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ABSTRACT
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, an eminently popular novelist, published The Caxtons in 1849. Though sub-titled A Family Picture and mainly concerned with domestic life, it included a lengthy disquisition on colonisation and emigration, its value to British society and its role in extending civilisation by spreading ‘God’s law, improvement’. His colonial example was ‘Australia’. A Radical MP in the 1830s, but opposed to the encroachment of ‘democracy’ and supportive of the Corn Laws, in the early 1850s Lytton turned to the Conservative Party. In 1858–59 he served as secretary of state for the colonies. In the light of his experience, his view of Australia and of self-governing colonies was modified, as A Strange Story (1862) shows. But in 1871, in The Coming Race, an elaborate satire on democracy and egalitarianism, he made a distinct addition to the colonial theme of The Caxtons. He did not doubt that ‘improvement’ and colonisation produced evidence of ‘the triumph of civilization’, but a metaphor embedded in the later novel indicated the inevitability of displacement of aboriginal inhabitants by Anglo-Saxon settlers.
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Notes
1 Christensen’s Edward Bulwer-Lytton is an outstanding ‘marker’ of the revival; see also Lansbury, Arcady in Australia, which includes a substantial study of The Caxtons in a special literary context. In Rule of Darkness, Brantlinger treats The Caxtons substantially, though in a different context and with a different methodology. Four more recent books are especially notable: Snyder, Liberty and Morality; Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton; Christensen, Subverting Vision; Bulwer, Athens: Its Rise and Fall. Articles specially relevant to the present essay are: Nayder, ‘Bulwer Lytton and Imperial Gothic’; Sinnema, ‘Domesticating Bulwer-Lytton’s “Colonial” Fiction’; Judge, ‘The “Seamy Side”’; Lane, ‘Bulwer's Misanthropes’.
2 Monypenny and Buckle, Life of Disraeli, vol. 3, 569; cf. meagre or disdainful refs in, e.g., Blake, Disraeli; Stewart, Foundation of the Conservative Party; Hawkins, Parliament, Party.
3 Lytton, Pelham, LXIV, 86.
4 Jowett, Lord Lytton.
5 Monypenny and Buckle, Life of Disraeli, vol. 4, 161; The Times, 17 Dec. 1846; Conrad, Nigger of the Narcissus, 17. See also Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, xv–xvi. On Lytton’s influence, see Lansbury, Arcady in Australia; Snyder, ‘Bulwer Lytton and “The Cult of the Colonies”’ (referring to Escott, Edward Bulwer, ch. 13).
6 Speech at installation as lord rector of Glasgow University, report in The Times, 17 Jan. 1857. Lytton’s novels are available online or in modern editions. For The Coming Race, see especially editions by Seed and Sinnema. Lytton's novels exist in, and even within, various editions and formats. Accordingly, with grateful acknowledgment to A.C. Christensen's method in Edward Bulwer Lytton, xvi, most of my references to them are given in the form XX:5, representing (according to the particular layout) book:chapter.
7 ‘Colonisation’ is distinct from ‘colonialism’ or ‘colonising’, terms not used in this article; ‘colony’ adheres as far as possible to a classical meaning.
8 Taylor, ‘Imperium et Libertas?’.
9 To a degree, Lytton’s view is congruent with the main theme of Bain Attwood’s important recent article on British government policies in New South Wales. Attwood. ‘Law, History and Power’. See also the field represented in Zoë Laidlaw’s comprehensive survey. Laidlaw, ‘Breaking Britannia’s Bounds?’.
10 His new name is frequently rendered as ‘Bulwer-Lytton’—but see Brown, ‘Lytton, E.G.E.L.B.
11 Hansard 43, cols 110–123 (22 May 1838), 13, cols 239–48 (31 May 1832), 23, cols 1193–1206 (22 May 1834). On Bulwer’s England and the English, see esp. Himmelfarb, The Idea of Poverty, 171–74; on his Letter to a Late Cabinet Minister (1834), see Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, 180–81.
