Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1898: Volume 54, November 1898Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1898: Volume 54, November 1898
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Sir Henry Taylor, who procured the recall of an obnoxious governor by
submitting to a compliant Secretary of State a dispatch recalling him.
An outbreak of public indignation, like that against Governor Eyre,
may be needed to bring about the same result. Dupleix and Frontenac
fell before the machinations of their enemies, and the former was
allowed to die in misery. Hastings was impeached. Articles equivalent
to impeachment were drawn up against a Governor of New South Wales,
who, like Clive, suffered the indignity of having his administration
scrutinized by a committee of the House of Commons. Lastly, as a single
English king was brought to the block, so has a single governor, and he
the creature of an insurrection, expiated his rebellion on the scaffold.
The election of governors recalls the election of Frankish kings, but
really repeats that of the governors of commercial companies; how
powerful such elected functionaries may become is shown by the chairman
of an English railway company and the American boss. Leaders like Smith
or Winthrop, Cargill of Otago, or Godley of Canterbury, who give to
young colonies cohesion and the power to survive, or carry them through
perils, are their rulers by indefeasible sovereignty; in form they may,
as in Massachusetts, be only the presidents of the company out of which
the colony has sprung. Re-elected for twenty years, like Winthrop,
or thirteen, like Endicott, they may confer on the office a duration
equal to that of inheritance, and may show an independence greater than
a hereditary or an appointed officer can safely assume. Creators of
colonies, like Baltimore, Penn, and Oglethorpe, repeat a type that must
be rare in history, if indeed they do not originate the noblest of all
types of ruler, and are kings by a diviner right than that of any known
sovereign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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