The Past and Present Society

The Past and Present Society
The 1848 Revolutions and the British Empire

Author(s): Miles Taylor
Source: Past & Present, No. 166 (Feb., 2000), pp. 146-180
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society
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THE 1848 REVOLUTIONS AND THE
BRITISH EMPIRE
In 1848, not for the first time in its history, Britainfailed to go
the way of the rest of Europe. While barricadeswent up and
dynasties tottered across the continent - from Palermo to
Potsdam, from Paris to Prague - the British constitution
remained intact. On the British mainland, Chartism revived
briefly, but fizzled out amid the debacle of the Kennington
Commonmeeting and the forged signaturesof the monsterpeti-
tion of 10 April. In Ireland, despite widespreadagrariandiscon-
tent following the Famine, the insurgencyled by William Smith
O'Brien collapsedfarcicallyin a field of cabbagesin Tipperary.
Britain ended 1848 much as it had begun it - easing gradually
into free trade, prosperityand mid-Victorianequipoiseunderthe
benigntutelageof a Whig aristocracy.And while, in the aftermath
of 1848, more liberalconstitutionswere grantedby manyregimes
across Europe, major reforms in both Britain and Ireland were
effectively resisted for another generation. Not until the late
1860s did Britain see the sort of constitutionalchange which,
directly and indirectly, was the legacy of 1848 in Europe. Both
to contemporariesand to posterity, in other words, 1848 was the
year in which British peculiarityseemed to be underlinedonce
again.
What happensto this well-known picture of Britainin 1848 if
our focus is widened to take in the British empire?For what is
striking, yet often overlooked, about some of the European
revolutionsof 1848 is the extent to which they were precipitated
by problemsof imperialoverload.Some of the Europeanpowers,
such as Austria, were well-establishedempires, others such as
Franceor Russia were states whose very recent history had been
one of creeping annexationor colonization- France in Algeria,
1 F. B.
Smith, 'The View from Britain I: Tumults Abroad, Stability at Home', in
Eugene Kamenka and F. B. Smith (eds.), Intellectualsand Revolution:Socialism and
the Experienceof 1848 (London, 1979), 118; L. B. Namier, 1848: The Revolutionof
the Intellectuals(London, 1946), 1; Priscilla Robertson, Revolutionsof 1848: A Social
History (Princeton, 1952), 405; Peter Stearns, The Revolutionsof 1848 (London,
1974), 1-2.
THE 1848 REVOLUTIONS AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE 147
and Russia with her occupation of Poland and forced Jewish
conscription. Some of the bloodiest episodes in France in 1848
through to 1851 were perceived to have involved the military
latelyreturnedfrom Algeria,while in Russiathe tsaristauthorities
took immediate steps to quell discontent in 1848 by declaring
martiallaw in the recently annexed western provinces.2In other
parts of Europe in 1848, the older monarchicaland imperial
powers fought off the challenge of liberal nationalism: for
example, the forces of the Prussian monarchy in Silesia,
Schleswig-Holsteinand Saxony; Austria in Hungary, as well as
in Lombardy and the Veneto in northern Italy; and Bourbon
Naples, using its Swiss Guard,in Sicily.3In these partsof Europe
liberalnationalistmovementswere spurredon by their hatredof
an alien militarypresence, and, in some cases, an alien religious
faith. Severalof the 1848 revolutionsnot only took place within
multiple-kingdomsor imperial states, they were also triggered
by the financialcrises besetting imperialtreasuriestrying to cope
with territorialoverload.In Austriaand Prussiait was the attempt
to raise new taxes to finance the military infrastructurewhich
was the immediatecause of the food riots and republicanrisings
in 1848.4Pressureon militaryresourcesalso broughton sporadic
disaffection among conscripts and organized resistance among
officers- as with the Petrashevtsyconspiracyin Russia and the
two army regimentsinvolved in the Madridinsurrectionof May
1848.5In these ways the 1848 upheavalsin Europewere in some
2 Charles Andre Julien, Histoire de l'Algerie contemporaine:la conqueteet les debuts
de la colonisation(1827-71) (Paris, 1964), ch. 5; Frederick A. de Luna, The French
Republicunder Cavaignac, 1848 (Princeton, 1969), 169; W. Bruce Lincoln, 'Russia
and the European Revolutions of 1848', History Today, xxiii (Jan. 1973).
3 Veit Valentin, 1848: Chaptersin GermanHistory (London, 1940), ch. 2; Alan Sked,
The Survival of the HabsburgEmpire:Radetzky, the ImperialArmy and the Class War,
1848 (London, 1979); Paul Ginsborg, Daniele Manin and the VenetianRevolutionof
1848-49 (Cambridge, 1979); G. F. H. and J. Berkeley, Italy in the Making, 1846-9,
3 vols. (Cambridge, 1936-40), iii, chs. 3, 15; Jonathan Sperber, The European
Revolutions,1848-1851 (Cambridge, 1994), ch. 2.
4Josef Polisensky, Aristocrats and the Crowd in the Revolutionary Year 1848: A
Contributionto the History of Revolutionand Counter-Revolutionin Austria (Albany,
1980), 83-4; Jonathan Sperber, RhinelandRadicals: The DemocraticMovementand the
Revolutionof 1848-9 (Princeton, 1991), 143-4; Istvan Deak, 'Destruction, Revolution
or Reform? Hungary on the Eve of 1848', Austro-HungarianYearbook,xii (1976-7),
5-6. In general, see Sperber, EuropeanRevolutions,105-11.
5 H.
J. Seddon, The Petrashevtsy:A Study of the Russian Revolutionariesof 1848
(Manchester, 1985); ClaraLida, 'La repliblica democraticay social de 1848 y sus ecos
el mundo hispanico', in E. Posada-Carb6 (ed.), 1848 beyondEurope(forthcoming). I
am grateful to Clara Lida for allowing me to consult her work. For 1848 in Spain in
general, see Daniel R. Headrick, 'Spain and the Revolutions of 1848', European
(cont. on p. 148)
148 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER166
cases a crisis of empire, as much as they were an outbreak of

