1st Edition
British Politics and the Environment in the Long Nineteenth Century
This two volume compendium of archival source material chronicles British environmental politics between 1789 and 1914. The collection examines scientific discoveries and the result of these findings on the political environment, bringing the publics attention to public health issues such as acid rain and river pollution. The texts explore environmental conservationism as both an artistic and a political movement, and the ways in which environmental policy was regulated. Finally, the volumes explore the environmental costs of British imperialism in the nineteenth century, such as resource depletion and military ecocide. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, this collection will be of great interest to students of environmental and political history.
Volume 1
Acknowledgment
Note on Copy-Texts
General Introduction
Part 1. Discovering Nature: Science and the Environment in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Chronology of Science and the Environment in the Nineteenth Century
Volume I Part 1 Introduction
1.1 Biodiversity Decline
1. Gilbert White The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne
2. William Roxburgh Letter to Joseph Banks
3. Alexander Beatson Tracts Relative To The Island Of St. Helena: Written During A Residence Of Five Years
4. William John Burchell Residence in Cape Town, and Rambles in the Vicinity
5. Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology
6. Charles Darwin Origin of the Species
7. James Cowles Prichard The natural history of man : comprising inquiries into the modifying influence of physical and moral agencies on the different tribes of the human family
8. Alfred Newton Abstract of Mr. J. Wolley’s researches in Iceland respecting the gare-fowl or great auk
9. Arthur Tansley Presidential Address (British Ecological Society)
1.2 Resource Depletion
10. Thomas Malthus An Essay on the Principle of Population
11. William Forster Lloyd On the Checks to Population
12. William Farr Economic Value of Population
13. William Jevons The Coal Question; An Inquiry concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal-mines
14. John Cleghorn On the fluctuations in the herring fisheries
15. Thomas Huxley Inaugural Address. Fisheries Exhibition, London
16. John Croumbie Browne On Forest Schools
17. William Somerville Forestry in Some of its Economic Aspects
1.3 Pollution
18. Henry W. Fuller On the Use of the Arsenic in Agriculture-Poisoning by Arsenic, and Symptoms of Cholera-The Possible Effect of the Game Laws
19. John Snow On the Mode of Communication of Cholera
20. Robert Angus Smith Air and rain : the beginnings of a chemical climatology
21. Michael Faraday Observations on the Filth of the Thames
22. Cardiff Rural Sanitary Authority 'Pollution on Glamorganshire’s Rivers'
23. John Tyndall On Radiation Through the Earth’s Atmosphere
24. Ernest Hart Smoke abatement: a lecture delivered in the lecture room of the International Health Exhibition
25. John Graham The Destruction of Daylight. A Study in the Smoke Problem
References
Part 2: Romanticizing Nature: Environmental Conservation as a Nationalistic Artistic and Political Movement in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Chronology
Volume I Part 2 Introduction
2.1 Aesthetes and Conservation
26. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'The Raven'
27. William Wordsworth, The Excursion
28. Alfred Tennyson 'In Memoriam A.H.H.'
29. John Ruskin, A Protest Against the Extension of Railways in the Lake District
30. George Eliot, Silas Marner
31. William Morris, Under an Elm Tree; or, Thoughts in the Country-Side
32. John Clare 'Remembrances'
33. Octavia Hill, Our Common Land
34. Anna Sewell, Black Beauty
35. Louise De la Ramée (aka Ouida), The Waters of Edera
36. Edward Carpenter, My Days and Dreams
37. John Muir My First Summer in the Sierra
2.2 Conserving Nature and the Aristocracy
38. Jane Austen, Emma
39. William Cobbett, Rural Rides
40. Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil
41. Thomas Carlyle, Sign of the Times
42. Thomas Hardy 'The Dorsetshire Labourer'
43. Thomas Stafford Raffles, London Zoological Society
44. Richard Lydekker, The Game Animals of Africa (dedicated to Herbrand Russell)
45. Charles Rothschild, Nature Reserves: Formation of a New Society
2.3 Conservation and Fear of the Future
46. William Deslisle Hay, The Doom of the Great City: Being the Narrative of a Survivor
47. Alfred Russel Wallace, The Plunder of the Earth
48. Reginald Brabazon (Lord Meath), The National Standard of Physical Health
49. Charles Masterton & Phillip Wilson, The Heart of the Empire
50. H. G. Wells A Modern Utopia
Bibliography
Index
Volume 2
Acknowledgements
Notes on Copy-Texts
General Introduction
