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II. The Nineteenth-Century Revolution in Government: A Reappraisal Reappraised

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Henry Parris
Henry Parris
Affiliation:
Department of Government, University of Manchester
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Extract

By his ‘attempt to formulate a general notion’ of the nineteenth-century revolution in government, and ‘to construct an ancillary, explanatory “model”‘ of its operation, Dr MacDonagh has initiated a discussion of great importance.1 For general notions are what we lack in the field of administrative history since 1832:

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1960 , pp. 17 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1960

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References

1 MacDonagh, O., ‘The Nineteenth-century Revolution in Government: A Reappraisal’, Historical Journal, 1 (1958), 52–67 (referred to hereafter as MacDonagh, H.J).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Willson, F. M. G., ‘Ministries and Boards: Some Aspects of Administrative Development since 1832’, Public Administration, xxxiii (1955), 43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 MacDonagh, H.J. 67.

4 Ibid.. 55. Dicey himself used the short title Law and Opinion for his book, and it has been generally used ever since. Cf. Memorials of A. V. Dicey, ed. R. S. Rait (1925), 189, etc. Why Dr MacDonagh prefers the form Law and Public Opinion is not clear.

5 K. B. Smellie, 100 Years of English Government (2nd edn. 1950), 331.

6 Article on Dicey in Chambers’s Encyclopaedia (new. edn. 1955).

7 M. Ginsberg (ed.), Law and Opinion in England in the 20th Century. The quotation is from p. vii.

8 W. I. Jennings, Law and the Constitution (1933).

9 MacDonagh, H.J. 56; A. V. Dicey, Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion During the 19th Century (2nd edn. 1914) (referred to hereafter as Dicey).

10 Jennings, W. I., ‘In Praise of Dicey’, Public Administration, xiii (1935), 128.Google Scholar

11 Dicey, 134 and n. My italics.

12 Ibid.. 44, 174–5: cf. Ibid.. 39, 125, 145, and 146 n.

13 Ibid., xxx n.

14 Ibid.. 146 n.

15 Dicey, 303–5.

16 Ibid.. 306–7.

17 Ibid.. 308 n.

18 Ibid.. 309–10.

19 Ibid.. 146.

20 Ibid.. 147.

21 Ibid.. 237.

22 Ibid.. 232, 64–5.

23 Ibid.. 224.

24 Ibid.. 234–5, 221–3.

25 Ibid.. 277, 279.

26 Ibid.. 46.

27 Dicey, 411 n.

28 Corlett, J., Financial Aspects of Elementary Education (1929), 47.Google Scholar

29 Dicey, 277.

30 Ibid.. 203.

31 Ibid.. 188.

32 Ibid.. 306–7.

33 Ibid.. 39 n.

34 Ibid.. 180 n.

35 Ibid.. 62–4.

36 Ibid.. 21–2.

37 Ibid.. 68.

38 Dicey, 300.

39 Ibid.. 64.

40 Ibid.. 66.

41 Ibid.. 201.

42 Ibid.. 33–4.

43 Ibid.. 291, 284–5.

44 Ibid.. 240.

45 Ibid.. 217.

46 Ibid.. 276–7, 279.

47 Cf. Jennings, op. cit., esp. 210 ff., and Carr, C. T., Concerning English Administrative Law (1941), 21 ff.Google Scholar

48 Dicey, xxiii, 465.

49 Ibid., xxiv–xxvi.

50 Ibid.. viii.

51 Ibid.. xxiv.

52 Memorials of A. V. Dicey, 1; cf. Ibid.. 6, where Dicey claims to have had ‘memories... of English political life for about ten years earlier’ than 1848, i.e. from the age of 3; it is not surprising that he adds that these memories were ‘indistinct and often childish’.