revolution.
Lookedat in this imperialperspective,to ask why no revolution
took place in Britainand Irelandin 1848 is thereforeto ask the
wrong question.In 1848 Britain(excludingIndia)was an imperial
power of similarsize in terms of populationto Russia (excluding
Poland), and in terms of ethnic mix and military resources to
Austria.Since the beginningof the 1840s, like Franceand Russia,
Britainhad upped a gearin the processof territorialacquisition-
annexingHong Kong in the Far East (1843), Labuanin Indonesia
(1846), Natal (1843) and the OrangeRiver (1848) in SouthAfrica,
Gambia(1843) on the west coast of Africa, Afghanistan(1842)
and, of course, in India, Sind (1843) and the Punjab (1846-9),
in addition to a series of smaller princely states such as Satara
(1848) and Sambalpur(1849).6 And as in the case of Austriaand
Russia, most of this recent expansion of the British empire was
triggered by the need to secure existing frontiers and pacify
internaldissent, ratherthan by the drive for new markets. This
logic of the 'garrisonstate' brought its own dangers, especially
in Indiaand southernAfrica,where over-relianceon multi-ethnic
peasantarmiesand constantrecourseto unpopularlocal taxation
bred discontent.7As a result, by mid-century, British colonial
military expenditure was reaching a record high, despite the
ongoing drive at home to recover from the legacy of Hanoverian
fiscal excess and reduce the tax burden as much as possible.8
(n. 5 cont.)
Studies Rev., vi (1976). On the nationality problems besetting the Habsburg armies,
see Sked, Survival of the HabsburgEmpire, 52-4.
6 On this phase of empire, see John P. Halstead, The SecondBritish Empire: Trade,
Philanthropyand GoodGovernment,1820-90 (Westport, Conn., 1983). On annexation
policy in India, see M. A. Rahim, Lord Dalhousie'sAdministrationof the Conquered
and Annexed States (Delhi, 1963); S. N. Prasad, Paramountcy under Dalhousie
(Delhi, 1964).
7 C. A. Bayly, 'The First Age of Global Imperialism, c. 1760-1830', Jl Imperialand
CommonwealthHist., xxvi (1998); Douglas M. Peers, Between Mars and Mammon:
ColonialArmies and the Garrison State in India, 1819-1835 (London, 1995); M. E.
Yapp, Strategiesof British India: Britain, Iran and Afghanistan, 1798-1850 (Oxford,
1980), 584-5.
8 In 1847 colonial military expenditure stood at £2.93m out of a total expenditure
on army and ordnance of £9.1m; by 1853 it had risen to £3.53m out of a total
expenditure of £9.5m: AccountsRelatingto ColonialExpenditure,ParliamentaryPapers
(hereafter PP), 1849 [224], xxxiv, 8; ReturnsRelating to Military Forces (Colonies),
PP, 1859, sess. 2 [114], xvii, 2; B. R. Mitchell, BritishHistoricalStatistics(Cambridge,
1988), 588. For the drive to reduce the fiscal-military state at home, see Philip Harling
and Peter Mandler, 'From "Fiscal Military" State to Laissez-Faire State, 1760-1850',
Jl Brit. Studies, xxxii (1993); Philip Harling, The Waningof 'Old Corruption':The
(cont. on p. 149)
Furthermore,not unlike the various Europeanimperialpowers,
Britain'sempire was ruled more by force than by consent. With
the exception of Canadaand New South Wales, few of Britain's
dependencies possessed elective legislative assemblies in 1848.
Most were Crown colonies, presided over by a governor, who
traditionallywas a military man and very often a veteran of the
Napoleonic wars. Outside of the white settlement colonies, press
freedom and trial by jury were for the most part untried, and
the capitalcode extended much further than in Britain,where it
had been all but abolishedexcept for murder by the 1840s.9At
home, Britain may well have been further down the road of
commercialand constitutionalprogress.In the empire, however,
it was a differentstory. On paperat least, some of the ingredients
which were to produce such a volatile situationon the European
continentin the late 1840s- civil disabilities,fiscalcrisis and an
overstretched,alien militarypresence- were also at work within
the British imperialworld.
At the same time, unlike those of her continental rivals,
Britain's empire was neither close nor contiguous. With the
exception of a handful of possessions in the Mediterranean,the
Britishempire appearedto be so far removed from the European
theatre as to be unaffected by the upheavalsof 1848. Although
the advent of the steamshiphad brought the four cornersof the
world somewhat closer - 'Halifax [Nova Scotia] is now almost
as near as Inverness was a century ago', observed the prime
minister Lord John Russell in 184910 - intercontinental com-
municationwas still limited. The telegraphicsystem was largely
confined to industrialand urban northernEurope, and shipping
companieslackedthe commercialincentiveto bring in the reduc-
n. 8 cont. )
Politics of EconomicalReformin Britain, 1779-1846 (Oxford, 1996). For the imperial
dimension, see Peers, BetweenMars and Mammon,244-5; Patrick K. O'Brien, 'The
Security of the Realm and the Growth of the Economy, 1688-1914', in Peter Clarke
and Clive Trebilcock (eds.), UnderstandingDecline: Perceptionsand Realitiesof British
EconomicPerformance(Cambridge, 1997), 65.
9 Return Showinghowfar Crimes,for which Capital Punishmentshave beenAbolished
in this Country, are still Capitally Punishablein the Coloniesand Dependenciesof Great
Britain, PP, 1850 [69], xxxvi.
10Russell to Grey, 19 Aug. 1849: Durham University Library, 3rd Earl Grey Papers
(hereafter Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers), 122/4; cf. 'Cosmopolite', Free Trade
and No Colonies:A Letter Addressedto the Right Hon. Lord John Russell (London,
1848), 16-17; R. M. Martin, British Possessionsin Europe,Africa, Asia and Australasia
Connectedwith England by the Indian and Australia Mail Steam Packet Company
(London, 1847), 57.
150 PASTAND PRESENT NUMBER 166
TABLE
THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1848-1849 IN A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE*
Population Armed Killed in riots Executions3 Imprisoned
(millions) forces' and risings2 /deported4
Austria-Hungary 29.1 400,000 5,500 6,210 6,400
Prussia 16.0 127,000 250 27 10,000
Russia 68.0 900,000 0 0 21
France 35.0 324,000 1,460 150 15,000
Kingdom of Two 8.0 64,000 1,600 0 30,000
Sicilies
Spain 14.0 105,900 100 13 2,000
England, Wales 37.0 35,000a 5 0 1,771
and Scotland
Ireland 6.6 29,000b 2 0 3,302
British India 120.0 316,300c 1,022 0 0
West Indies 0.9 5,900 8 0 54
Canada 1.6 9,900 1 0 9
Australasia 0.2 5,170 0 0 0
Cape Colony 0.3 4,804 58 2 0
Ceylon 0.2 2,968 200 18 100
Ionian Islands 0.1 2,495 2 21 34
Other coloniesd 0.5 10,257 0 0 0
a
In addition to 85,000 special constables, 1,200 military pensioners and 4,000 police.
b In addition to
13,000 police.
28,300 royal troops and 288,000 East India Company troops.
dFalkland Islands, Gambia, Gibraltar, Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Malta, Mauritius,
Sierra Leone, St Helena.
*Sources to Table:
'Austria-Hungary: Alan Sked, The Survival of the HabsburgEmpire:Radetzky, the
Imperial Army and the Class War, 1848 (London, 1979), 44; Prussia: Curt Jany,
Geschichteder PreuJ3ischen Armee vom 15 Jahrhundertbis 1914, 4 vols. (Osnabruck,
1967), iv, 212; Russia: John L. N. Keep, Soldiers of the Tsar: Army and Society in
Russia, 1462-1874 (Oxford, 1985), 326; France (1846 totals): David H. Pinkney,
Decisive Years in France, 1840-47 (Princeton, 1986), 143; Kingdom of Two Sicilies:
G. F. H. and J. Berkeley, Italy in the Making, 1815-49, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1936-40),
ii, 276n.; Spain (figures from 1843-5 for army and civil guard combined): Raymond
Carr, Spain, 1808-1939 (Oxford, 1966), 283n.; E. Christiansen,The Originsof Military
Power in Spain, 1800-54 (Oxford, 1967), 126; England: Stanley Palmer, Police and
Protest in England and Ireland, 1780-1850 (Cambridge, 1988), 463, 483, 486, 488;
Ireland:ibid., 493, 558; British India (1852 returns): Reportof the Commission
Appointed
to Inquireinto the Organisationof the Indian Army, Parliamentary Papers (hereafter
PP), 1859, sess. 1 [2515], v, appendix, 21; West Indies, Canada,Australasiaand other
colonies: Return of the Numberof Her Majesty's TroopsWho Have Been Employedin
the Coloniesof Great Britain in the Years 1847-8, PP, 1852 [566], xxxi, 4.
2Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Spain:R. J. Goldstein, Political Repressionin Nineteenth
Century Europe (London, 1983), 187, 190-1; France: Frederick A. de Luna, The
French Republicunder Cavaignac in 1848 (Princeton, 1969), 149; Kingdom of Two
Sicilies: Harold Acton, The Last Bourbonsof Naples (1825-61) (London, 1961), 261;
England: Palmer, Police and Protest, 484; Ireland: ibid., 498; British India (British
losses only): R. G. Burton, The First and SecondSikh Wars(Simla, 1911), 142, 145-7;
West Indies: Times, 25 Sept. 1848 (Jamaica); Palladium, 27 Apr. 1849 (St. Lucia);
Canada: Times,4 Sept. 1849; Cape Colony: H. W. Smith to Earl Grey, 30 Aug. 1848:
PP, 1849 [1056], xxxvi, 46; Ceylon: SecondReportof the Select Committeeon Ceylon,
PP, 1850 [127], xli, qq. 7490-1; Ionian Islands: Papers Relative to the Disturbancesin
the Ionian Islands, PP, 1850 [215], xxxvi, 3.
3Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Spain: Goldstein, Political Repression,186-7, 190-2;
France: de Luna, French Republic, 150; Cape Colony: H. W. Smith to Earl Grey, 30
Aug. 1848, 57; Ceylon: SecondReportof the Select Committee,q. 3600; Ionian Islands:
Papers Relative to the Disturbancesin the Ionian Islands, 3.
4Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Kingdom of Two Sicilies, Spain: Goldstein, Political
Repression,186, 190-1; Russia: J. H. Seddon, ThePetrashevtsy:A Study of the Russian
Revolutionariesof 1848 (Manchester, 1985), 237; France: de Luna, French Republic,
219; England, Ireland (transported convicts): Public Record Office, London, HO
11/21, 30-2; West Indies: Times, 25 Sept. 1848 (Jamaica); Palladium, 27 Apr. 1849
(St Lucia); Canada: Times, 16 May, 4 Sept. 1849; Ceylon: SecondReportof the Select
Committee,q. 3600; Ionian Islands: Return of the ... Courts-Martialheld ... in the
Island of Cephalonia,PP, 1850 [215], xxxvi, 87.
tions in sailing times made possible by new technology." To a

great extent the British empire remainedout of sight and out of
mind. Rather than being a source of instability, it could be a
potential safety valve for metropolitantensions, absorbing the
surplus populationand expanding the marketsof Britain. What
the troubled states of France or Prussia would give for such
outlets as the Australiancolonies, mused several commentators
in 1848.12Contemporariesalso noted how the empirewas a useful
home for a virtual standing army whose presence would never
be toleratedin Britainitself.13 Not surprisingly,therefore, some
observers became convinced that British tranquillityin the late
1840s was only achieved at the expense of the colonies.14
This article will examine these two aspects of the imperial
1 Daniel R.
Headrick, The Invisible Weapon: Telecommunications and International
Politics, 1851-1945 (Oxford, 1991), 12-13; Second Reportfrom the Select Committee
on Steam Communicationswith India, &c., PP, 1851 [605], xxi, qq. 4250-1, 4266,
5695, 5854.
12 [Anon.], 'AustralianColonies or Republics?', Fraser's Mag., xxxvii (May 1848),
567; Sydney MorningHerald, 11 Oct. 1848; William Bland, Lettersto CharlesBuller,
MP, from the Australian PatrioticAssociation(Sydney, 1849), xii-xiii.
13 R. M. Martin, The British Colonies:TheirHistory, Extent, Conditionand Resources,
6 vols. (London, 1848-51), i, xix; cf. David Washbrook, 'South Asia, the World
System and World Capitalism', Jl Asian Studies, xlix (1990), 480-1; Hew Strachan,
The Politics of the British Army (Oxford, 1997), 76.
14 As the
transported 'Young Irelander' John Mitchel put it, 'England was saved
from invasion; her institutions in Church and State from ruin; her game-preserving
aristocracy from abolition and the lamp-iron; her commerce and manufactures were
kept going on a fictitious basis - and India, Canada, Ireland were debarred of their
freedom': entry for 16 Dec. 1848, Jail Journal, 2nd edn (Dublin, 1913), 85.
152 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 166
dimension to Britain's 1848 - on the one hand, the use of the

empire as a safety valve, on the other, the threat the empire
posed in presentingproblemsof fiscal and territorialoverloadof
Europeanproportions.MetropolitanBritain'srelativelysafe pas-
sage through these troubled times was impossible without the
empire. It was the Cape and Australiansettlements to which
English and Irish politicalprisonerswere transportedafter 1848.
It was the empire as a whole which was forced to downsize its
military resources in order to allow for drastic government
retrenchmentat home, the single most importantfactorin ensur-
ing the loyalty of the British taxpayer in 1848. And it was the
West Indies and Canadain particularwhich bore the brunt of
the free trade reforms which fuelled consumer prosperity in
Britain. But using a distant empire to ease burdensat home was
not without risk. As the map shows, these years were not
untroubledtimes for the empire. Riots and rebellionsof one sort
or anothertook placein Ceylon,the IonianIslandsand the Orange
River, and a major mutiny was averted in the Punjab. Martial
law was introducedin Ceylon, the Ionian Islandsand the eastern
Cape. In Canada barricades went up in Montreal, and the
Canadianparliamentbuilding was burned down. Campaignsof
civil disobedience erupted in the Cape, New South Wales and
Van Diemen's Land as white settlers resisted imperialattempts
to continue the transportationof convicts to the territory they
occupied. Fiscal crisis was also evident in the British empire.
Two colonial governments - Jamaica and British Guiana - were
forced to cut drastically,and then suspend altogether,all public
expenditureas their local economies collapsedas a result of the
equalizationof the sugar duties compoundedby the commercial
crisisof 1847. Stabilityon the Britishmainlandwas not therefore
matched by peace and quiet across the empire. As one radical
quipped, surveyingthe turbulentcolonies, 'we have not heardof
disturbancesat Heligoland, but they may be anticipated'.'5Nor
were such events without consequence.After 1848 constitutional
change was hurriedthrough in virtuallyall British dependencies
and colonies. By the mid-1850s most colonial constitutionsbore
little resemblanceto what had existed before 1848. Poor white
emigrants,formerslaves and paroledprisonersbecamethe bene-
15
[G. Troup], 'Colonies', Tait's EdinburghMag., xx (Dec. 1849), 756.
ficiariesof extensionsof the franchisewhich metropolitanBritons

and Irishmen would have to wait until the mid-1880s to enjoy.
Britainmay have emerged unscathedfrom 1848, but considered
as an imperialstate it did not emerge unchanged.
I
There are at least three different explanationscommonlyoffered
for the lack of revolution in Britain in 1848. First, it has been
argued that the Chartistsand the Fenians were quelled by the
combinationof a highly efficientpolice force and a draconianuse
of the criminal law.16 Secondly, historianshave pointed to the
loyaltyof the middle classesto the Britishstate, symbolizedabove
all by the thousandsof men who volunteeredas specialconstables
in London on the eve of 10 April.'7 Finally, successive govern-
ments of the 1840s have been creditedwith reducingthe burden
of indirect taxes on the working classes, thereby alleviatingpos-
sible discontentas well as facilitatingan increasein living stand-
ards.18There is a certainvalidityto all three of these explanations,
yet none of them really work unless they are consideredwithin
an imperial context. Only by mobilizing the resources of the
empire was the British state able to deploy the law and the fiscal
system againstthe forces of revolutionin the late 1840s.
The renewal in 1848 of the transportationof prisonersto the
colonies was the cornerstoneof the Britishstate's containmentof
Chartismand of post-Faminedisorderin Ireland.Although only
thirty or so actual political protesters were transported in 1848-9,
there was a huge increasein the overall numbersexiled, particu-
larly from Ireland.19It is clear that Earl Grey, the colonialsecret-
ary, saw transportationas the means of removing altogether a
16John Saville, 1848: The British State and the Chartist Movement (Cambridge,
1987); F. C. Mather, Public Order in the Age of the Chartists(London, 1959).
17
Stanley Palmer, Police and Protest in Englandand Ireland, 1780-1850 (Cambridge,
1988), 484-90.
18
Gareth Stedman Jones, 'Rethinking Chartism', in his Languagesof Class: Studies
in English Working-ClassHistory, 1832-1982 (Cambridge, 1983), 177-8.
19A. G. L.
Shaw, Convictsand the Colonies:A Study of Penal Transportationfrom
Great Britain and Ireland to Australia and Other Parts of the British Empire(London,
1966), 338; George Rude, Protest and Punishment:The Story of the Political Protesters
Transportedto Australia, 1788-1868 (Oxford, 1978), 249-51; Palmer, Policeand Protest
in England and Ireland, 58. 837 males were transported from Britain and Ireland in
1847, 2,441 (1,693 Irish) in 1848 and 2,632 (1,609 Irish) in 1849. See 'Account of
Number of Convicts Transported, 1787-1870': Public Record Office, London (here-
after PRO), HO 11/21, 30-2.
Island
Malta ^
cl
Honduras
.Ascension
St. Helena.
Falkland
Ilslands
THE BRITISH EMPIRE 1848-1851

c, cO.,o
rante Islands
.Mauritius
Western
A, ,1 ;
a
MUbudl,id ,- M -- uouin New
Cape Wales Z^Zealand
Colony
Al0
Van Diemen's Chatham

