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5 - Defending the Crown

from Part I - Constructive Conservatism in Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2025

Lisa Ford ,
Kirsten McKenzie ,
Naomi Parkinson  and
David Andrew Roberts
Lisa Ford
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Kirsten McKenzie
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Naomi Parkinson
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
David Andrew Roberts
Affiliation:
University of New England, Australia
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Summary

In this chapter, we track the interplay between domestic British politics and empire through the 1823 and 1824 scandals surrounding the deportation of two free businessmen of colour, Louis Celeste Lecesne and John Escoffery, from Jamaica, and the grievances of Bishop Burnett who was deported from the Cape. These cases not only demonstrate the explosive potential of empire in 1820s parliamentary politics, they also bring to the fore a key function of inquiries ‘on the ground’, as the struggling Liverpool ministry tried (and largely failed) to use colonial commissions to keep Parliament (as much as possible) out of the serious business of governing and reforming empire.

Keywords

commissions of inquiryfree People of Colour in the British EmpireCaribbean court reform in the early nineteenth centurybanishment in the British EmpireLouis Celeste LecesneJohn EscofferyBishop Burnettcolonial scandalBritish politics in the Age of RevolutionsLord Charles SomersetBritish imperial governanceconservative reform in the Age of RevolutionsCommission of Legal InquiryCommission of Eastern Inquiry
Type
Chapter
Information
Inquiring into Empire
Colonial Commissions and British Imperial Reform, 1819–1833
 , pp. 105 - 138
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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