John Crawfurd (13 August 1783 – 11 May 1868) was a Scottish physician, colonial administrator, diplomat, and author who served as the second and last
Resident of Singapore.
Early life
He was born on
Islay, in
Argyll
Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.
Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
, the son of Samuel Crawfurd, a physician, and Margaret Campbell; and was educated at the school in
Bowmore. He followed his father's footsteps in the study of medicine and completed his medical course at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
in 1803, at the age of 20.
[
Crawfurd joined the ]East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...
, as a Company surgeon, and was posted to India's Northwestern Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
), working in the area around Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...
and Agra
Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...
from 1803–1808. He saw service in the campaigns of Baron Lake.
In the East Indies
Crawfurd was sent in 1808 to Penang
Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Ma ...
, where he applied himself to the study of the Malay language
Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines ...
and culture.[ In Penang, he met Stamford Raffles for the first time.
In 1811, Crawfurd accompanied Raffles on Lord Minto's Java Invasion, which overcame the Dutch.] Raffles was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
by Minto during the 45-day operation, and Crawfurd was appointed the post of Resident Governor at the Court of Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...
in November 1811. There he took a firm line against Sultan Hamengkubuwana II. The Sultan was encouraged by Pakubuwono IV of Surakarta
Surakarta ( jv, ꦯꦸꦫꦏꦂꦠ), known colloquially as Solo ( jv, ꦱꦭ; ), is a city in Central Java, Indonesia. The 44 km2 (16.2 sq mi) city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and ...
to assume he had support in resisting the British; who sided with his opponents: his son, the Crown Prince
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wife ...
, and Pangeran Natsukusuma. The Sultan's palace, the Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat
The Royal Palace of Yogyakarta ( id, Keraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, jv, ꦏꦿꦠꦺꦴꦤ꧀ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠꦲꦢꦶꦤꦶꦔꦿꦠ꧀) is a palace complex in the city of Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. It is ...
, was besieged and taken by British-led forces in June 1812.
As Resident, Crawfurd also pursued the study of the Javanese language, and cultivated personal relationships with Javanese aristocrats and literati. He was impressed by Javanese music.
Crawfurd was sent on diplomatic missions to Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
and the Celebes (now Sulawesi). His knowledge of the local culture supported Raffles's government in Java. Raffles, however, wanted to introduce land reform in the Cheribon residency. Crawfurd, with his experience of India and the '' zamindari'', was a supporter of the "village system" of revenue collection. He opposed Raffles's attempts to introduce individual ('' ryotwari'') settlement into Java.
Diplomat
Java was returned to the Dutch in 1816, and Crawfurd went back to England that year, shortly becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...
, and turning to writing. Within a few years he was recalled to South-East Asia, as a diplomat; his missions were of limited obvious success.
Mission to Siam, Cochin China
In 1821, the then Governor-General of India, Lord Hastings, sent Crawfurd to the courts of Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
(now Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
) and Cochinchina
Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; vi, Đàng Trong (17th century - 18th century, Việt Nam (1802-1831), Đại Nam (1831-1862), Nam Kỳ (1862-1945); km, កូសាំងស៊ីន, Kosăngsin; french: Cochinchine; ) is a historical exony ...
(now Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
). Lord Hastings was especially interested in learning more about Siamese policy with regard to the northern Malay states, and Cochinchina's policy with regard to French efforts to establish a presence in Asia.
Crawfurd travelled with notes from Horace Hayman Wilson on Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
, as it was understood at the time.
Captain Dangerfield of the Indian army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four ...
, a skilful astronomer, surveyor and geologist, served as assistant; Lieutenant Rutherford commanded thirty Sepoy
''Sepoy'' () was the Persian-derived designation originally given to a professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire.
In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its oth ...
s; noted naturalist George Finlayson served as medical officer. Mrs. Crawfurd accompanied the Mission.
21 November 1821, the mission embarked on the '' John Adam'' for the complicated and difficult navigation of the Hoogly river, taking seven days to sail the 140 miles (225 km.) from Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...
to open water. Crawfurd writes that, with the assistance of a steam-boat, ships might be towed down in two days without difficulty; then adds in a footnote: "The first steam-vessel used in India, was built about three years after this passage was written...."
