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Tourism and the Development of the Modern British Passport, 1814–1858

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2012

Martin Anderson
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 258 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2010

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References

1 Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 111, 14 May to 17 June 1850, 400.

2 Fahrmeir, Andreas, “Government and Forgers: Passports in Nineteenth Century Europe,” in Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World, ed. Caplan, Jane and Torpey, John (Princeton, NJ, 2001), 220.Google Scholar

3 Torpey, John, The Invention of the Passport (Cambridge, 2000), 6–7.Google Scholar Torpey characterizes this as an effort by modern states to “embrace their citizens.”

4 Ibid.; and Torpey, John, “Coming and Going: On the State Monopolization of the Legitimate ‘Means of Movement,’” Sociological Theory 16, no. 3 (November 1998): 240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 I use tourism as a historical phenomenon in the same sense that E. P. Thompson described class, something “unifying a number of disparate and seemingly unconnected events, both raw material of experience and in consciousness” (Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class [New York, 1966], 9).Google Scholar

6 The Great Exhibition of 1851 is an example; it was quickly copied by Napoleon III with the Paris Exhibition of 1855.

7 Colley, Linda, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (London, 1992), 6.Google Scholar

8 Rapport, Michael, Nineteenth Century Europe (New York, 2005), 60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Colley, Britons, 6.

10 Historians who have written on aspects of this are Black, Jeremy, The British and the Grand Tour (London, 1985)Google Scholar, substantially revised as The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1992)Google Scholar; Pemble, John, The Mediterranean Passion: Victorians and Edwardians in the South (Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar, and Venice Rediscovered (Oxford, 1995)Google Scholar; Ousby, Ian, The Englishman's England: Taste, Travel and the Rise of Tourism (Cambridge, 1990)Google Scholar; O’Connor, Maura, The Romance of Italy and the English Political Imagination (New York, 1998)Google Scholar; and Jarvis, Robin, Romantic Writing and Pedestrian Travel (New York, 1997).Google Scholar Most of these works have appeared since 1991, when Eric Leed urged fellow historians to consider that travel “was a central rather than a peripheral force in historical transformations.” Leed, See, The Mind of the Traveler (New York, 1991), 4–5, 18Google Scholar; Towner, John and Wall, Geoffrey, “History and Tourism,” Annals of Tourism Research 18 (1991): 1, 73.Google Scholar There is a vast literature on tourism in the fields of anthropology and sociology. Some noted works are MacCannell, Dean, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (New York, 1976)Google Scholar; Nash, Dennison, Anthropology of Tourism (New York, 1996)Google Scholar; Urry, John, The Tourist Gaze (London, 1990)Google Scholar; and Urry, John and Rojek, Chris, Touring Cultures (London, 1997)Google Scholar.

11 Stuart Semmel, “Reading the Tangible Past: British Tourism, Collecting, and Memory after Waterloo,” Representations, special issue, no. 69 (Winter 2000): 10. Semmel provides part of the story by explaining attempts to sustain the memory of Waterloo through the site of the battlefield as tangible evidence of the past.

12 Leo Lucassen, “A Many-Headed Monster: The Evolution of the Passport System in the Netherlands and Germany in the Long Nineteenth Century,” in Caplan and Torpey, Documenting Individual Identity, 235. Lloyd's, MartinThe Passport: The History of Man's Most Travelled Document (Phoenix Mill, 2003)Google Scholar is a very readable, brief, general history of passports.

13 There is a significant body of work on passports since the 1919 international treaty regarding them following World War I; most of it relates to their legal features and international relations. A good example is Satter, Mark, The Passport in International Relations (Boulder, CO, 2003).Google Scholar For the impact of World War I on passports, see John Torpey, “The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Passport System,” in Caplan and Torpey, Documenting Individual Identity, 256–70.

14 Torpey, Invention of the Passport; Caplan and Torpey, Documenting Individual Identity.

15 Torpey, Invention of the Passport, and “Coming and Going,” 240.

16 Memo to Palmerston from Conyngham, 20 March 1851, The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), Foreign Office (FO) 612/8.

17 Passport Register, 26 June 1795 to 16 September 1822, TNA: PRO, FO 610/1.

18 Foreign Office passports were printed in French until 1851.

19 Memo from chief clerk, 22 July 1831, TNA: PRO, FO 612/3.

20 Memo from chief clerk to Palmerston, 17 May 1831, TNA: PRO, FO 612/3.

21 Rapport, Nineteenth Century Europe, 55.

22 Torpey, Invention of the Passport, 6–7.

23 Passport Register, 26 June 1795 to 16 September 1822, TNA: PRO, FO 610/1.

24 Passport Register, 21 September 1822 to 3 September 1841, TNA: PRO, FO 610/1 and FO 610/2.

25 See, generally, Ousby, The Englishman's England.

26 Torpey, Invention of the Passport, 4–7.

27 Printed form entitled “Regulations Required by the French Government to be Observed by Foreigners in France,” n.d., TNA: PRO, FO 612/4.

