Nation and empire in the government architecture of Mid-Victorian London: The Foreign and India Office reconsidered

Historical Journal

Volumn 48, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 703-742

  Bremner, G Alex ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COLONIALISM; GOVERNMENT; IMPERIALISM; NINETEENTH CENTURY; SOCIAL HISTORY;

EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; EUROPE; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE; WORLD;

EID: 27144490346     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X05004632     Document Type: Review

References (213)

1. Britain's population doubled between 1800 and 1850, as did the percentage of its population living in towns and cities with over 100,000 people. See R. Woods, The population history of Britain in the nineteenth century (Cambridge, 1995), p. 10
2. F. M. L. Thompson, 'Town and city', in F. M. L. Thompson, ed., The Cambridge social history of Britain, I: Regions and communities (Cambridge, 1990), p. 8.
3. Parliamentary papers (1839), XIII, pp. 233ff;
4. Builder, 26 July 1856, p. 414.
5. For instance, the Building News noted that the project was one of the most important architectural works ever undertaken in England. See Building News (BN), 15 May 1857, p. 476.
6. E. K. Morris, 'Symbols of empire: Architectural style and the government offices competition', Journal of Architectural Education, 32 (1978), pp. 8-13
7. M. H. Port, Imperial London: Civil government building in London, 1851-1915 (New Haven and London, 1995).
8. See also N. R. Bingham, 'Victorian and Edwardian Whitehall: Architecture and planning, 1869-1918' (Ph.D. thesis, Bedford College, London, 1985), ch. 1, passim.
9. The historiography of this interpretation may be traced back to well-known accounts such as Charles Eastlake's A history of the gothic revival (1872). For a detailed discussion of the encounter between Palmerston and Scott see D. Brownlee, 'That "regular mongrel affair": G. G. Scott's design for the government offices', Architectural History, 28 (1985), pp. 159-82.
10. The best account of this debate in relation to the Foreign Office is ch. 20, '"Such was the battle of the styles"', in I. Toplis, The Foreign Office: An architectural history (London, 1987), pp. 200-7.
11. G. A. Bremner, '"Some Imperial Institute"': Architecture, symbolism, and the ideal of empire in late-Victorian Britain, 1887-93', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 62 (2003), pp. 66-7
12. idem, '"Imperial monumental halls and tower"': Westminster Abbey and the commemoration of empire, 1854-1904', Architectural History, 47 (2004), pp. 251-82
13. T. Smith, '"A grand work of noble conception"': The Victoria Memorial and imperial London', in F. Driver and D. Gilbert, eds., Imperial cities: Landscape, display and identity (Manchester, 1999), pp. 21-39.
14. This is known as the 'Bodelsen thesis'. See C. A. Bodelsen, Studies in mid-Victorian imperialism (Copenhagen, 1924; 2nd edn, 1960).
15. The anti-imperialist myth of the mid-nineteenth century was broken down by John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson as early as 1953. For instance, see J. Gallagher and R. E. Robinson, 'The imperialism of free trade', Economic History Review, 6 (1953), pp. 1-15
16. idem (with A. Denny), Africa and the Victorians: The official mind of imperialism (London, 1961), pp. 1-26
17. J. S. Galbraith, 'Myths of the "little England" era' (first published 1961), in A. G. L. Shaw, ed., Great Britain and the colonies, 1815-1865 (London, 1970), pp. 27-45
18. G. Martin, '"Anti-imperialism" in the mid-nineteenth century and the nature of the British empire, 1820-1870', in R. Hyam and G. Martin, Reappraisals in British imperial history (London, 1975), pp. 88-120
19. J. Darwin, 'Imperialism and the Victorians: The dynamics of territorial expansion', English Historical Review, 112 (1997), pp. 614-42
20. J. Y. Wong, Deadly dreams: Opium and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China (Cambridge, 1998);
21. D. G. Boyce, Decolonisation and the British empire, 1775-1997 (London, 1999), pp. 44-69
22. see also P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins, British imperialism (2 vols., London, 1993).
23. D. Powell, Nationhood and identity: The British state since 1800 (London, 2002), p. 94
24. C. A. Bayly, 'The second British empire', in R. W. Winks, ed., Oxford history of the British empire (OHBE) (5 vols., Oxford, 1999), V, p. 71.
25. For an account of the eighteenth century, see K. Wilson, The sense of the people: Politics, culture and imperialism in England, 1715-1785 (Cambridge, 1998).