Land Island
AD
Types of politicalconflict
A Stoppage of supplies
v Martial law
0 Armed rising
O Movements of constitutional reform
dangerous criminal class from society, and not simply as an exer-

cise in exiling political militants. Grey's dilemma was that in 1846
the Whigs had inherited a changed regime in criminal sentencing
policy. Transportation had been scaled down by the mid-1840s,
with only Bermuda, Gibraltar and Norfolk Island retained as
offshore prisons. Instead, a flexible tariff of sentences had been
introduced, by which convicts might serve a short period of
confinement before being released to continue their sentence on
public works such as docks, or at large as 'ticket-of-leave' men,
free as long as they did not commit any further offence. Faced
with the prospect of thousands of English and, especially, Irish
petty criminals at large on the British mainland, Grey chose in
the autumn of 1848 to divert the 'ticket-of-leave' system to the
Cape Colony, New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, while
at the same time expanding the convict establishment at
Gibraltar.20By transporting political protesters such as William
Smith O'Brien and John Mitchel, Grey did indeed defuse any
lingering support for Irish nationalism and Chartism, with which
Irish nationalist aspirations had become closely identified by the
summer of 1848. Irish nationalist politics continued in Australian
exile in the shape of a radical press, O'Brien's campaign of non-
compliance with the prison authorities, and, most significantly,
in the rising on the Ballarat goldfield in December 1854.21 But,
as was observed at the time, transportation 'extinguish[ed] the
embers of insurrection' in the place where it mattered most, the
British mainland.22 However, Grey's concern was not only with
the relatively small Fenian and Chartist political leadership, but
also with the larger number of lawbreakers who might foment
disorder. Uppermost among his fears was the example of revolu-
tionary France in 1848, where a liberated 'army of formats', no
longer used as forced labour in the galleys of the French navy,
had contributed to civil commotion.23
20 Grey to Harry Smith, 6 Aug. 1848: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 125/6;
Grey to Robert Gardiner, 25 July 1849: ibid., 87/2.
21
W. T. Denison, Varietiesof Vice-Regal Life, 2 vols. (London, 1879), i, 135-6;
Richard Davis, William Smith O'Brien: Ireland-1848-Tasmania (Dublin, 1989),
28-31; Blanche M. Towhill, William Smith O'Brien and his Irish Revolutionary
Companionsin Penal Exile (Columbia, Miss., 1981), 49-50, 55, 61; Keith Amos, The
Fenians in Australia, 1865-80 (Kensington, NSW, 1988), 16-17.
22John
West, The History of Tasmania,ed. A. G. L. Shaw (London, 1971), 519.
23
Hansard, ParliamentaryDebates, 3rd ser. (hereafter 3 Hansard), cix, col. 867 (14
Mar. 1850); cf. ibid., cx, col. 206 (12 Apr. 1850), cxiv, col. 1089 (4 Mar. 1851);
(cont. on p. 157)
In a similarfashion, the loyalty of the British middle classesin

1848 was secured by an imaginativeuse of imperial resources.
During the headydays of April 1848 the Whig cabinetwas agreed
that the key to retainingthe support of the middle class lay in a
prudent fiscal policy which avoided any unnecessaryincreasein
the income tax. As the chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles
Wood, told Grey, 'I believe we must keep our fingers out of
people's pockets; & try to keep down our expenditure. This is
the desideratumof those classes whom we must retain at pre-
sent'.24At the same time the Whigs desperatelyneeded revenue
to bolster the nationaldefences against the prospect of invasion
by France.25Only a rigorouseconomyin colonialmilitaryexpend-
iture, one of the most variable items in the defence estimates,
could achieve this difficulttask of preventingany additionto the
burden of direct taxation on the middle classes while ensuring
that Britain's shores remained protected. As colonial secretary,
Grey made the commitment to diminish the colonial army his
personal crusade. Grey had already embarkedon such a policy
on taking office in 1846, but then his principalconcernhad been
to reduce colonialforces in order to increasethe militaryreserve
at home in the event of a sudden attack from the continent. In
October 1846 Grey proposedthat instead of retaininggarrisoned
forces across the globe, there should be a greater use of local
alternatives:military pensioners, military colonization and the
establishmentof colonialcorps of indigenoustroopsled by British
officers.26By 1848 such a policy had assumeda new urgency as
(n. 23 cont.)
[T. F. Elliott], Transportation(Foreign Office Confidential Print, 25 Jan. 1850), 32:
Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 150/3. Some of Grey's colleagues were even more
alarmist. Lord Monteagle asked, 'did they think it would have been possible to witness
the spectacle of calm order at the opening of the Crystal Palace, when there were
assembled five hundred thousand spectators, if they had included thirty thousand
forqats?In fact it would be impossible to carry on the government of England unless
the executive authorities retained the power of expatriation': 3 Hansard, cxv, col. 766
(9 May 1851).
24 Wood to Grey, 24 Apr. 1848: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 105/2; cf. C. E.
Trevelyan to Russell, 4 Apr. 1848: PRO, Russell Papers, 30/22/7B, fos. 217-22.
25 Michael S. Partridge, 'The Russell Cabinet and National Defence, 1846-52',
History, lxxii (1987), 244-5; C. I. Hamilton, Anglo-FrenchNaval Rivalry, 1840-70

(Oxford, 1993), 19-22. In fact, with Lamartinein charge of the new republic's foreign
policy, some of the British cabinet became less fearful of invasion: Lawrence C.
Jennings, France and Europe in 1848: A Study of French ForeignAffairs in Time of
Crisis (Oxford, 1973), 8-9.
26 Grey, The Army, Cabinet Memorandum (Oct. 1846): Durham Univ. Lib., Grey
Papers, J.35.
the Whig governmentsought to avoid imposingnew taxes. New

colonial governors were despatched with Grey's insistence on
retrenchment ringing in their ears.27 Additionally, from the
summer of 1848 onwardsGrey began to implementhis schemes
for alternativemilitary provision in the colonies. Circularswere
sent out to all colonies detailingschemes for veterans(aged over
thirty) to be housed in militaryvillages, furloughsand subsidies
to encouragesoldiersto settle, and for the establishmentof indi-
genous police forces.28 This spirit of economy was aimed in
particularat New Zealandand the CapeColony,but it also spread
to parts of the empire where actualreductionsin numberscould
not be contemplated.In the newly annexed Punjab, East India
Company armed forces were required to relinquish their batta
supplement,paid only when serving outside dependenciesof the
Crown. By the late summer of 1848 it was clear that colonial
retrenchmentwas having the desired effect at home. Wood was
able to announceto the House of Commonsthat extensive savings
had been made and there would be no need to raiseincome tax.29
In the empire the result was ratherdifferent.
To a lesser extent, working-classdiscontentin Britainin 1848
was also eased by displacingthe tax burden from metropole to
periphery. The shift to free trade, begun by Peel's budgets of
1842 and 1846, in which import duties (and hence indirecttaxa-
tion) were scythed, became in the hands of the Whigs a populist
attack on the vested interests of colonial plantersratherthan an
assault on the agriculturalinterest in Britain.30Of particular
significancein this respectwas the equalizationof the sugarduties
introduced in 1846, for the sugar duty was recognized as the
chief example of how colonial producerswere subsidizedat the
expense of the domestic working-classconsumer, who suffered
high prices and adulteratedfood as a result.31Another aspect of
27
Grey to Harry Smith, 21 Dec. 1847, 20 Apr. 1848: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey
Papers, 125/6.
28 War Office Circulars, 18 Aug. 1848, 22 Nov. 1849: PRO, WO 6/96, fos. 337-9;
WO 6/97, fos. 30-7; WO 6/115, fos. 246-53; Grey to Smith, 20 Jan. 1849: Durham
Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 125/6.
29
3 Hansard, ci, cols. 544-5 (25 Aug. 1848).
30R. L. Schuyler, The Fall of the Old Colonial System: A Study in British Free
Trade, 1770-1870 (London, 1945), ch. 4; Anthony Howe, Free Trade and Liberal
England, 1846-1946 (Oxford, 1997), 50-63.
313 Hansard, lxxv, cols. 430-1 (3 June 1844); cf. [G. C. Lewis], 'Colonial
Protection', EdinburghRev., lxxxiv (July 1846), 258. Lewis also singled out poor-
quality Canadiantimber (used in cheap working-class housing) and adulterated Cape
wine. Despite being a West Indian proprietor even Peel's chancellor, Henry Goulburn,
(cont. on p. 159)
empire which undercutthe rhetoricof British radicalismin 1848
was emigration. By the mid-1840s the Chartistmovement had
relaunchedaround the idea of land reform. The ChartistLand
Company was formed in 1845, and by the beginning of 1848,
through the medium of the Northern Star and the Labourer,
FeargusO'Connorwas advocatingthe ideas of simple farm man-
agementand small landholdingsas an antidoteto urbanoverpop-
ulation and misery. Interestingly,much of the same rhetoric of
landed abundance and equality was deployed by the flood of
emigrationpublicity of the late 1840s. Emigrationhad of course
long been seen as a palliative for domestic overpopulation,and
these claimswere renewed in 1848,32but increasinglyemigration
came to be seen as a solution for politicaldissent and petty crime
as well. The colonialreformer,EdwardGibbonWakefield,called
for state-assistedemigrationas the means of averting Chartism
and socialismat home.33The Peelite, Sidney Herbert, responded
to Henry Mayhew's alarmingdepiction of the London labouring
poor by establishingthe FemaleEmigrationScheme,and a similar
campaign for family colonization was set up by Caroline
Chisholm.34By 1852 over half of those emigratingfrom Britain
and Ireland were going to British dependencies.Empire was to
some extent relieving Britain of the populationpressures being
experiencedin continentalEurope.3s
II
The use of empire to appease discontent at home may have
appeared in theory to be a sensible diversion of resources. In
practice it precipitateda wave of discontent which had British
(n. 31 cont.)
was keen to alleviate working-class suffering through reducing the sugar duties: Brian
Jenkins, Henry Goulburn,1784-1856: A Political Biography(Liverpool, 1996), 291-2.
32'Double your colonists, and you will halve your paupers', in Speech of the Hon.
Francis Scott, MP . .. on Moving a Resolutionfor the Establishmentof a Branch of the
ColonizationSociety at Leeds (London, 1848), 16.
33 Edward Gibbon Wakefield, TheArt of Colonization(1849), in The CollectedWorks
of Edward GibbonWakefield,ed. M. F. Lloyd Prichard (London, 1968), 794.
34A. H.
Gordon, Sidney Herbert,Lord Herbertof Lea: A Memoir, 2 vols. (London,
1906), i, 110-20; The ABC of Colonization: In a Series of Letters by Mrs Chisholm
(London, 1850), 26; M. Kiddle, CarolineChisholm(Melbourne, 1950), ch. 5.
35Return of Emigrationfor the Years 1815-63, PP, 1863 [430], xxxviii, 3. For
attempts in Europe (inspired in part by the British) to repatriate the poor and
criminals, see Michael J. Heffernan, 'The Parisian Poor and the Colonization of
Algeria during the Second Republic', French Hist., iii (1989); Richard Evans,
'Germany's Convict Exports', History Today, xlvii (Nov. 1997).
statesmen and colonial governors drawing parallels with the

