Royal Commissioners Research Articles

From Catholic Priests To Protestant Ministers: Pastoral Education in the Diocese of York, 1520-1620

Before the government of Edward VI could proceed with its inten tion to abolish chantries throughout England and appropriate their revenues, it first needed to obtain precise details of their endow ments. Royal commissioners visited York for this purpose in 1548, subsequendy dispatching to Westminster in addition to the requisite economic information brief returns on the morality and education of the city's chantry priests. One such cleric, Thomas Worrali, a stipendiary curate in the church of St Michael, Spurriergate, fea tured in their records as possessing honest qualities and conditions and indifferent learning. Ordained deacon and priest in York in 1512 at the age of 24, the earliest permissible date at canon law, he had been singing the Jesus mass at the Jesus altar every day from at least 1518 when he began compiling the churchwardens' accounts, a task he had combined from 1538 with managing the parish estate.1 All this activity seems to have counted for little with the royal commissioners who with some justification would have seen him merely as a typical representative of the old order. One of the two sons of

The Good of this Service Consists in Absolute Secrecy: The Earl of Dunbar, Scotland, and the Border (1603-1611)

This article synthesizes the career and political impact of Sir George Home, Earl of Dunbar and Lord Berwick, demonstrating his dynamic role as a Jacobean royal favourite, intelligencer, and justiciary in the critical first years of the British regal union (1603-11). A brief background of his early career at the Stewart court is provided, illuminating his shadowy path to power and his political— and personal — struggle with Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell in the 1590s. As Earl of Dunbar, his enigmatic, intimidating personality is examined in the context of his impressive dual existence as Bedchamber man at Whitehall and virtual chief minister of Scottish affairs as Lord High Treasurer under James VI/I. From 1605, he would initiate a supra-national itinerary that ultimately established him as a formidable figure in Scottish political and ecclesiastical life, particularly in his close supervision of the Scottish parliamentary sessions throughout this period. Dunbar’s deft but controversial management as head border commissioner (with exclusive jurisdiction over both English and Scottish frontier counties) and royal commissioner to the general assemblies of Linlithgow and Glasgow have earned him the reputation of a corrupt despot with arbitrary tendencies. The present work is the first to re-examine the primary evidence and provide an alternative view of Dunbar as an intelligent master of early modern Realpolitik, and not as the great episcopal Satan which Andrew Melville, David Calderwood, and subsequent historians have frequently portrayed him. This historiographical rehabilitation also demonstrates his broader role as an essential practical instrument in King James’s push for a closer political union between Scotland and England in the seventeenth century.

Tories and Paupers: Christian Political Economy and the Making of the New Poor Law

Everyone knows that Edwin Chadwick wrote the New Poor Law; or, rather, that he wrote the report – issued in 1834 by the royal commission appointed two years earlier to inquire into the poor laws – which formed the basis for the New Poor Law. The well-informed among us might add the name of the political economist Nassau Senior as Chadwick's co-author. But few would be able to supply any of the further seven names which stood with Chadwick's and Senior's as co-signatories to the report. These seven royal commissioners were Bishop Blomfield of London, Bishop Sumner of Chester, William Sturges Bourne, M.P., the Rev. Henry Bishop, Henry Gawler, Walter Coulson, and James Traill.

The Introduction of Smallpox Vaccine in 1803 and the Adoption of Immunization as a Government Function in Puerto Rico

HE yelling could be heard in the street, two floors down. Young soldiers rushed up the stairs, in order not to miss the action, while other witnesses nearby must have wondered why one physician had not yet thrown the other off the balcony. One hundred sixty thousand persons in Puerto Rico all know about this affair, it has been so public and scandalous.' A king's physician, the royal commissioner, was publicly insulting the city doctor, the man who had brought smallpox vaccination to the island! It had been the Spanish king's intention that the first arrival of vaccine to his American and Asian colonies would be due to a Royal Philanthropic Expedition, directed by the renowned physician and botanist Francisco Xavier de Balmis.2 Nevertheless, the widespread fame of the method, a desperate need for its life-saving effects, its availability in nearby non-Spanish locations, and the resourcefulness of colonists served to anticipate the expedition's task in the Caribbean.

