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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

J. R. M. Butler
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Extract

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

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , 1928 , pp. 248 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1928

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References

page 248 note 1 H[ouse] of C[ommons] papers, 1840, XXXI. 15; Kennedy, Documents of the Canadian Constitution, p. 524.

page 248 note 2 H. of C. papers, 1840, XXXI. 7; Kennedy, p. 517.

page 249 note 1 4 and 5 Will. IV, c. 95, An Act to empower His Majesty to erect South Australia into a British Province or Provinces, and to provide for the colonization and government thereof. E. G. Wakefield said that the bill had been drawn by his brother Daniel under his own supervision (R. Garnett, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, p. 105).

page 249 note 2 Public Record Office, C[olonial] O[ffice], 13; 15, South Australia, 1839, No. 1982.

page 250 note 1 C.O. 42; 297.

page 250 note 2 C.O. 42; 297, Poulett Thomson to J. Stephen, October 3, 1839.

page 250 note 3 C.O. 42; 297.

page 251 note 1 Knaplund, Canadian Historical Review, March 1924, p. 25. Mr Knaplund notes that the circular was drafted by Stephen.