AFRICAN AND COLONIAL JOURNALS

The Colonial Gazette, 1838-1847

Publisher's Note

Promising "Ships, Colonies and Commerce!" and published in connection with the Colonial Society this newspaper provides shipping intelligence, market information and reviews. Such subjects as Negro Emancipation, Trust Companies, the Aborigine Protection Society and criticism of Colonial Governments are all to the fore. Coverage includes Canada, Newfoundland, the West Indies, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, South Australia, the East Indies, China and the United States with regular sections by correspondents reporting from these areas.

Issue No 61 for January 22, 1840 has articles on Downing Street Legislation for the Colonies, Ordinary Objections to Responsible Government, news from Correspondents around the World and Colonial Markets.

There is scathing criticism of the British Government. "As for the Cabinet, what a delusion it is to imagine that any set of men, whose whole thoughts are engaged with the politics of the Mother-country, should trouble themselves with Colonial questions when they can possibly help it! Canada would not have been even named in the last Royal Speech if there had not been a rebellion in the case. No Minister ever thinks of calling the attention of Parliament to a Colonial question…".

The next issue has a report about the New Colonisation Commission and an analysis of Lord John Russell’s despatches on "Responsible Government". The editorial column on page 74 boasts "scarcely a colony of the British empire but contributes to enrich our columns this week. From North America, the West Indies, South Africa, New South Wales, Van Diemen’s land, South Australia and the Swan River, we report intelligence of varied interest. The use of a journal in the Metropolis of England devoted to the affairs of the Colonies in general, never received a stronger demonstration, for with all this teeming abundance of matter, a great deal of it really important, all other newspapers are nearly as destitute of Colonial features as if no ship had touched our shores".

The journal is a good source for Empire Studies, Economic History and World History.

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