Colonies

Lord Grey and the ‘Publication of Colonial Papers’ 1849. Private Circular Dispatch to Colonial Governors discussing the question.

rif. 24267 — Dated from Downing Street 15 June 1849. An interesting indication of the Victorian approach to transparency in government. Extracted from a volume of Parliamentary Circulars with the ownership signature "Frederick Peel" Member of Parliament from Feb. 1849 dated 1839-1851. A scarce item: no other copy traced. Dispatch with ‘Circular. / Private.’ in the margin. Headed in manuscript ‘Publication of Colonial Papers. / Parliamentary Papers’. At end in manuscript not Grey’s handwriting: ‘/sd/ Gray’. In good condition lightly aged. 4pp 8vo. Disbound from volume and paginated in manuscript 175-178. Printed in copperplate font. Begins: ‘Having received from some of the Governors of His Majesty’s Colonies statements of the injury to the Public Service which has occasionally resulted from the communication to Parliament and the consequent publication of despatches and other documents received at this Office from the Governors I think it expedient to call your attention to the fact that the increasing direction of public attention towards the affairs of the Colonies has lately led to very frequent and pressing applications from Members of Parliament for the communication to Parliament of the whole or portions of correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Governors and it has often been found difficult for the Secretary of State to judge at a distance whether injury would or would not arise to the public interests of a Colony from the communication of the papers applied for’. Dated from Downing Street, 15 June 1849. unknown