Peter Cain

EMPIRE AND THE LANGUAGES OF CHARACTER AND VIRTUE IN LATER VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN BRITAIN

Considerable attention has been paid to the ideas of critics of the British Empire in the period of its most rapid expansion and rather less to the views of those who supported it strongly. This article investigates the arguments of what are called “ultra-imperialists”, showing how they used the language of character, stiffened by elements from earlier languages of virtue, to justify the possession of empire. They argued that character had been critical in making Britain an imperial power and also claimed that, without the stimulus to action and duty provided by the defence and the governance of empire, character would atrophy, and the nation would suffer catastrophic and irreversible decline. The article ends by comparing the “ultra” position with that of, firstly, the larger body of more pragmatic supporters of empire and, secondly, the small group of radical anti-imperialists who feared that empire was destructive of character.

Was it Worth Having? the British Empire 1850–1950

En los ultimos anos, los historiadores economicos britanicos y norteamericanos han proporcionado una idea mas precisa dc los costes y beneficies dcl imperio mediante el recurso a estimaciones dcl comercio, la inversion y los costes de defensa imperiales bajo el supuesto hipotetico de la inexistencia del imperio para, despues, comparar tales estimaciones con los resultados historicos del imperio. Este articulo revisa de manera critica la literatura acerca de este tipo de ejercicios en histeria contractual. En el se sugiere que el debate ha estado enfocado dc una manera excesivamente restringida y se propone que incluya no solo los aspectos economicos sino tambien el sistema politico y social que sostenia el imperio, asi como los resultados de posibles sistemas alternativos.

Bentham and the Development of the British Critique of Colonialism

This article examines Benthams contribution to anti-colonial thought in the context of the development of the British radical movement that attacked colonialism on the grounds that it advantaged what Bentham called the ‘Few’ at the expense of the ‘Many’. It shows that Bentham was influenced as much by Josiah Tucker and James Anderson as by Adam Smith. Benthams early economic critique is examined, and the sharp changes in his arguments after 1800 assessed, in the context of the American and French Revolutions and the effects of British industrialization. The article also highlights the importance of Benthams writings inspired by the Spanish colonial crisis of the early 1820s. They show developments in his economic analysis and include some very acute discussions of the psychological satisfactions that elites could gain from colonialism. The article ends with a brief comparison between Bentham and later radical thinkers to put his ideas in context.

Education, Income and Status: Amateur Cricketers in England and Wales c.1840–c.1930

The importance of the amateur element in English and Welsh cricket during the nineteenth and early twentieth century is well known. However, there is not much in-depth information available on the economic, social and educational background of amateur cricketers. This article tries to fill this gap using the information gleaned from a large sample of obituaries, mainly those printed in Wisden. These sources have their weaknesses, which are analysed in the article, but they do provide a good picture of the schooling of amateur cricketers, their main occupations and sources of income, and their county affiliations during the period chosen. The evidence presented is then discussed in the context of recent work on the importance of the growth of service-sector employment in the period and its regional distribution. The article ends with a critical look at amateur cricket and its mores in the context of the current debate on ‘character’ which was a key element in the intellectual and cultural formation of the British gentlemanly class from which amateur cricketers emerged.