The ''John Adam'' proceeded on what would be the first official visit to Siam since the resurgence of Siam following the 1767 Fall of Ayutthaya. Crawfurd soon found the court of King Rama II
Phra Phutthaloetla Naphalai ( th, พระพุทธเลิศหล้านภาลัย, 24 February 1767 – 21 July 1824), personal name Chim ( th, ฉิม), also styled as Rama II, was the second monarch of Siam under the Chakri ...
still embroiled in the aftermath of the Burmese–Siamese War of 1809–1812. On 8 December 1821, near Papra Strait (modern Pak Prah Strait north of Thalang District) Crawfurd finds fishermen "in a state of perpetual distrust and insecurity" due to territorial disputes between hostile Burmans
The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of t ...
and Siamese. 11 December, after entering the Straits of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, conne ...
and arrival at Penang Island
Penang Island ( ms, Pulau Pinang; zh, 檳榔嶼; ta, பினாங்கு தீவு) is part of the state of Penang, on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was named Prince of Wales Island when it was occupied by the British Ea ...
, he finds the settlements of Penang and Queda (modern Kedah Sultanate, founded in 1136, but then a tributary state of Siam) in a state of alarm. Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Halim Shah II, the Rajah
''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attes ...
of Quedah had fled the Rajah of Ligor (modern Nakhon Si Thammarat) to claim right of asylum
The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...
at Prince of Wales's Island (modern Penang.) British claim to the island was based upon payment of a quit-rent accordant with European feudal law, which Crawfurd feared the Siamese would challenge.
Crawfurd's journal entry for 1 April 1822, notes that the Siamese, for their part, were especially interested in the acquisition of arms. Pointedly questioned in this regard in an urgent private meeting with the Prah-klang ( Prayurawongse), the reply was, "that if the Siamese were at peace with the friends and neighbours of the British nation, they would certainly be permitted to purchase fire-arms and ammunition at our ports, but not otherwise." On 19 May, a Chief of Lao ( Chao Anu, a king in what is now Laos and soon-to-be rebel) met with Crawfurd, a first diplomatic contact for the UK. This visit was despite the isolation into which the mission had fallen. A Vietnamese embassy had arrived not long before, and tensions were high. Since Crawford's brief opposed the interests of court figures including the Raja of Ligor
Nakhon Si Thammarat Municipality ( th, เทศบาลนครนครศรีธรรมราช, ; from Pali ''Nagara Sri Dhammaraja'') is a municipality ('' thesaban nakhon'') in Southern Thailand, capital of Nakhon Si Thammarat pro ...
and Nangklao
Nangklao ( th, พระบาทสมเด็จพระนั่งเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว, ; 31 March 1788 – 2 April 1851), birth name Thap ( th, ทับ), also styled Rama III, was the third king of Siam ...
, there was little prospect of success. By October relations were at a low ebb. Crawfurd moved on to Saigon
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
, but Minh Mạng refused to see him.
Resident of Singapore
Crawfurd was appointed British Resident of Singapore in March 1823. He was under orders to reduce the expenditure on the existing factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with t ...
there, but instead responded to local commercial representations, and spent money on reclamation work on the river. He also concluded the final agreement between the East India Company, and Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor with the Temenggong, on the status of Singapore on 2 August 1824. It was the culmination of negotiations started by Raffles in 1819, and the agreement is now sometimes called the Crawfurd Treaty. He also had input into the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, also known as the Treaty of London, was a treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in London on 17 March 1824. The treaty was to resolve disputes arising from the execution of the Anglo ...
dealing with spheres of influence in the East Indies.
Crawfurd was on familiar terms with Munshi Abdullah. He edited and contributed to the '' Singapore Chronicle'' of Francis James Bernard, the first local newspaper that initially appeared dated 1 January 1824. Crawford Street and Crawford Bridge in Singapore are named after him.[
]
Burma mission
Crawfurd was sent on another envoy mission to Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
in 1826, by Hastings's successor Lord Amherst, in the aftermath of the First Anglo-Burmese War. It was to be his last political service for the Company. The party included Adoniram Judson as interpreter and Nathaniel Wallich
Nathaniel Wolff Wallich FRS FRSE (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the Danish East India Company and the Briti ...
as botanist. Crawfurd's journey to Ava up the River Irrawaddy
The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Orig ...
was by paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...
