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1 results

  • 9 - Reforming Ceylon

  • from Part III - The End of the Affair
  • Lisa Ford, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Kirsten McKenzie, University of Sydney, Naomi Parkinson, University of New South Wales, Sydney, David Andrew Roberts, University of New England, Australia
  • Book:
    Inquiring into Empire
    Published online:
    18 March 2025
    Print publication:
    27 February 2025, pp 225-255

  • Summary

    The commission of inquiry into Ceylon (1829–31) which reported after the 1830 general election in England is a significant outlier in the broader story of imperial commissions called during the period of Liverpool’s administration. Changing metropolitan politics had enormous ramifications for the relatively new colonial subjects of Ceylon who, even more so than bonded labourers in the Cape, inundated commissioner Colebrooke with complaints about personal injustice and the failures of British rule. Commissioners Colebrooke and Cameron turned these complaints into a report for the times – the most Benthamite, uncompromising and radical recommendations given anywhere. Tellingly, significant reforms were implemented in Ceylon despite the trenchant opposition of Robert Wilmot Horton, former undersecretary of state in the Colonial Office, who, after Liverpool’s stroke, took it upon himself to hold the conservative line as Governor in Ceylon.