'Most Humble Houses'. Some Notes on the Housing Investigations in Melbourne. 1913-1917

When the Royal Commissioners inquiring into the housing of the people of the metropolis in 1914 asked Alderman William Burton, a prominent coachbuilder and businessman, and Chairman of the Health Committee of the Melbourne City Council, whether the appointment of the Commission had had any influence on the activities of the Council in relation to housing, he answered negatively. As far as Burton was concerned the Commission had had no effect at all on the day to day operations of the Council. He claimed that 'we were doing progressive work in this direction long before this Commission was appointed.'2 Historians considering the role of this Commission, which sat in various forms from 1913 to 1917, have tended to share Burton's doubts regarding its efficacy in addressing the problem of housing in early twentieth-century Melbourne. M. A. Jones, for example, argues that the first major investigation into the extent of 'substandard' housing in Melbourne did not occur until 1937.3 Leonie Sandercock at least gives some attention to the Select Committee and Royal Commission of the 1913 to 1917 period, although she suggests that 'nothing ever came of this four year undertaking', which, for the Liberal politicians of the time 'had obviously been a convenient way of defusing the [housing] issue'. 'While the record of action in these years is bleak', she concludes, 'Victorians seem to have at least had a talent for producing intelligent reports on the ever worsening situation.'4 This interpretation of the investigations has remained largely unchallenged in more recent works. Graeme Davison has characterised the Select Committee

Illustrating the ‘Reports by the Juries’ of the great exhibition of 1851; Talbot, Henneman, and their failed commission

Abstract A major publishing event in the history of photography has gone largely unnoticed in the scholarship of the field. This was the appearance, in 1852, of the Reports by the Juries of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Published in four volumes, the Reports were illustrated with 155 photographs. 140 presentation sets of this work were ordered by the Royal Commissioners of the Exhibition to be g1ven to notables of countries participating in the exhibition as a record of the great event.1

Governor Francis Nicholson, Patron "Par Excellence" of Religion and Learning in Colonial America

O NE of the more striking and imperious figures in the annals of Anglo-American officialdom was by all accounts Francis Nicholson. His varied roles as soldier, lieutenant governor, governor, and royal commissioner in the colonies from i686 to I728 first received biographical treatment in the pre-19I4 scholarship of A. J. Doyle, Worthington Chauncey Ford, and Charles Dalton and during the inter-war period by Leonard W. Labaree.1 In recent years a renewal of interest in Nicholson-an obvious target for revisionist historians-has produced additional studies of the man and his career.2 Without exception, however, these publications have all focused on the military and governmental aspects of his service under the crown. The received image of him is that of the tough-minded, high-prerogative royal executive clad in jackboots. But did soldiering and ruling encompass the whole of Nicholson's life work in the Old British Empire? In truth, there were other noteworthy interests and pursuits that distinguished him from his office-holding peers such as Sir Edmund Andros, Joseph Dudley, Robert Hunter, or Alexander Spotswood. Nicholson was also a patron, a benefactor, a friend of religion and learning.3 For this facet of his reputation there exists a

R. S. WRIGHT'S MODEL CRIMINAL CODE: A FORGOTTEN CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE CRIMINAL LAW

In 1870 Mr R. S. Wright, a thirty-one year-old barrister, and fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, was asked by the Colonial Office to draft a criminal code for Jamaica which could serve as a model for all of the colonies.' The Code of Criminal Law and Procedure which the future Mr Justice Wright subsequently produced has now been almost forgotten.2 This is unfortunate because in many, if not most, respects it is a much better Code than either James Fitzjames Stephen's Draft Code of 18783 or the Royal Commissioners' Draft Code of I879,4 both of which are well known. The Commissioners' Code, which was primarily the work of Stephen,5 was subsequently adopted (with various changes) by a large number of British Colonies. During the i88os and 9os, though, Wright's Code was the Model Code for the Colonies-although, as we shall see, it was not adopted by any of the important ones-not even by Jamaica. The Code was, however, highly regarded by the Colonial Office, by the parliamentary draftsmen and by others6 in England. In

