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[NSW]. Report of the Proceedings of the General Meeting of the Supporters of the Petitions to his Majesty .. held at the committee rooms, May 30, 1836.
Sydney: printed by Stephens & Stokes 1836. Octavo original plain wrapper; 52pp. Some browning or spotting at each end. ¶ An essential social document (a 'very important pamphlet' says Ferguson [2173]). The petition to the King was more or less to save the colony from all peril and evil, crime in particular. This was a move by the 'majority of the influential and respectable Inhabitants' of the colony to halt the 'Emancipists' push for legislative representation. A proposed extension of the legislative assembly on a 'more popular basis', general suffrage, was antithetical to the good of the colony (rights of citizenship for former convicts only encouraged crime) and any changes should be managed by a committee made up of Justices of the Peace, members of the Agricultural Society or bank directors. Naturally the autocratic Macarthurs were prominent (after all they wanted an hereditary seat in the Legislative Assembly). Many of the most important political (and thus moral) issues of the colony were being played out here - citizenship, representation, transportation and secondary punishment, property (particularly the dispersal of Crown Lands), emigration and national independence. This reports the meeting and prints additional documents, including the petition of April.
Offered for AUD 500.00 = appr. US$ 521.12 by: Richard Neylon, Bookseller - Book number: 3583