26. It was suggested that the new architect be chosen from one of the initial awardees. The competition had a total of seventeen awardees, three for the block plan proposals and seven each for the Foreign Office and War Office components. See Parliamentary papers (1858), XI, pp. 3-7.
27. For a full account of the government offices project see Toplis, The Foreign Office. For further reading see also C. Hussey, 'Foreign Office's threatened glory', Country Life, Feb. (1964), pp. 272-5
28. G. Stamp, 'The nation's drawing-room: Restoring the Foreign Office', Apollo, July (1992), pp. 23-29
29. M. H. Port, 'Government and the metropolitan image: Ministers, parliament, and the concept of a capital city, 1840-1915', in D. Arnold, ed., The metropolis and its image: Constructing identities for London, c. 1750-1950 (Oxford, 1999), pp. 101-26
30. A. Seldon, The Foreign Office: An illustrated history of the place and its people (London, 2000).
31. Palmerston to Scott, 26 July 1859, London, British Library, Palmerston papers (Private Letter Book), Add. MS 48581, p. 13. In his A history of the gothic revival Charles Eastlake described Palmerston as a man burdened with 'caprice and prejudice ... who had no sort of claim to connoisseurship'.
32. Parliamentary debates (1859), CLII, col. 519.
33. See 'Plan no. 2' in Parliamentary papers (Session 2, 1857), XLI, p. 221.
34. Parliamentary debates, CLII (1859), Col. 269.
35. William Tite (1798-1873) was a Liberal MP and architect of the recently completed Royal Exchange (1844). T. L. Donaldson (1795-1885) was co-founder of the RIBA and first professor of architecture at University College London.
36. J. Newman, 'Somerset House and other public buildings', in J. Harris and M. Snodin, eds., Sir William Chambers: Architect to George III(New Haven and London, 1997), p. 114
37. and B. Bergdoll, European architecture, 1750-1890 (Oxford, 2000), p. 67.
38. For the relationship between empire and classical culture during the time of Chambers, see P. Ayres, Classical culture and the idea of Rome in eighteenth-century England (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 15-17.
39. J. Newman, Somerset House: Splendour and order (London, 1990), pp. 15-29.
40. Buildings such as the new state apartments added to the Louvre and Tuileries palaces (1852-7) by Ludovico Visconti and H.-M. Lefuel had received extensive coverage in professional journals and were held up as leading models for public architecture by influential authorities in Britain. See Builder, 11 Mar. 1854, pp. 129-31, 18 Mar. 1854, pp. 137-40, 5 Jan. 1856, pp. 1, 7, 11 Apr. 1857, pp. 206-7. The winning designs of the original competition, those by H. E. Coe and H. H. Holland (Foreign Office) and Henry B. Garling (War Office), were modelled on this example and that of the Hôtel de Ville. See Builder, 1 Aug. 1857, pp. 434-5.
41. Henry-Russell Hitchcock has noted that the New Louvre was well known to English architects and the interested public owing to the Paris International Exhibition of 1855. He has also suggested that close contact between British and French administrators during the Crimean War would have pointed up the inadequacies of Downing Street accommodation. See H.-R. Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and twentieth Centuries ed. N. Pevsner (London, 1958), p. 159.
42. Robert Kerr, in J. Fergusson, History of the modern styles, 3rd edn, revised by R. Kerr (2 vols., London, 1891), I, p. 293
43. T. Metcalf, An imperial vision: Indian architecture and the British Raj (London, 1989), pp. 8-16.
44. Not only had the City's financial sector developed an architectural identity based on the stable and familiar forms of the classical tradition but the evolving connections among political patronage, financial influence, and the rise of the 'gentlemanly' middle classes had also established classicism as the style of choice for London clubs. See I. S. Black, 'Spaces of capital: Bank office building in the City of London, 1830-1870', Journal of Historical Geography, 26 (2000), pp. 355ff.
45. Remarks on a national style in reference to the proposed Foreign Office (London, 1860), p. 8.
46. This pamphlet was one of several that were published just prior to the new session of parliament where a decision was expected regarding the final form of the new offices. This decision was not taken until July 1861. See Parliamentary debates (1861), CLXIV, cols. 507-39.
