BY HERBERT HEATON, M.A., M. COMM. 21 



further libel suits. But in the struggle Bent had suc- 

 cumbed. He appears to have become bankrupt about 

 1827-8, and to have lost control of the Colonial Times. He 

 made several spasmodic attempts at a later date, going to 

 Sydnev in 1835, where he published Bent's Neivs in 1836, 

 at the low price of threepence per copy (52). After four 

 years this effort also failed ; Bent lost his printing plant, 

 and SDcnt four years in destitution. In 1844 he issued 

 a begaing letter, asking for £50 to enable him to purchase 

 a small press and set of type. The Australian papers took 

 up his appeal, referring to him as the "scarred veteran of 

 the Press,"' "the Father of the Tasmanian Press," and de- 

 scribing him as the 



"Village champion, who, with dauntless breath, 



The little tyrants of the place withstood.'' 



Subscriptions flowed in. Governor Gipps sent £5 ; Chief 

 Justice Stephen, who had been one of Bent's most bitter 

 enemies in the "twenties, forgot old feuds, and gave £4. 

 But Bent was now evidently worn out, and, in spite of a 

 long subscription list, he did nothing more for Australian 

 journalism. His story is a pathetic episode in our early 

 historv. and his dauntless fights, often for men who, like 

 R. L. Murray, were not worth fighting for, entitle him to 

 a niche in Tasmanian history as a practical friend of pro- 

 gress and a political martyr. His epitaph can best be 

 written in the v^^ords of an Australian editor who sup- 

 ported his begging appeal: — "One who has suffered so 

 much persecution — the loss of personal liberty and pro- 

 perty — in his praiseworthy efforts to expose the prevailing 

 errors of the day, and to raise the tone of society" (53). 



The struggle between Arthur and the press began its 

 second phase in 1835. By this time many new figures had 

 appeared, and the Radical party in Hobart had become 

 strong, being organised in the "Political Association."' 

 The absence of trial by jury and of representative govern- 

 ment srave the malcontents a splendid peg on which to 

 hang their attacks on Arthur. The undoubted material 

 progress of the ct^lony was ignored by this opposition 

 party ; on the other hand, every action of the Governor 

 was seized upon, twisted out of its real shape, and made 

 the subject of long, scurrilous articles in the Colonial 

 Times and True Colonist . The former paper was now in 

 the hands of Henry Melville, a clever, but strongly par- 

 ^san, writer. Melville was an ardent Radical, and, inci- 

 dentally, a keen advocat-e of the "single tax," and of 

 heavier taxation of unimproved land (54). The True 



