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Elites and Decolonization in the Twentieth Century 1st
Edition Jost Dülffer Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Jost Dülffer, Marc Frey (eds.)
ISBN(s): 9781349318575, 1349318574
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 17.26 MB
Year: 2011
Language: english
Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series
General Editors: Megan Vaughan, Kings' College, Cambridge and Richard
Drayton, King's College, London
This informative series covers the broad span of modern imperial history while
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during recent centuries.
Titles include:
Sunil S. Amrith
DECOLONIZING INTERNATIONAL HEALTH
India and Southeast Asia, 1930-65
Tony Ballantyne
ORIENTALISM AND RACE
Aryanism in the British Empire
Robert J. Blyth
THE EMPIRE OF THE RAJ
Eastern Africa and the Middle East, 1858-1947
Roy Bridges (editor)
IMPERIALISM, DECOLONIZATION AND AFRICA
Studies Presented to John Hargreaves
L. J. Butler
COPPER EMPIRE
Mining and the Colonial State in Northern Rhodesia, c.1930-64
Hilary M. Carey (editor)
EMPIRES OF RELIGION
Nandini Chatterjee
THE MAKING OF INDIAN SECULARISM
Empire, Law and Christianity, 1830-1960
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IMAGINED COMMONWEALTH
Cambridge Essays on Commonwealth and International Literature in English
Michael S. Dodson
ORIENTALISM, EMPIRE AND NATIONAL CULTURE
India, 1770-1880
Ulrike Hillemann
ASIAN EMPIRE AND BRITISH KNOWLEDGE
China and the Networks of British Imperial Expansion
B. D. Hopkins
THE MAKING OF MODERN AFGHANISTAN
Ronald Hyam
BRITAIN'S IMPERIAL CENTURY, 1815-1914
A Study of Empire and Expansion
Third Edition
Iftekhar Iqbal
THE BENGAL DELTA
Ecology, State and Social Change, 1843-1943
Brian Ireland
THE US MILITARY IN HAWAI'I
Colonialism, Memory and Resistance
Robin Jeffrey
POLITICS, WOMEN AND WELL-BEING
How Kerala became a 'Model'
Gerold Krozewski
MONEY AND THE END OF EMPIRE
British International Economic Policy and the Colonies, 1947-58
Sloan Mahone and Megan Vaughan (editors)
PSYCHIATRY AND EMPIRE
Javed Majeed
AUTOBIOGRAPHY, TRAVEL AND POST-NATIONAL IDENTITY
Francine McKenzie
REDEFINING THE BONDS OF COMMONWEALTH 1939-1948
The Politics of Preference
Gabriel Paquette
ENLIGHTENMENT, GOVERNANCE AND REFORM IN SPAIN AND ITS EMPIRE
1759-1808
Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre
IRISH AND INDIAN
The Cosmopolitan Politics of Alfred Webb
Ricardo Roque
HEADHUNTING AND COLONIALISM
Anthropology and the Circulation of Human Skulls in the Portuguese Empire,
1870-1930
Michael Silvestri
IRELAND AND INDIA
Nationalism, Empire and Memory
John Singleton and Paul Robertson
ECONOMIC RELATIONS BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AUSTRALASIA 1945-1970
Aparna Vaidik
IMPERIAL ANDAMANS
Colonial Encounter and Island History
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THUGGEE
Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India
Jon E. Wilson
THE DOMINATION OF STRANGERS
Modern Governance in Eastern India, 1780-1835

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Elites and Decolonization
in the Twentieth Century
Edited by

Jost Dülffer
Professor ofInternational History, University of Cologne, Germany
and
Marc Frey
Helmut Schmidt Chair ofInternational History, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany

palgrave
macmillan
*
Editorial matter, selection and introduction © jost DOlffer and Marc Frey 2011
All remaining chapters © their respective authors 2011
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Elites and decolonization in the twentieth century I [edited by] jost DOlffer
and Marc Frey.
p.cm.
Includes index.
1. Decolonization-History-20th century. 2. Elite (Social sciences)-
History-20th century. I. Diilffer, Jost, 1943- II. Frey, Marc, 1963-
111. Title.
JV151.E45 2011
325'.30904-dc22 2011003950
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents

List of Tables vii

Acknowledgments viii
List of Abbreviations ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Jost Diilffer and Marc Frey
1 Intelligence Providers and the Fabric of the Late
Colonial State 11
Martin Thomas
2 Elites and the Construction of the Nation
in Southeast Asia 36
Paul H. Kratoska
3 Dutch Elites and Decolonization 56
Marc Frey
4 Emerging Business Elites in Newly Independent
Indonesia 74
f. Thomas Lindblad
5 Elites as the Least Common Denominator: The
Ambivalent Place of French Schools in Lebanon in the
Process of Decolonization 94
Esther Moller
6 Alternatives to Nationalism in French Africa, 1945-60 110
Frederick Cooper
7 Verwoerdian Apartheid and African Political Elites in
South Africa, 1950-68 138
Christoph Marx
8 Chieftaincies and Chiefs in Northern Namibia:
Intermediaries of Power between Traditionalism,
Modernization, and Democratization 157
Michael Bollig
9 Nehru - the Dilemmas of a Colonial Inheritance 177
Judith M. Brown
v
vi Contents

10 A "Frontal Attack on Irrational Elements": Sekou Toure

and the Management of Elites in Guinea 195
Mairi S. MacDonald
11 julius Nyerere, Tanzanian Elites, and the Project
of African Socialism 216
Andreas Eckert
12 The United States, Decolonization, and the Education
of Third World Elites 241
Corinna R. Unger
13 Building a Socialist Elite? - Khrushchev's Soviet
Union and Elite Formation in India 262
Andreas Hilger
Index 287
List of Tables

13.1 Students from the Third World in Comecon

countries, 1963-6 266
13.2 Students from the Third World in Comecon countries,
by field of study, 1 Jan 1965 267
13.3 Third World and Indian students in the USSR,
1956-66, 1978 274
13.4 Foreign students at the Peoples' University Moscow,
1960-66 274

vii
Acknowledgments

The chapters in this volume are based on a conference held at the

University of Cologne in October 2008. We gratefully acknowledge the
financial support of the German Historical Institutes in Washington,
DC, London, and Paris; the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Cologne; the
Association of Friends and Supporters of the University of Cologne; and
the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Bonn. Contributors and editors prof-
ited from discussions among each other and with Elizabeth Buettner,
Ousseynou Faye, Andreas Gestrich, Anja Kruke, Sonke Kunkel, Stephan
Malinowski, Daniel Maul, Daniel Mollenhauer, Sue Onslow, Manjeet
S. Pardesi, Dietmar Rothermund, Indra Sengupta, Benedikt Stuchtey,
Hugues Tertrais, Urban Vahsen, Jakob Vogel, and Nicholas White. We
also thank Eva Helm, Annette Karpp, Maximilian Ruland, Simone
Schulz, and Anna Sperlich for their support. Finally, our thanks go to
Leah Murphy, Elisabeth Stevens, Ivan Simic, and Noah Turner of jacobs
University Bremen who assisted in the preparation of this volume.