47. Palmerston had earlier made a similar distinction by asking where in London gothic architecture was to be found. In his defence of classicism he cited buildings such as the Bank of England, the Mansion House, the East India House, the Royal Exchange, Somerset House, the Customs House, the British Museum, the National Gallery, University College, etc. - all located in and around the old City of London. See Parliamentary debates (1859), CLV, col. 933.
48. For a discussion on gothic culture in mid-century Britain see C. Brooks, The gothic revival (London, 1999), pp. 292-309.
49. Saturday Review, 23 May 1857, p. 474.
50. See also BN, 29 May 1857, p. 547.
51. See Scott's statement published in BN, 14 Aug. 1857, pp. 852-3.
52. Scott had also argued that the gothic style was used freely in secular and domestic architecture during the middle ages. See G. G. Scott, Remarks on secular and domestic architecture, present and future (London, 1857). Like Pugin, he was not entirely uncritical of revivalist architecture, especially its earlier phases.
53. See G. G. Scott, A plea for the faithful restoration of our ancient churches (London, 1850).
54. This lecture was paraphrased in retrospect in BN, 12 June 1857, pp. 613-15. Reporting on his second lecture less than a week later, the Builder noted that 'His purpose was to excite sympathy for the Gothic and national style, and antipathy to what he considered the exotic character, monotony, and general barrenness of invention common to the designs called " Anglo-Classic".' Builder, 23 May 1857, p. 283.
55. This was certainly the impression gained by one correspondent in the Builder (17 Sept. 1859, p. 622).
56. J. P. Seddon, 'Ancient and modern architectural ornament contrasted', BN, 29 Jan. 1858, pp. 109-12. This statement is somewhat ironic as one of the reasons given for abandoning the project in the first place was that the Indian Mutiny was considered too important to waste money on new public offices. In the wake of the Mutiny, however, it was clear that a new 'India Office' would have to be established.
57. BN, 22 May 1857, p. 502. T. S. R. Boase has noted that subjects of this nature had already influenced and were acceptable to popular taste by the early nineteenth century.
58. See T. S. R. Boase, 'The decoration of the new palace of Westminster, 1841-1863', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 17 (1854), p. 342.
59. David Brownlee has noted that Scott himself had made extensive comments on the draft version of at least one of these articles (National Review, Jan. 1860) and assisted in having the other one (Times, 19 Oct. 1859) published. See Brownlee, 'That "regular mongrel affair"', n. 89, p. 181.
60. J. M. Frew, 'Gothic is English: John Carter and the revival of the gothic as England's national style', Art Bulletin, 64 (1982), pp. 315-19
61. S. Bradley, 'The Englishness of gothic: Theories and interpretations from William Gilpin to J. H. Parker', Architectural History, 45 (2002), pp. 325-46.
62. Times, 19 Oct. 1859, pp. 10-11.
63. 'We, as Teutons', he implored, 'prefer to cleave to Teutonic architecture; as Englishmen, we select by special preference its English variety ... Gothic architecture is the architecture of the Teutonic race ... The architecture of England arose alongside of her laws, her constitution, her language. They are all the work of that wonderful thirteenth century, which made England what she still is.' National Review, 10(1860), pp. 24-53.
64. For an account of Freeman's liberal racialism see C. J. W. Parker, 'The failure of liberal racialism: The racial ideas of E. A. Freeman', Historical Journal, 24 (1891), pp. 825-46.
65. Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. (1859), pp. 62-5. He was not the only one;
66. see also letter to editor signed 'Archaeologist' in the Times, 1 Dec. 1858, p. 12.
67. Palmerston also made this point in parliament on II Feb. 1859. Parliamentary debates (1859), CLII, cols. 271-2.
68. BN, 2 Dec. 1859, p. 1075.
69. F. E. Scott, Shall the new Foreign Office be gothic or classic? A plea for the former (London, 1860), pp. 4-5.
70. Here he claimed: 'Is not that pre-eminently the style of LIBERTY ... in which unlimited vertical elevation and lateral extension are equally in harmony with the natural development of its principles of construction?'
71. F. E. Scott, Shall the new Foreign Office be gothic or classic? A plea for the former (London, 1860), pp. 4-5 p. 39.
72. BN, 14 Aug. 1857, pp. 856-7.
73. See G. G. Scott, Personal and professional recollections, ed. G. Stamp (Stamford, 1995), pp. 204-12. He noted of his competition design that 'It so happens that the Italian cities contain numerous examples of street palaces of the date I have taken for my style, and that from these many useful lessons may be learned, which may be engrafted with advantage upon a more northern stock.'