12 Hansard 40, cols 393–99 (23 Jan. 1838); cols 1175–82 (15 Feb. 1838); 58, cols 373–75 (13 May 1841). See also The Caxtons, XVIII, 8. On Canadian policy, see Burroughs, Canadian Crisis; Burroughs, ‘Canadian Rebellions’; for Bulwer and Durham, see Sadleir, Bulwer and his Wife, 375–79. Letter to John Forster in 1848, Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, vol. 2, 161; Lytton to Lord Walpole, 17 Nov. 1857, D/EK C28/59 Bound volume, ‘Copy—Letters of Lord Lytton to Lord Walpole, 1848–1868’, 105–08, Hertfordshire Archives and Library Services (hereafter HALS); cf. letter of Cobden to J. Sturge, The Times, 26 Sept. 1848, referring to the coming Peace Congress in Brussels.
13 Report of Proceedings at Lincoln Dinner at Easter Last, 1838, published by Stainton, Lincoln, printed in London, D/EK W100, HALS. 1838, esp. 8–14. Extracts from the speech are printed by Snyder, Liberty and Morality, 155–66; Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, 210–11; much can be garnered from this speech about Bulwer Lytton’s political views in general. See also fragment of proofs of a pamphlet, critical of radical views of Canada, (n.d., but probably end of 1837), D/EK 02/25, HALS.
14 Lytton, The Caxtons, IV, 2.
15 A. Blackwood to Lytton, c. 25 Oct. 1858, D/EK 024/98/7, HALS; Derby to Lytton, 28 Oct. 1858, Letter Book 185/2, Papers of 14th Earl of Derby, 920 DER(14) (hereafter 14 Derby) Liverpool City Libraries; despatch to Sir John Young at Corfu, 1 Nov. 1858, 152, CO 136/162, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA).
16 Bulwer to Melbourne, c. late 1838, D/EK 38/30, HALS; cf. his disclaimer in parliament, reported in The Times, 16 Feb. 1838; Snyder, Liberty and Morality, 61; Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, 178–79; Lytton to J. Forster, 24 March 1848, in Lytton, Bulwer Lytton, vol. 2, 156–57; cf. caricature of the House of Vipont in What Will He Do with It?, 5, 7. As late as December 1848 he was nominated as a Liberal candidate for the seat of Leominster (The Times, 11 Dec. 1848). On Lytton, the Corn Laws and the Radicals, see his private correspondence with Sir Henry Ward (governor of Ceylon; formerly a leading Radical MP), June–Aug. 1858, D/EK 01, sub-bundle 2, HALS. See preface to 1848 edition of Lytton, Paul Clifford on social reform.
17 Lytton to Disraeli, 27 Feb? 1851, B/xx/Ly/53, Hughenden MSS, Bodleian Library (hereafter BodL); letter to Delme Radcliffe, 1855, in Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, lxxi,. For politics in the 1850s, see, e.g., Hawkins, Parliament, Party; Hawkins,Forgotten Prime Minister; Steele, Palmerston and Liberalism.
18 Saturday Review, 5 June 1858. Lord Derby’s ‘promise’ to Lytton, Hansard 136, cols 1337–38 (8 Feb 1855). But note difficulties and unease, late February 1858. Monypenny and Buckle, Life of Disraeli, vol. 4, 118; Hawkins, Forgotten Prime Minister, vol. 2, 164. In May, the vacant post was first offered to Gladstone. Hawkins, Forgotten Prime Minister, vol. 2, 179–80; Derby to the Queen, 23 May 1858, Letterbook 184/1, 14 Derby; Disraeli to Derby, 25 May 1858, Box 145/5, 14 Derby.
19 Lytton, Alice, 1838, 6, 2
20 Conrad, Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’, 17; Leask, Introduction to the Caxtons, xx.
21 Trevelyan, ed., Life and Letters, 368.
22 Lytton, Devereux, IV, 1.
23 Benjamin Disraeli ‘Observation’, c. 1865, Hughenden MSS, A/x/A/34, BodL; Jowett, Lord Lytton, 5–10.
24 [Kingsley], ‘Sir E. B. Lytton’.
