Discussions during the next ten months produced a commercial treaty, an additional convention and a draft consular agreement. When the new commercial arrangements were promulgated in May 1787, the French economy was depressed and the French government was in disarray following the death of Vergennes and the dismissal of two other ministers. Hopes for rapprochement vanished when the Dutch crisis ended in a French humiliation at British hands a few months later, but the treaty continued to govern Anglo-French commercial relations until 1793.


2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (138) ◽  
pp. 220-237
Author(s):  
Marie Coleman

From its foundation in 1930 until the end of 1934 the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake sold the overwhelming majority of its tickets in Great Britain. Alarmed at the success of an enterprise that was illegal in its jurisdiction and that resulted in a considerable financial drain to the Irish Free State’s hospital service, the British government enacted a Betting and Lotteries Act in 1934 to curtail the sale of Irish sweepstake tickets there. The result was a substantial decline in British contributions to the sweepstake and in the overall income from ticket sales. The British action threatened the continued existence and success of the venture.


Polar Record ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 6 (41) ◽  
pp. 88-90
Author(s):  
G. E. R. Deacon

In 1944 Vice-Admiral Sir John Edgell, K.B.E., C.B., F.R.S., then Hydrographer of the Navy, advised the British Government that in its contribution to research in oceanography this country had fallen seriously behind other countries, including many which had no comparable traditions of interest in the oceans and their navigation, and that an oceanographical institute should be set up in Great Britain. The subject was referred to the Royal Society, and the Oceanographical Sub-Committee of the National Committee for Geodesy and Geophysics showed itself, in a report which was accepted by the Society, to be strongly in favour of setting up a national oceanographical institute. It urged the primary need for researches of physical character because marine physical investigations had taken a secondary place to marine biology ever since the Challenger Expedition of 1872–76, and because the biological aspects were well looked after by existing authorities such as the Marine Biological Associations of the United Kingdom and Scotland, the Fisheries Laboratories at Lowestoft and Aberdeen, the Discovery Investigations, and marine biological laboratories associated with universities.


1978 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 538-562
Author(s):  
Norman H. Keehn

The capacity of the British Government to pursue and achieve economic purposes under liberal managed capitalism without the consent, cooperation, or passive acquiescence of organized producer groups is inherently limited. The ineluctable fact is that the British Government is dependent on the holders of economic power for achieving economic purposes. For this reason, national policy makers enter into partnership arrangements and contractual relationships with vital corporatist forces. Deliberate, premeditated, collaborative action is needed to ensure correlation between the government's intentions and achievements. Concertation, which represents a partnership between the public and private sectors as well as cooperative give-and-take in reaching agreements on economic objectives, enables the government to govern.


Author(s):  
Lindsey Flewelling

The United States played a significant role in unionist political thought and rhetoric throughout the Home Rule era. Ulster unionists used American examples to emphasize the need to maintain unity between Great Britain and Ireland, and to provide historical justification for unionist actions. This chapter examines the ways in which the American Revolutionary War, Civil War, and Constitution were utilized in unionist rhetoric. Unionists drew upon these American historical and constitutional examples to highlight ethnic connections to the United States, underscore the failed obligations of the British government to fight to save the Union, and legitimize Ulster militancy.


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