28 Ordonnance Concernant Les Etrangers à la ville de Paris, 19 Novembre 1831, Article IX, box D B/302, Archive de la Préfecture de Police, Paris.

29 Ibid.

30 Bridges, George Wilson, a member of the University of Oxford, Alpine Sketches comprised in a Short Tour through parts of Holland, Flanders, France, Savoy, Switzerland, and Germany during the Summer of 1814. (London, 1814), 3.Google Scholar

31 Wansey, Henry, A Visit to Paris in June 1814 (London, 1814), 7 and n*.Google Scholar

32 French ambassador to Palmerston, 17 September 1850, TNA: PRO, FO 612/6.

33 Passport Register, 4 September 1841 to 18 July 1850, TNA: PRO, FO 610/3.

34 Bernard, Richard Boyle, A Tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium during the summer and autumn of 1814 (London, 1815), 23.Google Scholar

35 Bernard, Tour through France, Switzerland, 85–86.

36 Ibid., 155.

37 Ibid., 175 and 177.

38 Ibid., 253.

39 Tronchet, Louis, Picture of Paris being a Complete Guide to all the Public Buildings, Places of Amusement, and Curiosities in that Metropolis (London, 1814), v.Google Scholar

40 Starke, Mariana, Letters from Italy, 2nd ed. (London, 1815), 379.Google Scholar

41 The Post-Roads in France (London, 1816)Google ScholarPubMed.

42 Journal of Edward Mangin, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Eng. Misc. e.608, 101.

43 Simpson, James, Paris after Waterloo, Notes taken at the Time and hitherto unpublished, including a revised edition—the tenth—of a Visit to Flanders and the Field (Edinburgh, 1853), 273.Google Scholar

44 Instruction pour l’exécution de l’Ordonnance relative aux personnes logées en garni dans les Communes rurales, 21 Mai 1816, box D B/302, Archive de la Préfecture de Police, Paris.

45 Ibid.

46 Scott, John, Paris Revisited in 1815 by way of Brussels (London, 1816), 39.Google Scholar See also John Pye-Smith, “Journal of a Tour on the Continent, Vol. 1,” Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Eng. Misc. e.1376–6, 18–19.

47 Shelley, Mary, History of a Six Weeks Tour (1817; Oxford, 1989), 85.Google Scholar The incident to which Shelley referred was the dramatic escape of Count Lavalette, who had been postmaster-general to Napoleon but retained his position after his abdication in 1814. He assisted in Napoleon's return and was then convicted of treason and sentenced to death in 1815. In January 1816, while she visited him in prison, Lavalette's wife exchanged clothes with him, and he escaped from France with the aid of a British officer who provided him with a false passport. See Memoirs of Count Lavalette Adjutant and Private Secretary to Napoleon and Postmaster-General under the Empire (London, 1894)Google Scholar.

48 Shelley, Six Weeks Tour, 92.

49 Pye-Smith, “Journal, vol. 1,” 3.

50 Ibid., 15.

51 Ibid., 16–17.

52 Ibid., 18.

53 Kitchiner, William M.D., The Traveller's Oracle (London, 1827), 193.Google Scholar

54 For a recent assessment of Palmerston's character, see Ziegler, Paul, Palmerston (New York, 2003).Google Scholar Ziegler concludes that “Palmerston was not a deeply thoughtful intellectual with a profound vision of the future,” 131. See Mandler, Peter, Aristocratic Government in the Age of Reform (Oxford, 1990), 19–21,Google Scholar on aristocratic trusteeship in the early nineteenth century.

55 Memo from Palmerston to chief clerk, 16 May 1831, TNA: PRO, FO 612/3.

56 Memo from chief clerk to Palmerston, 17 May 1831, TNA: PRO, FO 612/3.

57 Ibid.

58 Memo by chief clerk, 22 July 1831, TNA: PRO, FO 612/3.

59 Ridley, Jasper, Lord Palmerston (London, 1970), 108.Google Scholar

60 Ibid., 362. See also Taylor, Derek, Don Pacifico: The Acceptable Face of Gunboat Diplomacy (London, 2008), 132.Google Scholar

61 Ridley, Lord Palmerston, 362.

62 There are many examples of this language on passports. This is from one issued to Alfred Credson on 17 May 1852, TNA: PRO, FO 655/3.

63 Planta memo, 19 January 1827, TNA: PRO, FO 612/2.

64 Peters to Palmerston, 17 April 1840, TNA: PRO, FO 612/4.

65 Foreign Office to Peters, 25 April 1840, TNA: PRO, FO 612/4.

66 Draft of letter to be sent by Addington, 24 September 1846, TNA: PRO, FO 612/5.

67 Letter from Provincial Bank of Ireland to foreign secretary, 19 April 1844, TNA: PRO, FO 612/5.

68 Memo by clerk, 20 April 1844, TNA: PRO, FO 612/5.

69 Memo by clerk to file, TNA: PRO, FO 612/5.

70 Coghlan, Francis, Hand-book for Central Europe or Guide for Tourists through Belgium, Holland, the Rhine, Germany, Switzerland, and France (London, 1844), x.Google Scholar