Part 1: Regulating Nature: The Environment and Policy in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Chronology of the Environment and Policy in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Volume II Part 1 Introduction
1.1 Public Health
1. Charles Knight, The Staffordshire Collieries
2. Edwin Chadwick, Report on Sanitary Conditions
3. Alexis De Toqueville, Journeys to England and Ireland
4. Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England
5. Charles Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveller
6. Fisheries Preservation Association, On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom
7. Lord Walsingham, Alkali Act Amendment Bill
8. David John Russell Duncan, On Smoke Abatement
1.2 Animal Cruelty
9. John Oswald, The Cry of Nature. Or, an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals
10. Thomas Erskine, Baron, Cruelty to Animals
11. Richard Martin, Bear Bating and Other Cruel Sports
12. John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (Volume 2)
13. Joseph Pease, Cruelty to Animals Act
14. Lewis Gompertz, Fragments in Defence of Animals, and Essays on Morals, Soul, and Future State
15. John Percival, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Bill
16. Frances Power Cobbe, The Moral Aspects of Vivesection
17. Reverend Richard Wilson, 'A Plea for the Sea Birds'
18. William Warde Fowler A Year With the Birds
19. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Bird News
20. John Lubbock (1st Baron Avebury), Importation of Plumage Prohibition Bill
1.3 The Commons
21. Alexander MacKenzie, The History of the Highland Clearances
22. Samuel Smiles, Mr Rennie’s Drainage of the Lincoln and Cambridge Fens
23. George Shaw Lefevre, English Commons and Forests. The Story of the Battle During the Last Thirty Years for Public Rights Over the Commons and Forests of England and Wales
24. James Bryce, Access to Mountains
25. Robert Hunter, Commons
References
Part 2: Conquering Nature: The Environment in British Imperialism and Foreign Policy in the Nineteenth Century
Chronology of the Environment in British Imperialism and Foreign Policy in the Nineteenth Century
Volume II Part 2 Introduction
2.1 Imperial Sustainability
26. Philip Viberi, A Few hints on Foreign and Home Colonization
27. Harold J. MacKinder, On the Scope and Methods of Geography
28. Charles Edward Trevelyan, The Irish Crisis
29. Viceroy Lord Lytton, 'The Famine Campaign in Southern India, Madras and Bombay Presidencies and Province of Mysore'
30. James Atkinson, An Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales: Including Observations on the Soils and General Appearance of the Country
31. William Patrick Andrew, The Scinde Railway and its Relations to the Euphrates Valley and Other Routes to India
32. Michael Hicks-Beach, Further Despatches from the Secretary of State to the Governor of New Zealand. Presented to Both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency
33. Lord Curzon, Speech to the Burma Game Preservation Association, Rangoon
34. William Scoresby, An Account of the Arctic Regions
35. Central Government Act: The Oriental Gas Company
2.2 Military Ecocide
36. Lord Viscount Wellington, Marshall General, Proclamation to the People of Portugal
37. John Davy, An Account of the Interior of Ceylon and of its Inhabitants with Travels in that Island
38. Francis Foster, Letter to Parents
39. Colonel Whitmore, Letter to the Hon. Colonel Haultain
40. Francis Stirling, Despatches Received by the Admiralty Regarding the Murder in Malay of James Birch
41. Emily Hobhouse, The Brunt of the War and Where it Fell
42. William Wallace, Annual Report of the Colonies: Northern Nigeria
2.3 The Birth of Global Environmental Policy
43. George Cornewall Lewis, Memorandum Respecting Quarantine Regulations in the Mediterranean
44. Convention for Regulating the Police of the North Sea Fisheries
45. Treaty Concerning the Jan Mayen Seal Fishery
46. Award Between the United States and the United Kingdom Relating to the Rights of Jurisdiction of United States in the Bering's Sea and the Preservation of Fur Seals
47. Convention Between the United States, Great Britain, Russia and Japan for the Preservation and Protection of Fur Seals
48. Convention Designed To Ensure The Conservation Of Various Species Of Wild Animals In Africa, Which Are Useful To Man Or Inoffensive
49. Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire
50. Convention (II) with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land and Its Annex: Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land
References
Index
Biography
Peter Hough is an Associate Professor in International Politics at Middlesex University, London. He is the author of Back to the future: environmental security in nineteenth century global politics (2019).
