Charles Henry Pearson
Encyclopedia
Charles Henry Pearson was a British
-born Australia
n historian, educationist, politician and journalist. According to John Tregenza, "Pearson was the outstanding intellectual of the Australian colonies. A democrat by conviction, he combined a Puritan determination in carrying reforms with a gentle manner and a scrupulous respect for the traditional rules and courtesies of public debate."
, London
, fourth son (and tenth child) of the Rev. John Norman Pearson, M.A., then principal of the Church Missionary College
, Islington, and Harriet née Puller. Pearson spent his early childhood in Islington and Tunbridge Wells and was home educated until he went to Rugby School
at the age of thirteen, where at first did well. Later on, coming into conflict with one of the masters, he was withdrawn by his father and sent first to a private tutor and then to King's College London
, where he came under the influence of John Sherren Brewer
and Frederick Maurice. In 1849 he matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford. Not enjoying teaching, he devoted most of his energy to the Oxford Union
, of which he was elected president in 1852–53, and was associated with some of the most distinguished men of his period. Pearson began to study medicine, but two years later had a serious attack of pleurisy
while on holiday in Ireland
and as a result discontinued his studies because medical life was considered arduous.
, the Spectator
, and other London weekly reviews. In 1862 he was editor of the National Review for a year. He travelled in Russia
in 1858 and in 1863 spent some time in Poland
. In 1864, as a result of ill-health and depressed by his failure to be appointed Oxford University's inaugural Chichele Professor of Modern History
and his low salary at King's College, he took a year off in South Australia
. He attempted to establish a 640 acres (259 ha) sheep station near Mount Remarkable
, but was beaten by severe drought and returned to England.
Pearson continued working on his History of England during the Early and Middle Ages, an able work begun in 1861 and published in 1868. During a trip to the United States
, in contrast with the earlier views of Charles Dickens
and others, he found "the well-bred American is generally pleasanter than a well-bred Englishman.... I agree in an observation made to me by an Englishman that the American's great advantage over the Englishman is his greater modesty". On his return he devoted himself to what he regarded "as the best piece of historical work I have done, my maps of England in the first 13 centuries", which was eventually published in 1870. In 1869 he became lecturer on modern history at Trinity College, Cambridge
, but found the work unsatisfactory. His father had died some years before and he lost his mother in February 1871. Shortly afterwards, partly as a result of eyestrain and a lack of good students, he decided to return to Australia and combine a light literary life with farming. He arrived in South Australia in December 1871.
. He married in December 1872 Edith Lucille, daughter of Philip Butler of Tickford Abbey, Buckinghamshire; unfortunately her health gave way and she became very ill, and, greatly to their regret, they had to give up their bush home. Pearson then accepted a position as lecturer in history at the University of Melbourne
. His salary was not high and he decided to augment it by writing for the press. The Argus
rejected his articles as being too radical, but The Age
began to accept them and he became a valued contributor. The University did no allow him to pick his own textbooks or plan his courses. On 4 June 1874 he created a university debating club which recruited Alexander Sutherland
, Alfred Deakin
, William Shiels
, H. B. Higgins
and Theodore Fink
.
Perason found, however, that his position at the university was not satisfactory, and decided to accept the position of headmaster of the newly formed Presbyterian Ladies College
at a much increased salary. He was greatly interested in his new work, but after two and a half years, from 1875 to 1877, a section of the governing body objected to his views on the land question. He had advocated a progressive land tax in a public lecture, and thus incurred the wrath of the moneyed interests. It was these interests after all that supported the school, and Pearson decided to resign.
government commissioned him to inquire into the state of education in the colony and the means of improving it. The report for which he received a fee of £1000 was completed in 1878. It was a valuable document, especially as he was the first to advocate the establishing of high schools to make a ladder for able children from the primary schools to the university. This found little favour at the time, and 30 years and more passed before this part of his scheme was fully developed. Another valuable part of the report dealt with technical education and foreshadowed the many technical schools since established in the state of Victoria.