Behavioural Analyses of Gambling

1978 was marked by the publication of two major reports on gambling, the Royal Commissioners Report (1978) and the Home Office Research Report by Cornish (1978). These are in many senses complementary publications. The Royal Commission presents a wealth of factual data on the various forms of gambling in the UK, and devotes only two pages to the psychology of gambling, in which reference is made to Cornish's report and endorsement given to the conclusion. Cornish offers an extensive and systematic review of psychological and sociological approaches to gambling with an interesting synthesis and suggestions for future research. The present paper is in no way attempting to parallel Cornish's exhaustive treatment of the subject, but rather to argue for and examine a specific approach to the problem of gambling.

Dear Royal Commissioners

Dear Royal Commissioners

The Last Days of the Smaller Monasteries in England

The dissolution of the monasteries in England was a dramatic action which both at the time and since has captured popular imagination. A persisting myth pictures the monks turned out by the agents of Henry VIII departing, slowly chanting, into the snow-bound countryside which shrouded their later fate from human eyes. Historians, who have been equally drawn to the subject, have given the picture a different slant. The story of the suppression has been fitted into a wider background of fast-moving religious and secular change in the decade 1530 to 1540, and can be seen as one of a number of moves which were designed at once to strengthen the king's control over the Church and to improve his finances. By 1536, indeed, the religious were already accustomed to the passage of royal commissioners and had had the power of the crown brought forcibly home to them by a number of direct royal interventions in matters of internal monastic discipline.

Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism

In September, 1963, ten Royal Commissioners began their survey of the state of the Canadian nation. They meditated, criss-crossed the country, held meetings public and private, and read countless briefs. Fully aware that the country had had its tensions and conflicts before, they discovered that in 1964 Canada, without being fully conscious of the fact, is passing through the greatest crisis in its history. They felt compelled communicate an experience through which we have actually lived, and put our country's divisions on display, believing that this type of disease cannot be cured by keeping it hidden indefinitely from the patient. After such a preamble one moved to the body of the Report* with fear and trembling. Just what had they found that so terrified them? What secret cancer had escaped the observations of a diligent press? What form of extremism had been discovered that outdid some western

A Study of Sand Movements on the Lowestoft Sandbank Using Fluorescent Tracers

a. Thirteenth Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the fees, etc, in certain public offices in Ireland: Directors General of Inland Navigation. H.C. 1812-13 (61), vi, 317. b. A Copy of the Report made by order of the Board of Inland Navigation in Dublin, respecting the Newry Navigation. H.C. 1826-7 (255), xx, 109. c. Tidal Harbours Commission, (Second Report), Appendix B, No. 131. H.C. 1846 [692] xviii Pt. I, i. d. Reports of the Commissioners appointed to consider and recommend a General System of Railways for Ireland: Second Report, Appendix B, No. 6, pp. 50 et seq. H.C. 1837-38 (145) xxxv, 449. e. Report of the Commissioners appointed to inspect the Accounts and Examine the Workings of Railways in Ireland, 1868. Appendix, Pt. IV, p. 161. /. Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire respecting the system of naviga? tion which connects Coleraine, Belfast and Limerick. H.C. 1882 [C. 3173J xxi, 101. g. Final Report of the Royal Commissioner appointed to inquire into the Canals and Inland Waterways of the United Kingdom. Vol. XI (Ireland) H.C. 1911 [Cd. 5626] xiii, 19. Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland 1844/5 Three vols. Dublin and London. Peet, H. 1932 Thomas Steers, the engineer of LiverpooVs first dock?a memoir. Frome and London.

