The Durham Report and British Policy
A Critical Essay

In 1838 the government in Britain sent the radical Lord Durham to Canada as Governor-General to deal with a colony in the aftermath of a rebellion.

Ged Martin (Author)

9780521082822, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 October 2008

136 pages
21.6 x 14 x 0.8 cm, 0.2 kg

In 1838 Lord Melbourne's Whig government in Britain sent the radical Lord Durham to Canada as Governor-General to deal with a colony in the aftermath of a rebellion. Durham's vanity and arrogance made him a poor choice for the post, and he resigned a few months later after the government had been forced to overrule him for exceeding his powers. After his return to Britain he wrote his Report on the Affairs of British North America - and its unauthorized publication in the Times caused a sensation. This report - the famous 'Durham Report' - has been seen as the starting point of the British tradition of colonial self-rule leading through the Statute of Westminster of 1931 to the independent self-governing Commonwealth of today.

1. The place of the Report in Commonwealth history
2. The historical context of the Durham Mission
3. The reception of the Report
4. The influence of the Report on Commonwealth history
5. The growth of the myth.

Subject Areas: History [HB]