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The founding of Halifax in 1749 was a watershed in British imperial policy. The settlement was state-funded and served political, not commercial, aims. Mapping—the creation and representation of geographic knowledge—was essential to Halifax's success because it shaped Britain's relationship to the land and subsequently influenced how Britons in the settlement interacted with each other and with resistant groups. Cartographic knowledge was never static, but instead was affected by cultural, political, and economic realities that directed the work of local commissioned surveyors like Charles Morris, and metropolitan public mapmakers like Thomas Jefferys. From 1744 to 1755, geographic imaginings of Halifax changed to address specific imperial goals: first, reconnaissance maps and surveys delimited boundaries and provided data; second, early settlement geographic knowledge established Britain's claim to the Halifax region by controlling the Native presence and emphasizing British strength; and third, 'popular' cartography rallied support for the empire by promoting attractive imperial images among Britons. Geographic knowledge produced from the Halifax settlement indicates that spatial information was Janus-faced: maps and reports negotiated a fine line between value-free geographic information and imperially favourable geographic imaginations. In each case mapping and its cartographic evidence were key independent variables in the socio-political organization of power that situated early modern Canada in a British Atlantic world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical accounts of commissions of inquiry in Canada make only passing reference to the seminal 1846 Inquires Act. None explore the provenance of this legislation beyond a few sentences of the most general conjecture. This paper contends that Canada's first Inquiries Act was a by-product of a political crisis that grew out of the politics and institutional processes integral to the resolution of claims for rebellion losses in Canada during the 1840s. As the events associated with the passage of the 1849 Rebellion Losses Bill would disclose, this crisis posed an existential threat to the viability of the Union. The passage of the Inquiries Act, precipitated by the immediate contingencies of the rebellion losses crisis, marked for Canada a fundamental shift in constitutional authority dating back to 1688. The Act embraced methods of inquiry denied to the Crown since the late seventeenth century. Though created by a democratic legislature, the Inquiries Act revived a Crown-driven inquisitional approach to public inquires long since inoperative in Great Britain. The Act thus marked a shift in the relationship between state and citizen, and opened a new terrain for the long struggle to protect the individual against the all-powerful state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical accounts of commissions of inquiry in Canada make only passing reference to the seminal 1846 Inquires Act. None explore the provenance of this legislation beyond a few sentences of the most general conjecture. This paper contends that Canada's first Inquiries Act was a by-product of a political crisis that grew out of the politics and institutional processes integral to the resolution of claims for rebellion losses in Canada during the 1840s. As the events associated with the passage of the 1849 Rebellion Losses Bill would disclose, this crisis posed an existential threat to the viability of the Union. The passage of the Inquiries Act, precipitated by the immediate contingencies of the rebellion losses crisis, marked for Canada a fundamental shift in constitutional authority dating back to 1688. The Act embraced methods of inquiry denied to the Crown since the late seventeenth century. Though created by a democratic legislature, the Inquiries Act revived a Crown-driven inquisitional approach to public inquires long since inoperative in Great Britain. The Act thus marked a shift in the relationship between state and citizen, and opened a new terrain for the long struggle to protect the individual against the all-powerful state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds that early modern and later texts explaining legal vocabulary and history to non-professionals bring into focus two vying conceptions of enforcing narrative and terminological purity (a notion inextricably bound up with the authority to produce legal narratives): decontamination, according to one perspective, and enrichment to strengthen an essence, according to another view. The lexicons generally promote a notion of 'purity' that does not connote the removal of contaminants or foreign matter but rather depends on adulteration and heterogeneous additions. This paper argues that legal guide writers believed that cultivating impressions, and even illusions, of corporate authorship was key to attracting readers, who (the writers expected) perceived conspicuous reliance on numerous, diverse (foreign as well as domestic) sources as a mark of legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geologically interested savants of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries described three-dimensional spatial relationships through the visual language of maps and sections of the Earth. At this time, there was a debate whether colour or line should feature in mapping our strata. Colour was an identifying characteristic of Wernerian mineralogy, but the exact manner in which colour should be employed in representing a mineralogical landscape remained controversial. According to the engineer and geologist William Smith (1769–1839), words or symbols, engraved on a map, marred a visual simplicity that accommodated an immediate understanding of the area represented. Colour enabled a quick and rational study of the countryside so that the savant instantly visualized the logic of the landscape. André- Jean-Marie Brochant de Villiers (1792–1857), professor of geology and mineralogy at École des Mines, argued differently. In a letter to Thomas Webster (1773–1844), he remarked on the difficulty of correlating colours in the key with those of strata when studying Greenough’s Map of England and Wales (1819). By examining techniques of representation and the use of colour, this paper discusses the importance of aesthetics in the depiction of geological landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'The Persistence of Myth: Written Authority in the Wake of New World Discovery' examines how classical authorities continued to influence scientific knowledge in the early modern period in spite of the emergence of more experiential and empirical methods of cosmography. Demonstrating that experiential evidence from travel literature and material evidence from the burgeoning culture of collection often endorsed rather than displaced myth, the paper argues that the preservation of myth is not a facile protection of power relations but is representative of how material reality is inherently connected to and supported by mythical structures. The paper performs a temporal short circuit, suggesting not that an impoverished early modern science failed to understand the significance of empirical evidence but that the emerging discourse of science sought a mutually sympathetic relationship among art, myth, and empirical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“‘Mercyfull Warres agaynst These Naked People’: The Discourse of Violence in the Early Americas” explores how several early modern propagandists for colonial expansion construct Indigenous peoples and promote specific action. Working from the textual collections of Richard Eden and Richard Hakluyt, this paper examines how each writer takes specific steps to control terminology. By configuring Indigenous people as either violent or docile, they, in turn, become candidates for extermination or conversion respectively. The paper argues that Hakluyt's more complicated, contradictory, and subtle framing of colonial progress in fact urges a significantly more imperious and universal colonial project, invested in a widespread homogenization of culture and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new concept of Displaying Family shows how family life must not only be 'done' but also be 'seen to be done'. Both family members and external audiences need to recognise what is being conveyed during such displays -- and to accept them -- for these displays to be considered successful. Hence, there are multiple potential audiences for family displays. Drawing on empirical research, the article applies this important conceptual development to a study of the role of family in promoting community connectedness in a UK city which is becoming increasingly culturally diverse. Specifically, it examines the use of family display by migrant families and the observation of this by multiple audiences. The paper will consider early findings on the impact family display has on the forging of interactions and connectedness between communities and the development of a 'world building' rather than a 'nation building' sensibility. By acknowledging that the ideology of the family has both overarching themes but contextually varied interpretations, it will examine the potential of family displays--and their receipt--to allow the recognition of similarities between culturally diverse groups and to bridge the differences that extend beyond family. The article will present data from individual and group interviews with migrant families, including children, and other potential audiences of family displays to illustrate the application of this new concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gift book "Remember Me!" with Blake's wonderful engraving of the 'Hiding of Moses' was more remarkable for its decorations than for its literary contents. Of the twenty-four copies recorded, each differs from the others in the pattern of binding, colour of fore-edges, endpapers, and the decorated sleeve-case. Despite this varied elegance, the work had only a modest sale, and the same sheets were re-issued in 1825 for the 1826 gift-giving season. This paucity of sales may be related to the fact that the publisher John Poole had little experience of book distribution. His speciality was as a maker of Marble Paper and Fancy Pocket-Books, not in selling them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in 1863, to a greater extent than has been recognized, Captain Frederick John Butts (1833-1905) controlled the lion's share of the largest Blake collection ever assembled, works that his grandfather, Thomas Butts (1739-1845), had commissioned or purchased from Blake himself. A proposed redating of a visit from William Michael Rossetti, an examination of previously unreported court records, and an analysis of newly accessible papers of Mary Butts in the Beinecke Library—including a list of at least 'some' of Blake's works in the Captain's home—help clarify the division of property between the siblings and offer a fresh perspective on the Captain's actions and likely motives as preserver, manager, and guardian of his and his sister's heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on resistance, this article examines naval impressment in British North America from 1775 to 1815. Although neglected in Canadian historiography, press gangs sparked urban unrest and political turmoil in seaports such as Halifax, St John's, and Quebec City. Impressment reached into most coastal areas of British North America by the early nineteenth century and its sailors and inhabitants employed a range of strategies to resist it. They also confronted it directly, sometimes with violent results. Press gang riots in St John's in 1794 and Halifax in 1805 led to a prohibition on impressment on shore for much of the Napoleonic Wars. Popular protest served as the catalyst for official resistance to the British Navy and had a lasting impact on civil–naval relations in the North Atlantic world. While the study of popular disturbances in Canadian history usually begins in the mid-nineteenth century, this paper shows that they were important in earlier generations as well. This was often the result of tensions caused by imperial warfare and quarrels with military personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The culture of gaming that pervaded eighteenth-century English society provided many opportunities for the rising middle classes. Not content with enjoying card play in many settings, the middling sort were quick to recognize and exploit the potential for profit in the fast-expanding leisure industry. This paper explores the formalization of card games, the rich material culture of card play, the advent of Assembly Rooms as new social spaces, and the growth of