viii
List of Abbreviations

AB Archives of the Afrikaner Broederbond

AIU Archives of the Alliance israelite universelle, Paris
AN Archives Nationales, Paris
ANC African National Congress
ANC Assemblee Nationale Constituante
AML Amis du Manifeste et de la Liberte
ANF Archives Nationales Fran\aises
AOF Afrique occidentale fran\aise
AS Archives du Senegal
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
BAG Bloc Africain de Guinee
BDEEP British Documents on the End of Empire
BNP Basuto National Party
CAOM Centre des archives d'outre-mer
CGT Conseil General du Travail
co Colonial Office
FCB Fabian Colonial Bureau
FEC Archives of the College fran\ais du Sacre-C~ur, Beirut
FO Foreign Office
ICP Indochinese Communist Party
KVP Katholieke Volkspartij
LAZ Archives of the Lazarists Paris
MAE Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, Paris
MCP Malayan Communist Party
MRLA Malayan Races' Liberation Army
NP National Party
OS Organisation Speciale
PAC Pan Africanist Congress
PDG Parti Democratique de la Guinee
PNI Partai Nasional Indonesia
PPA Parti du Peuple Algerien
PRA Parti du Regroupement Africain
RDA Rassemblement Democratique Africain
SHA Service Historique de 1'Armee

ix
x List of Abbreviations

SJA Archives of the school of the scrurs de Saint-Joseph de

1'Apparition, Beirut
SJJ Archives of the Jesuit College de Jamhour
SJV Jesuit Archives, Vanves
SWAPO South West Africa People's Organization
TAA Tanganyika African Association
TANU Tanganyika National African Union
TNA The National Archives, United Kingdom
TNI Tentara Nasional Indonesia
UGTAN Union Generale des travailleurs d' Afrique noire
Notes on Contributors

Michael Bollig is Professor of Ethnology at the University of Cologne

and is currently chairing the Cologne African Studies Centre. His
thematic interests are in economic anthropology, political ecology, and
the anthropology of conflict. His regional focus is East and Southern
Africa. His recent publications include Risk Management in a Hazardous
Environment: A Comparative Study of Two Pastoral Societies (New York:
Springer, 2006), The Practice of War: Production, Reproduction and
Communication of Armed Violence (with A. Rao and M. Bock, Oxford:
Berghahn, 2007), and African Landscapes: Interdisciplinary Approaches
(with 0. Bubenzer, New York: Springer, 2009).
Judith Brown is Beit Professor of Commonwealth History in the
University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College. Before
going to Oxford in 1990 she taught in the Universities of Manchester
and Cambridge. Her main interests lie in the history of modern South
Asia and of the contemporary South Asian Diaspora. Among her most
recent books are Windows into the Past: Life Histories and the Historian of
South Asia (Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), Mahatma
Gandhi: The Essential Writings, new edition, Oxford World's Classics
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), Global South Asians: Introducing
the Modern Diaspora (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006); and
in 2003 she published with Yale University Press Nehru: A Political Life.
Frederick Cooper is Professor of History at New York University. He is the
author of a trilogy of books on labor and society in East Africa and more
recently of Decolonization and African Society: The Labor Question in French
and British Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Africa
Since 1940: The Past of the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002), and Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2005). His book co-authored with Jane
Burbank, Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference is
currently in press, and he is working on the history of citizenship in
France and French West Africa between 1945 and 1960.
]ost Dtilffer is Professor of International History and of Peace and
Conflict Studies in History at the University of Cologne. His main inter-
ests lie in nineteenth- and twentieth-century history of international

xi
xii Notes on Contributors

relations, nineteenth- and twentieth-century German history, and

the history of peace and conflict resolution. In the textbook series
Grundriss der Geschichte he published Europa im Ost-West-Konflikt
1945-1991 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2004). His most recent book publi-
cations include Frieden stiften. Deeskalations- und Friedenspolitik im 20.
Jahrhundert (Cologne: Bohlau, 2008). He has edited numerous volumes,
among them are Western Integration, German Unification and the Cold
War: The Adenauer Era in Perspective (Special Issue of German Politics and
Sodety, vol. 25.2 [2007], New York: Berghahn Books) and Peace, War and
Gender: Cross-Cultural Perspectives from Antiquity to the Present (ed. with
Robert Frank, Essen: Klartext, 2009).
Andreas Eckert is Professor of African History at the Humboldt
University Berlin and director of the International Research Centre "Work
and Human Life Cycle in Global History" of the Humboldt University.
His main research interests lie in African history (nineteenth and twen-
tieth century), the history of colonialism, globalization, and historiogra-
phy. His most recent books include Herrschen und Verwalten. Afrikanische
Biirokraten, staatliche Ordnung und Politik in Tansania, 1920-1970 (Munich:
Oldenbourg, 2007) and Kolonialismus (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer
Taschenbuch Verlag, 2006). He has edited a number of volumes, the most
recent being Vom Imperialismus zum Empire - Nicht-westliche Perspektiven
auf die Globalisierung (Frankfurt am Main: Edition Suhrkamp, 2009).
Marc Frey is Helmut Schmidt Chair of International History at jacobs
University Bremen. Before going to Bremen in 2006 he taught at
the Universities of Bonn, Miinster, and Cologne. His main interests
lie in the history of late colonialism and decolonization and in the
history of development cooperation. His more recent publications
include The Transformation of Southeast Asia: International Perspectives on
Decolonization (with Ronald W. Pruessen and Tan Tai Yong, Armonk, NY,
and London: M. E. Sharpe, 2003, and Singapore: Singapore University
Press, 2004), Dekolonisierung in Siidostasien. Die Vereinigten Staaten und die
Auflosung der europiiischen Kolonialreiche (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2006), and
"Decolonization and Dutch-American Relations" in Hans Krabbendam,
Cornelis A. Van Minnen, Giles Scott-Smith (eds.), Four Centuries of
Dutch-American Relations 1609-2009 (Amsterdam: Boom; Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2009): 609-20.
Andreas Hilger is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Helmut Schmidt University
of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg. His interests lie in the his-
tory of international relations, German-Soviet relations, and East-South
 Notes on Contributors xiii