Labour-Management Relations in the Construction Industry: The Findings of the Goldenberg Commission

SINCE the Second World War there has been a growing awareness that labour relations in the construction industry do not lend themselves legislative frameworks designed cope with union-management relations in general.' In the United States this has given rise a number of provisions in the federal legislation which have particular reference the labour problems of the construction industry. Under the Taft-Hartley Act,2 for example, there was the banning of the closed shop and the prohibition of jurisdictional disputes and certain types of secondary boycotts. More recently, under the LandrumGriffin Act,3 unions in the building trades were exempted from some of the restrictions which apply union-security arrangements and the employment of secondary boycotts in industry and commerce generally. That there is also the need for a special legislative approach the labour relations problems of the construction industry in at least one jurisdiction in Canada has been shown by the work of the Goldenberg Commission4 in the Province of Ontario. After setting this work in perspective, this article will focus on the implications of the Commission's findings for the applicability of both the Ontario Labour Relations Act5 and such protective labour statutes as the Industrial Standards Act.6 *The author acted as Director of Research for t-he Commission. This is a modified version of a paper which was delivered the Sixth Annual Conference of the Association of Canadian Schools of Commerce and Business Administration. lSee US Senate, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, To Amend the National Labor Relations 1947, with Respect the Building and Construction Industry, Hearings before the Sub-committee on Labor and Labor-Management Relations, 82nd Congress, 1st Session, Aug. 27-29 and Sept. 4, 1951 (Washington, 1951); and Paul B. Richards, Building and Construction Industry and the Taft-Hartley Act, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, II, no. 3, June, 1956, 13-16. 2Labor-Management Relations Public Law 80-101, 80th Congress, 1st Session, June 23, 1947. 3Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Public Law 86-257, 86th Congress, 1st Session, Sept. 14, 1959. 4The Commission was appointed in June of 1961 under a Provincial Order-in-Council (O.C.-2622/61, June 27, 1961) which instructed it to inquire into and report upon the relations between labour and management in the construction industry in Ontario, and such other matters as in the opinion of the Commissioner may pertain thereto. With the appointment of H. Carl Goldenberg, O.B.E., Q.C., as sole Royal Commissioner, it became known as the Goldenberg Commission. The Commission's Report, the Report of the Royal Commission on Labour-Management Relations in the Construction Industry was released in March, 1962. It will be referred as the Goldenberg Report. 5Throughout this paper reference will be made the Labour Relations Act (Rev. Stat. Ontario, 1960, c. 202) as it stood prior the Goldenberg Commission. Changes which have been enacted, along with a number of other dev,elopmnents since the publication of the Report, have been the subject of a paper by the author at the Spring Meetings of the Industrial Relations Research Association, 1963. 6Rev. Stat. Ontario, 1960, c. 186.

Lincoln Cathedral in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I

When the three royal commissioners, doctors Thomas Bentham, William Fleetwood and Stephen Nevinson, visited Lincoln cathedral in September 1559 their injunctions, which were largely copied from those of the Edwardine visitors in April 1548, marked the permanent establishment of reform within the mother church of the diocese. It is well known that at this time they and other commissioners deprived many of the higher clergy who refused to conform to the new settlement; in the diocese of Lincoln only one of the six archdeacons retained office throughout these troubled years and out of the 54 cathedral prebends either 11 or 12 changed hands. Five canons were displaced to allow the restoration of married clerks and another five or six were deprived. In contrast to this all the cathedral dignitaries and canons residentiary remained, although there is strong reason to suspect their secret hostility to protestant reform. Since Matthew Parker had no wish to recover his deanery, Francis Mallet the faithful chaplain of queen Mary whom she and cardinal Pole just before their deaths had intended to elevate to the see of Salisbury, was permitted to retain his office. Previously he had lived at Court and scarcely visited his church but on 17 August 1560 he protested major residence at Lincoln. His conservatism may be inferred from a sermon which he preached in the cathedral, in 1561 or 1562, wherein he declared in favour of there being seven sacraments. Unfortunately only a month previously the cathedral divinity lecturer, the reformer Thomas Godwin, had preached very vehemently in favour of there being two, and no more than two, sacraments. Thereupon William Todd, who was the only strongly protestant residentiary at the time, had appealed to two local gentry, of whom one was Sir. Francis Ayscough, the brother of the martyred Anne Askew, to raise a complaint against Mallet in the Privy Council. But nothing came of this and Mallet was not dislodged.