resort towns, all serving as case studies in the commercialization of England's leisure culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of a rise in divorce rates coupled with an increased prevalence of cohabitation, a growing percentage of the population has experienced or will experience the breakdown of a relationship and also the possibility of forming another new relationship. This paper explores the impact of previous relationship and fertility histories on repartnering. Using a longitudinal approach we compare the nature of repartnering behaviour in the United Kingdom and Australia, countries with similar policy and legislative frameworks. Using prospective panels surveys (British Household Panel Survey and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamic in Australia), we find that within five years of becoming single, an estimated 49 per cent of the United Kingdom sample and 43 per cent of the Australian sample had entered a new relationship, most commonly cohabitation. Event history analysis reveals strong repartnering patterns by age, and residency of children. The effect of previous relationship type suggests that people who have previously cohabited are more likely to repartner that those who did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the trajectory of pension reform in the United Kingdom, which focuses on restraining the cost of the public program as the population ages while maintaining adequate income security for low-income households in retirement. Methods for achieving these aims have been to target public benefits to lowincome households, to permit individuals to opt out of the second tier of the public program into private retirement accounts, and to offer tax incentives to encourage additional private retirement saving. Frequent program reforms raise concerns as to whether households can make reasonable private saving provision in light of the growing complexity and potential shortcomings of individual decision-making. This paper sheds some light on these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes what we know and do not know about the links between family work arrangements and child development, drawing on research from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The paper reviews the evidence about how parental employment affects children's cognitive development, social and emotional development, and health; summarizes knowledge gaps; and makes recommendations for future Canadian policy-oriented research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As is well known, the distinctive feature of British colonial rule in most of tropical Africa was the utilization of indigenous authorities as the linchpin of local administration: the system of Indirect Rule whereby the British ruled their colonial subjects through their indigenous institutions. But one concomitant of the British presence wax the introduction of Western education, and therefore the emergence of an educated class. The contrasting situation therefore developed in which the British, committed to the principles of Indirect Rule, looked askance at the political ideas of the Western-educated class—the symbols and representatives of Western civilization. The manner in which this dilemma played itself out in Ijebu is the focus of the paper. The chief feature is the opposition of the Western-educated class to political control by the indigenous ruling elite. There were three developmental phases: the first was the unsuccessful agitation of the members of the educated elite for political relevance: the second was marked by political concessions to the educated elite: and the third phase occurred when the educated elite assumed the mantle of authority. However, their success was marked by a paradox: as the new political elite, they sought to attain legitimacy by acquiring indigenous office titles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of Conservative party policy during the 1950s and early 1960s towards resale price maintenance (rpm), the procedure by which companies stipulated the minimum price at which their products could be sold, which ended with the abolition of the practice. It attempts to place thin policy evolution within the context of the party leadership 's gradual adoption, from 1959, of industrial modernization and economic growth as the technocratic solutions to Britain's perceived relative decline. Modernization generally and rpm in particular caused a remarkable split in the Tory party, both in Parliament and in the country. Price maintenance was considered, by those Conservatives who favoured modernization, to be a significant impediment to the development of an efficient and competitive distributive industry. Unfortunately, the most tenacious defenders of the practice were small retailers, a group assumed by most politicians to be a solid Tory-voting constituency. Tory MPs were very sensitive to any measure that might disproportionately damage the interests of shopkeepers. In 1964, the government's attempt to rescind rpm led, unsurprisingly, to the largest revolt on a major issue by Tory back-benchers since 1940 and to considerable antagonism towards the administration on the part of its grassroots support. The dispute between modemizers and traditionalists in the party was fierce and its outcome in part determined the strategy pursued at the 1964 general election and the future direction of Conservative policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two crucial measures of educational attainment in Great Britain are the General Certificate of Education (GCSE) and A-levels. There is concern about boys' underachievement, as girls out-perform boys, particularly at GCSE. This paper examines the complex ways families transmit advantage across the generations. The author develops and tests hypotheses about how family background, maternal employment, parenting practices, youth characteristics, and young people's gender-role attitudes and aspirations in early adolescence differentially shape girls' and boys' later educational achievements. Data from the study support the hypotheses that adolescents' school plans strongly relate to later attainment for both boys and girls; whereas gender role attitudes and family formation plans are important for girls, but not for boys. In conclusion, the importance of gender in the intergenerational transmission of advantage is discussed.

