Durham, John George Lambton,
1st earl of,
also called (1828-33) BARON DURHAM (b. April 12, 1792,
London--d. July 28, 1840, Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng.), British
reformist Whig statesman sometimes known as "Radical Jack,"
governor general and lord high commissioner of Canada, and nominal
author of the Report on the Affairs of British North America
(1839), which for many years served as a guide to British imperial
policy. The "Durham Report" was largely written by his chief
secretary in Canada, Charles Buller (1806-48).
The son of a great landowner in Durham County, Lambton sat in the
House of Commons from 1813 to 1828, when he was raised to the
peerage as Baron Durham. (He was created an earl in 1833.) By his
second marriage he became the son-in-law of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl
Grey, a leading Whig and future prime minister (1830-32), but his
proposals for wide extension of the franchise and other radical
measures were distasteful to Grey and other orthodox Whigs.
In 1830 Durham entered Grey's Cabinet as lord privy seal, and with
Lord John Russell (afterward 1st Earl Russell and twice prime
minister) and two others, he drafted the first parliamentary Reform
Bill (1831; not enacted). After the passage of the third Reform Bill
the following year, Durham was sent on diplomatic missions to
Russia, Prussia, and Austria and then resigned as lord privy seal
(1833). From July 1835 to June 1837 he was ambassador to Russia.
Appointed governor general and lord high commissioner of
Canada, Durham arrived at Quebec in May 1838. Faced with
French-Canadian hostility, virtual anarchy in Lower Canada (in the
modern province of Quebec), and possible expansion of the United
States into Canada, he was given almost dictatorial powers.
Durham organized a new and more conciliatory executive council, and
on June 28, 1838, the day of Queen Victoria's coronation, he
proclaimed an amnesty for all French-Canadian rebels except for 24
of their leaders. For his moderation he was reviled in England. The
prime minister, Lord Melbourne, disavowed Durham's actions,
whereupon the governor general resigned and issued a self-justifying
proclamation.
After returning to England, Durham submitted his memorable report
to the colonial office on Jan. 31, 1839. He advocated the union of
Lower Canada with Upper Canada (in present Ontario), with a large
measure of self-government in order to preserve Canadian loyalty to
Great Britain and thereby to forestall the annexation of Canada by the
United States. Accepting the theory of imperial government put forth
by Buller and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Durham prescribed a Cabinet
of colonists whose recommendations on internal affairs were to be
executed by the governor general. Foreign policy and international
trade were to continue to be regulated from London. He also strongly
recommended that the French-Canadians be harassed into abandoning
their language and become completely assimilated to the
Anglo-Canadians. The union of the two Canadas (by proclamation in
1841) was intended in part to perpetuate the minority status of the
French.