On 7 June 1878 Pearson was returned as one of the members for Castlemaine
in the Victorian Legislative Assembly
and thus began his political career. Almost immediately he was plunged into the quarrel between the Assembly and the Legislative Council
which had arisen over Premier
Berry's appropriation bill. The government determined to try to obtain the consent of the home authorities to the limiting of the rights of the Council. In December 1878 Pearson was appointed a commissioner to proceed to London with the Berry. The mission was not successful, the feeling being in that it was the business of both houses to settle questions of this kind themselves. In August 1880 Pearson became minister without salary or portfolio. On 4 July 1881 he declined the offer of agent-general in London believing that the administration was doomed, and on 9 July the cabinet resigned.
Pearson remained a private member until 18 February 1886 when he became minister of public instruction in the Gillies
-Deakin
coalition ministry, and in 1889 succeeded in passing an education act which introduced important changes, but did not proceed far in the direction of technical education. It did, however, introduce the kindergarten system, and 200 scholarships of from £10 to £40 a year were established to help clever boys and girls to proceed from the primary schools to the grammar schools. He was able to implement one of the recommendations of his 1878 report, the building of a teachers college near the university. In November 1890 the Gillies-Deakin government resigned and Pearson again became a private member. He took some interest in federation, but realizing its difficulties adopted a cautious attitude.
Pearson's book caused a shock because it challenged the conventional wisdom about Western expansion, progress and triumph. Pearson argued, to the contrary, that it was the "Black and Yellow" races which were in the ascendant - powered by population increase and industrial capacity, in the case of the Chinese. He argued the so-called higher races, under the impact of declining birth rates and state socialism, had become "stationary." Colonized and otherwise subordinated peoples would soon escape relations of 'tutelage' and become self-governing states, active on the world stage. Pearson was a prophet of decolonization, and was immediately seen as such, with great attention paid to his theme of the white man under siege.
The argument strongly reinforced demands for a White Australia policy
.
In August 1902 Prime Minister Edmund Barton, spoke in parliament in support of the White Australia policy; he quoted Pearson's disturbing forecast:
(1894). A selection from his miscellaneous writings, Reviews and Critical Essays, was published in 1896, with an interesting memoir by his friend, Professor Herbert Strong
.
and Gogol
in their original tongues. Slightly built, he had the appearance of a scholar, but being shy he found it difficult to be superficially genial. He was kind with his friends and had an excellent sense of humour. Of his honesty it has been said "he was one of the small class of persons whose practical adhesion to their convictions is only made more resolute by its colliding with popular sentiment or with self-interest". His health was always uncertain, probably his sojourn in Australia prolonged his life. But the debt he owed Australia was more than repaid by the public services he rendered.
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
-born Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n historian, educationist, politician and journalist. According to John Tregenza, "Pearson was the outstanding intellectual of the Australian colonies. A democrat by conviction, he combined a Puritan determination in carrying reforms with a gentle manner and a scrupulous respect for the traditional rules and courtesies of public debate."
Early life
Pearson was born at IslingtonIslington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, fourth son (and tenth child) of the Rev. John Norman Pearson, M.A., then principal of the Church Missionary College
Church Mission Society
The Church Mission Society, also known as the Church Missionary Society, is a group of evangelistic societies working with the Anglican Communion and Protestant Christians around the world...
, Islington, and Harriet née Puller. Pearson spent his early childhood in Islington and Tunbridge Wells and was home educated until he went to Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
at the age of thirteen, where at first did well. Later on, coming into conflict with one of the masters, he was withdrawn by his father and sent first to a private tutor and then to King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
, where he came under the influence of John Sherren Brewer
John Sherren Brewer
John Sherren Brewer was an English clergyman, historian and scholar. He was a brother of E. Cobham Brewer, compiler of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable.- Birth and education :Born in Norwich, the son of a Baptist schoolmaster...
and Frederick Maurice. In 1849 he matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford. Not enjoying teaching, he devoted most of his energy to the Oxford Union
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, Britain, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...