, the ''Diana'': it had been hired by the East India Company for the war, where it had seen action and travelled 400 miles up the Irrawaddy. There were five local boats, and soldiers making up a party of over 50.
Crawfurd at the court found Bagyidaw temporising despite a weak position with the British forces in Arakan
Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it access ...
and Tenasserim. The king conceded only a trade agreement, in return for a delay in indemnity payments; and sent his own mission to Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...
.
The expedition fortuitously was delayed on the return journey for repairs. Crawfurd collected significant fossils, north of Magwe on the left bank of the river, in seven chests. Back in London, William Clift identified a new species of mastodon (more accurately Stegolophodon) from them; Hugh Falconer also worked on the collection. The finds, of fossil bones and wood, were discussed further in a paper by William Buckland, giving details; and they brought Crawfurd the friendship of Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigating and d ...
, Foreign Secretary of the Geological Society
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
. There were also collected 18,000 botanical specimens, many of which went to the Calcutta Botanic Garden.
Later life
In the United Kingdom, Crawfurd spent around 40 years in varied activities. He wrote as an orientalist, geographer and ethnologist. He tried parliamentary politics, without success; he agitated for free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold ...
; and he was a publicist for and against colonisation schemes, in line with his views. He also represented the interests of British traders based in Singapore and Calcutta.
Radical parliamentary candidate
Crawfurd made several unsuccessful attempts to enter the British Parliament in the 1830s. His campaign literature featured universal suffrage
Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political sta ...
and the secret ballot
The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential v ...
, free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold ...
and opposition to monopolies, public education
State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...
and reduction of military spending, and opposition to regressive taxation and the taxation of Dissenters for a state church
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a ...
, with nationalisation of Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
properties. He joined the Parliamentary Candidate Society, founded by Thomas Erskine Perry (his brother-in-law), to promote "fit and proper" Members of Parliament. He also joined the Radical Club, a breakaway from the National Political Union founded in 1833 by William Wallis.
Crawfurd unsuccessfully contested, as an advanced radical, Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...
in 1832, Paisley in 1834, Stirling Burghs in 1835, and Preston
Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to:
Places
England
*Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement
**The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement
**County Boro ...
in 1837.[Douglas, Robert Kennaway (1888) "Crawfurd, John (1783–1868), orientalist" in '']Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
''. At Glasgow he polled fourth (there were two MPs for the borough), with Sir Daniel Sandford third. In March 1834 it was Sandford who was elected at Paisley. ''Alexander's East India and Colonial Magazine'' struck a note of regret after his defeat at Stirling Burghs.
On 31 January 1834 Crawfurd supported Thomas Perronet Thompson in a meeting agitating against the Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They wer ...
. Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, ...
alluded, in notes on one of Jane Welsh Carlyle's letters, to Crawfurd speaking at a radical meeting at the London Tavern set up by Charles Buller on 21 November 1834; in which he showed much more originality than John Arthur Roebuck, but lost his thread.
In Preston in the 1837 general election Crawfurd had the Liberal nomination in a three-cornered fight for two seats, as Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood was regarded as a waverer by the Conservatives who ran Robert Townley Parker against him; but he polled third. He also supported John Temple Leader
John Temple Leader (7 May 1810 – 1 March 1903) was an English politician and connoisseur.
Early life
Born at his father's house, Putney Hill Villa, on 7 May 1810, he was the younger son of Mary and William Leader, a London merchant, and Whig M ...
's candidacy at Westminster against Sir Francis Burdett, being deputy chairman on his election committee (with Thomas Prout, chairman Sir Ronald Craufurd Ferguson). Crawfurd spoke with George Grote at a meeting for Leader at the Belgrave Hotel.
Free trader
A lifelong advocate of free trade policies, in ''A View of the Present State and Future Prospects of the Free Trade and Colonization of India'' (1829), Crawfurd made an extended case against the East India Company's approach, in particular in excluding British entrepreneurs, and in failing to develop Indian cotton. He had had experience in Java of the export possibilities for cotton textiles. He then gave evidence in March 1830 to a parliamentary committee, on the East India Company's monopoly of trade with China. Robert Montgomery Martin criticised Crawfurd, and the evidence of Robert Rickards, an ex-employee of the Company, for exaggerating the financial burden of the monopoly on tea. Crawfurd put out a pamphlet, ''Chinese Monopoly Examined''. Ross Donnelly Mangles defended the East India Company in 1830, in an answer addressed to Rickards and Crawfurd. When the Company's charter came up for renewal in 1833, the China trade monopoly was broken. Crawfurd's part as parliamentary agent for interests in Calcutta had been paid (at £1500 per year); his publicity work had included facts for an '' Edinburgh Review'' article written by another author.