relations during the twentieth century. He is currently completing a

book on Soviet relations with India and Pakistan during the Cold War
era. His publications include Deutsche Kriegsgefangene in der Sowjetunion,
1941-1956. Kriegsgefangenenpolitik, Lageralltag und Erinnerung (Essen:
Klartext, 2000) and, as editor, Die Sowjetunion und die Dritte Welt. UdSSR,
Staatssozialismus und Antikolonialismus im Kalten Krieg, 1945-1991
(Munich: Oldenbourg, 2009).
Paul H. Kratoska is Managing Director of NUS Press at the National
University of Singapore. He is a former editor of the Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies, a regional editor of the International Journal ofAsian Studies,
and a member of Council of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society. His research interests include academic publishing, the history
of food and nutrition in Asia, the Japanese Occupation of Southeast
Asia, and the presentation of Asian history in school textbooks. His more
recent publications include The Japanese Occupation of Malaya: A Social
and Economic History (London: C. Hurst, 1998. Japanese translation,
Tokyo: Kojinsha Publishers, 2005); "The Southeast Asian Rice Trade and
Its Ramifications, 1850-1950" in Food and Globalization, eds. Alexander
Nuetzenadel and Frank Trentmann (Oxford: Berg, 2008); and, as editor,
Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe,
2005) and The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Documents and
Selected Writings (London and New York: Routledge, 2005, six volumes).
J. Thomas Lindblad studied political science and economics at
Columbia University and the University of Amsterdam and received
his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 1982. Since 1975, he
has been affiliated with Leiden University, since 1987 as Associate
Professor in Economic History and since 1999 as Associate Professor
of Indonesian History. He has been a visiting fellow at the Hankuk
University of Foreign Study in Seoul, the University of Nagoya, and the
Australian National University in Canberra. Major publications include
Between Dayak and Dutch; The Economic History of Southeast Kaliamantan,
1880-1942 (Dordrecht/Providence: Foris, 1988), Foreign Investment in
Southeast Asia in the Twentieth Century (London: Macmillan, 1998),
The Emergence of a National Economy; An Economic History of Indonesia,
1800-2000 (with Howard Dick, Vincent Houben and Thee Kian Wie;
Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2002), and Bridges to New Business;
The Economic Decolonization of Indonesia (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2008).
Mairi S. MacDonald completed her PhD in history at the University of
Toronto in 2009. Her thesis, "The Challenge of Guinean Independence,
xiv Notes on Contributors

1958-1971," considered the impact of sekou Toure's interpretation of

Guinean sovereignty upon evolving international norms concerning
African states. She worked as a lawyer and consultant for a number of
years before returning to academic life, and remains interested in inter-
national development, law, and regulation.
Christoph Marx is Professor of Non-European History at the University
of Duisburg Essen. He is an editor of the journal Periplus: Jahrbuch fUr
Au~ereuropiiische Geschichte and member of the editorial board of the
journal Politikon. His main research interests are the history of apart-
heid in South Africa, the colonial history of Africa, and comparative
approaches to the history of the frontier and to the history of Christian
missionaries. Major publications include Oxwagon Sentinel. Radical
Afrikaner Nationalism and the History of the Ossewabrandwag (Munster:
Ut; Pretoria: Unisa Press, University of South Africa, 2008), Pelze, Gold
und Weihwasser. Handel und Mission in Afrika und Amerika (Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2008), and Geschichte Afrikas, von
1800 bis zur Gegenwart (Paderborn: Schoningh, 2004).
Esther Moeller received her PhD from jacobs University Bremen
for her study on Spaces of Civilizing Mission? The French Schools in
Lebanon 1909-1943. She has received a number of scholarships,
among them a research grant from the German Historical Institute,
Paris, and the German Orient Institute, Beirut. She is currently a
research fellow at the Institute for European History at the University
of Mainz. She has published a number of articles and book chapters,
among them "Die Verhandlung der Dekolonisierung im I<lassenraum:
franzosisch-libanesische Interaktion wahrend der Mandatszeit
1920-1943," Comparativ 21 (4) (2009): 112-28, and "Clientelisme, con-
currence ou cooperation? Les ecoles de la Mission lai'que fran~aise face
aux ecoles Israelites au Liban entre 1909 et 1943," in Jerome Bocquet
(ed.) Judalsme, ecole et mission en Mediterranee al'heure coloniale (de 1880
aux annees 1960) (Rennes: Presses Universitaires, forthcoming).
Martin Thomas is Professor of Colonial History at the University of
Exeter. He has written extensively on the French colonial empire and
decolonization. His most recent book is Empires of Intelligence: Security
Services and Colonial Disorder after 1914, published by the University
of California Press in 2007. He also edited European Decolonization
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007). He was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Major
Research Fellowship in 2009 to work on a comparative study of colonial
 Notes on Contributors xv

policing in the twentieth century to be published with Cambridge

University Press.
Corinna R. Unger is Professor of European History at Jacobs University
Bremen. She received her PhD in history from the University of Freiburg,
Germany. Her publications include Ostforschung in Westdeutschland: Die
Erforschung des europa ischen Ostens und die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinscha(t,
1945-1975 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007) and Reise ohne
Wiederkehr? Leben im Exil, 1933-1945 (Darmstadt: Primus Verlag, 2009).
Currently she is working on a project entitled Modernization in Theory
and Practice: American and German Aid to India, 1947-1980. She has
published numerous articles on development aid and modernization
and has co-edited issues of Diplomatic History and the Journal of Modem
European History on those topics.
Introduction
Jost Dülffer and Marc Frey

The dissolution of European empires and the formation of independent

states in Africa and Asia is one of the most important historical proc-
esses of the twentieth century. Decolonization changed the spatial order
of the globe, the imagination of men and women around the world and
the established images of the globe. In South and Southeast Asia, almost
all colonial territories achieved independence within the short time of
one decade. In most of Africa, this process was even shorter. From the
late 1950s until the early 1960s, more than 40 states emerged. However,
the territories of Lusophone Africa, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and
Namibia were not swept by the "winds of change" (Harold Macmillan)
and the tide of history, only to become independent or free from the
chains of apartheid and racial suppression in the 1970s and 1990s,
respectively.
But what is "decolonization"? As both term and concept it has many
meanings, and its origin dates back to the interwar period. This was
a time when nationalism in the "global South" was on the rise and
when colonial regimes, though expanding, came under pressure from
both nationalists in the "global South" and critics of colonialism in the
metropoles. From a legal perspective, decolonization denotes a trans-
fer of sovereignty, whereby the authority over a territory passes from
a foreign, culturally different regime, to indigenous groups who take
over the government under the banner of national self-determination.
But decolonization is more than just a sequence of political events
and a change of status in terms of international law. Decolonization,
as John Darwin and others suggest, not only means the devolution of
sovereignty but also the dissolution of a "global colonial order," which,
since the second half of the nineteenth century, had characterized
relations between European powers and much of the non-European
1
2 Introduction

