Lord John Russell and the Origins of the Committee of Council on Education
In February 1839 Lord John Russell put before the House of Commons a set of proposals for governmental action in the field of popular education. It was a contentious move by the Home Secretary, and the bitter political tussle which it provoked was predictable. In the context of a flagging ministry facing an opposition already scenting office, it seems almost cavalier. The well-known outcome was the formation of a new executive agency for the management of the state's role in the education of the people, the Committee of Privy Council on Education. The whole incident attracts notice in several dimensions of historical commentary. Social and political narratives must record it; students of Whiggery, Russell, reform or radicalism, must give it place and plausibility; it is a turning point for the historian of education; and it provides a case study for the investigation of government growth in the nineteenth century.
Great Britain's exiles sent to Port Phillip, Australia, 1844-1849: Lord Stanley's experiment
This thesis examines the origin, operation and outcome of the exile scheme implemented in Port Phillip between 1844 and 1849. It argues that the scheme announced by Lord Stanley, British Colonial Secretary, was an experiment in prisoner reform and labour deployment originating in imperial desperation and expediency. It notes how the scheme divided European settlers and inflamed the issue of separation from New South Wales. I conclude that this significant, oftenoverlooked episode in Australia's immigration history had positive outcomes for many, whilst others re-offended, partly due to government mismanagement. The early 1840s was a time of economic distress and increasing crime in Britain, but also a time of changing attitudes to prison reform. This period also witnessed economic depression in the Australian colonies. The exile scheme was created largely in response to the deteriorating employment circumstances in the penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land, to which the exiles were destined. One aim of the experiment was to provide opportunities for the exiles to begin new lives in the colony. Between 1844 and 1849, Britain transported to Port Phillip nine shiploads of conditionally-pardoned exiles from Pentonville, Millbank and Parkhurst Prisons. These 1,727 men and boys had experienced lengthy periods under the ‘separate system’ of incarceration, during which they learned a trade and improved their literacy levels. Upon arrival they landed as free men in Melbourne, Geelong and Portland, provided they did not return to Britain during the remainder of their sentences. The despatches containing Lord Stanley’s announcement and instructions accompanied the exiles in the first ship, the Royal George. These despatches were addressed to the Governor of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps, to the LieutenantGovernor of Van Diemen’s Land, Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, and to the Superintendent of Port Phillip, Charles La Trobe. The exiles were enthusiastically
Italian Influence on the Development of Calvinist Scholasticism
THIS ARTICLE TRIES to show that the rise of Calvinist scholasticism, which was the most important development in Calvinist theology during the second half of the sixteenth century, stemmed largely from several converging Italian influences, particularly from the writings of Peter Martyr Vermigli and Jerome Zanchi. Here Calvinist theology refers not only to the personal thought of John Calvin but also to the teachings of the founders of the Reformed or Calvinist tradition as it spread out from Geneva and Switzerland to France, Germany, England, Scotland, Poland, and the Low Countries. In this context Calvin emerges as the brightest star in a galaxy of Reformed theologians which includes Heinrich Bullinger, Pierre Viret, Theodore Beza and Wolfgang Musculus as well as Martyr, Zanchi and others. These theologians were often more influential than Calvin himself at a given place or time or on a given point of doctrine. Bullinger, Martyr, and Martin Bucer were all more important for spreading Calvinist ideas to Edwardian England than was John Calvin. Early Elizabethan Protestantism looked more to Zurich than to Geneva, as did early Polish Calvinism. German Calvinism owed more to Heidelberg than to Geneva.' These leaders developed their theologies sometimes in mutual dependence, sometimes with surprising independence. By no means was their relation to Calvin simply that of disciple to master, for each gave a personal nuance to his style of Calvinism. Thus the sixteenth century Jesuit Cornelius Schulting states on the opening page of his five volume polemic against Calvin and Peter Martyr that Martyr was clearer and far more learned than Calvin.2 Recently John Bray has pointed out that research in seventeenth century Calvinism leads "to the conclusion that the impact of Calvin upon the Calvinistic movement has been greatly over-rated. It may well be that some of