, of which he was elected president in 1852–53, and was associated with some of the most distinguished men of his period. Pearson began to study medicine, but two years later had a serious attack of pleurisy
Pleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
while on holiday in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and as a result discontinued his studies because medical life was considered arduous.
Academic career
In 1855 Pearson became lecturer in English language and literature at King's College, London, and shortly afterwards was given the professorship in modern history. The salary was not large, and Pearson did a good deal of writing for the Saturday ReviewSaturday Review (London)
The Saturday Review of politics, literature, science, and art was a London weekly newspaper established by A. J. B. Beresford Hope in 1855....
, the Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, and other London weekly reviews. In 1862 he was editor of the National Review for a year. He travelled in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1858 and in 1863 spent some time in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. In 1864, as a result of ill-health and depressed by his failure to be appointed Oxford University's inaugural Chichele Professor of Modern History
Chichele Professor of Modern History
The Chichele Professorship of Modern History is one of the several Chichele Professorships established from the mid-19th century onwards at All Souls College, Oxford University. The position of Chichele Professor of Modern History was established in 1862...
and his low salary at King's College, he took a year off in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. He attempted to establish a 640 acres (259 ha) sheep station near Mount Remarkable
Mount Remarkable National Park
Mount Remarkable is a national park in South Australia , 238 km north of Adelaide.Edward John Eyre named Mount Remarkable in June 1840...
, but was beaten by severe drought and returned to England.
Pearson continued working on his History of England during the Early and Middle Ages, an able work begun in 1861 and published in 1868. During a trip to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in contrast with the earlier views of Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
and others, he found "the well-bred American is generally pleasanter than a well-bred Englishman.... I agree in an observation made to me by an Englishman that the American's great advantage over the Englishman is his greater modesty". On his return he devoted himself to what he regarded "as the best piece of historical work I have done, my maps of England in the first 13 centuries", which was eventually published in 1870. In 1869 he became lecturer on modern history at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, but found the work unsatisfactory. His father had died some years before and he lost his mother in February 1871. Shortly afterwards, partly as a result of eyestrain and a lack of good students, he decided to return to Australia and combine a light literary life with farming. He arrived in South Australia in December 1871.
Move to Australia
Pearson enjoyed the next three years on his farm at Haverhill, revelled in the hot dry conditions which suited his constitution and hoped to obtain a professorship in the new University of AdelaideUniversity of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
. He married in December 1872 Edith Lucille, daughter of Philip Butler of Tickford Abbey, Buckinghamshire; unfortunately her health gave way and she became very ill, and, greatly to their regret, they had to give up their bush home. Pearson then accepted a position as lecturer in history at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. His salary was not high and he decided to augment it by writing for the press. The Argus
The Argus (Australia)
The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...
rejected his articles as being too radical, but The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
began to accept them and he became a valued contributor. The University did no allow him to pick his own textbooks or plan his courses. On 4 June 1874 he created a university debating club which recruited Alexander Sutherland
Alexander Sutherland
Alexander Sutherland was a Scottish-Australian educator, writer and philosopher.-Early life and education:Sutherland was born at Glasgow, both parents were Scottish, his father, George Sutherland, a carver of ship's figureheads, married Jane Smith, a woman of character and education...
, Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin , Australian politician, was a leader of the movement for Australian federation and later the second Prime Minister of Australia. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Deakin was a major contributor to the establishment of liberal reforms in the colony of Victoria, including the...
, William Shiels
William Shiels
William Shiels , Australian colonial politician, was the 16th Premier of Victoria.-Biography:Shiels was born in County Londonderry, Ireland of a Presbyterian family and arrived in Melbourne as a child in 1853...
, H. B. Higgins
H. B. Higgins
Henry Bournes Higgins , Australian politician and judge, always known in his lifetime as H. B. Higgins, was a highly influential figure in Australian politics and law.-Career:...
and Theodore Fink
Theodore Fink
Theodore Fink was an Australian politician, newspaper proprietor and educationist.-Early life:Fink was born in Guernsey in the Channel Islands, the son of Moses Fink, shopkeeper and his wife Gertrude, née Ascher...