25 Quoted by Jowett, Lord Lytton, 5–10; see Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, ch. 12, on Lytton as ‘prophet’.
26 For example, Lytton to Lord Carnarvon, 27 Oct. 58, Add. Mss. 60780, 34, British Library (hereafter BL); Saturday Review, 5 June 1858. Snyder’s comprehensive account of Lytton’s political career usefully summarises aspects of his work at the Colonial Office. Snyder, Liberty and Morality, ch. 7. Cell dismisses Lytton as ‘incompetent’; Lansbury calls him ‘lamentable’ and ‘calamitous’. Cell, British Colonial Administration, 6; Lansbury, Arcady in Austr alia, 80, 144. Mitchell bases his inadequate account on poor data. Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, ch. 11. Cf. Lord Carnarvon’s judicious opinion, also Gladstone’s. Journal, 1 July 1859, Add. Mss. 60892, 46–70, BL; letter to Sir James Graham, 7 Feb 1859, Add. Mss. 44551, 18, BL.
27 Lytton, Maltravers, II, 2. Cf. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, published in English translation in 1835; Lytton was wary of his views on the coming of democracy: see Lytton, Letters of Manilius (once mistakenly attributed to Disraeli: see Monypenny and Buckle, Life of Disraeli, vol. 3, 496), Letter 1. See also Crook, American Democracy, 59, 81–82, ch. 5.
28 Lytton, Night and Morning, IV, 5.
29 Lytton, Maltravers, II, Alice, VI, 5.
30 Cf. Bright, Diaries, 21 March 1859, 236. Hansard 153, cols 531–623 (22 March 1859); Lytton to Derby, 15 July 1867, 162/1a, 14 Derby.
31 Lytton, Letters of Manilius, 467–98; Lytton to Gladstone, 11 Dec 1858, Add. Mss. 44241, 101–05, BL; Lytton to Derby, 18 Sept. 1858, D/EK 026, HALS; ‘The Genius of Conservatism’ (1853–54), in Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, lxxix–cvii (improbably dated there as 1858); dedicatory epistle to The Last of the Barons; Hansard 40, cols 1175–82 (15 Feb. 1838); Speech to Leeds Mechanics’ Institution, 25 Jan. 1854, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, 172–89. Perkin gives an unflattering view of the genus ‘gentlemen’. Perkin, Origins of Modern English Society, 273–75. Bulwer never completed his Athens: see the introduction to Oswyn Murray’s edition; Phillips, ‘Historical Context of Athens’, 133–46.
32 Note for a speech never delivered, c. 1865, in Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, lxxiii–lxxvi; Lytton, ‘The Genius of Conservatism’, in Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, lxxxvi–xciii. Lytton to Lord Walpole, 17 Nov 1857, quoted in Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, 204; Escott, Edward Bulwer; Snyder, ‘Bulwer Lytton and the “Cult of the Colonies”’.
33 Esp. parts XII, XIII, XVII and XVIII.
34 Bulwer, Athens, book II, 1, part VII. On Disraeli and Young England, see Blake, Disraeli, chs 8, 9.
35 Cf. India (Caxtons, XVII, 2), an empire of conquest; see also debate in House of Commons, 16 March 1858, ‘Colonization of India’, Hansard 149, cols 270–94; Anon., ‘The Indian Mutinies’.
36 Hansard 68, cols 484–599, 544–45 (6 April 1843). See Richards, Britannia’s Children, chs 7, 8.
37 Lytton, Paul Clifford, 36. Also see, e.g., Worthington, ‘Against the Law’; Baldellou, ‘The Bandit, My Double’.
38 See Hughes, The Fatal Shore; extracts from Commons Committee on Transportation, in Bell and Morrell, eds, Select Documents, 280–85. Cf. Hirst, Convict Society and its Enemies for a more optimistic view. On ‘disparities’, see, e.g., Eugene Aram (1832), I, 7, III, 3.