AmericanRevolution, the English civil war and, inevitably,con-
temporaryevents in Europe. In different ways the extension of
free trade, militaryretrenchmentand the transportationof polit-
ical prisoners acted as a catalyst for protest, civil disobedience
and rebellion throughout the empire. It was the move to free
trade, combined with the commercialcrisis of late 1847, which
caused the first signs of colonial disaffectionin 1848, when the
sugarplantationeconomiesof BritishGuianaand Jamaicaexperi-
enced acute financialdistress which developed into a full-blown
constitutionalcrisis.36The 1846 decisionof the Britishparliament
to equalizesugarduties effectively ended imperialpreferencefor
Caribbeansugar and exposed West Indian plantersto the direct
competitionof other sugarproducersoutside the empire, includ-
ing the slave-plantationeconomies of Brazil and Cuba. Taken
together with the limited impact of African immigration into
BritishGuianaandJamaica,and the contractionof the locallabour
force following emancipation, planters in these two colonies
insisted that they were facing economic ruin. When many West
India merchant houses in Liverpool and London failed in the
commercialcollapse of the autumn of 1847 - some forty-eight
by one calculation37 - plantersbecame certainthat the imperial
government would be compelled to help them out, at the very
least, by restoring differential duties. In British Guiana, their
demandswere put fairly moderatelyat first. Petitions were sent
into Westminster,calling for loans to assist immigrationand the
improvement of drainage, as well as the free admission of
Muscovado sugar and molasses. But at the beginning of 1848,
rebuffed over the sugar duties, facing outbreaksof incendiarism
and looting, as well as the suspensionof cash paymentsby local
banks, the plantersof British Guianatook a more drasticstep by
insistingon cuts in the civil list.38This was about the only trump
card they could play, for the peculiarconstitutionalarrangements
36 Henry G. Dalton, A History of British Guiana, 2 vols. (London, 1855), i, 504-13;
Cecil Clementi, A ConstitutionalHistory of British Guiana (London, 1937), 119-26;
W. J. Gardner, A History of Jamaica: From its Discovery ... to the year 1872, 2nd
edn (London, 1971), 425-46; William A. Green, British Slave Emancipation: The
Sugar Coloniesand the Great Experiment,1830-65 (Oxford, 1976), 234-43; Thomas
C. Holt, The Problemof Freedom:Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain,
1832-1938 (Baltimore, 1992), 209-13.
37 3 Hansard, xlvi, cols. 8-9 (3 Feb. 1848).
38 Henry Light to Grey, 4 Apr. 1848, 1 Jan. 1849: PRO, CO 111/249, fos. 19-24;
CO 111/252, fos. 77-80.
of British Guiana meant that the colony's limited electoral
assembly - the College of Financial Representatives - deferred
to the colonial executive - the Court of Policy - on all matters
except the voting of the civil list. Holding out for these cuts led
by June 1848 to the impossibilityof passingany supplies for the
year, and in 1849the samecoursewas adopted.All publicbusiness
came to a halt as no taxes could be raised. Churchsalarieswere
particularlyaffected - 'every curate, clerk and catechist' was
without pay complained Barkly, the governor.39 Moreover,
during 1848-9 all public works were suspended as no elections
could be held for the College of Financial Representatives
because, concluded the colonial authorities, by refusing to
approve taxes the college had destroyed the very tax-based
electoralfranchiseby which it was constituted.40
In Jamaicaevents followed a similar pattern and reached the
same impasse. The JamaicanHouse of Assembly, which had
wider powers than the essentially consultativebodies in British
Guiana, initially responded to the sugar duties legislation by
insisting on further compensationfor the planter economy, in
addition to that which had been granted after emancipation.41
But by the end of 1847 it too was threateningto cut suppliesand
refuse to vote in the annual tax ordinance. Matters came to a
head during the summerof 1848. Franticattemptswere made to
consolidate what revenue the colony did have, and a heavy-
handed policy of collecting parochial tax arrears was imple-
mented, resultingin a riot involving some five hundredmen and
women on the Goshen estate. Some planters also let it be
rumouredthroughoutJune and July that slavery was going to be
reintroduced on the island, and when this fuelled plans for a
general rising, CharlesGrey, the governor, was forced to issue
a proclamation guaranteeing emancipation. Security measures
were hurriedlyintroducedas well. Lists of specialconstableswere
drawnup, and a warship,the Vixen,was sent to the western end
9 Barkly to Grey, 18 Apr. 1849: PRO, CO 111/265, fos. 86-9. In February 1849
the local planters' paper declared that British Guiana was 'in a state of revolution':
The Colonist[Georgetown], 19 Feb. 1849.
40 Barkly to Grey, 30 Apr. 1849: PRO, CO 111/265, fos. 302-8. On Barkly's role
in the crisis, see M. Macmillan, Sir Henry Barkly: Mediator and Moderator, 1815-
1898 (Cape Town, 1970), 28-9.
41 Memorialof the Assemblyof Jamaica (Dec. 1846), PP, 1847 [160], xxxviii, 3-8;
Note from the West India Agents on Distress to the Secretary of State for the Colonies
(London, 1847); Resolutionsof the Several Parishes... and of the Chamberof Commerce,
Jamaica, on the State of the Island (Kingston, 1847).
of the island.42In August the assemblyrefused to grant supplies

for 1849, the British parliamentoffered a loan of £100,000, but
this was refused, and in the new year of 1849 the assemblypassed
a retrenchmentbill. These cuts of £30,000 hit at the pocket of
least resistance,namely the salariesof public health officialsand
charity commissioners, but the assembly had made its point,
much to the despairof both Greys.
Althoughit was a financialcrisis which triggeredtroublein the
Caribbean,it was the constitutionalconsequences which most
concernedthe British colonial authorities.The behaviourof the
assembliesin both British Guianaand Jamaicaled the governors
to view the planters much as Edmund Burke had describedthe
Jacobin members of the National Assembly in 1790: as devil-
may-care 'men of broken fortunes', with nothing to lose by
headstrongaction.43By refusing to agree to a civil list and (in
the case of Jamaica)a tax ordinance,Earl Grey warnedhis gov-
ernors, the assemblieshad fatally underminedpublic order. The
established church could not carry out its parochialfunctions,
leaving the door wide open for the influence of dissenting
preachers and missionaries, especially Baptists. Moreover, the
planters' refusal to cooperatewith the two governors served to
weaken the very authoritythe planters themselves would come
to depend on once the ex-slave populationcame to dominatethe
electorate.Unless the authorityof the Crowncould be increased
now, Grey and other colonialofficialsfeared, the events of 1848
raised the prospect of a black assembly armed with financial
powers unheard of even by the British House of Commons. A
black republic such as St Domingo, warnedthe attorney-general
of British Guiana,might be the result.44
In Canada,the Whigs' commitmentto extending free trade to
the colonial system also fuelled political unrest, this time in the
form of calls for annexation.The repealof the CornLaws by the
42'CorrespondenceRelating to the Apprehended Outbreak in the Western Parishes
and St. Mary's', PRO, CO 137/297, fos. 99-102, 228-9, 339-42; Morning Jl
[Kingston], 24 July, 23 Aug. 1848; Gad Heuman, 'The Killing Time': The Morant
Bay Rebellionin Jamaica (London, 1994), 39-41.
43Henry Barkly to Grey, 5 July 1849: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 77/5;
C. E. Grey to Grey, 9 June, 22 July 1849: ibid., 96/2.
44Grey to Charles Grey, 16 Mar. 1849: ibid., 96/2; Grey to Barkly, 12 Oct. 1849,
1 Nov. 1850: ibid., 77/5; attorney-general, speech to the Court of Policy: Roy. Gaz.,
23 Apr. 1850. For similar fears of the civil list dispute creating a constitutional
precedent, see Frederick Peel to Barkly, 29 Mar. 1850: Westminster City Library,
Barkly Papers, Acc. 618/246.
British parliament in the summer of 1846 removed Canadian
agriculturefrom the privileged place it had enjoyed within the
imperialeconomy, and those who were hardesthit by this devel-
opment were the French-Canadianmerchants.So when the ques-
tion of indemnifying those French-Canadianswho had suffered
damage to property and livelihoods in the 1837 rebellion arose
in the Montrealparliamentin 1849, there was considerablesup-
port among the French community.45The Rebellion Losses bill,
introducedby the French-Canadianparty in the spring of 1849,
was fiercelyopposedby the loyalists,who arguedthat it amounted
to compensationfor those who had actuallybeen at the forefront
of the rebellion. In April GovernorElgin was pelted with eggs,
and a group of protestersset fire to and destroyedthe parliament
buildingin Montreal.Disturbanceson a smallerscale recurredin
August when a curfew was introduced in Montreal, and there
were also loyalist incendiaryattacksin Toronto.46The affairwas
eventuallyresolvedin the interestsof the French-Canadianswith-
out the direct interventionof Elgin or the imperial parliament,
but not before a campaignfor Canadianannexationwas launched
which drew unprecedented support from both loyalists and
French-Canadians,the latter under the revived leadership of
Papineau.47From Americathe IrishFeniannewspaper,the Boston
Pilot, joined in, calling for an Irish-Americanraid on Canada,
and throughout the whole episode Elgin remained fearful of
Irishmen and French-Canadiansconspiring together in armed
secret societies.48
45 D. L. Burn, 'Canada and the Repeal of the Corn Laws', CambridgeHist. JI, ii
(1928); Ged Martin, 'The CanadianRebellion Losses Bill of 1849 in British Politics',
Jl Imperialand CommonwealthHist., vi (1977).
46Proclamation(21 Aug. 1849), repr. in The Elgin-Grey Papers, 1846-52, ed.
A. G. Doughty, 4 vols. (Ottawa, 1937), ii, 454-5; Peter Way, 'The Canadian Tory
Rebellion of 1849 and the Demise of Street Politics in Toronto', Brit. Jl Canadian
Studies, x (1995).
47J.
Monet, The Last Cannon Shot: A Study of French-Canadian Nationalism,
1837-50 (Toronto, 1969), ch. 19.
48R. F. Hueston, The Catholic Press and Nativism, 1840-60 (New York, 1976),
124; Elgin to Grey, 21 May 1849: PRO, CO 42/558, fos. 226-9; Elgin to Grey, 26
Apr., 4 May, 7 Sept. 1848, repr. in Elgin-Grey Papers, ed. Doughty, i, 144-5, 148-50;
ibid., iv, 1477-80; John Belchem, 'Republican Spirit and Military Science: The Irish
Brigade and Irish-American Nationalism in 1848', Irish Hist. Studies, xxix (1994).
On Fenianism and empire in 1848, I am grateful to John Belchem for allowing me to
read (in English) his 'Das Waterloo von Frieden und Ordnung: Das Vereinigte
Konigreich und die Revolutionen von 1848', in D. Dowe, H.-G. Haupt and
D. Langewiesche (eds.), Europa 1848: Revolutionund Reform(Bonn, 1998).
164 PASTAND PRESENT NUMBER166
Fiscalreformalso lay behindthe most notoriousuprisingwithin

