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Abstract
Most of the recent historiography on the British presence in the South Pacific in the first half of the nineteenth century rightly reflects the dichotomy of private commercial enthusiasm for imperial expansion set against a backdrop of official hesitance and vacillation over any possible enlargement of the empire—a stance manifested in Britain's stance on New Zealand prior to 1840. However, such analyses, which emphasise the reactive, unplanned and incremental extension of British interests and involvement in New Zealand, tend to bypass consideration of the particular philosophical influences that helped to shape British colonial policy during this time. This article surveys those social philosophies formulated by Jeremy Bentham—and advanced by his followers—which prescribed a distinct form of colonial intervention and government. It focuses specifically on Bentham's utilitarianism, and his notions of colonial trusteeship, and explores how these ideas insinuated their way into British colonial policy relating to New Zealand in the 1830s, culminating in the Treaty of Waitangi (1840).
Notes
[1] Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi, 25–31.
[2] Moon, Te Ara Ki Te Tiriti, ch. 2, 3, 4.
[3] O'Malley, Stirling and Penetito, The Treaty of Waitangi Companion, 27–36.
[4] Sorrenson, ‘Treaties in British Colonial Policy’, 15–29.
[5] Campbell, ‘British Treaties with Polynesians’, 67–82.
[6] McHugh, ‘The Lawyer's Concept of Sovereignty’, 170–89.
[7] Ward, A Show of Justice, 12–31.
[7] Richards, ‘Pacific Whaling’, 25–39; Moon, Fatal Frontiers, 114–18; Polack, New Zealand, 199–213; FitzRoy, Narrative, 613.
[9] Preamble to the Treaty of Waitangi.
[10] Boyd, ‘Cardinal Principles’, 4.
[11] Woodward, The Age of Reform, 546.
[12] Ibid., 37.
[13] Furnivall, Colonial Policy and Practice, 28.
[14] Ibid., 28–29; Samaraweera, ‘The Ceylon Charter of Justice’, 263–66.
[15] O'Brien, The Foundation of Australia, 235.
[16] Ibid., 342.
[17] Conway, ‘Bentham versus Pitt’, 797; Conway, ‘Bentham on Peace and War’, 101; Woodward, The Age of Reform, 120–22.
[18] Patterson, Sir Francis Burdett, 233–35.
[19] Minutes of … House of Commons Select Committee on … New Zealand, 243, 246–47, 287.
[20] Furnivall, Colonial Policy and Practice, 29. 62.
[21] Keir, Constitutional History of Modern Britain, 370.
[22] Holdsworth, A History of English Law, 147–48.
[23] Eldridge, England's Mission, 28; O'Brien, The Foundation of Australia, 342.
[24] Pitts, ‘Legislator of the World?’, 200–03; Manning, British Colonial Government, 6.
[25] Ward, Colonial Self-Government, 108.
[26] Mill, Autobiography, 77.
[27] Parry, Trade and Dominion, 314.
[28] Hall, The Colonial Office, 143.
[29] Cell, British Colonial Administration, 98; also see Patterson, Sir Francis Burdett, 233–35; Minutes of … House of Commons Select Committee on … New Zealand, 243, 246–47, 287; Furnivall, Colonial Policy and Practice, 29, 62.
[30] Semmel, ‘The Philosophic Radicals and Colonialism’, 513–14, 519; Keir, Constitutional History of Modern Britain, 370; Trevelyan, Lord Grey, 47–48; Patterson, Sir Francis Burdett, 233–35.
[31] Scott, ‘Colonial Governmentality’, 211; Jackson, ‘Jeremy Bentham’, 370ff.; Trevelyan, Lord Grey, 47–48; Patterson, Sir Francis Burdett, 233–35.
[32] Keir, Constitutional History of Modern Britain, 400–01; Woodward, The Age of Reform, 368. As an example of this influence, see Flinders, ‘The Enduring Centrality’, 73–92.
[33] Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles, 35.
[34] Ibid., 33.
[35] Mill, Utilitarianism, 257.
[36] Mack, Jeremy Bentham, 204.
[37] Bentham, Principles of International Law, 538.
[38] Boralevi, Bentham and the Oppressed, 131.
[39] Bentham, Principles of International Law, 543.
[40] Bentham, 1818, Box 164, 39, University College London Manuscript Collection (hereafter UCLMC).
[41] Normanby to W. Hobson, 15 Aug. 1839, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1840, 37–45.
[42] Bentham, 1818, Box 164, 39, UCLMC.
[43] Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles, 35.
[44] Lyons, In the Interests of the Governed, 26.