74. Times, 14 Feb. 1859, p. 6.
75. 'Report from the Select Committee', Parliamentary papers (1858), XI, p. 71.
76. He had already said as much in his first lecture at the Royal Academy in 1855. See G. G. Scott, Lectures on the rise and development of medieval architecture (2 vols., London, 1878), I, p. 17.
77. In A plea Scott describes Freeman's History as a 'masterly outline' (p. 7).
78. Influenced greatly by the idealist currents in German historiography and philosophy, Freeman's views on architecture were distinguished by his attempt to identify and correlate particular styles of architecture with specific cultural attributes. He considered gothic 'beyond all comparison' the noblest effort of the art of architecture. It contained that distinct 'vertical principal' which, in itself, he believed, was the hallmark of the ever advancing drive to progress that distinguished the 'northern genius' of the Teutonic and Christian races. See E. A. Freeman, History of architecture (London, 1849), pp. 295-320.
79. For a discussion of Freeman's History of architecture see W. R. W. Stephens, The life and letters of Edward A. Freeman (2 vols., London, 1895), I, pp. 132-8.
80. Scott, Remarks, pp. 262-3. In some instances Scott's ideas are very close to those of Freeman. For example, see Scott, Lectures, I, pp. 5, 7, 17, 217-19, 275, II, pp. 292-3, 309, 315.
81. Scott in Parliamentary papers (1858), XI, p. 71.
82. Freeman's objection to what became known as Imperial Federation was made clear much later in an article on the topic which appeared in Macmillan's Magazine (April 1885). He did, however, entertain thoughts that there might be some kind of (fellowship in civic rights) or a 'taking up of citizenship at pleasure' between places such as Great Britain, the United States of America, and Australia. See letter to Goldwin Smith, 19 Aug. 1888, in Stephens, Life, p. 384.
83. Despite this, it is worth pointing out that Scott was very much aware of the nature and extent of Britain's colonial empire. He had designed the Anglican cathedral at St John's, Newfoundland (1847), as well as a funerary monument to the governor of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham (1857-8). While working on the India Office he was also engaged to design a funerary monument in Calcutta to Lady Charlotte Canning (1864). See A. Trumble, 'Gilbert Scott's "bold and beautiful experiment, part I: The tomb of Sir Charles Hotham in Melbourne', Burlington Magazine Dec. (1999), pp. 739-48.
84. For instance, see W. J. Rorabaugh, 'Politics and the architectural competition for the houses of parliament, 1834-1837', Victorian Studies, 18 (1973), p. 166
85. M. Port, 'The houses of parliament competition', in M. H. Port, ed., The houses of parliament (New Haven and London, 1976), pp. 20-52
86. A. Fredericksen, 'Parliament's genius loci: The politics of place after the 1834 fire', in C. Riding and J. Riding, eds., The houses of parliament: History art architecture (London, 2000), pp. 99-111
87. R. Quinault, 'Westminster and the Victorian constitution', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (TRHS), 2 (1992), pp. 79-104.
88. H. Brougham, 'The new houses of parliament', Edinburgh Review, 65 (1837), p. 174
89. A. Alison, 'The British school of architecture', Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 40 (1836), p. 228.
90. For a study on the wider influence of Ludwig's example on British art and the new houses of parliament, see E. L. Winter, 'German fresco painting and the new houses of parliament at Westminster, 1834-1851', Historical Journal, 47 (2004), pp. 291-329.
91. Art Union, June (1842), p. 138. Eastlake identified this as the 'employment of individuals selected for the execution of great works of public ornament and patriotic commemoration'. Eastlake was an acknowledged authority on the history of art in England and was appointed secretary of the Commission. He later became president of the Royal Academy (1850) and director of the National Gallery (1855). A full account of the Commission and its objectives can be found in Boase, 'The decoration', pp. 319-58.
92. Parliamentary papers, XXV (1842), p. 15.
93. Boase, 'The decoration', pp. 349-58. Although most of the initial murals were abandoned, some depicting imperial themes were executed much later. These included John Cabot and his sons receive the charter from Henry VII to sail in search of new lands by D. W. Eden (1910) and Queen Elizabeth commissions Raleigh to sail for America, 1584 by A. K. Lawrence (1925-7).