world. 1 Colonialism meant asymmetrical relations in military, politi-

cal, economic, and cultural terms. These were reinforced by structural
dependencies, racisms, civilizing missions, and cultural arrogance.
Decolonization thus refers to a multifaceted process of the dissolution
of old, colonial, structures, institutions, and ideas, and the development
of new ones over an extended period of time. It can best be described as
a transformative process operating in almost all spheres of life and on
all levels of society.
The field of decolonization studies has undergone significant changes
in recent years. As new approaches have proliferated and research inter-
ests have expanded, it has become one of the most vibrant fields of his-
torical inquiry- always in flux and constantly yielding new perspectives
and surprising insights. It is sufficient here to name but a few of the
fascinating trends visible in contemporary decolonization studies: the
fruitful integration of "orientalist" as well as postmodern approaches
into political, social, economic, and cultural history; the appropria-
tion of "subaltern" perspectives by imperial historians; and a general
understanding of the importance to conceive of decolonization as not
simply a transfer of power. 2 Last but not least, studies of decolonization
are beginning to regard this transformation as not just a phenomenon
pertinent to African and Asian societies. It is now taken as a process
which also affected European societies, in terms of international rela-
tions, domestic politics, identity, and social relations. 3
A key to understanding the transition from the colonial to the post-
colonial is agency. Individuals and social groups shaped decolonization.
Actors struggled and fought for independence, others tried to retard or
suppress it, while still others simply tried to accommodate to the fun-
damental changes in the political, economic, social, and cultural realms
as best as possible. This volume puts agency squarely at the center of
debate. More specifically, the chapters in this volume look at elites,
leaders, and social groups who changed the course of history. Elites are
conceptualized here as social groups who command certain resources in
a given social entity. These can be political support, economic power, or
symbolic resources such as communication or knowledge. 4 Elites were
vital in mediating and driving the complex processes which ultimately
led to decolonization. At the same time there were also elite groups who
lost influence and power or who were deprived of old privileges while
others had to re-invent themselves in new surroundings. Whatever the
fate of these elites, they were instrumental to the decolonization pro-
cess: they were actors who made decolonization possible, even if some
were used as European instruments to "organize" independence in ways
 Jost Dillffer and Marc Frey 3

conducive to European interests. Given the diversity of elite groups

and their actions within different settings and regions, it is difficult to
suggest a clear-cut classification. However, for conceptual purposes, the
following ideas are suggested.
Indigenous elites in colonial contexts emerged in the context of a
complex interplay of conflicting promises and constraints of the colo-
nial project. They were confronted with ambivalences, contradictions,
and paradoxes in the field of governance, the economy, education,
religion, and social organization. Over time, the so-called civilizing
missions of the colonial powers came to be exposed as self-serving
ideologies which de-legitimized, rather than consolidated, imperial
rule. 5 Co-opted traditional elites, whose social background was usually
grounded in regional hierarchies, competed for influence with newly
emerging anti-colonialist elites, who were largely Western-educated
and situated within an urban environment. They were anything but a
socially coherent group; however they were usually united in their aim
to achieve independence.
What form independence should take and in which spatial configu-
ration the independent country should materialize was, however, not
so clear. In French Africa, for instance, the debate about future African
states oscillated between smaller units and larger ones. The visions of
West African political elites did not center at all on the compartmen-
talized spatial order that came into being with independence. But in
other parts of Africa, and in most of Asia, nationalist leaders and elites
accepted the spatial order colonialism had imposed. For instance, mod-
ernizers (again, with the exception of French West Africa) responded
perhaps most immediately to the contractions and paradoxes of
colonial rule. Originally politically marginalized and suppressed by
colonial powers, and oftentimes by co-opted indigenous elites as well,
nationalist modernizers came to embody the very contradictions they
addressed: they aimed at a revolution in a political and institutional
sense, thus overcoming European-imposed structures. At the same time
they wanted to create "nation" states in the European sense; that is,
forge states that based their legitimacy on the notion of a unity of cul-
ture and territory. This, in turn, required the re-invention of tradition.
Cultural and historical markers of identification were necessary in order
to broaden the social basis of nationalist modernizers and to mobilize
largely rural populations for the nationalist cause. Strangely enough,
nationalist modernizers rarely opted for a social revolution as well.
Ethnic nationalists, usually active alongside or in opposition to
nationalist modernizers, frequently opted for the "return" to an imagined
4 Introduction

