Simpson writes that the “humanitarianism that produced voluntary assistance also led to an increased degree of legislative and administrative regulation of the merchant marine.” This humanitarian impulse explains the development of the regulatory mechanisms that brought Dudley into the customs house. It does not fully explain why the Home Office and the judiciary were willing to conspire to convict Dudley and Stephens of murder by means of a sham trial in an official looking kangaroo court.

The best answer that I can pull from the text is a desire, which we talked about in class, to draw a line between Englishmen and savages. I do, however, find this somewhat unsatisfactory. I suspect that the more important line that the ruling elites wanted to draw was between the working class rabble (sailors), who were something close to savages in their eyes, and complete savages out in the wilderness of the empire. Furthermore, the fact that a trial was used to draw this line is interesting. It seems that the ruling elites believed strongly in the power of the ritual of a criminal trial to change public opinion. The amazing part is that the quotes from newspapers seem to indicate that the trial worked the magic that the elites wanted it to.

-- StephenClarke - 12 Mar 2008