[45] Bentham, ‘Bentham's Book of Fallacies’, 245.
[46] Ibid., 407.
[47] Bentham, A Fragment on Government, 46–7.
[48] There was growing rebellion in England around the time of Bentham's death. See Englander, Poverty and Poor Law Reform, 12–23.
[49] Bentham, 1818, Box 164, 39, UCLMC.
[50] Bentham, A Fragment on Government, chs 4, 5.
[51] Ibid., 41–43.
[52] Bentham, Leading Principles, 200.
[53] Clarke, Notes on Early Life, 47.
[54] Martin, New Zealand, 159.
[55] Arguably, this extension of British justice in New Zealand was not complete until the conclusion of the so-called ‘Dog Tax War’ in 1898, or even following the arrest of Rua Kenana at his self-styled community at Maungapohatu in 1916.
[56] William Hobson to Richard Bourke, 8 Aug. 1837, 3–5, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1837–40, 40.
[57] Normanby's instructions to Hobson encapsulate this broader philosophical outlook. See Normanby to W. Hobson, 15 Aug. 1839, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1840, 37–45.
[58] Glenelg to Napier, 28 Nov. 1837, 24.
[59] Bentham, Introduction to the Principles, 34–35.
[60] Normanby to W. Hobson, 15 Aug. 1839, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1840, 37–45.
[61] Bentham, 1818, Box 164, 39, UCLMC.
[62] Bentham, 1775, Box 169, 97, UCLMC.
[63] Terry, New Zealand, 218.
[64] Normanby to W. Hobson, 15 Aug. 1839, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1840, 45.
[65] Russell to William Hobson, 28 Jan. 1841, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1841, 52.
[66] Stephen, cited in Marais, The Colonisation, 256.
[67] Swainson, New Zealand, 367–68.
[68] Browne, Appendices, E-3A.
[69] FitzRoy, Remarks, 11–12.
[70] Williams, Plain Facts, 9.
[71] For the nature of these financial constraints, see de Kieweit, The Imperial Factor, 9; Russell to Hobson, 9 Dec. 1840, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1841, 26; McLintock, Crown Colony Government, 136.
[72] Bentham, Introduction to the Principles, 35.
[73] Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 98.
[74] Boralevi, Bentham, 131.
[75] Bentham, Emancipate Your Colonies!, 7. This work was written in 1793, and, although many of its ideas would have been disseminated among Bentham's followers, it was not published until 1830.
[76] Woodward, The Age of Reform, 368–69.
[77] Bentham, 1818, Box 164, 39, UCLMC.
[78] ‘Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes.’
[79] Ibid., 116.
[80] Ibid., 117.
[81] Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords, iii.
[82] Normanby to Hobson, 15 Aug.1839, in Great Britain Parliamentary Papers 1840, 39–45.
[83] Bentham, Emancipate Your Colonies!, 7.
[84] Woodward, The Age of Reform, 368–69.
[85] Bentham, 1795, Box 170, 182, UCLMC.
[86] Ibid., 182.
[87] See Graham, A Concise History, 167; Hall, A History, 552–54; Campbell, ‘British Treaties’, 70–71.
[88] Bentham, 1795, Box 170, 182, UCLMC.
[89] Colenso, The Authentic and Genuine History, 16.
[90] Williams, cited in Carleton, The Life of Henry Williams, 12.
[91] Swainson, New Zealand, 80.
[92] Ibid., 80.
[93] Bentham, 1775, Box 169, 97, UCLMC.
[94] Ibid., 97.
[95] Gipps, in ‘Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on New Zealand’, 5–6.
[96] Mill, Memorandum, 153.
[97] Bentham, Leading Principles, 200.
[98] Bentham, Of Laws in General, ch. 1.
[99] See Granville to Russell, 12 Jan. 1852, 310–12, PRO 30/29/18 Part I. In Bourne, Foreign Policy of Victorian England.
[100] Bentham, Leading Principles, 203.
[101] Stephen to Labouchere, 15 March 1839, 8–10; Normanby to Attorney General, 30 May 1839, in McNab, Historical Records, 739–40; Granville to Russell, 12 Jan. 1852. In McNab, Historical Records of New Zealand, vol. 1, 310–12.
[102] Bentham, 1770s, Box 27, 172, UCLMC.
[103] Swainson, New Zealand, 94–95.
[104] Bentham, cited in Mack, Jeremy Bentham, 78.
[105] Swainson, New Zealand, 94–95.
[106] Ibid., 94–95.
[107] Ibid., 95.
[108] See Browne, Appendices, E-3A.