the British empire in 1848 - in Ceylon. In April 1847 the
Colonial Office approved the recommendationsof Sir James
Tennant for substantialeconomiesin Ceylonesefinances,especi-
ally with a view to making the colony more self-sufficient
in military expenditure. ViscountTorrington, who arrived in
Colombothe followingmonthas the new governor,put Tennant's
proposalsinto action.49Torringtonintendedto switch from indir-
ect to direct taxation- principallythrough the introductionof
a land tax - as the main source of revenue. But as in Britain,
big revenue-yieldingindirecttaxes were kept, or in the Ceylonese
case, actuallybroughtin, to cover any shortfallduringthe trans-
ition from the old system to the new. New indirect taxes in the
shape of a shop tax, gun tax and dog tax were imposed
by Torringtonin 1848, as well as a road ordinance- effectively
a form of corvee, by which all males were requiredto do six days
labour on the island's roads or pay a commutation fee. The
planterssuccessfullyresistedthe land tax, and so more onus was
placed on the new indirect taxes. These taxes could not have
been implementedat a less propitiousmoment, as the local coffee
economy was sufferingfrom the shock waves of the commercial
collapse back in Britain. In Colombo, protest meetings and
marcheswere held, a petition was presentedto the governor,and
the military was despatchedto deal with the protesters. In the
Kandyandistrictsof the island, resentmentat the new taxes and
the road ordinancewas compoundedby the recent rapid growth
of the coffee plantations, which had heightened tensions over
land rights and over laws of trespass. Buddhist leaders in the
provincewere active in the organizationof a rising of some sixty
thousand men - twenty thousand of them armed - at the
end of July. The local prison was attacked and prisonersthere
set free, and several planters' estates were ransacked. In
responseTorringtonshipped in extra troops from Madras,intro-
duced martial law for a period of six weeks and, fearful of a
patriotic revival, rounded up the supportersof the campaignto
restorethe Kandyanmonarchy.Eighteenwere executed, includ-
ing Dingarelle, the Buddhist leader, who was shot in full robes
49 On the background, see R. P. Doig, 'Lord Torrington's Government of Ceylon,
1847-50', Durham Univ. J7, liv (1962); Letterson Ceylon, 1846-50: TheAdministration
of ViscountTorringtonand the 'Rebellion'of 1848, ed. K. M. de Silva (Colombo,
1965), 5-7.
and his body subsequentlyhangedon a tree for four days. All of
those who took part in the rising had their lands confiscated.50
Although the authoritiesdid not treat it as such, at the heart
of the events in Ceylon in 1848 lay a European-stylepeasanttax
rebellion brought on by the British state's insistence on revenue
reform overseasin order to ease the tax burdenat home. But the
key to retrenchmentthroughoutthe empire lay not only in fiscal
prudence, but also in a substantialdiminutionin the size of the
colonialarmy. In the Punjaband on the Capefrontierthis policy
was to have huge repercussions, as, not unlike the Habsburg
generals in the late 1840s, British commanderswere forced to
police the borders of empire with unpredictable non-British
troops. In March 1849 the remainderof the Punjabwas annexed,
principally in order to neutralize the threat of Sikh incursions
into British territoryto the east, but also to continue the reform
begun in 1845 of the top-heavy fiscal and military structure of
the Sikh regime. Lord Dalhousie, the governor-generalof India,
felt secure once the Punjabwas annexed, observing that he and
'the emperor of Russia were the only two autocrats left in
safety'.51
A few months later Charles Napier arrived in India as the
new commander-in-chief,and he spent the first few months of
his command travelling the length and breadth of the newly
annexedPunjab,reviewingthe state of the armyunderhis charge.
Before long he had rooted out an organizedconspiracyto mutiny
which, almost telepathically, was being prepared in sepoy
regiments hundreds of miles apart. In the new year of 1850 a
nativeIndianregimentdid indeedmutiny, and in orderto prevent
copycat mutinies across the Punjab Napier disbandedthe regi-
ment. He also removed the immediate source of discontent
50 Letters on
Ceylon, ed. de Silva, 11-26. On the role of Buddhist leaders, see K. M.
de Silva, Social Policy and Missionary Organizationsin Ceylon, 1840-55 (London,
1965), 13-20. On Ceylon I am grateful to Rande Kostal for allowing me to read his
forthcoming article, 'A Jurisprudence of Power: Martial Law and the Ceylon
Controversy of 1848-51'.
51 Dalhousie to George Cowper, 7 Mar. 1849, repr. in Private Lettersof the Marquess
of Dalhousie, ed. J. G. Baird (Shannon, 1973), 59. On policy formulation leading to
annexation, see GeneralReporton theAdministrationof the Punjabfor the Years1849-50
and 1850-51, PP, 1854 [0.5], lxix, 7-8; The PunjabPapers: Selectionsfrom the Private
Papers of Lord Auckland, Lord Ellenborough,ViscountHardinge, and the Marquessof
Dalhousie, 1836-49, on the Sikhs, ed. B. J. Hasrat (Hoshiarpur, 1979), 174-85; David
Howlett, 'An End to Expansion: Influences on British Policy in India, c. 1830-60'
(Univ. of Cambridge Ph.D. thesis, 1981), 5, 77, 92-103.
166 PASTAND PRESENT NUMBER166
a cut in soldiers' batta pay. For this precipitate act Napier was
reprimanded by Lord Dalhousie, and later that year resigned his
post, convinced that he had averted 'the most formidable danger
menacing our Indian empire', involving some forty thousand
troops.52
The circumstances surrounding Napier's resignation led to a
long campaign to clear his name, but what was most significant
in the short term was his diagnosis of the Indian empire in peril.
Napier was not a jumpy novice. He was an old military hand, in
his mid-sixties, with radical political instincts. As a veteran of
campaigns in post-Act of Union Ireland in 1803, the Ionian
Islands, and perhaps most significantly, as head of the army in
the northern districts of England at the height of Chartism, he
was extremely reluctant to allow the military to do the dirty work
of the civil authority.53 He believed that in India Britain had
become too reliant on a non-European army, dangerously organ-
ized into native regiments which intensified religious and
'national' feelings among the troops.54 Instead of integrating a
native army with European troops (especially the officers),
Britain, Napier argued, was maintaining a precarious peace
mainly through ostentatious 'pomp and show'. He was particu-
larly critical of the military commander's travelling retinue: the
trains of elephants, camels and all their attendants, and the tents
and tent-pitchers (including the fifty men whose sole function
was to carry glass doors for the canvas pavilion that was the
commander's headquarters).55
52
For contemporaryaccounts of the 'mutiny', see Napier to Ellenborough, 26 Feb.,
28 Mar. 1850: British Library, London (hereafter Brit. Lib.), Napier Papers, Add.
MS 49, 131, fos. 35-41, 43-6; BombayGaz., 15, 25 Feb. 1850.
53 Napier to Dalhousie, 24 July 1849, cited in Life and Opinionsof General Sir
CharlesJames Napier, ed. W. F. P. Napier, 4 vols. (London, 1853), iv, 175-6. For
useful recent assessments of Napier's career and military thinking, see Strachan,
Politics of the British Army, 83-91; T. A. Heathcote, The Military in British India:
The Developmentof British Land Forcesin SouthAsia, 1600-1947 (Manchester, 1995),
86-8. Also, see P. Napier, Raven Castle: CharlesNapier in India, 1844-51 (Salisbury,
1991), 208-11.
54
Napier to the duke of Wellington, 15 June 1850: Brit. Lib., Napier Papers, Add.
MS 49, 131, fos. 69-77; cf. the report of one of Napier's junior officers: Lt.-Col.
Greene, Remarksupon the Late Mutinies in the Bengal Army (13 Mar. 1850): Brit.
Lib., Add. MS 49, 116, fos. 39-48. For the call for more European troops, see Friend
of India [Serampore], 14 Mar. 1850.
55 Charles Napier, Defects, Civil and Military, of the Indian Government,ed. Lt.-
Gen. Sir W. F. P. Napier (London, 1853), 35-6.
At the Cape, GovernorHarry Smith shared some of Napier's
sentiments. In common with other military commanders and
governors throughoutthe empire in the late 1840s, he had been
charged with effecting large reductions in his army, and, as a
result, had been forced to increasethe non-Europeanelement as
compensation. Initially, Smith joked with the War Office that
retrenchmentmainly affected the supply of grog - 'such a set
of melancholylooking teetotallersI never served with'56- but
he soon faced two rebellions which put severe pressure on his
limited resources.In August 1848 the Boer leader in the Orange
River territory,AndriesPretorius,incensed by the settlementof
Britishemigrantsin Natal, led a risingagainstthe colonialauthor-
ities. Pretorius'timing, noted Smith, was impeccable:'He desires
to establishhimself as the chief of a republic, and then drive us
from Natal; and his observanceof the state of affairsof Europe,
and suppositionthat I was too weak in troops to overpowerhim,
have induced him to seize the present occasion'.57
Smith defeated Pretorius, and in his victorious addressto the
Natal settlers pointed out that his success showed that, unlike the
Germanstates, Britainwas able to maintainunion.58Within three
years, however, Smith faced anotheroutbreakon the Capefron-
tier, at the Kat river, involving a combinationof the Xhosa and
Gaikapeoples, resentful at Smith's replacementof the authority
of tribal leaders by the new native police force. In the midst of
this rising, Smith's own indigenous Cape Corps regiment also
mutiniedand Smith quickly declaredmartiallaw acrossthe east-
ern Cape.59As with the Orange River rebellion in 1848, Smith
interpreted the Kat river incident as a small-scale nationalism
which his reduced force was unable to prevent. He feared its
spreadinto the north, where he reportedthat the Griqualeader,
56
Smith to Fox Maule, 4 Mar. 1848: Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh (hereafter
Scot. RO), Dalhousie Papers, GD/45/8/53/1.
57 Smith to Grey, 10 Aug. 1848, cited in A. L. Harington, Sir Harry Smith: Bungling
Hero (Cape Town, 1980), 133-4; J. F. Midgley, The Orange River Sovereignty
(1848-54) (Archives Yearbook South African Hist., 12th year, ii, Cape Town,
1949), ch. 3.
58 Speech at Grahamstown
by Smith, 12 Oct. 1848, quoted in Harington, Sir Harry
Smith, 143.
59'Proclamation of Martial Law' (25 Dec. 1850): PRO, CO 48/312, fo. 32. On the
Kat river rebellion, see A. E. du Toit, The Cape Frontier: A Study of Native Policy
with Special Referenceto the Years1847-66 (Archives Yearbook South African Hist.,
17th year, i, Pretoria, 1954), ch. 6. Smith referred to the outbreak as the 'Hottentot
revolution': The Autobiographyof Lt.-Gen. Sir Harry Smith, ed. G. C. Moore Smith,
2 vols. (London, 1901), ii, 272; cf. Harington, Sir Harry Smith, 181-94.
Adam Kok, had convinced his people that they were 'an
oppressed and ill-used race'. For these reasons Smith doubted
the wisdom of recruitingindigenoustroops for the colonialarmy
or for local police.60Having effectively armed a 'hostile popula-
tion', he was now, he complainedto Grey, 'sitting on a barrelof
gunpowder', and compared his own difficulties in suppressing
the Kat river rising to the losses being suffered by the French in
Algeria and the Russians in Circassia.As with Napier in the
Punjab, Smith also resented using the military as a tool of civil
government.61
A turbulent frontier pregnant with nationalismwas not the
only problem faced by Smith at the Cape in the late 1840s. In
Cape Town itself Earl Grey's transportationpolicy unleasheda
wave of protest, uniting Dutch and British settlers and leading
to a revival of a campaignfor self-governmentwhich had been
dormantfor severalyears. When it was announcedthat a convict
ship, the Neptune,was on its way to the Capewith 288 prisoners
on board, many of them Irishmenconvicted during the agrarian
agitation of 1848, a petitioning campaign against the Colonial
Office began, coordinated by the newly formed Anti-Convict
Association.62As in the Caribbean,the small Cape legislative
council took what limited action it could, and all the non-
executive members of the council resigned their offices, effec-
tively terminatingpublic business, includingall supplies, leaving
Smith a prisonerin his residence,forced, he complained,to bake
his own bread. Effigies of the official members of the council
were burned in the streets. On its arrivalin September1849 the
Neptunewas not allowed to dock, and all Cape residents joined
60 On Kok, see Robert Ross, Adam Kok's Griquas:A Study in the Developmentof
Stratification in South Africa (Cambridge, 1970), 65. Smith to Grey, 7 Apr. 1852:
PRO, CO 48/325, fo. 159. On Smith's preference for English over indigenous troops,
see Smith to Lt.-Col. Cooper, 23 May 1851: National Army Museum, London,
H. W. Smith Letterbook, MS 6807-352; Smith to Grey, 9 June 1851: Durham Univ.
Lib., Grey Papers, 125/4.
61 Smith to Montagu, 2 Apr. 1851: PRO, H. W. Smith Papers, WO/135/2, 124-9;
Smith to Grey, 5 Feb. 1852: PRO, CO 48/324, fos. 20-7. Back in Britain, Smith's
Cape was frequently referred to as the 'English Algeria': e.g. William Molesworth's
speech in the House of Commons (25 July 1848), repr. in Selected Speechesof Sir
William Molesworth on Questions Relating to Colonial Policy, ed. H. E. Egerton
(London, 1903), 165; [Anon.], 'What has the British Taxpayer to do with Colonial
Wars or Constitutions?', Fraser'sMag., xliv (Nov. 1851), 577.
62 Alan F. Hattersley, The Convict Crisis and the Growth of Unity: Resistanceto
Transportationin SouthAfrica and Australia, 1848-53 (Pietermaritzburg, 1965), ch. 4;
H. C. Botha, John Fairbairnin South Africa (Cape Town, 1984), ch. 8.
in a 'pledge' not to provide food or any other goods to the ship,
or to any members of the colonial administration.This included
the army and police. Fearful of civil disorder, Smith introduced
a curfew in Cape Town.63Eventuallythe Neptunewas instructed
to move eastwardsto Australia.Not that there was any respite
there. Anti-transportationleagues had already been formed in
Sydney and in Van Diemen's Land.6 In Van Diemen's Land, as
at the Cape, governmenthad been made impossibleby the resig-
nation of the non-officialmembersof the legislativecouncil over
the costs of the island's prison system. Local businesseshad also
signedup to a pledge of non-cooperationwith the colonialauthor-
ities.65In June 1849, five thousandprotestersgreeted the convict
ship when it arrivedin Sydney. Although the governor, Fitzroy,
ignoredlocal protests, and the convicts from the ship, along with
four further shiploads, were disembarkedand quietly secreted
into the colony away from the public gaze, in Sydney, as at Cape
Town, the transportationissue increasedwhite settler demands
for greaterindependencefrom colonialauthority.
Indeed, Grey's transportationpolicy fuelled urban radicalism
across the empire. At the Cape the Anti-Convict Association
formed itself in 1850 into a campaignfor constitutionalreform,
deploying similar tactics of obstruction to those used during
the 'pledge'. From aboard the Neptune, the Irish prisoner
John Mitchel recorded that he had never seen more 'heroic
phraseologyanywhere, not even in the Nation'.66Smith himself
blamed'Dutch radicals'for stirringup trouble,likeningthe 'spirit
of the age' to the times of CharlesI.67Fairly soon government
business ground to a halt as four Cape Town members of the
legislative council resigned and no one could be persuaded to
take their places. Without the approvalof his small legislature,
Smith was forced to continue incurringmilitary expenditureon
the frontier, a bill which would eventually be picked up by the
63
South African CommercialAdvertiser,17 Oct. 1849; Smith to Grey, 18 Oct. 1849:
PRO, CO 48/299, fos. 28-41.
64 West, History of Tasmania,xv-xvi; Hattersley, Convict Crisis, 89.
65 LauncestonExaminer,3 Feb. 1849; William Denison to Grey, 11 Feb. 1849: PRO,
CO 280/243, fos. 145-6.
66
Entry for 20 Sept. 1849, Mitchel, Jail Journal, 183. Back in Dublin the Fenian
Nation, 1 Dec. 1849, described such events as the 'crack of empire', by which 'all
those dependencies are falling away from England like an unfastened bundle of staves'.
67 Smith to
Grey, 22 Sept. 1850: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 125/3.
British taxpayer.68In New South Wales and in Van Diemen's