94. D. Cannadine, 'The palace of Westminster as palace of varieties', in Riding and Riding, eds., Houses of parliament, p. 23.
95. It was this broad objective that initially led Eastlake to suggest that 'The place, always being open to the public, might contain a selection of subjects from British history, especially such as relate to warlike achievements, the vastness of the empire, and great commercial and civil events; subjects calculated to inspire the citizens with loyalty, patriotism, and enterprise.' Art Union, Sept. (1844), p. 290.
96. For precedents of this idea in British historical painting, see J. Conlin, 'Benjamin West's General Johnson and representations of British imperial identity, 1759-1770: An empire of mercy?', British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 27 (2004), pp. 37-59.
97. See also W. Vaughan, '"God help the minister who meddles in art": history painting in the new palace of Westminster', in Riding and Riding, eds., Houses of parliament, p. 236.
98. See also J. P. Parry, 'The impact of Napoleon III on British politics, 1851-1880', TRHS, 11 (2002), pp. 148-69.
99. Parliamentary papers, XIV (1856), p. 23.
100. Trevelyan was certainly alive to the significance that the architecture of great cities played in the public imagination. In a letter to The Times concerning the issue of British retribution in India, Trevelyan noted that Delhi had 'been a great city ... to which the attributes of supreme power [were] attached; and, instead of indulging in the vulgar triumph of destroying what must soon be restored, why should we not appropriate the traditionary associations of the place and make them contribute to the renown of our power? The Palace, that sink of iniquity and rallying point of every hostile influence, should be rased [sic] to the ground, and a strong citadel ... erected over the ruins of it. This would contain our magazines, artillery, treasury, and the barracks of the European troops; and it might be called Fort Victoria, as a counterpart to Fort William and an emblem of the final establishment of our power in the interior of India. ... As Delhi and its imperial associations cannot be obliterated, they ought to be strongly occupied on our own behalf, so that it may be apparent to all India who is master.' The letters of Indophilus to 'The Times' (London, 1858), pp. 9-10.
101. For instance, consider the debate and reform of colonial government in Canada and New Zealand. See R. Koebner and H. D. Schmidt, Imperialism: The story and significance of a political word, 1840-1960 (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 50-80.
102. R. Koebner, 'The emergence of the concept of imperialism', Cambridge Journal, 5 (1952), p. 733f;
103. Koebner and Schmidt, Imperialism, pp. 27-80
104. R. Koebner, Empire (Cambridge, 1961), pp. 288-97.
105. For the complex and stratified nature of British imperialism, see E. P. Sullivan, 'Liberalism and imperialism: J. S. Mill's defence of the British empire', Journal of the History of Ideas, 44 (1983), pp. 599-617
106. Boyce, Decolonisation and the British empire, ch. 3, pp. 44-69.
107. Parry, 'The impact of Napoleon III', pp. 168-9.
108. For political conceptions of empire see U. S. Mehta, Liberalism and empire: A study in nineteenth-century British liberal thought (Chicago, 1999).
109. For a more general account of the relationship between constitutional liberty and British national identity see H. S. Jones, Victorian political thought (London, 2000), pp. 43-73
110. and J. W. Burrow, A liberal descent: Victorian historians and the English past (Cambridge, 1981).
111. For a broader discussion of the civilizational perspective in mid-Victorian thought see Peter Mandler, '"Race" and "nation" in mid-Victorian thought', in S. Collini et al., eds., History, religion, and culture: British intellectual history, 1750-1950 (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 224-44.
112. For further discussion of the relationship between the British empire and national identity see J. Stapleton 'Political thought and national identity in Britain, 1850-1950', in Collini et al., eds., History, religion, and culture, pp. 245-69.
113. This is a perspective that Krishan Kumar has called 'imperial or missionary' nationalism. See K. Kumar, The making of English national identity (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 32-5.
114. Concerns were being raised about the probable cost of the new offices, the legitimacy of the competition, and the appointment of the judges. See Toplis, The Foreign Office, pp. 32-44.
115. Illustrated London News (ILN), 9 May 1857, p. 424.
116. See also Builder, 1 Nov. 1856, p. 589
117. BN, 20 Feb. 1857, p. 177.
118. BN, 8 May 1857, p. 441.
119. A. J. B. Beresford Hope, Public offices and metropolitan improvements (London, 1857), pp. 3-4.
120. 'A Cambridge Man' (A. J. B. Beresford Hope), The new palaces of administration: An earnest appeal to the public, and the committee (London, 1857), pp. 5-9. Westminster, claimed the Building News, was the one place in England 'which is, as it were, consecrated to English architecture'. It was where 'our national traditions still live', and where the institutions of England's forefathers connected most visibly with the present day. BN, 10 Dec. 1858, p. 1213.