The Commissions for Administrative Reform in Belgium

Frenchby V. Crabbe.Monsieur Crabbe gives an outline of the history of the commissions for administrative reform in Belgium, and attempts a formulation of the conclusions to which this history might lead.This study is intended as an answer to the questionnaire circulated by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences in order to assess the instruments of administrative reform used in various countries.In his communications on the subject, Mr. Crabbe delineated the history of administrative organisation and of the development of administrative science in Belgium and related to it the history of the commissions for reform.In his « Etude sur la réforme administrative », E. Ducpétiaux, Inspector General of Prisons first advocated, in 1859, the establishment of such a commission.During the XIXth century, there have been commissions for study and reform with only a part competence, although administrative reform aroused great interest and far-reaching questions were raised in this connection, especially towards the end of the century.The XXth century initially showed some hesitation when confronted with the XIXth century, legacy of proposed reforms. Later on, however, it was influenced by a new political and social fact, the « chain-creation » of commissions for administrative reform.Mr. Crabbe stresses the great importance, in administrative history, of the « Mémoire sur la Réforme administrative » by L. Wodon (1915) and of the observations made, in this connection, by King Albert to the Prime Minister. He then describes the succession of commissions between 1922 and 1936, with particular emphasis on the tendencies of the De Haene (1922–1925), Halleux (1926–1928) commissions and of that which was established in 1935 under the first premiership of Mr. Van Zeeland.His comments replace the problem of administrative reform in the atmosphere of the time and characterize all the contemporary events which were in favour of such reform (theoretical works, the intervention of King Albert, administrative achievements, and the agreement of all political parties on the need of a reform).The author then describes the circumstances which, in 1936, led to abandoning the principle of commissions and to appointing a Royal Commissioner for Administrative Reform, Mr. Louis Camu, and to establishing permanent agencies of reform (Inspection of Finance and the Service of General Administration).He incidentally emphasises the important work achieved by the « Centre d'Etudes pour la Réforme de l'Etat » between 1936 and 1938, and of the work pursued secretly, in this connection, during the war.He goes on to describe the new tendencies, brought about by the increasing weight given to social and economic considerations, and points out that this does not preclude attention being given to specific aspects of administrative organisation.He then briefly describes the work undertaken in London, during the war, by the Belgian Commission for the study of postwar problems.Mr. Crabbe then goes over to the 1945–1954 period and repeats the historical outline which he wrote for the report of the Max-Léo Gérard Commission, to come to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to establish new commissions. Quoting the above-mentioned report, he stresses the fact that commissions are not, in this connection, very efficient and that the political authorities take little heed of their recommendations.He concludes that the principle of « ad hoc » commissions should be abandoned in favour of a permanent agency of administrative reform, and that this organ should not go into technical details. He furthermore emphasises the principle that the problem and implementation of administrative reform are first and foremost a political question. Before the problem can be studied in earnest, one should be assured of the goodwill and agreement of the political authorities.Compared with this, the choice of an instrument of reform is of comparatively small importance, a problem, however, which cannot be tackled by entrusting it to commissions. These have shown themselves to be inadequate, and their existence should come to an end.