71 Foreign Office, printed form entitled “Regulations respecting Passports,” 1 December 1846, TNA: PRO, FO 612/5.

72 Ibid.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid.

75 Hansard's Parlimentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 111, 14 May to 17 June 1850, 400.

76 Ibid., 402–3.

77 Palmerston to foreign embassies, 4 September 1850 (draft), TNA: PRO, FO 612/6.

78 Palmerston to treasury, 28 November 1850 (draft), TNA: PRO, FO 612/6.

79 Passport Register, 21 September 1822 to 3 September 1841, TNA: PRO, FO 610/2.

80 Memo from Palmerston to chief clerk, 16 March 1851, TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

81 Memo from Lennox to Palmerston, 20 March 1851, TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

82 Memo to Palmerston from Howard de Walden, British consul in Belgium, 5 May 1851, TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

83 Conyngham to Howard, 10 September 1851 (draft), TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

84 February 26 Palmerston memo on 25 February 1851 correspondence from Prussian ambassador regarding Prussia's visa regulations, TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

85 Brown, David, Palmerston and the Politics of Foreign Policy 1846–1855 (Manchester, 2002), 102.Google Scholar

86 Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 112, 25 June 1850, 380–444.

87 Ridley, Lord Palmerston, 389.

88 See Bourne, Kenneth, Palmerston: The Early Years, 1784–1841 (New York, 1982), 631Google Scholar, on the pragmatic aspect of Palmerston's policy making. See Ziegler, Palmerston, 55, on Palmerston's public image.

89 Phillips to Foreign Office, 25 March 1851, TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

90 Foreign Office to Phillips, 29 March 1951, TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

91 Undated newspaper clipping in file on harassment of Brisish travels on continent, TNA: PRO, FO 612/8.

92 Undated memo in file, TNA: PRO, FO 612/9.

93 Memo, 17 May 1852, TNA: PRO, FO 612/9.

94 Memo by Conyngham, 3 June 1854, TNA: PRO, FO 612/9.

95 Memo, 8 June 1854, TNA: PRO, 612/10; Memo, 12 December 1854, TNA: PRO, FO 612/10.

96 Letter from Koppel to Foreign Office, 2 June 1854, TNA: PRO, FO 612/10.

97 Memo by Conyngham, 19 June 1854, TNA: PRO, FO 612/10.

98 Foreign Office, printed form entitled “Regulations respecting Passports,” March 1854, TNA: PRO, FO 612/10.

99 Draft letter from Foreign Office to Portuguese Government, 3 May 1854, TNA: PRO, FO 612/10.

100 Memo of meeting of Conyngham with D’Azeglio, 27 June 1853, TNA: PRO, FO 612/9.

101 Letter from Foreign Office to Sir William Temple, 15 December 1854, TNA: PRO, FO 612/10.

102 Letter from Austrian Consul in Turin, 25 August 1855, TNA: PRO, FO 612/12.

103 Letter from John David Hope to foreign secretary, 28 July 1856, TNA: PRO, FO 612/13.

104 Foreign Office translation of Austrian passport regulation, March 1857, TNA: PRO, FO 612/14. The file also contains a copy in German.

105 Sibley, Norman Wise, “The Passport System,” Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation, new ser. 7, no. 1 (1906): 26Google Scholar. Sibley addresses primarily the criminal aspects of misusing a passport. For a vivid description of Orsini's assassination attempt, see chap. 1, “Murder at the Opera,” in Lloyd, The Passport.

106 Lloyd, The Passport, 5.

107 Hearder, Harry, “Napoleon III's Threat to Break Off Diplomatic Relations with England during the Crisis over the Orsini Attempt in 1858,” English Historical Review 72, no. 284 (July 1957): 474–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Hearder addresses primarily the French demand for action against political refugees.

108 Ridley, Lord Palmerston, 479–82.

109 Memo of meeting between Conyngham and French Consul Gaillard de Ferry, 30 January 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/16.

110 Ibid.

111 Correspondence Respecting Passports, 5 and 6 February 1858, and Regulations Respecting Passports, 23 March 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/17.

112 Memo from British Foreign Office, 18 June 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/15.

113 “Correspondence Respecting Passports, Presented to the House of Commons,” 23 March 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/17. This document contains a copy of all the regulations issued between 1846 and 1854 as well as select correspondence highlighting problems over passports.

114 Memo by Foreign Secretary Lord Clarendon, 30 January 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/16.

115 Memo by Edmund Hammond, under-secretary, 3 February 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/16.

116 Buller to Foreign Office, 7 June 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/19.

117 The Evening Star, 10 March 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/17.

118 Ibid.

119 “Passports Foreign Office Notice,” The Times, 28 April 1858, 5.

120 Letter from Belgian Minister Van de Weyer to foreign secretary, 21 September 1858, and memo, 25 October 1858, TNA: PRO, FO 612/20.

121 Foreign Office notice, 21 November 1865, TNA: PRO, FO 612/30.