Colonisation of Australia
In reviewing Edward Gibbon Wakefield's ''New British Province of South Australia'', and subsequent writing in the ''Westminster Review
The ''Westminster Review'' was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal u ...
'', Crawfurd gave an opinion against systematic colonisation
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
. He considered that abundant land and individual enterprise were the necessary elements. Robert Torrens, who floated the South Australian Land Company, replied to the ''Westminster Review'' line in ''Colonization of South Australia'' (1835). Part I of the book is a ''Letter'' to Crawfurd.
In 1843 Crawfurd gave evidence to the Colonial Office
The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...
on Port Essington
Port Essington is an inlet and historic site located on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It was the site of an early attempt at British settlement, but now exists only as a remot ...
, on the north coast of Australia, to the effect that its climate made it unsuitable for settlement. He returned to the topic in a debate in 1858 on settlements on the Victoria River, as had been suggested by Sir George Everest. He generally opposed Sir Roderick Murchison's promotion of European colonisation of Australia, as far as it applied to the north coast.
Lobbyist for South and South-East Asia
When the Stamp Act 1827 was passed, meaning that all public documents in India would have to pay a stamp tax
Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). A physical revenu ...
(including newspapers as well as legal documents), Crawfurd was hired as London agent for a group of British merchants in Calcutta opposing the legislation. Crawfurd involved Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume FRS (22 January 1777 – 20 February 1855) was a Scottish surgeon and Radical MP.Ronald K. Huch, Paul R. Ziegler 1985 Joseph Hume, the People's M.P.: DIANE Publishing.
Early life
He was born the son of a shipmaster James Hume ...
, and he obtained newspaper coverage for his cause, including in '' The Examiner'' where the precedents from America were cited. He also wrote pamphlets himself, in which he advocated an end to the East India Company monopoly, and European colonisation. These moves occurred in 1828–9; in 1830 Crawfurd approached William Huskisson directly. His lobbying continued with the free trade issues mentioned above. ''Inquiry into the System of Taxation in India, Letters on the Interior of India, an attack on the newspaper stamp-tax and the duty on paper entitled Taxes on Knowledge'' (1836) is a related work.
In 1855 Crawfurd went with a delegation to the Board of Control of the East India Company, with representations on behalf of the Straits dollar as an independent currency. Crawfurd lobbied in both Houses of Parliament, with George Keppel, 6th Earl of Albemarle acting to bring a petition to the Lords, and William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-con ...
putting the case in the Commons. Among the arguments put was that the dollar was a decimal currency, while the rupee used by traders, and legal tender in East India Company territories since it was coined in 1835, was not. In 1856 a Bill to change the status quo on coins minted and issued from India was defeated.
In 1868 Crawfurd with James Guthrie and William Paterson formed the Straits Settlements Association, to protect the colony's interests. Crawfurd was its first President.
Last years
He was elected President of the Ethnological Society
The Ethnological Society of London (ESL) was a learned society founded in 1843 as an offshoot of the Aborigines' Protection Society (APS). The meaning of ethnology as a discipline was not then fixed: approaches and attitudes to it changed over its ...
in 1861. He died at his home in Elvaston Place, South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with t ...
, London on 11 May 1868 at the age of 85.
Works
Crawfurd wrote prolifically. His views have been seen as inconsistent: a recent author wrote that " ..Crawfurd seemed to embody a complex mixture of elements of coexisting but ultimately contradictory value systems".[ Ellingson, p. 310.] A comment about "hasty general opinions from a few instances", by George Bennett George Bennett, Bennette, or Bennet may refer to:
Politics and law
*George Bennett (Ontario politician) (1888–1948), Canadian politician, mayor of Windsor
* George Bennett (Wisconsin politician) (1810–1888), Wisconsin state senator
*George C. ...
on the topic of Papuan people, has been taken to be aimed at Crawfurd.