121. One of the principal objectives of the Ecclesiological Society was to promote and therefore encourage 'proper', i.e. Anglican, church design in Britain's colonies. The society not only saw it as their responsibility to advise architects and clergymen engaged in preparing plans for churches in the colonies but also produced a series of pattern books 'chiefly for the sake of the colonies' known as the Instrumenta Ecclesiastica.
122. See Ecclesiologist, 3 (May 1844), pp. 116-17.
123. E.g. G. E. Street, 'The true principles of architecture and the possibility of development', Ecclesiologist, 10 (June 1852), pp. 247-62.
124. Ruskin's ideas on the association between the arts and British colonial expansion would be made public during his inaugural lecture as Slade Professor at Oxford in 1870. See John Ruskin, 'Lectures on art' (inaugural course delivered at Oxford in Hilary Term, 1870), in E. T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, eds., The complete works of John Ruskin (London, 1904), pp. 40-3. This lecture, the young Cecil Rhodes would later note, 'made a forceful entry into my mind'.
125. E. Boehmer, Empire writing: An anthology of colonial literature, 1870-1918 (Oxford, 1998), p. 16.
126. See also 'Mr Hope's essay on the present state of ecclesiological science in England', Ecclesiologist, 4 (Mar. 1847), pp. 85-91.
127. For the idea of patriotism in British politics during this period see D. Brown, Palmerston and the politics of foreign policy, 1846-1855 (Manchester, 2002), pp. 20-48
128. Parry, 'The impact of Napoleon III', passim.
129. Darwin, 'Imperialism and the Victorians', p. 627. Cf. n. 8
130. see also C. C. Eldridge, England's mission: The imperial idea in the age of Gladstone and Disraeli, 1868-1880 (London, 1973).
131. Darwin, 'Imperialism and the Victorians'.
132. BN, 8 May 1857, p. 441.
133. D. Williams, The India Office, 1858-1869 (Hoshiapur, 1983), pp. 133-4.
134. J. P. Greene, 'Empire and identity from the glorious revolution to the American revolution ', in P. J. Marshall, ed., OHBE, II, pp. 208-30.
135. See also Sullivan, 'Liberalism and imperialism', pp. 605ff.
136. C. A. Bayly, Imperial meridian: The British empire and the world, 1780-1830 (London, 1989).
137. For a discussion on British perceptions of the Indian Mutiny see B. S. Cohn, 'Representing authority in Victorian India', in E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger, eds., The invention of tradition (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 178-9
138. and J. M. MacKenzie, 'Empire and metropolitan cultures', in A. Porter, ed., OHBE, III, pp. 280-2.
139. This feeling comes across strongly in the third paragraph of Trevelyan's letter to The Times titled 'Retribution - Delhi'.
140. See Letters of Indophilus, pp. 6-7.
141. Although Ian Toplis gives the India Office some scholarly attention, the only dedicated studies of this building as a work of architecture remain Lavinia Handley-Read's 'Legacy of a vanished empire: The design of the India Office', Country Life, July (1970), pp. 110-12,
142. and John Cornforth's 'The old India Office', Country Life, Nov. (1987), pp. 164-9.
143. Anthony Seldon also gives the India Office some attention but, again, his book is titled 'The Foreign Office'. Seldon, The Foreign Office pp. 16-21, 79-86.
144. For a more general discussion of the building see M. C. C. Seton, The India Office (London, 1926), pp. 265-71
145. Williams, The India Office, pp. 129-48.
146. It is interesting to note that in several of Scott's original block-plan designs the India Office is shown as a closely related but entirely separate building. It was not until 1861 that he and Wyatt merged the two buildings together. See National Archives (NA), London, WORK 30/ 898-902, 979.
147. India Office Records (IOR), London, British Library, C/1, pp. 457-8, 504-5. Initially, only Scott was appointed, but after vigorous protestations from Wyatt the Council decided to engage Wyatt to oversee the 'internal arrangements' of the new building. Scott and Wyatt were on good terms and agreed to work together.
