The Naming of British Columbia

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ged Martin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
North America ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Western Coast ◽  
British North America ◽  
New Hebrides ◽  
The Government

Selecting a name for the gold rush colony of British Columbia, although apparently trivial, embarrassed the government, threatened to become the focus for a groundswell of opposition to the whole idea of establishing a new colony, and offers a curious sidelight on the role of the Crown.On 24 June 1858 Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the Colonial Secretary in Lord Derby's second ministry, wrote to the Queen to inform her that “in consequence of the recent discovery of Gold in the Neighbourhood of Fraser's River, on the Western Coast of British North America, rendering expedient the immediate establishment of Civil Government,” the government had decided “to erect at once a New Colony there.” Parliament had to authorize this, “& it is desirable that the name of the new Colony shall be inserted in the Bill.” Since the measure was to be introduced within a week, the procedure was slapdash. In asking the Queen to select a name, Lytton informed her that explorers had used the name “New Caledonia,” but did point out that the name had been used elsewhere, most notably for “the chief island of the New Hebrides Group in the South Seas where the French have lately signified their intention to form an establishment.” He added that the names New Cornwall and New Hanover had also been applied to parts of the coast by some mapmakers. While the monarch retained a significant role in mid-nineteenth century government, this hardly extended to, acting as a cartographical research institute for the Colonial Office. On 27 June the Queen informed her minister that she had settled on New Caledonia as the most generally accepted name.

“Boil them Hearts”

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-74
Author(s):  
Jason Redden
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Theoretical Inquiry ◽  
Critical Exploration ◽  
Coastal British Columbia ◽  
Academic Study

This paper addresses the academic conversation on Protestant missions to the Indigenous peoples of coastal British Columbia during the second half of the nineteenth century through a consideration of the role of revivalist piety in the conversion of some of the better known Indigenous Methodist evangelists identified in the scholarly literature. The paper introduces the work of existing scholars critically illuminating the reasons (religious convergence and/or the want of symbolic and material resources) typically given for Indigenous, namely, Ts’msyen, conversion. It also introduces Methodist revivalist piety and its instantiation in British Columbia. And, finally, it offers a critical exploration of revivalist piety and its role in conversion as set within a broader theoretical inquiry into the academic study of ritual and religion.

The Steamboat, Safety and the State: Government Reaction to New Technology in a Period of Laissez-Faire

2011 ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
John Armstrong ◽  
David M. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
State Government ◽  
Government Intervention ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Steam Power ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
The Government

This chapter explores the government reaction to steam power and the issues of public safety that surrounded it. In particular, it questions the lack of prominent government intervention until the middle of the nineteenth century. It studies the economic advantages of steam over sail; the new hazards associated with steam power and the causes and rates of accidents; the call for government intervention which grew out of these hazards; an analysis of the lack of government response to this pressure for close to thirty years; and a study and assessment of the action eventually taken. It concludes by bringing these points together and places them into the wider context of maritime safety, the role of government, the problematic aspects of laissez-faire politics, and the difficulties inherent in the transition to new technology.

Some aspects of the Anglo-Russian Convention and its working in Persia, 1907–14—I

1968 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Louise Greaves
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
European Policy ◽  
Consecutive Period ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
Permanent Staff ◽  
The Government ◽  
Role Of The Government

The Anglo-Russian Convention, signed at St. Petersburg on 31 August 1907, contained provisions relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. The text of the agreement would seem to suggest that the matters adjusted were purely local in character—an arrangement arrived at between two countries settling problems in far-away frontier regions. But the Anglo-Russian Convention was of much greater significance. It represented a change not only in Anglo-Russian relations, but in Britain's fundamental European policy. It also meant that the role of the Government of India, which had often been a powerful factor in the determination of foreign policy in the nineteenth century, became less significant. It seems highly probable, too, that in the years when Sir Edward Grey was Foreign Secretary (December 1905 to December 1916—holding office for a longer consecutive period than any other Foreign Secretary in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, the next being Castlereagh, 1812–22) the permanent staff of the Foreign Office exercised more influence and had a more decisive voice in the conduct of the country's foreign policy than they ever had before of have had since.

The Dominion-Provincial Tax Agreements in Canada

1943 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-97
Author(s):  
Theodore Kraft
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Financial Structure ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Tax Burden ◽  
Corporate Taxes ◽  
Direct Taxation ◽  
British North America ◽  
War Finance ◽  
Fundamental Law ◽  
The Government

Canada has recently instituted a significant war-time fiscal plan. As a federal state, the Dominion has been plagued by the complicated problems of federal finance; and to meet the severe burdens of war finance, it has found it necessary to simplify the federal financial structure. This change has been accomplished by formal agreements between the Dominion and the provinces whereby the latter have agreed to retire from certain fields of taxation for the duration of the war.The agreements do not require amendment of the British North America Act (1867), but they do necessitate abstinence of the provinces from exercising a portion of their authority under it. By the terms of that fundamental law, the provinces are authorized to levy “direct taxation within the province in order to the raising of a revenue for provincial purposes” and “shop, saloon, tavern, auctioneer, and other licenses in order to the raising of a revenue for provincial, local, or municipal purposes.” The Dominion, however, is granted the power to raise revenue by “any mode or system of taxation.” Under this distribution of tax authority, it was natural that various sources should eventually be taxed by both the Dominion and the provinces. By 1940, not only the provinces and the Dominion, but also in some instances municipalities, were levying income and corporate taxes. Inasmuch as the rates varied from province to province and from municipality to municipality, there was inequality of the tax burden throughout the Dominion. In order to secure a maximum of revenue for war purposes, the Dominion government deemed it necessary to tax corporations and incomes at the same rate throughout Canada; and for this reason, the government requested the provinces (and municipalities) to retire from these fields of taxation for the war period.

Going "Mad" in Gold Country: Migrant Populations and the Problem of Containment in Pacific Mining Boom Regions

2011 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Hawk
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
Fraser River ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Migrant Populations ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
American Migration

Based on archival research conducted in California, British Columbia, and eastern Australia, this essay examines the role of mobility in shaping the institutional experiences of individuals committed or arrested for insanity in the major Pacific mining boom regions of the nineteenth century. Through the transnational story of James "Scotty" Brown, a sailor who escaped from the California State Insane Asylum in time to join the 1858 American migration to the Fraser River goldfields in British Columbia, I demonstrate that instability and flux characterized not only the backgrounds of "mad" migrants, but also their frequent encounters with gold country asylums and jails. Specifically, I argue that these institutions often facilitated the mobility of the individuals that, in principle, they were constructed to "contain."

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