past. While nationalist modernizers were overwhelmingly in favor of

a strong, centralized state, ethnic nationalists were federalists. Some
envisioned the creation of states based on notions of common ethnic-
ity, language or culture. Everywhere in Asia and Africa, they remained
unsuccessful, because they were not able to overcome the contradiction
between an "imagined tradition" and the realities of spatial and politi-
cal units created by the colonial state.
Finally, there were the traditional elite or various groups of the nobil-
ity who had been designated as traditional elites by the colonial powers.
Traditional elites wielded great influence in the late colonial period and
during decolonization. This often overlooked influence was, however,
attacked from two angles. While colonial powers grudgingly realized
that they had bet on the wrong horse, nationalist modernizers were
able to identify the nobility as collaborators, thus eroding, sooner or
later, their power base - their close connection with rural populations.
Nevertheless, the fact that social revolutions did not occur testifies in
many locales and settings to the continuing influence of the nobility
as representatives and legitimizing groups of national discourses. Quite
often, they continued to serve as symbols of "invented traditions," and
thus facilitated the construction of modern states and societies. Their
importance as providers of spiritual security in a time of revolutionary
political change was likewise considerable.
Not everywhere, but throughout most of the colonial world eco-
nomic elites had been either of European descent or diaspora groups:
Chinese in Southeast Asia, Indians in East Africa, Greeks and mer-
chants from the Levant in West Central Africa. Diaspora economic
elites were usually merchants. They were not owners of the means of
production. Ethnic and functional dispositions posed dual challenges
for economic elites and nationalist elites: would economic elites be
loyal to the nationalist cause? How did they envision their future in
postcolonial states? And did newly independent states pose restrictions
on economic elites?
A central feature of colonialism was the imposition of foreign rule.
Foreign functional elites took over government control, either by force
and conquest or by negotiations and unequal treaties. During decolo-
nization, these functional elites, mostly of European descent, found
themselves in positions where they were no longer needed. Neither
nationalist modernizers nor, on the whole, European societies needed
the expertise and the manpower of these elites any more. They became,
with very few exceptions, redundant. Migration was in most cases the
only option available, and indeed happened in numerous cases.
Other documents randomly have
different content
to take him into custody, as he wished to return and stand his trial.
The messenger replied, that he could not possibly take charge of
him, but advised him to signify his intention to the Secretary of
State, and offered to carry his letter to the office. Wall was still very
solicitous to go, though the sea was at that time so tempestuous
that the ordinary packets did not venture out; and the messenger,
whose dispatches would not admit of delay, had hired a vessel for
himself: finding, however, that this could not be, he wrote as had
been suggested; but when he came to subscribe his name, his heart
failed him, his countenance became pale and livid, and in an agony
of fear or of conscience he threw down the pen and rushed out of
the room. The messenger put to sea; the vessel was wrecked in
clearing out of the harbour, and not a soul on board escaped.
This extraordinary story has been confidently related with every
circumstantial evidence; yet it seems to imply a consciousness of
guilt, and a feeling of remorse, noways according with his after
conduct. He came over to England about twelve months ago, and
lived in London under a fictitious name: here also a circumstance
look place which touched him to the heart. Some masons were
employed about his house, and he took notice to one of them that
the lad who worked with him appeared very sickly and delicate, and
unfit for so laborious an employment. The man confessed that it was
true, but said that he had no other means of supporting him, and
that the poor lad had no other friend in the world, “For his father
and mother,” said he, “are dead, and his only brother was flogged to
death at Goree, by that barbarous villain Governor Wall.”
It has never been ascertained what were his motives for
surrendering himself; the most probable cause which can be
assigned is, that some property had devolved to him, of which he
stood greatly in need, but which he could not claim till his outlawry
had been reversed. He therefore voluntarily gave himself up, and
was brought to trial. One of the persons whom he had summoned to
give evidence in his favour dropped down dead on the way to the
court; it was, however, known that his testimony would have borne
against him. Witnesses appeared from the remotest parts of the
island whom he had supposed dead. One man who had suffered
under his barbarity and recovered, had been hanged for robbery but
six months before, and expressed his regret at going to the gallows
before Governor Wall, as the thing which most grieved him, “For,”
said he, “I know he will come to the gallows at last.”
The question turned upon the point of law, whether the fact, for
that was admitted, was to be considered as an execution, or as a
murder. The evidence of a woman who appeared in his behalf, was
that which weighed most heavily against him: his attempt to prove
that a mutiny actually existed failed; and the jury pronounced him
guilty. For this he was utterly unprepared; and, when he heard the
verdict, clasped his hands in astonishment and agony. The Bench, as
it is called, had no doubt whatever of his guilt, but they certainly
thought it doubtful how the jury might decide; and as the case was
so singular, after passing sentence in the customary form, they
respited him, that the circumstances might be more fully considered.
The Governor was well connected, and had powerful friends: it is
said also, that as the case turned upon a question of discipline,
some persons high in the military department exerted themselves
warmly in his favour. The length of time which had elapsed was no
palliation, and it was of consequence that it should not be
considered as such; but his self-surrender, it was urged, evidently
implied that he believed himself justifiable in what he had done. On
the other hand, the circumstances which had appeared on the trial
were of the most aggravating nature; they had been detailed in all
the newspapers, and women were selling the account about the
streets at a half-penny each, vociferating aloud the most shocking
parts, the better to attract notice. Various editions of the trial at
length were published; and the publishers, most unpardonably, while
the question of his life or death was still under the consideration of
the privy council, stuck up their large notices all over the walls of
London, with prints of the transaction, and “Cut his liver out,” the
expression which he had used to the executioner, written in large
letters above. The popular indignation had never before been so
excited. On the days appointed for his execution (for he was
repeatedly respited) all the streets leading to the prison were
crowded by soldiers and sailors chiefly, every one of whom felt it as
his own personal cause: and as the execution of the mutineers in
the fleet was so recent, in which so little mercy had been shown, a
feeling very generally prevailed among the lower classes, that this
case was to decide whether or not there was law for the rich as well
as for the poor. The deliberations of the privy council continued for
so many days that it was evident great efforts were made to save his
life; but there can be little doubt, that had these efforts succeeded,
either a riot would have ensued, or a more dangerous and deeply-
founded spirit of disaffection would have gone through the people.
Wall, meantime, was lying in the dungeon appointed for persons
condemned to death, where, in strict observance of the letter of the
law, he was allowed no other food than bread and water. Whether
he felt compunction may be doubted:—we easily deceive ourselves:
—form only was wanting to have rendered that a legal punishment
which was now called murder, and he may have regarded himself as
a disciplinarian, not a criminal; but as his hopes of pardon failed him,
he was known to sit up in his bed during the greater part of the
night, singing psalms. His offence was indeed heavy, but never did
human being suffer more heavily! The dread of death, the sense of
the popular hatred, for it was feared that the mob might prevent his
execution and pull him to pieces; and the tormenting reflection that
his own vain confidence had been the cause,—that he had
voluntarily placed himself in this dreadful situation,—these formed a
punishment sufficient, even if remorse were not superadded.
On the morning of his execution, the mob, as usual, assembled in
prodigious numbers, filling the whole space before the prison, and
all the wide avenues from whence the spot could be seen. Having
repeatedly been disappointed of their revenge, they were still
apprehensive of another respite, and their joy at seeing him appear
upon the scaffold was so great, that they set up three huzzas,—an
instance of ferocity which had never occurred before. The miserable
man, quite overcome by this, begged the hangman to hasten his
work. When he was turned off they began their huzzas again; but
instead of proceeding to three distinct shouts, as usual, they
stopped at the first. This conduct of the mob has been called
inhuman and disgraceful; for my own part, I cannot but agree with
those who regard it in a very different light. The revengeful joy
which animated them, unchristian as that passion certainly is, and
whatever may have been its excess, was surely founded upon
humanity; and the sudden extinction of that joy, the feeling which at
one moment struck so many thousands, stopped their acclamations
at once, and awed them into a dead silence when they saw the
object of their hatred in the act and agony of death, is surely as
honourable to the popular character as any trait which I have seen
recorded of any people in any age or country.
The body, according to custom, was suspended an hour: during
this time the Irish basket-women who sold fruit under the gallows
were drinking his damnation in mixture of gin and brimstone! The
halter in which he suffered was cut into the smallest pieces possible,
which were sold to the mob at a shilling each. According to the
sentence, the body should have been dissected; it was just opened
as a matter of form, and then given to his relations; for which
indulgence they gave 100l. to one of the public hospitals. One of the
printed trials contains his portrait as taken in the dungeon of the
condemned; if it be true that an artist was actually sent to take his
likeness under such dreadful circumstances, for the purpose of gain,
this is the most disgraceful fact which has taken place during the
whole transaction.
A print has since been published called The Balance of Justice. It
represents the mutineers hanging on one arm of a gallows, and
Governor Wall on the other.
 LETTER X.

Martial Laws of England.—Limited Service advised.—Hints for Military Reform.