148. See Toplis, The Foreign Office, pp. 79-82
149. Scott to Wyatt, 17 Dec. 1858, IOR, L/SUR/5/8/6.
150. IOR, C/1, p. 456.
151. A small article did appear in The Times, 6 Jan. 1859, p. 6.
152. Act 24 and 25 Victoria, Cap. XXXIII (1861).
153. IOR, C/1, pp. 454-6.
154. See also Parliamentary papers (1864), II, pp. 319-21.
155. T. R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 28-65.
156. Economist, 26 Sept. 1857, p. 1062, and 2 Jan. 1858, p. 4.
157. Williams, The India Office, p. 7.
158. See also H. V. Bowen, '"No longer mere traders": Continuities and change in the metropolitan development of the East India Company, 1600-1834', in H. V. Bowen, M. Lincoln, and N. Rigby, eds., The worlds of the East India Company (London, 2002), pp. 19-32.
159. Cohn, 'Representing authority', p. 179.
160. Quoted from Parliamentary debates ((1858), CXLIX) in H. Verney Lovett, 'The home government, 1858-1918', in H. H. Dodwell, ed., The Cambridge history of the British empire (9 vols., Cambridge, 1932), V, p. 210.
161. F. W. Buckler, 'The political theory of the Indian mutiny', TRHS, 5 (1922), pp. 71-100.
162. D. A. Washbrook, 'India, 1818-1860: The two faces of colonialism', in Porter, OHBE, III, p. 420.
163. For instance, see the Royal Proclamation in Parliamentary papers (1908), LXXIV, pp. 2-3.
164. Ellenborough to Mangles, 12 Apr. 1858, PRO/3/12/9
165. see also Economist, 13 Feb. 1858, p. 166.
166. The history of these changes is covered extensively in Williams, The India Office, pp. 1-148.
167. Meeting of the Council of India held on Wednesday 22 Dec. 1858, IOR, C/ 1, p. 455.
168. See also minute by Stanley, 15 Dec. 1858, IOR, L/SUR/6/1, p. 6.
169. See Digby Wyatt and Scott to the secretary of state in council, 7 Apr. 1859, IOR, L/SUR/2/3, p. 239.
170. Williams, The India Office, p. 24
171. Economist, 13 Feb. 1858, p. 166.
172. For a thorough examination of the means and methods by which the East India Company acquired efficient control over the Indian subcontinent see M. Edney, Mapping an empire: The geographical construction of British India (Chicago, 1997).
173. M. Digby Wyatt, 'On the present aspect of the fine and decorative arts in Italy, with especial reference to the recent exhibition in Florence', Journal of the Society of Arts, 24 Jan. 1862, p. 149.
174. Little has been written on Matthew Digby Wyatt and his approach to design. The most substantial study is N. Pevsner, Matthew Digby Wyatt: The first Cambridge Slade Professor of Fine Art (Cambridge, 1950).
175. See also 'The Cole circle', in N. Pevsner, Some architectural writers of the nineteenth century (Oxford, 1972), pp. 157-67.
176. M. Digby Wyatt, 'Renaissance ornament', in O. Jones, ed., The grammar of ornament (London, 1856), p. 127.
177. As his sketch books show, Wyatt was also a great admirer and student of gothic architecture. See 'Album of 259 designs', Rare Books, Prints and Drawings, Yale Center for British Art, B 1975.2.705.
178. J. Sweetman, The oriental obsession: Islamic inspiration in British and American art and architecture, 1500-1920 (Cambridge, 1988), p. 164.
179. Pevsner, Matthew Digby Wyatt. Apart from his immediate colleagues in the Henry Cole circle, Wyatt shared this view with contemporary theorists such as James Fergusson.
180. See P. Kohane, 'Architecture, labor and the human body: Fergusson, Cockerell, and Ruskin' (Ph.D. thesis, Pennsylvania, 1993), pp. 144-7.
181. 'What glories may be in reserve', Wyatt had noted in 1851, 'when England has systematized a scale of form and proportion - a vocabulary of its own, in which to speak to the world the language of its power, and freedom of thought and feeling.'
182. M. Digby Wyatt, The industrial arts of the nineteenth century (London, 1851), p. 20.
183. He also noted that 'whenever the aesthetic tendencies of nations have demanded the embodiment of some great transitional phase of imagination, the fitting artist has seldom failed to erect correspondent monuments, thereby setting up beacons by which after ages, in looking back over the intervening sea of time, have been enabled to recognise the great features of physical and mental eccentricity, stamped on every crumbling relic of tower, tomb, temple, basilica, mosque, church, god, saint, or prophet' (p. v).