39 Critics found it disgusting, See The Times, 17 Dec. 1846.
40 Cf. Sinnema’s particular interpretation of The Caxtons in ‘Domesticating Bulwer-Lytton’s “Colonial” Fiction’.
41 Lytton, The Caxtons, XVII, 2.
42 Ibid., Preface, XII, 6.
43 Ibid., XVIII, 1. See also his Leeds speech of 1854, in Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, 175–77.
44 Lytton, The Caxtons, XIII, 1.
45 Ibid., V, 1, XVII, 4.
46 Ibid., XII, 6
47 See, Bulwer, Athens, V, 2.
48 Lytton, The Caxtons, X, 1.
49 Ibid., XVI, 10.
50 Lytton, My Novel, XI, 2.
51 Lytton, The Caxtons, XII, 6, XIII, 1.
52 Ibid., II, 2ff.
53 Cf. Lansbury, Arcady in Australia, 89.
54 Lytton, The Caxtons, XVII, 1, XVIII, 1.
55 Ibid., XVII, 6.
56 Lytton consulted (in addition to the works of Edward Gibbon Wakefield) chiefly Wilkinson, South Australia, and private letters (see The Caxtons, XVIII, 1); Sidney's Australian Handbook. See Lansbury, Arcady in Australia, 5. Whether or not for The Caxtons, he read Count Strzelecki's Physical Description for A Strange Story (LXXI)
57 Caxtons, XVII, 2.
58 Ibid., XVIII, 1.
59 Cf., Lansbury, Arcady in Australia, who credits Lytton’s works as influencing Australian ‘bush’ writers of the 1890s; Christensen, Bulwer-Lytton, 228–29. On imbalance of sexes, see, e.g., Rickard, Australia, 36.
60 Lytton, The Caxtons, XIII, 4.
61 2 Oct 1858, CO 201/507, 658–665, TNA.
62 Lytton, The Caxtons, VI, 6.
63 Ibid., XII, 6. Emphasis in original.
64 Cf., Hansard 40, cols 393–99 (23 Jan. 1838); cf. Anon., ‘Canadian Parties’. Cannadine is mistaken in this matter, as is Sinnema. Cannadine, Ornamentalism, 30; Sinnema, ‘Domesticating Bulwer-Lytton’s “Colonial” Fiction’, 159.
65 Emphasis in original.
66 Lytton, The Caxtons, XII, 6.
67 Bright’s speech at Manchester, The Times, 11 Dec. 1858; Lytton to Gladstone, 11 Dec. 1858, Add. Mss. 44241, BL. Lytton argued the benefit of establishing orders to recognise colonists (esp. in Australia) and men of science and letters. Lytton to Derby, 21 Aug. 1858, 162/1, 14 Derby. For introduction of ‘responsible government’ and the fate of quasi-aristocracy in Australia, see Hirst, Strange Birth; Hirst, ‘Egalitarianism’; Martin, Bunyip Aristocracy; de Serville, Pounds and Pedigrees (a magisterial study).
68 Lytton, A Strange Story, LXX.
69 Ibid., XLV.
70 Ibid., LXV.
71 Ibid., LXXIII.
72 Ibid., LXXI; de Strzelecki, Physical Description.
73 Lytton, A Strange Story, LXX, LXXIV.
74 Lytton, The Caxtons, XIII, 4.
75 Lytton, ‘The Political Sermon of Parson Dale’, My Novel, II, 12; Zanoni, II, 7, VII, 16.
76 Lytton to Derby, 15 July 1867, 162/1a, 14 Derby; Morley, Gladstone, vol. 1, 1000–03; Vincent, Disraeli, Derby: Stanley Diaries, 20 May 1870, 59; Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, vol. 2, 448; Clarke, ‘Victorian Crises’; Knox, ‘Imperial Consequences’.
