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John Backhouse and the Origins of the Permanent Undersecretaryship for Foreign Affairs: 1828-1842

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Charles R. Middleton
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Extract

One of the more important features of the transformation of the departmental service of the eighteenth century into the civil service of the nineteenth century was the emergence of the permanent official. There had always been a degree of permanence in the bureaucracy, particularly in the clerical positions, but in the higher ranks and especially among the undersecretaries the distinction between political and clerical officers tended to be blurred and each man had responsibilities in both spheres. By 1830 these officials no longer occupied ambivalent situations. In most departments one was a political appointee whose position was dependent on the political fortunes of the minister. The other undersecretary, however, had shed his political responsibilities and as a consequence was more or less immune to the political forces of parliamentary politics.

Yet the process whereby these events took place was to a certain extent individualized in different departments. In the case of the Foreign Office the impact of financial and political changes in the state was considerably less important than in departments such as the Treasury. Neither of the foreign undersecretaries had ever had much influence over the formation of policy, nor were they to gain responsibility in this area during the 1830s. Yet clearly by the time Lord Palmerston became foreign secretary one of these men, John Backhouse, occupied a permanent position while his colleague, Sir George Shee, held a more temporary status. The distinction between the two positions became more rigid during the period Backhouse remained in office not so much as a result of political forces in the state, though these forces contributed somewhat to the changes that occurred, but as a consequence of Backhouse's growing responsibility for supervising the establishment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 1974 , pp. 25 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1974

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References

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74. PRO, Minute, Backhouse, 28 June 1832, F.O. 366/313.

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78. This closeness was shown in the comment by Edmund Hammond, a second division clerk who later became permanent undersecretary, in response to news of the resignation of the Whigs in 1832, that “I suppose there is no chance of Back-house leaving us. I trust he will not do so, as we shall be undone without him.” Foxholme, Surrey, Hammond to Thomas Staveley, Therassia, 1 June 1832, Barnes MSS, quoted by permission of Col. A. C. Barnes.

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101. PRO, Backhouse's “Memo No. 2 on the change … in the Two Divisions of the Under Secretaries of State, 1838,” F.O. 366/386.

102. Ibid.

103. PRO, Minute, Fox-Strangways, 3 July 1838, F.O. 366/386.

104. Ibid.

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