A Dance of Crown and Parliament: Empire and Reform in the Age of Liverpool

Abstract

Abstract The apparent contradictions of British politics in the early nineteenth century have long confounded historians. Lord Liverpool’s ministry (1812–27) vehemently, and often violently, rejected constitutional change. Yet it simultaneously implemented a raft of improvements in governance. We argue here that empire is key to resolving this conundrum. Particularly from 1822, the Liverpool ministry launched a constitutional overhaul of empire through one of the most ambitious information-gathering efforts undertaken by the British imperial state: commissions of inquiry. Creatures of the royal prerogative, these investigations amassed ‘on the spot’ information to underpin genuine conservative interventions into colonial law and governance. At the same time, they curated colonial controversy in order to subvert hostile parliamentary interference at a time when Liverpool’s hold on power was particularly tenuous. Inquiry and reform were profoundly shaped by the delicate dance of Crown and parliament. By exploring three moments of controversy in New South Wales, Jamaica and the Cape Colony between 1819 and 1826, we argue that colonial royal commissions showcase the workings of Tory innovation by laying bare the mix of reformism, conservatism and pragmatism that undergirded this unstable regime.