Land the fear that fresh waves of convicts would be sent out to
the Australiancolonies inspired the revival of the campaignfor
constitutional change, with reformers insisting on strict local
control of many matters usually reserved to the Crown.69Even
New Zealandradicalsfeared that their settlementmight be used
as a new convict colony, and such apprehensionsintensifiedthe
campaignagainst Governor George Grey's decision to suspend
constitutionalreform. The people of Wellington,noted one set-
tler, had been turnedinto Chartistsin a very shortspaceof time.70
While the transportationpolicy helped secure the peace at
home, as with the extension of free trade and militaryretrench-
ment, it thus served to create a volatile imperial periphery. At
one level this simply meant more headaches for the British
Treasury. 'May the - I won't say who, run away with your
colonies', retorted Charles Wood, the chancellor of the
Exchequer, as he received news of 'a new insurrectionin the
Cape'.71But in the longer term, as Earl Grey realized only too
well, the main effect of all these events was dramaticallyto shift
the balanceof power in the coloniesawayfrom the Crowntowards
the limited electoral assemblies at the very moment when the
Britishstate wished to reformthese coloniallegislaturesand make
them fully accountablefor their expenditure.Grey and many of
his governors feared that to extend the powers of the colonial
assemblies after the events of 1848-9 was to run the risk of
capitulatingto 'mobocracy',and meant handingover the public
purse to radicalssuch as those of Cape Town, men who would
end up 'playing the part of Paris in the French Revolutions'.72
68
Botha, John Fairburn,251-2; A. H. Duminy, TheRole of Sir AndriesStockenstrom
in Cape Politics, 1848-56 (Archives Yearbook South African Hist., 23rd year, ii,
Pretoria, 1960), ch. 3; Grey to Smith, 14 Dec. 1850: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey
Papers, 125/3.
69 Hattersley, Convict Crisis, ch. 9.
70
WellingtonIndependent,15 Sept. 1849; J. R. Godley to C. B. Adderley, 29 Aug.
1851, cited in W. S. Childe-Pemberton, Life of Lord Norton, 1814-1905: Statesman
and Philanthropist(London, 1909), 97-8.
71
Wood to Grey, 6 Oct. 1848: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 105/2.
72
Grey to H. W. Smith, 14 Aug. 1851: ibid., 125/6. For similar fears of urban
electoral predominance in British Guiana, see Brian L. Moore, Race, Powerand Social
Segmentationin Colonial Society: Guyana after Slavery, 1838-91 (Montreux, 1987),
58; for British fears over a landed and mercantile plutocracy in New Zealand, see
James Rutherford, Sir GeorgeGrey, KCB, 1812-98: A Study in ColonialGovernment
(London, 1961), 143.
Avoiding that scenario became the central task of colonial consti-

tutional reform in the early 1850s.
III
Peasant risings, simmering ethnic nationalism, mutinous indigen-
ous soldiers, grumpy white settlers insisting on being treated as
freeborn Englishmen, hapless governors caught in the crossfire
it may all appear to be business as usual in the mid-nineteenth-
century British empire, although the rapid compression of events
in such a short space of time is striking. But is there any evidence
of a linkage between what was taking place in Europe during
1848 and 1849 and these conflicts in the far-flung colonies and
dependencies? In Britain's principal Mediterranean dependen-
cies - Malta and the Ionian Islands - there was an unavoidable
overspill from the European revolutions. In both places during
1848 British governors sought to quell radical opposition through
extending the powers of the legislature and lifting press censor-
ship. As O'Ferrall, the governor of Malta, explained to Earl Grey,
'the events of the last year have advanced the world a half-
century ... I would wish to make Malta a model for all sur-
rounding states in the freedom of her government and the admin-
istration of her institutions'.73 In the Ionian Islands Governor
Seaton was accused of a panicky reform policy in which he turned
the constitution into 'one of the most democratic assemblies in
the world'.74 Later in 1848 large numbers of political refugees
from the Italian states sought protection in Malta, and a separatist
movement developed in the Ionian island of Cephalonia, inspired
by the Hellenic nationalism of the Greek mainland. Following
the murder of a British official in Cephalonia in September 1848,
martial law was declared by H. G. Ward, Seaton's successor, and
twenty-one were executed and another eighty flogged. Many of
those flogged died later.75
73 More O'Ferrall to
Grey, 1 Nov. 1848: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 118/2;
A. V. Laferla, British Malta (Valletta, 1938), ch. 26.
74 Viscount Kirkwall, Four Years in the Ionian Islands: Their Political and Social
Condition, with a History of the British Protectorate, 2 vols. (London, 1864), 207;
[Anon.], The Ionian Islands underBritish Protection(London, 1851), 41-9; cf. Eleni
Calligas, 'Lord Seaton's Reforms in the Ionian Islands, 1843-8: A Race with Time',
EuropeanHist. Quart., xxiv (1994).
75 Laferla, British Malta, 200-3; David Hannell, 'The Rebellions of 1848 and 1849
in Cephalonia: Their Causes and International Repercussions' (Univ. of Swansea
Ph.D. thesis, 1985).
Beyond the Mediterraneanthe linkagesare less obvious. Some