.
Perason found, however, that his position at the university was not satisfactory, and decided to accept the position of headmaster of the newly formed Presbyterian Ladies College
Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne
Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne , is an independent,private, Presbyterian, day and boarding school predominantly for girls, located in Burwood, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
at a much increased salary. He was greatly interested in his new work, but after two and a half years, from 1875 to 1877, a section of the governing body objected to his views on the land question. He had advocated a progressive land tax in a public lecture, and thus incurred the wrath of the moneyed interests. It was these interests after all that supported the school, and Pearson decided to resign.
Political career
The newly-founded National Reform and Protection League of the period felt that here might be a valuable recruit and pressed Pearson to stand for parliament. He was afraid his health would not stand the strain, but accepted nomination for the difficult seat of Boroondara and was narrowly defeated. In May 1877 the Graham BerryGraham Berry
Sir Graham Berry KCMG , Australian colonial politician, was the 11th Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most Radical and colourful figures in the politics of colonial Victoria, and made the most determined efforts to break the power of the Victorian Legislative Council, the stronghold of the...
government commissioned him to inquire into the state of education in the colony and the means of improving it. The report for which he received a fee of £1000 was completed in 1878. It was a valuable document, especially as he was the first to advocate the establishing of high schools to make a ladder for able children from the primary schools to the university. This found little favour at the time, and 30 years and more passed before this part of his scheme was fully developed. Another valuable part of the report dealt with technical education and foreshadowed the many technical schools since established in the state of Victoria.
On 7 June 1878 Pearson was returned as one of the members for Castlemaine
Electoral district of Castlemaine and Maldon
The Electoral district of Castlemaine and Maldon was a former electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly .-Members for Castlemaine:-Members for Castlemaine and Maldon:-Members for Castlemaine and Kyneton:-See also:...
in the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...
and thus began his political career. Almost immediately he was plunged into the quarrel between the Assembly and the Legislative Council
Victorian Legislative Council
The Victorian Legislative Council, is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia; the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit in Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to...
which had arisen over Premier
Premiers of Victoria
The Premier of Victoria is the leader of the government in the Australian state of Victoria. The Premier is appointed by the Governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Legislative Assembly....
Berry's appropriation bill. The government determined to try to obtain the consent of the home authorities to the limiting of the rights of the Council. In December 1878 Pearson was appointed a commissioner to proceed to London with the Berry. The mission was not successful, the feeling being in that it was the business of both houses to settle questions of this kind themselves. In August 1880 Pearson became minister without salary or portfolio. On 4 July 1881 he declined the offer of agent-general in London believing that the administration was doomed, and on 9 July the cabinet resigned.
Pearson remained a private member until 18 February 1886 when he became minister of public instruction in the Gillies
Duncan Gillies
Duncan Gillies , Australian colonial politician, was the 14th Premier of Victoria.Gillies was born at Overnewton near Glasgow, Scotland, where his father had a market garden. He was sent to the high school until he was about 14, when he entered an office in Glasgow...
-Deakin
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin , Australian politician, was a leader of the movement for Australian federation and later the second Prime Minister of Australia. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Deakin was a major contributor to the establishment of liberal reforms in the colony of Victoria, including the...
coalition ministry, and in 1889 succeeded in passing an education act which introduced important changes, but did not proceed far in the direction of technical education. It did, however, introduce the kindergarten system, and 200 scholarships of from £10 to £40 a year were established to help clever boys and girls to proceed from the primary schools to the grammar schools. He was able to implement one of the recommendations of his 1878 report, the building of a teachers college near the university. In November 1890 the Gillies-Deakin government resigned and Pearson again became a private member. He took some interest in federation, but realizing its difficulties adopted a cautious attitude.
