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On the Use of the Term 'Commonwealth' This article was downloaded by: [Commonwealth Secretariat] On: 30 March 2012, At: 04:07 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fccp18 On the use of the term ‘commonwealth’ S. R. Mehrotra a a School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Available online: 25 Mar 2008 To cite this article: S. R. Mehrotra (1963): On the use of the term ‘commonwealth’, Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies, 2:1, 1-16 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14662046308446985 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. ON THE USE OF THE TERM 'COMMONWEALTH' BY S. R. MEHROTRA School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London F the many curious things about our Commonwealth nothing is more curious than its name. We have many histories of the Commonwealth. O What we need is a history of the word 'Commonwealth' itself. This essay is not the result of any systematic research but is presented in the hope of correcting a few current misconceptions and of inducing some really competent scholar to undertake the task in a more serious and systematic manner. The term 'Commonwealth' has been well known to English literature ever since the fifteenth century. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first reference to it in circa 14 70. It is a compound of two words: Common and Wealth. In fact it was at one time usually pronounced as two words, and this pronunciation still occurs occasion- ally. It was formerly used in five main senses: 1. Public welfare; general good or advantage; common weal. circa 1470, John Hardyng, The Chronicle (ed. H. Ellis, 1812), CXXIV, XIII: 'For cause he dyd the commen wealthe sustene.' 1679, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 17: '. .. the Common-Wealth of the whole Realm was chiefly to be lookt at ...' 2. The whole body of people constituting a nation or state, the body politic; a state, an independent community, especially viewed as a body in which the whole people have a voice or an interest. Downloaded by [Commonwealth Secretariat] at 04:07 30 March 2012 1509, Edmund Dudley, The Tree of Commonwealth (ed. D. M. Brodie, 1948), 31: 'The common wealth of this realme .. may be resemblid to a faier and mighte tree 1690, John Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government (ed. J. W. Gough, 1940), 165: 'By commonwealth, I must be understood all along to mean, not a democracy, or any form of government, but any independent community which the Latins signified by the word civitas 1778, David Williams, Unanimity in All Parts of the British Commonwealth, Necessary to Its Preser- vation, Interest and Happiness, 25: 'The British commonwealth (for I will still include America in that idea) is I 2 JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH POLITICAL STUDIES divided into several parts, which may be considered as the several branches of the same family.' 1907, David Lloyd George, Minutes of Proceedings of the Colonial Conference, 1907, Cd. 3523, 362: 'The federation of free Commonwealths is worth making some sacrifice for.' 3. A state in which the supreme power is vested in the people; a republic or de- mocratic state. 1766, Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, XX, Works (1854), I, 399: "... I found that monarchy was the best government for the poor to live in, 'and commonwealths for the rich.' 1867, James Bryce, 'The Historical Aspect of Democracy, Essays on Reform, X, 277: 'Government by a class is always government for a class; a Commonwealth therefore knows nothing of classes 4. Specifically, a. English History: the republican government established in Eng- land between the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the Restoration in 1660; b. United States History: the official designation of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky; c. Australian History: the federation of Australia since 1901. 5. Figuratively: a body or a number of persons united by some common interest as, e.g. the commonwealth of learning, of mankind, or of Christendom. 1790-91, James Wilson, Lectures on Law, Delivered in the College of Philadelphia, in the years 1790 and 1791, Works (1804), I, 45: 'I will view man as an individual, as a member of society, as a member of a confederation, and as a part of the great commonwealth of nations.' 1886, Fifty Years Progress, the Special Number of Imperial Federation, the Journal of the Imperial Federation League, June, 1886, Introductory, III: 'Sir John Harrington, as Mr. Froude tells us, built his castle in the air some 300 years ago ... and called it "Oceana"—the Great Commonwealth of English- speaking nations, united under one law, by one instinct and purpose, and established throughout the world.' 1887, Bipin Chandra Pal, The National Congress, 9: '... I know that without the help and tuition of this Government my people shall never be able to rise to their legitimate place in the commonwealth of civilised nations....' Downloaded by [Commonwealth Secretariat] at 04:07 30 March 2012 1906, Arthur Sawtell, 'India under British Rule', Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute XXXVn, 290: 'India is not a part of that commonwealth of nations which the United Kingdom and the Britains beyond the seas compose.' The most common use of the term 'Commonwealth' was in sense 2, and it was in connection with this that senses 3, 4 and 5 were developed. The term was perhaps more frequently used in the sixteendi, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than in the nineteenth, when it lost ground to its rivals 'Nation' and 'State'.1 The establish- ment of Oliver Cromwell's government in England in 1649 with the title of'Com- ON THE USE OF THE TERM COMMONWEALTH 3 monwealth' gave a republican flavour to the term. But, though in the popular mind it acquired anti-monarchial associations2 and writers like John Dryden, Oliver Gold- smith and Edward Freeman used it in the sense of a republic, the old, established usage of the term in sense 2 persisted. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Edmund Burke used the term, as Thomas Smith and William Shakespeare had used it before them, in the sense of a community or state, without reference to the form of govern- ment. But the idea of common weal or public good was almost inseparably associated with the term 'Commonwealth'3 and it was seldom applied to an autocracy. The term easily lent itself to the description of a league, alliance, concert, confederacy, union, or federation, and its use in this connection, especially to describe the American Union and the Australian Federation, gave it a certain federalist overtone. The figura- tive use of the term to suggest the idea of a wider political or religious union of mankind made it the vehicle of universalist aims and aspirations. 11 In a speech delivered at Adelaide on 18 January 1884, which was probably dismissed at the time as a piece of post-prandial oratory but became so famous fifty years later, Lord Rosebery inquired of his Australian audience: 'Does this fact of your being a nation, and I think you feel yourselves to be a nation, imply separation from the Empire? God forbid! There is no need for any nation, however great, leaving the Empire, because the Empire is a commonwealth of nations.4 Lord Rosebery might have been the first to describe the British Empire as 'a commonwealth of nations', but he certainly did not coin the phrase. The credit for coining and popularizing the phrase 'commonwealth of nations' should go to the writers on international law.5 Lord Rosebery was using the phrase, which had been well known for about a hundred years, in a purely descriptive sense. He was not coining a new name for the British Empire. This is conclusively proved by the following extract from his Rectorial address delivered before the students of the University of Glasgow on 16 November 1900: 'I admit the term [Empire] is constantly prostituted in Britain as well as else- where. And yet we cannot discard it, for there is no convenient synonym. If any other word can be invented which as adequately expresses a number of states of vast size under a single sovereign I would gladly consider it. But at present there is none. Downloaded by [Commonwealth Secretariat] at 04:07 30 March 2012 And in the meantime the word Empire represents to us our history, our tradition, our race. It is to us a matter of influence, of peace, of commerce, of civilisation, above all a question of faith.'6 As far as the present writer knows, Lord Rosebery never again used the phrase 'commonwealth of nations' or 'commonwealth' in connection with the British Empire. Though he often used the word 'con monwealth', both before and after 18 84,'—it occurs not less than three times in his Rectorial address at Glasgow itself8—he invariably used it in sense 2 (a nation or state; the body politic; a com- munity) and not as a synonym for Empire.
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