of the imperial authoritiesdid indeed worry that the spectre of
revolution in Europe was spreadingfurther afield. Harry Smith
complainedto the secretaryof war back in London in November
1850 that recent 'stormytimes' were 'the result of that rapidand
universal communication which the steam shuttle has estab-
lished'.76At one level, this seems somethingof an exaggeration,
for the transmissionof news from Europe was hardly instantan-
eous and often confused. Details of the Februaryrevolution in
France reachedCanadain late March, India and Ceylon in April,
the Cape in May, Sydney in July and New Zealandin August,
and met with a variety of responses.In an extraordinaryedition
published to carry the news from Europe, the Sydney Morning
Heraldreportedthat Britainand France had in fact gone to war
againstRussia, Austriaand Prussia, but the paper was forced to
retractits story a few days later.77In Jamaica,duringJuly 1848,
the news that the queen had gone to the Isle of Wight developed
into a belief that she had been forced to give up her throne.78
There were attemptsto provide the English-speakingworld with
more accurate information.Back in Britain, the nonconformist
newspaper,the BritishBanner,devotedmuch of its editorialspace
to fanningthe flamesof colonialdiscontent,and there is evidence
that it, in turn, was sent out and readweeks laterby white settlers
involved in the various protests.79Informationchannelssuch as
these also meant that differentparts of the empire were awareof
what was taking place elsewhere. In June 1849 CharlesGrey, the
Jamaicangovernor, reportedthat all eyes were on developments
in Canada;a year later in BritishGuiana,Barklytold the Colonial
Office that the renewed reform agitationarose from the success
of the protests at the Cape; while anti-transportationpamphlets
were sent from the Cape to Van Diemen's Land, arrivingahead
of the convict ships.80 But overall the pattern of imperial
76 Smith to Fox Maule, 26 Nov. 1850: Scot. RO, Dalhousie Papers, GD45/8/53/2.
77
Sydney MorningHerald, 14 July 1848.
78'Deposition of Robert Ricketts' (6 July 1848): PRO, CO 137/297, fos. 165-6.
Such scaremongering could be found among the governing classes too. Lord Howard
de Walden, an absentee Jamaican proprietor, thought that although Britain had
repudiated republicanism, a general war might sweep away the throne: de Walden to
CharlesGrey, 11 May 1848: Bodleian Library, Oxford, CharlesGrey Papers, box 2/1.
79 British Banner, 10
Jan. 1849. This same editorial was later cited at length in the
WellingtonIndependent,8 Sept. 1849.
80 Charles Grey to Grey, 9 June 1849: Durham Univ. Lib., Grey Papers, 96/2;
Barkly to Grey, 27 Sept. 1850: ibid., 77/5; West, History of Tasmania,219.
communicationwas too incoherent to provide the revolutionary
spark that Smith and other imperialauthoritiesseemed to fear.
Nonetheless, some of the rhetoric and argumentdeployed by
protestersand opponents of British imperialrule during 1848-9
drew explicitly on Europeanevents. In Ceylon, criticism of the
new tax system was led by a Baptist radicaland former editor of
the ColomboObserver,ChristopherElliott, who cited the French
republicans'overthrow of Louis-Philippe as an inspirationfor
those suffering under the colonial yoke. His arguments were
pickedup by Kandyanpetitionerswho comparedtheiraspirations
to those of the French and English taxpayer. Other Ceylonese
writerssaw their demandsin more romanticizedterms, aping the
rhetoric of 'Young Ireland'.81In Canada,the French separatist
movement,not surprisingly,arguedthat events in Franceguaran-
teed the success of annexation: 'The French Revolution must
throw the world into confusion ... The people of Lower Canada
must be there when their time comes', declared the anti-union
L'Avenirnewspaper in Montreal.82Republican sentiment also
surfacedin Australiaand New Zealandduring the transportation
protests and campaigns for representative government. In
February 1849 Wellington radicalsorganizeda series of reform
banquets as a prelude to a petitioning campaign, in conscious
imitationof the banquetsin Paris and elsewherein Francewhich
had heraldedthe republicanonslaughton the French monarchy
a year earlier.83In Sydney, radicalsupportersof furtherfranchise
extension, such as Henry Parkes,eulogizedthe Frenchrepublican
leader Lamartine.Parkes put his thoughts into verse in the new
year of 1849: 'Still may pale France thy genius feel, / Ripening
her pure and equal laws, / Till far off nations spring, all zeal /
And bravery, to the common cause!'84And it was commonly
believed in both New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land that
colonial reform back at Westminsterwas being driven along by
the turmoil on the European continent. When the Australian
GovernmentAct was eventually passed in the summer of 1850,
81'Petition ... of Inhabitants of Ceylon' (July 1848), in Papers Relative to the
Affairs of Ceylon, PP, 1849 [1018], xxxvi, 157-8; cf. Letters on Ceylon, ed. de Silva,
12. On the mood of 'Young Ceylon', see 'Henry Candidus', A Desultory Conversation
betweenTwo YoungAristocraticCeylonese(Colombo, 1853).
82 Quoted in J. Monet, 'French Canadaand the Annexation Crisis', Canadian Hist.
Rev., xliv (1966), 263.
83
WellingtonIndependent,17 Feb. 1849.
84 Quoted in A. W. Martin, Henry Parkes: A Biography(Melbourne, 1980), 53.
the Hobart TownCourierattributedit to the French revolution-

aries of 1848, who had disturbed the quiet of 'Downing Street
despotism'.85However, it would be wrongto overstatethe ideolo-
gical links, for much of the political language of white settler
movements in 1848-9 was along the lines of restoringthe rights
of freeborn Englishmen. The Cape 'pledge' campaignwas suf-
fused with the languageof Lockeancontractualism,while in New
South Wales avoidance of revolution became the leitmotif of
radical demands. A timely measure of colonial constitutional
reform would, it was argued by Anglo-Australianradicalssuch
as Parkesand J. D. Lang, help the settlement colonies avoid the
fate of revolutionaryFrance.86Protestersin the British empire,
in other words, aspiredto constitutionalreform rather than the
revolutionarynationalismof Europe in 1848.
But to judge colonial discontentby the yardstickof European
nationalismis to apply the benefitof hindsight.As much scholar-
ship on the 1848 revolutions in Europe has shown, the idea of
nationalismwas not a conspicuousfeature of the early stages of
the revolutions. Instead, the initial phase of protest across the
European continent in 1848 was characterizedby the call for
constitutionalreforms,such as freedomof the press, the convoca-
tion of legislative assemblies,reorganizationof local administra-
tion, legal reform and the abolitionof feudal dues. Whether one
looks at the lotta legaleof the Venetian radicalssuch as Manin,
the programmeof the Contemperaneo reformers in Rome, the
'Opposition Circle' gathered in Budapest and around Lajos
Kossuth, the Repeal party Prague, or even the demands of
in
William Smith O'Brien's 'Young Ireland', it is the absence of
national grievances, the preferencefor lawful revolution, and a
desire to achieve reform within existing imperialfrontierswhich
are most striking.87In this sense there were significantparallels
85 Quoted in W. A. Townsley, Tasmania: From Colony to Statehood, 1803-1945
(Hobart, 1991), 45.
86 South African CommercialAdvertiser,7 July 1849; speech at Sydney City Theatre
by Parkes, 22 Jan. 1849, repr. in Henry Parkes, Speecheson VariousOccasionsConnected
with the PublicAffairs of New South Wales, 1848-74 (Sydney, 1876), 1-2; J. D. Lang,
Freedomand Independence for the GoldenLand of Australia (Sydney, 1852), x-xi.
87 Alan Sked, The Decline and Fall of the HabsburgEmpire, 1815-1918 (London,
1989), 54-5; Ginsborg, Daniele Manin, 365; John A. Davis, Conflictand Control:Law
and Orderin NineteenthCenturyItaly (London, 1988), 161; H. Hearder, 'The Making
of the Roman Republic, 1848-9', History, lx (1975); Lazlo Deme, The Radical Left
in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (New York, 1976), 16-17; Istvan Deak, The
Lawful Revolution:Louis Kossuthand the Hungarians,1848-9 (New York, 1979), 56;
Stanley Z. Pech, The Czech Revolutionof 1848 (Chapel Hill, 1969), 45-51, 339; Denis
(cont. on p. 175)
between the early course of political protest and conflict on the
European continent in 1848-9 and the struggles and risings evid-
ent across the British empire in the same period. In both cases
protest was brought on by fiscal-military problems, both initially
took the shape of legal, constitutional and moderate reform
demands. But there the similarity ends. In Europe the failure of
moderate constitutional reform during the summer of 1848 accel-
erated protest into a more confrontational phase, in which imper-
ial military commanders and patriotic volunteer armies vied for
control. By and large, the British empire did not descend over
this precipice, although there are grounds for seeing the Sikh
revolt in the Punjab and the peasant risings in Ceylon and the
Ionian Islands, as comparable to what happened in the later phases
of revolution in Europe. For the most part,. however, Britain's
imperial 1848 was less bloody and more peaceful than elsewhere.
Why was this so?
IV
A large part of the explanation lies in the nature of authority
exercised in the British empire. Unlike in France, northern Italy,
the Austrian empire, Sicily, and elsewhere in Europe, the military
never attempted to take the upper hand when civil government
proved impossible. The martial law policies of 'Dead-or-Alive'
Ward (as he was dubbed) in Cephalonia and Torrington (the
'British Haynau') in Ceylon were the exception not the rule, and,
particularly in the case of the latter, were considered to be so
contrary to British constitutional practice that they were roundly
condemned, to the point where Torrington's ignominious recall
from Ceylon almost led to the Whigs losing office in 1850.
Elsewhere the British imperial state sought to contain civil dis-
order and mutinous forces through concession and conciliation.
Even military veterans such as Charles Napier and Harry Smith
proved reluctant to use their powers of court martial. In the
longer term, timely constitutional reform throughout the British
empire played a major role in pacifying most of the heightened
political radicalism and mutinous spirit of 1848-9. In the Ionian
(n. 87 cont.)
Gwynn, YoungIreland in 1848 (Cork, 1949), 236-7; Towhill, William Smith O'Brien,
81, 220-2. For ways in which English radicalism in 1848 might be reassessed within
this perspective, see Roland Quinault, '1848 and Parliamentary Reform', Hist. JI,
xxxi (1988).
Islands,Seaton'sconstitutionalinnovationswere carriedon more

