Britain and the American Revolution

297 Pages·1998·10.307 MB·English

by  H. T. Dickinson (Editor)

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Britain and the American Revolution
Page Intentionally Left Blank
Britain and the
American Revolution
Edited by
H.T. DICKINSON
~ ~~o~~~~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1998 by Addison Wesley Longman Group Limited
Published 2014 by Routledge
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Copyright© 1998, Taylor & Francis.
The right of H.T. Dickinson to be identified as author of
this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with
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hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
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ISBN 13:978-0-582-31839-7 (pbk)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this title is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Set by 35 in 10I 12pt Baskerville
Contents
Preface vii
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Contributors X
Introduction H. T. Dickinson 1
1. Britain and the Administration of the American
Colonies 21
Keith Mason
2. Government Policy and the American Crisis
1760-1776 44
John Derry
3. Britain's Imperial Sovereignty: The Ideological Case
against the American Colonists 64
H. T. Dickinson
4. The Parliamentary Opposition to the Government's
American Policy 1760-1782 97
Frank 0 'Gorman
5. The British Public and the American Revolution:
Ideology, Interest and Opinion 124
James E. Bradley
6. British Governments and the Conduct of the
American War 155
Stephen Conway
7. Britain as a European Great Power in the Age of
the American Revolution 180
H.M. Scott
8. The Impact of the American Revolution on Ireland 205
Neil Longley York
v
vi Contents
9. The Loss of America 233
John Cannon
Further Reading 258
Maps 266
1. The American colonies 267
2. Europe 1775-83 268
3. Britain at war 1775-83 270
4. The European theatre of the war 272
Index 273
Preface
This collection of essays offers readers a more detailed and rounded
single-volume study of Britain and the American Revolution than is
at present available. In marked contrast to the numerous studies of
America during the revolutionary decades, there are surprisingly
few single-volume works on this subject and those that are available
generally either end in 1776 with the American Declaration of Inde
pendence or focus on the War of Independence between 1775 and
1783. Only two books attempt to cover the whole period. The oldest
is Ian Christie's Crisis ofE mpire (1966). It covers the years from 1775
in less than fourteen pages, and is less than half the length of the
present study. Keith Perry's British Politics and the American Revolution
(1990) is as short, is not based on any original research and even
ignores some of the major secondary sources. It is very limited in its
approach, being essentially a narrative account of the actions of
successive British administrations, and it is erratic and error-prone.
The present book, on the other hand, explores in greater depth than
most others not merely the colonial policy of the British government
and the war against the rebellious colonies, but the ideological
debate, the British critics of government policy in and out of parlia
ment, the diplomatic situation, the impact of the American crisis on
Ireland, and the consequences of the loss of the American colonies.
I have long been interested in Britain and the American Revolu
tion and taught the subject many years ago, but other tasks and
interests prevented me devoting sufficient research time to publish
on the subject. Sabbatical leave and the great privilege of being
appointed as the Douglas Southall Freeman visiting professor at
the University of Richmond, Virginia, in 1997, has allowed me time
to do some serious research on Britain and the American Revolu
tion. I am very grateful to those who endowed this professorship
and to Professor John Gordon, chair of the History Department at
Richmond, and all his staff and colleagues there, as well as those
students who took my course at Richmond, for making my stay
there so enjoyable and fruitful. It is enormously stimulating to work
vii
viii Preface
in the academic environment of the United States and the Amer
ican Revolution is an endlessly fascinating topic.
For many years now I have been advised on the research of
American historians working on the colonial side of the American
crisis by my colleague Dr Alan Day. Another colleague, Dr Frances
Dow, has read with great care the drafts of my work throughout my
many years at Edinburgh University, has improved all that I have
written, and has had a major impact on all I have done.
While I am responsible for two chapters in this collection and
for planning the whole volume, I have been extremely fortunate in
the quality of my fellow contributors. They are all major and very
busy scholars, but they were ready to accept my suggestions about
the shape of their contributions and they all submitted their essays
on time - a rare event for such collaborative ventures. Andrew
MacLennan in the Academic Department at Addison Wesley Long
man offered encouragement at the right time and showed faith in
this volume. I can only hope this was justified.
Harry Dickinson
Edinburgh University
List of Abbreviations
Add. MSS Additional Manuscripts
AHR American Historical Review
BJECS BritishJ ournal ofE ighteenth-Century Studies
BL British Library
Burke's Corr. Thomas W. Copeland et al., eds, The
Correspondence of Edmund Burke 10 vols
(Cambridge, 1958-70)
Burke's Writings and Speeches Paul Langford et al., eds, The Writings
and Speeches of Edmund Burke 9 vols
(Oxford, 1981-98)
Corr. of George III Sir John Fortescue, ed., Correspondence
of King George the Third from 1760 to
December 17836vols (London, 1927-8)
EcHR Economic History Review
EHR English Historical Review
HJ Historical Journal
HLQ Huntington Library Quarterly
HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission
JAH Journal of American History
JBS
Journal of British Studies
JICH Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth
History
JMH Journal of Modem History
NLI National Library of Ireland
Parliamentary History William Cobbett, ed., The Parliamentary
History of England ... to the Year 1803
36 vols (London, 1806-20)
PH Parliamentary History
P&P Past and Present
PRO Public Record Office
PSQ Political Science Quarterly
TRHS Transactions of the Ruyal Historical Society
l-tMQ William and Mary Quarterly
IX