The execution of Governor Wall is considered as a great triumph of

justice. Nobody seems to recollect that he has been hanged, not for
having flogged three men to death, but for an informality in the
mode of doing it.—Yet this is the true state of the case. Had he
called a drum-head court-martial, the same sentence might have
been inflicted, and the same consequences have ensued, with
perfect impunity to himself.
The martial laws of England are the most barbarous which at this
day exist in Europe. The offender is sometimes sentenced to receive
a thousand lashes;—a surgeon stands by to feel his pulse during the
execution, and determine how long the flogging can be continued
without killing him. When human nature can sustain no more, he is
remanded to prison; his wound, for from the shoulders to the loins it
leaves him one wound, is dressed, and as soon as it is sufficiently
healed to be laid open again in the same manner, he is brought out
to undergo the remainder of his sentence. And this is repeatedly and
openly practised in a country where they read in their churches, and
in their houses, that Bible, in their own language, which saith, “Forty
stripes may the judge inflict upon the offender, and not exceed.”
All savages are cruel, and nations become humane only as they
become civilized. Half a century ago, the most atrocious
punishments were used in every part of Christendom;—such were
the executions under Pombal in Portugal, the tortures inflicted upon
Damiens in France; and the practice of opening men alive in
England. Our own history is full of shocking examples, but our
manners[8] softened sooner than those of our neighbours. These
barbarities originated in barbarous ages, and are easily accounted
for; but how so cruel a system of martial law, which certainly cannot
be traced back to any distant age of antiquity, could ever have been
established is unaccountable; for when barbarians established
barbarous laws, the soldiers were the only people who were free; in
fact, they were the legislators, and of course would never make laws
to enslave themselves.
8. More truly it might be said, that the Spaniards had no traitors to punish. In
the foreign instances here stated, the judges made their court to the crown
by cruelty;—in our own case, the cruelty was of the law, not of the
individuals. Don Manuel also forgets the Inquisition.—Tr.
Another grievous evil in their military system is, that there is no
limited time of service. Hence arises the difficulty which the English
find in recruiting their armies. The bounty money offered for a
recruit during the war amounted sometimes to as much as twenty
pieces of eight, a sum, burthensome indeed to the nation when paid
to whole regiments, but little enough if it be considered as the price
for which a man sells his liberty for life. There would be no lack of
soldiers were they enlisted for seven years. Half the peasantry in the
country would like to wear a fine coat from the age of eighteen till
five-and-twenty, and to see the world at the king’s expense. At
present, mechanics who have been thrown out of employ by the
war, and run-away apprentices, enlist in their senses, but the far
greater number of recruits enter under the influence of liquor.
It has been inferred, that old Homer lived in an age when morality
was little understood, because he so often observes, that it is not
right to do wrong. Whether or not the same judgement is to be
passed upon the present age of England, posterity will decide;
certain it is that her legislators seem not unfrequently to have
forgotten the commonest truisms both of morals and politics. The
love of a military life is so general, that it may almost be considered
as one of the animal passions; yet such are the martial laws, and
such the military system of England, that this passion seems almost
annihilated in the country. It is true, that during the late war
volunteer companies were raised in every part of the kingdom; but,
in raising these, the whole influence of the landed and moneyed
proprietors was exerted; it was considered as a test of loyalty; and
the greater part of these volunteers consisted of men who had
property at stake, and believed it to be in danger, and of their
dependants; and the very ease with which these companies were
raised, evinces how easy it would be to raise soldiers, if they who
became soldiers were still to be considered as men, and as freemen.
The difficulty would be lessened if men were enlisted for a limited
term of years instead of for life. Yet that this alteration alone is not
sufficient, is proved by the state of their provincial troops, or militia
as they are called. Here the men are bound to a seven-years service,
and are not to be sent out of the kingdom; yet, unexceptionable as
this may appear, the militia is not easily raised, nor without some
degree of oppression. The men are chosen by ballot, and permitted
to serve by substitute, or exempted upon paying a fine. On those
who can afford either, it operates, therefore, as a tax by lottery; the
poor man has no alternative, he must serve, and, in consequence,
the poor man upon whom the lot falls considers himself as ruined:
and ruined he is; for, upon the happiest termination of his term of
service, if he return to his former place of abode, still willing, and
still able, to resume his former occupation, he finds his place in
society filled up. But seven years of military idleness usually
incapacitate him for any other trade, and he who has once been a
soldier is commonly for ever after unfit for every thing else.
The evil consequences of the idle hours which hang upon the
soldiers’ hands are sufficiently understood, and their dress seems to
have been made as liable to dirt as possible, that as much time as
possible may be employed in cleaning it. This is one cause of the
contempt which the sailors feel for them, who say that soldiers have
nothing to do but to whiten their breeches with pipe-clay, and to
make strumpets for the use of the navy. Would it not be well to
follow the example of the Romans, and employ them in public
works? This was done in Scotland, where they have cut roads
through the wildest part of the country; and it is said that the
soldiery in Ireland are now to be employed in the same manner. In
England, where no such labour is necessary, they might be occupied
in digging canals, or more permanently in bringing the waste[9] lands
into cultivation, which might the more conveniently be effected, as it
is becoming the system to lodge the troops in barracks apart from
the people, instead of quartering them in the towns. Military villages
might be built in place of these huge and ugly buildings, and at far
less expense; the adjoining lands cultivated by the men, who should,
in consequence, receive higher pay, and the produce be
appropriated to the military chest. Each hut should have its garden,
which the tenant should cultivate for his own private amusement or
profit. Under such a system the soldier might rear a family in time of
peace, the wives of the soldiery would be neither less domestic nor
less estimable than other women in their own rank of life, and the
infants, who now die in a proportion which it is shocking to think of,
would have the common chance for life.
9. In this and what follows, the author seems to be suggesting improvements
for his own country, and to mean Spain when he speaks of England.—Tr.
But the sure and certain way to secure any nation for ever from
alarm, as well as from danger, is to train every school-boy to the use
of arms: boys would desire no better amusement, and thus, in the
course of the next generation, every man would be a soldier.
England might then defy, not France alone, but the whole continent
leagued with France, even if the impassable gulph between this
happy island and its enemy were filled up. This will be done sooner
or later, for England must become an armed nation. How long it will
be before her legislators will discover this, and how long when they
have discovered it, before they will dare to act upon it, that is,
before they will consent to part with the power of alarming the
people, which they have found so convenient, it would be idle to
conjecture. Individuals profit slowly by experience, associations still
more slowly, and governments the most slowly of all associated
bodies.
 LETTER XI.

Shopmen, why preferred to Women in England.—Division of London into the East

and West Ends.—Low State of domestic Architecture.—Burlington-House.