or less where he left off, with the promulgationof a new constitu-
tion which abolishedthe primarycouncil and introducedsecret
voting.88 In Malta a partially elected legislative council was
broughtin, based on a franchisewhich includedall those eligible
for jury service.89Even Gibraltar,a military station, entered a
liberalphase in the 1850s, as local commercialclassesresistedthe
attemptsof the governor, Robert Gardiner,to rule without con-
sultation.90Further afield, most of the new oppressive indirect
taxes in Ceylon were dropped and the overt drive against
Buddhismcameto an end.91In BritishGuianathe electoralsystem
was widened, as in Malta, to include those liable for jury service
and those on the municipal electoral roll.92In New Zealand,
although Governor Grey ruled by decree until 1852, he made
continued attempts to absorb reformersinto his administration,
for example offering the post of provincialattorney-generalto
one of his fiercest critics, William Fox, in February 1848.93
Eventually, in New Zealandas in the Australiancolonies and at
the Cape, representativeassemblieswere enacted between 1850
and 1853. By the mid-1850s most of the settlement and Crown
colonies possessed an elective franchisewhich extended to more
of the adult male populationthan was even dreamedof back on
the British mainland.
However, alongsidethese reformsof the colonialrepresentative
system went a determinedeffort by the Britishimperialauthorit-
ies - in particular Earl Grey - to strengthen the power of the
Crown.The events of 1848-9 had provedthatsettlercommunities
could be recklessand headstrongwhen it came to managingfiscal
and supply questions. A taxpaying franchise was therefore
removed from most constitutionsafter 1848, as it gave too much
effective power to the towns and gave assembliesthe licence to
commandeerthe supplies. As in Britain, a large fixed civil list
was made permanentand not subjectto an annualvote, although
88Michael Pratt, Britain's Greek Empire: Reflectionson the History of the Ionian
Islandsfrom the Fall of Byzantium (London, 1978), 136-40.
89 Laferla, British Malta, 204-8.
90William G. F. Jackson, The Rock of Gibraltarians:A History of Gibraltar, 2nd
edn (Grendon, 1991), 238-41.
91De Silva, Social Policy and MissionaryOrganization,107-12.
92 Clementi, ConstitutionalHistory of British Guiana, 195.
93 Grey to Fox, 4 Feb. 1848: George Grey MSS (microfilm), Auckland Public
Library, MS 227A, 330.
the British Treasuryresisted the ColonialOffice's plan to make
governors' salariesthe responsibilityof the imperial revenue.94
Moreover, limits were placed on the sovereignty of the new
coloniallegislatures,for they were not permittedto make further
constitutionalchange without the approvalof Westminster.95So
while the principleof representationwas concededto manycolon-
ies after 1848-9, the Crown, in the shape of the colonial gov-
ernors, gained more power than it had been able to exercise
before or during 1848. Colonial reformers likened these man-
oeuvres- widening the franchise,but simultaneouslyrestricting
local legislativeautonomy- to 'lighting a blazing fire in a room
without a chimney',96and subsequentevents proved them right.
In Jamaicaafter 1854 the governor retained a veto over public
expenditure,and in the 1860s some critics arguedthat it was the
combinationof GovernorEyre's financialmismanagementand an
unruly popular assemblywhich led to the Morant Bay rising of
1865.97In other words, colonial electors may have been more
numerousafter 1848, but in many cases they actuallylost power
over the controlof the public purse- a situationnot at all unlike
that of the French legislature under Napoleon III, where the
National Assembly was elected by universal male suffrage but
enjoyed little effective control over nationalfinance.
94
George Cornewall Lewis to Henry Labouchere, 3 Dec. 1855: Rhodes House
Library, Oxford, Labouchere Papers, MSS Brit. Emp., s. 451, fos. 8-15. Earl Grey
disapproved of a similar plan for Ceylon: Grey to Sir G. Anderson, 20 Jan. 1851,
repr. in Reportof the Committeeof the Executive Councilon the Fixed Establishmentsof
the Island of Ceylon, PP, 1852 [568], xxxvi, 252-3. Cf. S. V. Balasingham, 'The
Administration of Sir Henry Ward, Governor of Ceylon, 1855-60', Ceylon Hist. Jl,
xi (1968), 124, 131. For executive control over finance in Jamaica, see Ronald V.
Sires, 'Constitutional Change in Jamaica, 1834-60', Jl ComparativeLegislationand
Internat. Law, xxii (1940), 184-5. And in Australia, see Alastair Davidson, The
Invisible State: The Formationof the Australian State, 1788-1901 (Cambridge, 1991),
165-9.
95'The AustralianColonies' Government Act' (1850), 'Act to Granta Representative
Constitution (New Zealand)' (1852), 'Order in Council Conferring the Cape
Constitutional Ordinance' (1853), in Select Documentson the ConstitutionalHistory of
the British Empire and Commonwealth,iv, Settler Self-Government,1840-1900: The
Developmentof Representativeand ResponsibleGovernment,ed. A. F. Madden and
D. K. Fieldhouse (London, 1989), 302-4, 483-4, 538.
96 C. B. Adderley, Some Reflectionson the Speechof the Right Hon. LordJohn Russell
on Colonial Policy (London, 1850), 16. For the original analogy, see D. A. Haury,
The Originsof the LiberalParty and LiberalImperialism:The Careerof CharlesBuller,
1806-48 (London, 1987), 154.
97
George Price, Jamaica and the Colonial Office: Who Caused the Crisis?(London,
1866); Ronald V. Sires, 'Governmental Crisis in Jamaica, 1860-66', Jamaican Hist.
Rev., ii (1953).
This blend of careful Whig constitutional draughtsmanship and
Peelite fiscal prudence was not the only contributory factor in
the ebbing of colonial discontent in the 1850s. The discovery of
gold in Australia proved a powerful antidote to radicalism, while
a package of imperial financial aid and a delaying of the equaliza-
tion of the sugar duties assuaged the rebellious planters of the
West Indies. In other respects, these concessions did no more
than postpone for a few more years the challenge to British
imperial authority. In Jamaica the widening of the representative
system in the aftermath of 1848 led to the emergence of the
militant native Baptist leadership which spearheaded the rising
of 1865.98 In the Indian states the failure to address the problems
of sepoy regiments in 1850 lit a fuse which, in the opinion of
many military and colonial commentators, eventually detonated
in the events of 1857.99 But these portents aside, by the early
1850s relative stability had been restored to Britain's empire,
although Earl Grey's own verdict of 'profound peace and internal
tranquillity'100seems something of an exaggeration.
V
Back in Britain the imperial conflicts of 1848-9 did have a longer-
term impact. This can be seen in three main ways. In the first
place, the winding down of transportation (eventually dropped
altogether in 1868), itself brought on by the rebellious spirit of
white-settler legislatures in 1849 and 1850, meant that by the late
1850s the British mainland saw a net increase in so-called 'ticket-
of-leave' men - that is, of paroled prisoners. This precipitated
widespread fears of a dangerous, degenerate criminal class loose
on the streets, a moral panic which culminated in the garotting
scares of 1862 and which in turn led to a much more incarceratory
prison system in Britain.101Secondly, the reform of the franchise
98
Heuman, 'The Killing Time', ch. 6; Swithin Wilmot, 'The Politics of Samuel
Clarke:Black Political Martyr in Jamaica, 1851-1865', JamaicanHist. Rev., xix (1996).
99H. G. Ward to
Henry Labouchere, 26 June 1857: Rhodes House Library, Oxford,
H. G. Ward Papers, MSS Ind. Ocn s. 126, fos. 134-9; J. W. Kaye, A History of the
Sepoy War in India, 1857-8, 7th edn, 3 vols. (London, 1875), i, 322-3; Eric Stokes,
The PeasantArmed: The Revolt of 1857, ed. C. A. Bayly (Oxford, 1986), 51-2; David
Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army, 1860-1940 (London, 1994), 2-6.
100Earl Grey, The Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration,2 vols.
(London, 1853), ii, 303.
101Peter W. J. Bartrip, 'Public Opinion and Law Enforcement: The Ticket-of-
Leave Scare in Mid-Victorian Britain', in Victor Bailey (ed.), Policingand Punishment
(cont. on p. 179)
and the establishmentof representativeassembliesin many of the
settlementand Crowncoloniesput the parliamentaryreformissue
back on the political agenda, albeit several thousandmiles away
from Westminster.The constitutionalsettlementwhich emerged
in the colonies during the 1850s, that is, an extended suffrageon
the one hand, with the executive retaining the legislative and
fiscal initiative on the other, was precisely the balancestruck in
Britain itself as a result of the Second Reform Act of 1867.
Significantly,some of the key players in the debates over parlia-
mentary reform from the late 1850s onwardswere men such as
the third Earl Grey, Robert Lowe and William Gladstone,who
had all been at the forefront of imperialmatters during the late
1840s and early 1850s. There is an obvious connection between
Lowe's fears of mob rule, Grey's distastefor extravagantpopular
governmentand Gladstone'sfaith in the simple virtues of muni-
cipal accountability,and what they had all witnessed across the
empire in 1848-9.1°2 In these ways, as has been argued recently,
the vocabulariesof mid-Victoriancitizenshipwere indeed shaped
by the experience of empire, but within a conventionaldemon-
ology of democracyratherthan a new discourseof race.103
Finally, the events of 1848 slowed down the process of
retrenchmentin colonial militaryforces. The unleashingof civil
strife and frontierwars acrossthe empire in 1848-51 meant that
the colonies remained a burden in terms of military costs. The
duke of Wellington'sdream of an able and willing British-based
land force ready to see off the Europeanmenace, continued to
be frustratedby disturbanceson the imperialperiphery,disturb-
ances which made it difficult to transfercolonial forces back to
the Europeantheatre.Added to this was the fact that by the time
of the CrimeanWar it was clear that continuedemigrationto the
colonies, especially from the highlandsof Scotland,was making
(n. 101 cont.)
in Nineteenth-CenturyBritain (London, 1981); Jennifer Davis, 'The London Garotting
Panic of 1862: A Moral Panic and the Creation of a Criminal Class in Mid-Victorian
England', in V. A. C. Gatrell, Bruce Lenman and Geoffrey Parker (eds.), Crimeand
the Law: The Social History of Crimein WesternEuropesince 1500 (London, 1980).
102 James Winter, Robert Lowe (Toronto, 1977), 201-2; Earl Grey, Parliamentary
GovernmentConsideredwith Referenceto a Reformof Parliament, 2nd edn (London,
1864), ch. 9. On Gladstone's unpublished reactions to the imperial episodes of
1848-50, see Susan H. Farnsworth, The Evolutionof British ImperialPolicy duringthe
Mid-NineteenthCentury:A Study of the Peelite Contribution,1846-74 (London, 1992),
28-31, 98.
103 Cf. Catherine Hall, 'Rethinking Imperial Histories: The Reform Act of 1867',
New Left Rev., ccviii (1994).
the task of army recruitment at home much harder. Far from

being a safety valve, releasing the pent-up pressures of the metro-
pole, the empire was beginning to strike back.
King's College, London Miles Taylor

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The 1848 Revolutions and the British Empire

cases a crisis of empire, as much as they were an outbreak of

tions in sailing times made possible by new technology." To a

dimension to Britain's 1848 - on the one hand, the use of the

ficiariesof extensionsof the franchisewhich metropolitanBritons

THE BRITISH EMPIRE 1848-1851

Van Diemen's Chatham

dangerous criminal class from society, and not simply as an exer-

In a similarfashion, the loyalty of the British middle classesin

History, lxxii (1987), 244-5; C. I. Hamilton, Anglo-FrenchNaval Rivalry, 1840-70

the Whig governmentsought to avoid imposingnew taxes. New

statesmen and colonial governors drawing parallels with the

of the island.42In August the assemblyrefused to grant supplies

Fiscalreformalso lay behindthe most notoriousuprisingwithin

British taxpayer.68In New South Wales and in Van Diemen's

Avoiding that scenario became the central task of colonial consti-

Beyond the Mediterraneanthe linkagesare less obvious. Some

the Hobart TownCourierattributedit to the French revolution-

Islands,Seaton'sconstitutionalinnovationswere carriedon more

the task of army recruitment at home much harder. Far from

King's College, London Miles Taylor

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