77 See Jennifer Judge’s careful treatment of this as a Menippean satire. Judge, ‘The “Seamy Side”’.
78 Lytton, The Coming Race, XXVI.
79 Ibid., XXVI; cf. The Caxtons, IV, 2.
80 See Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, chs 2, 3.
81 Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, vol. 2, 468.
82 Lytton, The Coming Race, XV.
83 Ibid., XV, XXVI.
84 Ibid., XIX. Lytton elsewhere mentions Algernon Sidney with reverence (esp., ‘the martyr of liberty’ associated with an ‘aristocratic commonwealth’, Alice, VI, 5). David Seed (xv, n.) and Peter Sinnema (ch. 19, n.) in their excellent editions of The Coming Race, assume the reference is to Sir Philip Sidney, author of Arcadia. Lytton’s own reference to Sir Philip Sidney in XXVII is quite different.
85 Lytton, The Coming Race, XV, XVIII.
86 Ibid., XVIII.
87 Ibid., VII.
88 Ibid., I, XVIII.
89 Ibid., XXII, XXVIII.
90 Ibid., VII.
91 Ibid., XV.
92 Ibid., XXVI.
93 See Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, 229; David Seed’s ‘Darwinian themes’, Introduction to The Coming Race, xxii–xxviii; also, Peter Sinnema’s Introduction to the Broadview edition. Cf. Judge, ‘The “Seamy Side”’; Mitchell, Bulwer Lytton, 230.
94 Nayder, ‘Lytton and Imperial Gothic’; Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness, ch. 8. See speeches prepared but not delivered, 4 March 1862, 7 March 1870, Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 2, nos. 42, 47; Leeds speech, 1854, Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, no. 14; memorandum, 30 Nov 1858 (on Gold Coast), CO 96/44, 139–45, TNA; minute Feb 1859 (on Sarawak), FO 12/35, 117–29, TNA; minute 25 May 1859 (on Fiji), CO 325/48, TNA. Cf. the questionable assertion that Lytton advocated ‘aggressively expansionist policies’. Sinnema, Domesticating Bulwer-Lytton's ‘Colonial' Fiction, 159; Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness, 28; Nayder, ‘Lytton and Imperial Gothic’, 214.
95 Lytton, Life of Edward Bulwer, vol. 2, 462–69.
96 Cf. ‘the backwoodsman’ in [Merivale], ‘Lyell’s Travels in North America’, 129–49, at 135–36. See The Examiner, 3305, 3 June 1871, 560–61.
97 E.g. Anon., ‘New South Wales and Tasmania’; Sir H. Barkly (Victoria) to H. Labouchere, recd. 25 Sept. 1857, CO 309/42, 564–70, TNA; Anon., ‘New Zealand’; T. F. Elliot (assistant under-secretary) on Canada’s Indians, 12 May 1858, CO 42/613, 477–79, TNA; minutes on NSW despatch, 7–12 Jan. 1859, CO 201/503, 297–304, TNA; Hansard 151, cols 1110–11 (J. A. Roebuck, 8 July 1858). Cf. F.W. Chesson (Aborigines Protection Society) to Lytton, 12 Aug. 1858 (minutes), CO 6/26, 295–8, TNA. Cf. Reynolds, Forgotten War, 139–48; Attwood, ‘Law, History and Power’; Evans, History of Queensland, 70–75; Shaw, History of Port Phillip District, ch. 7. For Rogers, Aug. 1866, see CO 305/23, 386, TNA.
98 Lytton, The Caxtons, IV, 2.
99 Lytton, The Coming Race, VII, XXVI.
100 See, e.g., letter of a clergyman about to go to BC: ‘marriages with the native women, [are] very well in [their] way but not calculated to raise the future population of the Colony physically or morally, as we must all allow’, encl. in Bishop of London to Lord Carnarvon, 15 March 1859, Add. Mss. 60839, 110–15; A. Blackwood to Carnarvon (memorandum), 16 March 1859, Add. Mss. 60782, 122–23, BL. The wife of James Douglas, first governor of British Columbia was however an Indian.