I have employed this morning in wandering about this huge

metropolis with an English gentleman, well acquainted with the
manners and customs of foreign countries, and therefore well
qualified to point out to me what is peculiar in his own. Of the
imposing splendour of the shops I have already spoken; but I have
not told you that the finest gentlemen to be seen in the streets of
London are the men who serve at the linen-drapers’ and mercers’.
Early in the morning they are drest cap-a-pied, the hair feathered
and frosted with a delicacy which no hat is to derange through the
day; and as this is a leisure time with them, they are to be seen
after breakfast at their respective shop-doors, paring their nails, and
adjusting their cravats. That so many young men should be
employed in London to recommend laces and muslins to the ladies,
to assist them in the choice of a gown, to weigh out thread and to
measure ribbons, excited my surprise; but my friend soon explained
the reason. He told me, that in countries where women are the
shopkeepers, shops are only kept for the convenience of the people,
and not for their amusement. Persons there go into a shop because
they want the article which is sold there, and in that case a woman
answers all the purposes which are required; the shops themselves
are mere repositories of goods, and the time of year of little
importance to the receipts. But it is otherwise in London; luxury here
fills every head with caprice, from the servant-maid to the peeress,
and shops are become exhibitions of fashion. In the spring, when all
persons of distinction are in town, the usual morning employment of
the ladies is to go a-shopping, as it is called; that is, to see these
curious exhibitions. This they do without actually wanting to
purchase any thing, and they spend their money or not, according to
the temptations which are held out to gratify and amuse. Now
female shopkeepers, it is said, have not enough patience to indulge
this idle and fastidious curiosity; whereas young men are more
assiduous, more engaging, and not at all querulous about their loss
of time.
It must be confessed, that these exhibitions are very entertaining,
nor is there any thing wanting to set them off to the greatest
advantage. Many of the windows are even glazed with large panes
of plate glass, at a great expense; but this, I am told, is a
refinement of a very late date; indeed glass windows were seldom
used in shops before the present reign, and they who deal in
woollen cloth have not yet universally come into the fashion.
London is more remarkable for the distribution of its inhabitants
than any city on the continent. It is at once the greatest port in the
kingdom, or in the world, a city of merchants and tradesmen, and
the seat of government, where the men of rank and fashion are to
be found; and though all these are united together by continuous
streets, there is an imaginary line of demarkation which divides them
from each other. A nobleman would not be found by any accident to
live in that part which is properly called the City, unless he should be
confined for treason or sedition in Newgate or the Tower. This is the
Eastern side; and I observe, whenever a person says that he lives at
the West End of the Town, there is some degree of consequence
connected with the situation: For instance, my tailor lives at the
West End of the Town, and consequently he is supposed to make my
coat in a better style of fashion: and this opinion is carried so far
among the ladies, that, if a cap was known to come from the City, it
would be given to my lady’s woman, who would give it to the cook,
and she perhaps would think it prudent not to enquire into its
pedigree. A transit from the City to the West End of the Town is the
last step of the successful trader, when he throws off his exuviæ and
emerges from his chrysalis state into the butterfly world of high life.
Here are the Hesperides whither the commercial adventurers repair,
not to gather but to enjoy their golden fruits.
Yet this metropolis of fashion, this capital of the capital itself, has
the most monotonous appearance imaginable.—The streets are
perfectly parallel and uniformly extended brick walls, about forty feet
high, with equally extended ranges of windows and doors, all
precisely alike, and without any appearance of being distinct houses.
You would rather suppose them to be hospitals, arsenals, or public
granaries, were it not for their great extent. Here is a fashion, lately
introduced from better climates, of making varandas;—varandas in a
country where physicians recommend double doors and double
windows as precautions against the intolerable cold! I even saw
several instances of green penthouses, to protect the rooms from
the heat or light of the sun, fixed against houses in a northern
aspect. At this I expressed some surprise to my companion: he
replied, that his countrymen were the most rational people in the
world when they thought proper to use their understandings, but
that when they lost sight of common sense they were more absurd
than any others, and less dexterous in giving plausibility to
nonsense. In confirmation of this opinion, he instanced another
strange fashion which happened to present itself on the opposite
side of the street; a brick wall up to the first story decorated with a
range of Doric columns to imitate the façade of the Temple of
Theseus at Athens, while the upper part of the house remained as
naked as it could be left by the mason’s trowel.
After walking a considerable time in these streets, I enquired for
the palaces of the nobility, and was told that their houses were such
as I had seen, with a few exceptions, which were shut up from
public view by high blank walls; but that none of them had any
pretensions to architecture, except one in Piccadilly, called
Burlington-House, which is inhabited by the Duke of Portland. Lord
Burlington, who erected it, was a man whose whole desire and
fortune were devoted to improve the national taste in architecture:
and this building, though with many defects, is considered by good
judges to be one of the best specimens of modern architecture in
Europe, and even deserves to be ranked with the works of Palladio,
whom Lord Burlington made the particular object of his imitation. W
—— added, that this building, it is expected, will in a few years be
taken down, to make room for streets. From the very great increase
of ground-rent, it is supposed that the site of the house and garden
would produce 8,000l. a-year. Every thing here is reduced to
calculation. This sum will soon be considered as the actual rent; and
then, in the true commercial spirit of the country, it will be put to
sale. This has already been done in two or three instances; and in
the course of half a century, it is expected that the bank will be the
only building of consequence in this emporium of trade.
The merchants of this modern Tyre, are indeed princes in their
wealth, and in their luxury; but it is to be wished that they had
something more of the spirit of princely magnificence, and that
when they build palaces they would cease to use the warehouse as
their model.
 LETTER XII.

Causes of the Change of Ministry not generally understood.—Catholic

Emancipation.—The Change acceptable to the Nation.—State of Parties.—
Strength of the new Administration.—Its good Effects.—Popularity of Mr
Addington.