53 Halévy, E., Growth of Philosophic Radicalism (English edn. 1928), 514.Google Scholar

54 Djang, T. K., Factory Inspection in Great Britain (1942), 34.Google Scholar

55 MacDonagh, H.J. 58–61, for the model, 65 for the quotation.

56 MacDonagh, O., ‘The Regulation of the Emigrant Traffic from the United Kingdom, 1842–55’ (Irish Historical Studies, ix (1954–1955), 163).Google Scholar

57 O. MacDonagh, ‘Emigration and the State, 1833–55: An Essay in Administrative History’ (Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser. v (1955), 133, referred to hereafter as MacDonagh, T.R.H.S.).

58 MacDonagh, O., ‘Delegated Legislation and Administrative Discretions in the 1850’s: A Particular Study’, Victorian Studies, ii (1958–1959), 43 (referred to hereafter as MacDonagh, V.S.).Google Scholar

59 E. Stokes, The English Utilitarians and India (1959).

60 MacDonagh, H.J. 66.

61 E.g. in the crucial case of the three individuals who suggested the appointment of emigration officers in the period 1831–3 (MacDonagh, T.R.H.S. 135).

62 Ibid.. 133—4.

63 MacDonagh, H.J. 65–6. My italics.

64 It is àll the more strange that Dr MacDonagh should be blind to the unconscious influence of ideas in administrative history, since he expressly warns his readers against the danger of letting themselves be influenced unconsciously by intellectual concepts in their own study of history (Ibid.. 52).

65 Ibid.. 61. My italics.

66 Ibid..

67 Ibid.. 57–8.

68 Ibid.. 58.

69 Ibid.. 59.

70 Ibid..

71 MacDonagh, T.R.H.S. 134, 158.

72 Ibid.. 134.

73 The most recent and fullest account of the background to the setting-up of the Metropolitan Police is to be found in L. Radzinowicz, History of English Criminal Law (1948– ), esp. vol. III, Reform of the Police, where the contributions of Bentham, Colquhoun, Chadwick and Peel are indicated.

74 MacDonagh, H.J. 58.

75 Ibid..

76 Halévy, E., Triumph of Reform (1950 edn.), 114–16Google Scholar; Thomas, M. W., Early Factory Legislation (1948), 55.Google Scholar

77 MacDonagh, H.J. 66.

78 E. Halévy, Triumph of Reform, 123–4, 286; Liberal Awakening, 40.

79 S. and Webb, B., English Prisons under Local Government (1922), 110–11.Google Scholar

80 Ibid.. 110.

81 Macdonagh, H.J. 61.

82 Ibid.. 59.

83 Ibid..

84 Smith, F., Life and Work of Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth (1923), esp. 94 ff.Google Scholar

85 MacDonagh, T.R.H.S. 133.

86 E. Halévy, Growth of Philosophic Radicalism (1928). The theme is fundamental to the book; for characteristic expressions of it, see 490, 514.

87 Carr, C. T., Concerning English Administrative Law (1941), 8–9.Google Scholar

88 Prouty, R., Transformation of the Board of Trade, 1830–55 (1957), 1.Google Scholar

89 MacDonagh, V.S. 31 and 44.

90 Brebner, J. B., ‘Laissez Faire and State Intervention in 19th Century Britain’, Journal of Economic History, Supplement viii (1948), 59–73; the quotations are to be found at 59–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91 Robbins, L., The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy (1952), esp. 14–15, 30–1, 40–1, 57–9, 191.Google Scholar

92 Lewis, R. A., Edwin Chadwick and the Public Health Movement (1952), 188.Google Scholar

93 Bowley, M., Nassau Senior and Classical Economics (1937), 265, quoting from an unpublished lecture delivered between 1847 and 1852.Google Scholar

94 Lewis, op. cit. 130.

95 For a parallel study in another field, see my unpublished Ph.D. thesis ‘Regulation of Railways by the Government in Great Britain: the work of the Board of Trade and the Railway Commissioners, 1840–1867’ (Leicester, 1959).