The Terrae Occupatae of Cornwall and the Exon Domesday

Professor Galbraith has recently dealt with the copy of a Southwestern Geld Roll which is preserved in the volume published by the Record Commission under the title of ‘Exon Domesday,’ on the last folio of which it is referred to as an Inquisitio Gheldi. He has argued — persuasively, though without removing all doubts — that the tax record was not only contemporaneous with, but in part dependent on and derived from, the information obtained by the royal commissioners of the southwestern Domesday circuit. Their main object was to provide the central government with the preliminary digest of the ‘original returns’ of the Domesday survey from which the so-called Exchequer Domesday, or volume I of Domesday Book, was finally compiled. According to Galbraith this digest, which was sent on to Winchester, was a fair copy of the rough draft that still survives in the volume referred to above, the Exon Domesday.

Deuteron bombardment of the heavy elements.

The results of the bombardment of mercury, lead and thallium by 9 M.e.V. deuterons are reported. The following radioactive isotopes have been detected: 5·5 min., 48 min., 36 hr., 60 day mercury isotopes; 4·4 min., 10·5 hr., 44 hr., and 13 day thallium isotopes; 10·25 min., 2·75 hr., and 54 hr. lead isotopes; 18 hr. and 6·35 day bismuth isotopes. The 10·25 min. lead isotope is positron emitting, an interesting result in an element of high atomic number. Absorption measurement have been made of the radiations emitted by many of these isotopes and assignments have been made in most cases.In conclusion we wish to thank Dr N. Feather for valuable discussions, and also for making for us a Ra E source. We are indebted to Dr Lewis for advice in setting up the thyratron scale of eight counter. This paper would be incomplete without a sincere acknowledgement of our indebtedness to the hard work of past members of this laboratory who have been mainly responsible for setting up the cyclotron.One of us (R. S. K.) is grateful to the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 for the grant of an overseas scholarship which made this work possible.

Report of the Royal Commission on the Textile Industry

While this inquiry arose out of the temporary closing of a mill at Sherbrooke, attributed by the management to the fear of Japanese competition, the Dominion Government called for “an investigation much more searching and extensive than is possible at the present time either by officials of any of the Government departments or by the Tariff Board.” The Honourable W. F. A. Turgeon, a judge of the Court of Appeal of Saskatchewan, was appointed a Royal Commissioner to make this investigation as speedily as possible. The completion of the report was delayed by the Government's decision to requisition the services of the same commissioner for a further study of the wheat problem, which occupied several months and necessitated investigations in England, but after two years' work and the collection of nineteen thousand pages of evidence, the report was laid before the Minister of Finance on January 20, 1938. It is an important document, which will undoubtedly be quoted, especially as a source of factual data, in discussions of the textile industry for years to come.Conforming with the terms of reference, the Commissioner sought information with respect to tariff protection, volume of production, investment, costs, profits, wages, salaries, and bonuses, and such other matters as might help the Government to arrive at conclusions “regarding the position of this and other branches of the textile industry in relation to British and foreign competition, and in particular, the extent to which the employer can reasonably and properly be expected to maintain employment over periods of temporary difficulty.”

Reading Rooms at the Institute of Physics

PRIOR to the annual general meeting, Lord Rutherford opened the new reading rooms at the Institute of Physics. Through the generosity of the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, some rooms have been allocated to the Institute for this purpose, and these have now been comfortably furnished. The Joint Library Committee set up by the Institute, the Physical Society, and the Optical Society has arranged that the libraries shall be combined for the mutual benefit of all, and thus a large number of periodicals and other books are already available for the use of members of the Institute and its participating societies. In addition, a limited number of textbooks and reference books are included in the library. In the course of his remarks, Lord Rutherford said that the opening of these rooms is another example of the cooperation of the participating societies through the Institute, which was one of the purposes for which the Institute was founded. Some of the rare old books belonging to the Physical and Optical Societies were open for inspection during the afternoon. It is hoped that authors and publishers will present suitably inscribed copies of their books, and in this way those whose attention has been directed to new books by the reviews published in the various journals of the Institute and its participating societies will have an opportunity of examining the books more carefully before procuring their own copies.