The change of ministry is considered as a national blessing. The

system of terror, of alarm, and of espionage, has been laid aside, the
most burthensome of the taxes repealed, and a sincere desire
manifested on the part of the new minister to meet the wishes of
the nation.
It must nevertheless be admitted, that, however unfortunately for
their country, and for the general interests of Europe, the late
administration may have employed their power, the motives which
induced them to withdraw, and the manner in which they retired,
are highly honourable to their personal characters. The immediate
cause was this:—They had held out the promise of emancipation to
the Irish Catholics as a means of reconciling them to the Union.
While the two countries were governed by separate legislatures, it
was very possible, if the catholics were admitted to their rights, that
a majority in the Irish House might think proper to restore the old
religion of the people, to which it is well known with what exemplary
fidelity the great majority of the Irish nation still adhere. But when
once the representatives of both countries should be united in one
parliament, no such consequence could be apprehended; for, though
all the Irish members should be catholics, they would still be a
minority. The old ministry had thus represented the Union as a
measure which would remove the objection to catholic
emancipation, and pledged themselves to grant that emancipation,
after it should have been effected—this act of justice being the price
which they were to pay for it to the people of Ireland. But they had
not calculated upon the king’s character, whose zeal, as the
Defender of the Faith, makes it greatly to be lamented that he has
not a better faith to defend. He, as head of the Church of England,
conceives himself bound by his coronation oath to suffer no
innovation in favour of popery, as these schismatics contemptuously
call the religion of the Fathers and of the Apostles, and this scruple it
was impossible to overcome. The bishops, who might have had
some influence over him, were all, as may well be imagined,
decidedly hostile to any measure of favour or justice to the true
faith, and the ministry had no alternative but to break their pledged
promise or to resign their offices. That this is the real state of the
case, I have been assured on such authority that I cannot entertain
the slightest doubt: it is, however, by no means generally believed to
be so by the people; but I cannot find that they have any other
reason for their disbelief, than a settled opinion that statesmen
always consider their own private interest in preference to every
thing else; in plain language, that there is no such virtue in existence
as political honesty. And they persist in supposing that there is more
in this resignation than has yet been made public, though the
change is now of so long standing, and though they perceive that
the late ministers have not accepted either titles or pensions, as has
been usual on such occasions, and thus sufficiently proved that
disinterestedness of which they will not believe them capable.
But it is commonly said, They went out because they could not
decently make peace with Buonaparte—Wait a little while and you
will see them in again. This is confuted by the conduct of the former
cabinet, all the leading members of which, except Mr Pitt, have
violently declared themselves against the peace. They cry out that it
is the most foolish, mischievous, and dishonourable treaty that ever
was concluded: that it cannot possibly be lasting, and that it will be
the ruin of the nation. The nation, however, is very well persuaded
that no better was to be had, very thankful for a respite from alarm,
and a relief of taxation, and very well convinced, by its own
disposition to maintain the peace, that it is in no danger of being
broken.—And the nation is perfectly right. Exhausted as France and
England both are, it is equally necessary to one country as to the
other. France wants to make herself a commercial country, to raise a
navy, and to train up sailors; England wants to recover from the
expenses of a ten-years war, and they are miserable politicians who
suppose that any new grounds of dispute can arise, important
enough to overpower these considerations.
Pitt, on the other hand, defends the peace; and many persons
suppose that he will soon make his appearance again in
administration. This is not very likely, on account of the catholic
question, to which he is as strongly pledged as the Grenville party;
but the present difference between him and that party seems to
show that the inflexibility of the former cabinet is not to be imputed
to him. Peace, upon as good terms as the present, might, beyond all
doubt, have been made at any time during the war; and as he is
satisfied with it, it is reasonable to suppose that he would have
made it sooner if he could. His opinion has all the weight that you
would expect; and as the old opposition members are equally
favourable to the measures of the new administration, the ministry
may look upon themselves as secure. The war-faction can muster
only a very small minority, and they are as thoroughly unpopular as
the friends of peace and good order could wish them to be.
I know not how I can give you a higher opinion of the present
Premier than by saying, that his enemies have nothing worse to
object against him than that his father was a physician. Even in
Spain we have never thought it necessary to examine the pedigree
of a statesman, and in England such a cause of complaint is indeed
ridiculous. They call him The Doctor on this account;—a minister of
healing he has truly been; he has poured balm and oil into the
wounds of the country, and the country is blessing him. The peace
with France is regarded by the wiser persons with whom I have
conversed as a trifling good, compared to the internal pacification
which Mr Addington has effected. He immediately put a stop to the
system of irritation; there was an end of suspicion, and alarm, and
plots; conspiracies were no longer to be heard of, when spies were
no longer paid for forming them. The distinction of parties had been
as inveterately marked as that between new and old Christians a
century ago in Spain, and it was as effectually removed by this
change of ministry, as if an act of forgetfulness had been enforced
by miracle. Parties are completely dislocated by the peace; it has
shaken things like an earthquake, and they are not yet settled after
the shock. I have heard it called the great political thaw,—happily in
Spain we do not know what a great frost is sufficiently to understand
the full force of the expression.
Thus much, however, may plainly be perceived. The whig party
regard it as a triumph to have any other minister than Pitt, and their
antagonists are equally glad to have any other minister than Fox. A
still larger part of the people, connected with government by the
numberless hooks and eyes of patronage and influence, are ready to
support any minister whatsoever, in any measures whatsoever: and
others more respectable, neither few in number, nor feeble in
weight, act with the same blind acquiescence from a sense of duty.
All these persons agree in supporting Mr Addington, who is attacked
by none but the violent enemies of the popular cause, now, of
course, the objects of popular hatred and obloquy themselves. Some
people expect to see him take Fox into the administration, others
think he will prefer Pitt; it is not very likely that he should venture to
trust either, for he must know that if either should[10] enter at the
sleeve, he would get out at the collar.
10. Entraria por la manga, y saldria por el cabezon.
To the eloquence of his predecessor, the present Premier makes
no pretensions, and he is liked the better for it. The English say they
have paid quite enough for fine speeches; he tells them a plain
story, and gains credit by fair dealing. His enemies naturally
depreciate his talents: as far as experience goes, it confutes them.
He has shown talents enough to save the country from the Northern
confederacy, the most serious danger to which it was exposed
during the whole war; to make a peace which has satisfied all the
reasonable part of the nation, and to restore unanimity at home, and
that freedom of opinion which was almost abrogated. From all that I
can learn, Mr Addington is likely long to retain his situation; and sure
I am that were he to retire from it, he would take with him the
regret and the blessings of the people.
 LETTER XIII.

Dress of the English without Variety.—Coal-heavers.—Post-men.—Art of knocking

at the Door.—Inscriptions over the Shops.—Exhibitions in the Shop-windows.—
Chimney-sweepers.—May-day.—These Sports originally religious.

Tuesday, May 4, 1802.

The dress of Englishmen wants that variety which renders the
figures of our scenery so picturesque. You might think, from walking
the streets of London, that there were no ministers of religion in the
country; J— smiled at the remark, and told me that some of the
dignified clergy wore silk aprons; but these are rarely seen, and they
are more generally known by a huge and hideous wig, once
considered to be as necessary a covering for a learned head as an
ivy bush is for an owl, but which even physicians have now
discarded, and left only to schoolmasters and doctors in divinity.
There is, too, this remarkable difference between the costume of
England and of Spain, that here the national dress is altogether
devoid of grace, and it is only modern fashions which have improved
it: in Spain, on the contrary, nothing can be more graceful than the
dresses both of the clergy and peasantry, which have from time
immemorial remained unchanged; while our better ranks clothe
themselves in a worse taste, because they imitate the apery of other
nations. What I say of their costume applies wholly to that of the
men; the dress of English women is perfect, as far as it goes; it
leaves nothing to be wished,—except that there should be a little
more of it.
 The most singular figures in the streets of this metropolis are the
men who are employed in carrying the earth-coal, which they
remove from the barge to the waggon, and again from the waggon
to the house, upon their backs. The back of the coat, therefore, is as
well quilted as the cotton breastplate of our soldiers in America in
old times: and to protect it still more, the broad flap of the hat lies
flat upon the shoulders. The head consequently seems to bend
unusually forward, and the whole figure has the appearance of
having been bowed beneath habitual burthens. The lower classes,
with this exception, if they do not wear the cast clothes of the higher
ranks, have them in the same form. The post-men all wear the royal
livery, which is scarlet and gold; they hurry through the streets, and
cross from side to side with indefatigable rapidity. The English doors
have knockers instead of bells, and there is an advantage in this
which you would not immediately perceive. The bell, by whomsoever
it be pulled, must always give the same sound, but the knocker may
be so handled as to explain who plays upon it, and accordingly it has
its systematic set of signals. The post-man comes with two loud and
rapid raps, such as no person but himself ever gives. One very loud
one marks the news-man. A single knock of less vehemence denotes
a servant or other messenger. Visitors give three or four. Footmen or
coachmen always more than their masters; and the master of every
family has usually his particular touch, which is immediately
recognised.
Every shop has an inscription above it expressing the name of its
owner, and that of his predecessor, if the business has been so long
established as to derive a certain degree of respectability from time.
Cheap Warehouse is sometimes added; and if the tradesman has the
honour to serve any one of the royal family, this is also mentioned,
and the royal arms in a style of expensive carving are affixed over
the door. These inscriptions in large gilt letters, shaped with the
greatest nicety, form a peculiar feature in the streets of London. In
former times all the shops had large signs suspended before them,
such as are still used at inns in the country; these have long since
disappeared; but in a few instances, where the shop is of such long
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