His 1822 work ''"Malay of Champa"'' contains a vocabulary of the Cham language
Cham (Cham: ꨌꩌ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Chams of Southeast Asia. It is spoken primarily in the territory of the former Kingdom of Champa, which spanned modern Southern Vietnam, as well ...
.
Diplomat and traveller
In retirement after the Burmese mission, Crawfurd wrote books and papers on Eastern subjects. His envoy experiences from missions were written up in ''Journals'' in 1828 and 1829. This documentation was reprinted nearly 140 years later by Oxford University Press.
*''Journal of an Embassy to the Court of Ava in 1827'' (1829)
*''Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin-China, exhibiting a view of the actual State of these Kingdoms'' (1830)
*''Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries'' (1856)
*
Historian
According to Jane Rendall's concept of " Scottish orientalism", Crawfurd is a historian of the second generation. His ''History of the Indian Archipelago'' (1820), in three volumes, was his major work. Crawfurd was a critic of much of what the European nations had done in the area of Asia he covered.
''An Historical and Descriptive Account of China'' (1836) was a joint work in three volumes from the '' Edinburgh Cabinet Library'', with Hugh Murray, Peter Gordon, Thomas Lynn, William Wallace, and Gilbert Thomas Burnett.
Orientalist
*''Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language'' (1852)
Crawfurd and Colin Mackenzie collected manuscripts from the capture of Yogyakarta, and some of these are now in the British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
.
Crawfurd claimed Cham for the Austronesian languages. His suggestion met no favour at the time, but scholars from around 1950 onwards came to agree.
Economist
Crawfurd held strong views on what he saw as the backwardness of the economy of India of his time. He attributed it to the weakness of Indian financial institutions, compared to Europe. His opinions were in an anonymous pamphlet ''A Sketch of the Commercial Resources and Monetary and Mercantile System of British India'' (1837) now attributed to him. Like Robert Montgomery Martin, he saw India primarily as a source of raw materials, and advocated investment based on that direction. A harsh critic of the existing Calcutta agencies, he noted the absence of bill broking in India and suggested that an exchange bank should be set up.
His view that an economy dominated by agriculture was inevitably an absolute government was cited by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lak ...
, in his '' On the Constitution of the Church and State''.
Ethnologist
While Crawfurd produced work that was ethnological in nature over a period of half a century, the term "ethnology
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...
" had not even been coined when he began to write. Attention has been drawn to his latest work, from the 1860s, which was copious, much criticised at the time, and which has also been scrutinised in the 21st century, as detailed below.
Polygenist
Crawfurd held polygenist views, based on multiple origins of human groups; and these earned him, according to Sir John Bowring, the nickname "the inventor of forty Adams". In ''The Descent of Man
''The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex'' is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of b ...
'' by Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
, Crawfurd is cited as believing in 60 races. He expressed these views to the Ethnological Society of London (ESL), a traditional stronghold of monogenism (belief in a unified origin of humankind) where he had come in 1861 to hold office as President.
Crawfurd believed in different races as separate creations by God in specific regional zones, with separate origins for languages, and possibly as different species. With Robert Gordon Latham of the ESL, he also opposed strongly the ideas of Max Müller
Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of India ...
on an original Aryan race
The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern ...
.
Papers of the 1860s
Crawfurd wrote in 1861 in the ''Transactions'' of the ESL a paper ''On the Conditions Which Favour, Retard, and Obstruct the Early Civilization of Man'', in which he argued for deficiencies in the science and technology of Asia. In ''On the Numerals as Evidence of the Progress of Civilization'' (1863) he argued that the social condition of a people correlates with the numeral words of their language. Crawfurd used domestication
Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...
frequently as a metaphor. His racist views on black people
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often ...
were laughed at, during the British Association meeting at Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
in 1865.
A paper by Crawfurd, ''On the Physical and Mental Characteristics of European and Asian Races of Man'', given 13 February 1866, argued for the superiority of Europeans. It particularly laid emphasis on European military dominance as evidence. Its thesis was directly contradicted at a meeting of the Society some weeks later, by Dadabhai Naoroji.
