The Search for Economy: Imperial Administration of Nova Scotia in the 1830s

Abstract

os•. oF Tm• MAcy PRevcn•,.•.s of Whig colonial policy during 1830s was search for economy: desire to alleviate financial burden which colonies placed on British Treasury. This ministerial preoccupation with retrenchment was in part a response to nagging parliamentary criticism of level of public expenditure at home and overseas. The most vociferous demand œor governmental economy emanated from a small group in House of Commons led by Joseph Hume and including such radical and independent members as Sir Henry Parnell, Henry Labouchere, George Robinson, Robert Gordon, and Henry Warburton. Hume and his associates were œew in number, but they were vocal, persistent, and well armed with facts. Moreover, their basic contention, that the best interests of cottatry require that its resources should be renovated and strengthened by retrenchment and economy in time of peace, • commanded considerable sympathy amongst less outspoken members of House of Commons who appreciated evils of extravagance and threat of increased taxation. The arguments of radicals also echoed a general feeling in parliament and in cottatry at large that British taxpayer was excessively burdened with upkeep of inflated civil and military establishments, and that this form oœ extravagance was directly related to persistence ofpatronage and corrupt/on in Brit/sh politics. Imperial expenditure connected with administrat/on and defence of British North America attracted part/cularly heavy fire