The sexuality of women at midlife has received insufficient attention in social scientific inquiry. This is troubling given the number of women in this age group and the tendency to emphasize biomedical over social factors in research on the sexual health issues that may affect women at midlife. This paper reviews the literature on female sexuality at midlife including sexual behaviour measures from large scale national surveys in the United States, Great Britain and France. In the absence of comparable population studies in Canada, data from Canada's National Population Health Survey (NPHS) were used in a logistic regression analysis to determine the relative influence of sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health factors on reported sexual intercourse activity of 15,249 Canadian women 35-59 years of age. Across this sample, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were the most consistent predictors with health factors coming into play primarily for women over the age of 50. The study was limited by the lack of complete national data on sexual behaviour measures other than intercourse. While the Canadian government regularly collects data on a wide variety of health-related factors through instruments such as the NPHS, few if any questions ask about sexual behaviour and some provinces or health regions may opt to exclude such questions. Canada needs national surveys that give much greater priority to sexual behaviour and sexual health issues including those that affect women at midlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of the family--in particular family background, family structure and social and cultural resources--in explaining educational achievement in Britain. We use extensive panel data to track the relationship between family characteristics and factors associated with educational attainment for individuals from birth to age 33. Our results show that although social class is an important predictor of academic ability and educational outcomes, cultural and social resources in the family also play an independent role. Social resources in the family have direct and lasting positive effects on academic success and also play an indirect role by affecting childhood reading habits, which in turn affect educational success. Parental cultural practices are less important to early academic success, though they are positively related to the eventual likelihood of obtaining a university degree. In contrast--family size and structure are related to academic achievement early in life but have no direct effect on final educational outcomes. We conclude that the role of cultural and social resources in the family should not be dismissed when attempting to explain educational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in 1850 a series of governmental commissions were struck in Britain to examine the position of children in relation to the law. The purpose of these commissions was to examine the role of judicial punishment in the treatment of juvenile delinquency. The general view adopted reflected many elements of the late- Victorian conception of male-delinquency; hence, the various acts regulating juvenile justice suggested that whipping was an unsuitable penalty for adults, and the corporal punishment of girls disappeared except in reformatories. However, whipping was described as an ideal method of treating boy offenders. But by the early twentieth century, whipping was falling out of favour in England. In Scotland, despite opposition, birching continued to be used alongside probation. This paper examines the battle over the birch in Scotland, where by the 1930s a coalition of anti-birching labour organizations, women's groups, rural and urban police, magistrates, and social workers were challenging the use of this time-honoured method of punishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the perception of Kaiser Wilhelm II by the British foreign policy élite from the mid-1880s to 1914. Drawing on regular diplomatic reporting by Britain's representatives abroad as well as a wide range of private papers, it examines a series of seemingly minor incidents, which nevertheless played a significant role in shaping British establishment views of the last German Emperor. One of the key elements of British élite perceptions was the Kaiser's assumed, rumoured, and frequently commentedupon mental instability. The article seeks to demonstrate that Wilhelm's idiosyncrasies were of greater significance in the formulation of British policy towards Germany than has been previously acknowledged. British concerns about the Kaiser's flawed personality did not arise sporadically in response to his better known “outbursts” but were constantly present. As such they did not simply mirror the manifold problems with which Anglo-German relations were increasingly fraught after the turn of the century. On the contrary, the Kaiser's perceived public and private persona was one of these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on intermarriage between White Britons and immigrants from the New Commonwealth and Pakistan. The data presented in this paper are drawn from the 1983 General Household Survey of Great Britain. The data set was made available by arrangement with the Economic and Social Science Research Council Data Archive at the University of Essex, in England. Although some 25,000 households were sampled in the 1983 General Household Survey and !me of these households contained more than one married couple only 5140 married couples were retained for analysis. In 1983, approximately 4.3% of all United Kingdom residents were considered non-white in terms of ethnic origin. This percentage includes those described as mixed. The East Indians composed by far the largest ethnic minority with approximately 789,000 or 1.5%. The West Indian population numbered approximately 510,000, or less than 1% of the total, and was the second largest group. The majority of intermarriages had been contracted since 1975 or within the last eight years.

The essays in this issue derive from a conference held to mark the occasion of Professor Paul Christianson's retirement from active duties at Queen's University. A group of historians and literary scholars drawn from Canada, Great Britain, and America convened at Dalhousie University on May 2 and 3, 2003, to honour a colleague noteworthy for both his teaching and his scholarship. In their range of subject matter and approaches, the papers given at Dalhousie also testified to the breadth of Professor Christianson's impact. Whereas Spenser favoured martial law as a civilizing agent, Davies insisted on the necessity of the English common law to cultivate civility and a recognition of English sovereignty.

Information on several papers discussed at the conference of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS/IBG) held in August 2009 in Manchester, England is presented. It says that the interrelationship between state cartography and indigenous peoples in several contexts were examined in the papers in session one. Meanwhile, the paper opened by Nick Baron of the University of Nottingham in the session two analyzed the cartography of Soviet between 1919 and 1925.