Retirement from politics
Pearson retired from parliament in April 1892 declining to stand for election again, and began to work seriously on his book, National Life and Character: a Forecast. His indifferent health may have been one of the reasons preventing him from being offered the agent-generalship. Like everyone else he had suffered heavy losses from the land boom and its after effects, and in August 1892 he left for England and accepted the secretaryship to the agent-general for Victoria. He worked hard and successfully, but though he did not complain, it must have been a great shock to him when he received a cablegram to say he was to be compulsorily retired in June. He caught a chill in February which settled on his lungs, and died in May 1894, leaving a widow and three daughters. Mrs Pearson was given a civil list pension of £100 a year in 1895.National Life and Character: a Forecast
Pearson's book, National Life and Character: a Forecast, had been published at the beginning of 1893, and created an international sensation. Theodore Roosevelt wrote Pearson to praise the book; Prime Minister Gladstone recommended it highly.Pearson's book caused a shock because it challenged the conventional wisdom about Western expansion, progress and triumph. Pearson argued, to the contrary, that it was the "Black and Yellow" races which were in the ascendant - powered by population increase and industrial capacity, in the case of the Chinese. He argued the so-called higher races, under the impact of declining birth rates and state socialism, had become "stationary." Colonized and otherwise subordinated peoples would soon escape relations of 'tutelage' and become self-governing states, active on the world stage. Pearson was a prophet of decolonization, and was immediately seen as such, with great attention paid to his theme of the white man under siege.
The argument strongly reinforced demands for a White Australia policy
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia. From origins at Federation in 1901, the polices were progressively dismantled between 1949-1973....
.
In August 1902 Prime Minister Edmund Barton, spoke in parliament in support of the White Australia policy; he quoted Pearson's disturbing forecast:
- "The day will come, and perhaps is not far distant, when the European observer will look round to see the globe girdled with a continuous zone of the black and yellow races, no longer too weak for aggression or under tutelage, but independent, or practically so, in government, monopolising the trade of their own regions, and circumscribing the industry of the Europeans; when Chinamen and the natives of Hindostan, the states of Central and South America, by that time predominantly Indian . . . are represented by fleets in the European seas, invited to international conferences and welcomed as allies in quarrels of the civilized world. The citizens of these countries will then be taken up into the social relations of the white races, will throng the English turf or the salons of Paris, and [End Page 43] will be admitted to inter-marriage. It is idle to say that if all this should come to pass our pride of place will not be humiliated.. . . We shall wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside by peoples whom we looked down upon as servile and thought of as bound always to minister to our needs. The solitary consolation will be that the changes have been inevitable."
Other writings
Pearson also wrote Russia by a recent traveller (1859), Insurrection in Poland (1863), The Canoness: a Tale in Verse (1871), History of England in the Fourteenth Century (1876), Biographical Sketch of Henry John Stephen SmithHenry John Stephen Smith
Henry John Stephen Smith was a mathematician remembered for his work in elementary divisors, quadratic forms, and Smith–Minkowski–Siegel mass formula in number theory...
(1894). A selection from his miscellaneous writings, Reviews and Critical Essays, was published in 1896, with an interesting memoir by his friend, Professor Herbert Strong
Herbert Strong
Herbert Augustus Strong was an Australian scholar, professor of comparative philology and logic at the University of Melbourne.-Early life:Strong was born at Clyst St Mary near Exeter, England the thirdson of Rev...
.
Assessment
Pearson had an excellent memory and a good knowledge of classic and modern European languages; he read IbsenHenrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
and Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
in their original tongues. Slightly built, he had the appearance of a scholar, but being shy he found it difficult to be superficially genial. He was kind with his friends and had an excellent sense of humour. Of his honesty it has been said "he was one of the small class of persons whose practical adhesion to their convictions is only made more resolute by its colliding with popular sentiment or with self-interest". His health was always uncertain, probably his sojourn in Australia prolonged his life. But the debt he owed Australia was more than repaid by the public services he rendered.