Analyses of Crawfurd's Racial Views
Recent analyses have sought to clarify Crawfurd's agenda in his writings on race and, at this time, when he had become prominent in a young and still fluid field and discipline. Ellingson demonstrates Crawfurd's role in promoting the idea of the noble savage
A noble savage is a literary stock character who embodies the concept of the indigene, outsider, wild human, an " other" who has not been "corrupted" by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness. Besides appearing in m ...
in service of racial ideology. Trosper has taken Ellingson's analysis a step further, attributing to Crawfurd a conscious "spin" put on the idea of primitive culture, a rhetorically sophisticated use of a "straw man
A straw man (sometimes written as strawman) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, whereas the real subject of the argument was not addressed or refuted, but instead replaced with a false ...
" fallacy, achieved by bringing in, irrelevantly but for the sake of incongruity, the figure of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revol ...
.
Crawfurd dedicated considerable effort to a critique of Darwin's theories of human evolution
Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development o ...
; as a proponent of polygenism, who believed that human races did not share common ancestors, Crawfurd was an early and prominent critic of Darwin's ideas.[ Ellingson, p. 318.] Right at the end of his life, in 1868, Crawfurd was using a " missing link" argument against Sir John Lubbock, in what Ellingson describes as a misrepresentation of a Darwinist viewpoint based on the idea that a precursor of humans must still be extant.
Ellingson points to a 1781 work of William Falconer, ''On the Influence of Climate'', with an attack on Rousseau, as a possible source of Crawfurd's thinking; while also pointing out some differences. Ellingson also places Crawfurd in a British group among those of his period whose anthropological views not only turned on race, but who also drew conclusions of superiority from those views, others being Luke Burke
Luke Burke (born 22 February 1998) is an English professional association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football), defender for club AFC Fylde.
Career Wigan Athletic
Burke is an academy graduate of Wigan Athletic. H ...
, James Hunt, Robert Knox, and Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.
Crawfurd's attitudes were not, however, based on human skin colour; and he was an opponent of slavery, having written an article "Sugar without Slavery" with Thomas Perronet Thompson in 1833 in the ''Westminster Review''. In dismissing Crawfurd's notes and suggestions on his work as "quite unimportant", Charles Darwin identified Crawfurd's racial views as "Pallasian", i.e. the analogue for humankind of the theories of Peter Simon Pallas
Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussian zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between 1767 and 1810.
Life and work
Peter Simon Pallas was born in Berlin, the son ...
.
The predominant approach in the ESL went back to James Cowles Prichard. In the view of Thomas Trautmann, in Crawfurd's attack on the Aryan theory there is a final rejection of the "languages and nations" approach, which was Prichard's, and a consequent freeing of (polygenist) racial theory.
Family
Crawfurd married Horatia Ann, daughter of James Perry. From 1821 to 1822, Mrs. Crawfurd had accompanied the Mission to Siam and Cochin China aboard the ''John Adam''. As the ship made way from Bangkok to Hué, Mrs. Crawfurd went ashore on an island in the Gulf of Siam, where she made a considerable impression upon the natives. The writer Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd
Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd (18 March 1834 – 31 January 1909) was a British journalist, man of letters and diplomat. He served over 24 years as British consul in Oporto, Portugal.
Career
Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd was born at Wilton ...
, born in 1834, was their son. The couple knew John Sterling, and the Carlyles. Thomas Carlyle met Henry Crabb Robinson at dinner at the Crawfurds (25 November 1837, at 27 Wilton Crescent
Wilton Crescent is a street in central London, comprising a sweeping elegant terrace of Georgian houses and the private communal gardens that the semi-circle looks out upon. The houses were built in the early 19th century and are now Grade I ...
), making a poor impression.[ Note 14.]
References
Bibliography
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*
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*Knapman, Gareth (2017)
Race and British Colonialism in South-East Asia: John Crawfurd and the politics of equality
Routledge.
Further reading
*Ernest C. T. Chew (2002), "Dr John Crawfurd (1783–1868): The Scotsman Who Made Singapore British", ''Raffles Town Club'', vol. 8 (July–Sept). Singapore : Raffles Town Club.
*Knapman, Gareth (2017)
Race and British Colonialism in South-East Asia: John Crawfurd and the politics of equality
Routledge.
External links
*
*
Royal Geographical Society Obituary
Obituary
from the ''Sydney Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...
''
Infopedia page
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