101 Extract from the Aborigines Committee (the Buxton Committee) report in Bell and Morrell, Selected Documents, 545–52. See News from NSW, The Times, 18 Feb. 1842.
102 Lytton, Alice, VI, 5.
103 Lytton, Zanoni, VII, 14.
104 I have been unable to identify ‘Stephen Montague’, quoted also in others of Lytton’s novels.
105 Disraeli in House of Commons, 25 July 1856, Monypenny and Buckle, Life of Disraeli, vol. 4, 50–51; [Senior], ‘The Oregon Question’, 238–65. Cf., Attwood, ‘Law, History and Power’.
106 Legal Adviser (Sir F. Rogers) report on South Australian legislation, 19 April 1859, CO 323/89, 242, TNA.
107 Lt.-gov Scott (Natal) to Stanley, 2 June 1858, recd 31 July, with minutes and draft, 25 Aug., CO 179/49, 505–16ff., TNA; minutes, 13 Aug. 1858, CO 48/389, 203, 204–10, 208–9, TNA; 23 Oct. 1858, CO 209/145, 478–96, TNA. See Wilson and Thompson, Oxford History of South Africa, vol. 1, ch. 8, esp. 373–90 (Natal); Belich, The New Zealand Wars.
108 Draft despatch, Lytton to Governor Douglas (instructions), with amendment by Lord Carnarvon, 31 July 1858, CO 60/1, 190–201, TNA; Lytton to Col. Moody (instructions for Royal Engineers in BC), 29 Oct. 1858, CO 60/3, 388–410, TNA; Hansard 151, cols 1814–15 (8 July 1858).
109 Report of massacre, encl in Denison to Lytton, 13 Sept. 1858, CO 201/503, 297–304, TNA; F. W. Chesson (APS) to Lord Carnarvon, with enclosures, 12 Jan. 1859, with minutes, CO 201/511, 320–26, TNA. Cf. Evans, History of Queensland, 74–75; Reynolds, Forgotten War, ch. 2, esp. 73–74, 93; Reynolds, Frontier, 47–48.
110 4 Feb. 1867, CO 234/16, 317–20, TNA.
111 A Strange Story LXXXVII.
112 See later opinion: Lord Blachford to Henry Taylor, 20 Jan. 1885, Marindin, Letters of Lord Blachford, 426; The Queen to Lord Carnarvon, 24, 28 Dec 1874, Add. Mss. 60792, 10–13, BL; Carnarvon’s draft reply, ‘on coloured subjects of the Queen’, 1 Feb 1875, Add. Mss. 60811, 25–31, BL. See also imminent disappearance of Aborigines in Victoria predicted: Sir H. Barkly to Secretary of State Labouchere, 21 July 1857, CO 309/42, 564–84, TNA.
113 Merivale, Colonization and Colonies (1861 edn), 487–89; McNab, ‘Herman Merivale and the Native Question’; Merivale, Lytton, minutes on APS to Lytton, 12 Aug. 1858, CO 6/26, 295–8, TNA; Merivale minute, 8 Jan. 1859, on NSW despatch, CO 201/503, 297–304, TNA. See also Beasley, Mid-Victorian Imperialists, ch. 3; Merivale, ‘Utility of Colonies’.
114 Leeds speech 1854, Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 1, 175–76; editorial, The Times, 20 Sept. 1858; speech at Herts Agricultural Society, 30 Sept. 1846, The Times, 2 Oct. 1846. Cf. Briggs, The Age of Improvement.
115 Outline of speech for 18 July 1870, Lytton, Speeches and Political Writings, vol. 2, 379. There is no reason to suppose that Lytton referred to any but the existing continental spaces of North America and Australia, since East Africa (for instance) was not yet on the horizon.
116. Cf.,Christensen, ‘Writing and Unwriting’.