184. Pevsner, Matthew Digby Wyatt, p. 8. See also Wyatt's various designs in his Specimens of the geometrical mosaic of the middle ages (London, 1848) and his sketches of mosaics from a church in Ravello, southern Italy, in 'Album of 259 designs', p. 66.
185. See also O. Jones, Designs for mosaic pavements (London, 1842).
186. For Smiles on Wedgwood, see S. Smiles, Self-help (London, 1908 (first published 1859)), pp. 104-10.
187. M. Digby Wyatt, On the influence exercised on ceramic manufactures by the late Mr. Herbert Minton (1858), London, British Library, BL 7947.c.45.
188. See also Wyatt, Specimens, pp. 19-21.
189. Scott, Recollections, p. 200.
190. See Wyatt's letters and notes in IOR, L/SUR/2/5, L/SUR/2/6, and L/SUR/5/ 8/6.
191. Builder, 26 Oct. 1867, p. 782.
192. Ibid. See also 'Names of Indian "worthies" for busts for new India Office', IOR, L/SUR/2/6, pp. 116-22.
193. IOR, L/SUR/2/5, pp. 394-6.
194. 'Working out of sculpture tides &c. for India Office', IOR, L/SUR/5/8/6.
195. M. Digby Wyatt, 2 Dec. 1864, IOR, L/SUR/2/5, p. 394.
196. Anon., London and its environs in the nineteenth century, illustrated by a series of views from original drawings by Thomas H. Shepherd, with historical, topographical and critical notices (London, 1829), pp. 43-4.
197. C. Dickens, Dombey and son (London, 2002 (first published 1848)), p. 46.
198. J. Kaye, 'The house that John built', Cornhill Magazine, July (1860), pp. 113-21.
199. Seton, The India Office, p. 266,
200. and E. Walford, Old and new London: A narrative of its history, its people, and its places (London, 1880), pp. 390-4.
201. A full list of the sculpture that Wyatt had originally proposed for the interior and exterior elevations of the India Office can also be found in IOR, L/SUR/2/5, pp. 394-6, 436-41.
202. See also ILN, 6 Oct. 1866, pp. 340-1.
203. Builder, 14 July 1866, p. 527
204. IOR,L/SUR/2/5, pp. 436-41.
205. Richard Jupp, the architect of the late eighteenth-century alterations to East India House, wrote of the pediment carvings that 'The Sentiment of this Composition is that a Nation can only be truly prosperous, when it has a King who makes Religion and Justice the Basis of its Government, and a Constitution, which, while it secures the Liberties of the People, maintains a due Subordination of the several Ranks of Society, and where the Integrity of the People secures to each Individual those Advantages which Industry creates and cultivates.' Quoted from: 'The description and dimensions of the new front to the East India House, Leadenhall Street, by Richard Jupp Esq. architect, Messrs. Pinder & W. Norris, masons' (London, 1799), in B. and N. Kitz, 'Mr. Jupp builds the India house', IOR, MSS. Eur. D 1131/2, n.d., p. 12. For a further account of these sculptures see Anon., London and its environs, pp. 43-4, 63-4.
206. A sense of this missionary zeal can be found in the monthly publication of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts known as the Mission Field. See 'The Indian Mutiny and Christian missions', Mission Field, 3 (Feb. 1858), pp. 25-7.
207. See also Metcalf, Ideologies, pp. 45-9.
208. It is interesting to note, however, that both Lord John Manners and Beresford Hope were exponents of the missionary cause. For instance, see Manners's speech before the SPG meeting on 16 Dec. 1857 in the Mission Field, 3 Jan. 1858), pp. 14-19.
209. This association has been identified elsewhere by Jan Morris. See Heaven's command: An imperial progress (London, 1973), p. 265.
210. Wyatt had visited Venice in 1846 and later developed an appreciation for the architecture of Jacopo Sansovino, (1486-1570). See his comments on Sansovino and Venetian architecture in Jones, ed., Grammar of ornament.
211. J. Kaye, 'The house that Scott built', Cornhill Magazine, Sept. 1867, pp. 362-3.
212. Art Journal, 7 (1868), p. 225.
213. Parliamentary papers (1877), XV, p. 30.