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A USTRALAS1A ILL USTRA TED. 



GOVERNOR BRISBANE. 



meetings on this subject, at which Wentworth was the principal and most enthusiastic 

 speaker. Memorials were sent to the British Parliament in which the claims of the 

 colonists to be represented in their own Legislature were forcibly urged. Taxation by 

 representation being a fundamental doctrine of the Constitution, they dwelt upon the 



injustice to which they were subjected, in being taxed 

 by a legislative body in which they had no voice. 

 Their cause was advocated in the House of Commons 

 by Sir James Macintosh, Charles Duller, and other cele- 

 brated Members of Parliament. 



Another distinguished man also entered upon his 

 public career during Brisbane's Administration. John 

 Dunmore Lang, a young Presbyterian minister, who 

 having been ordained in 1822 came to the colony in 

 the following year. For many years his energies were 

 mainly devoted to the furtherance of religious and 

 educational interests ; but his active and comprehensive 

 mind naturally led him to take a prominent part in 

 the various public questions of the day. As a 



speaker at public meetings, and as a writer in the Press, he was not less 

 enthusiastic than Wentworth in his advocacy of popular rights. He published many 

 volumes on various subjects connected with the colony, in particular a " Historical and 

 Statistical Account of New South Wales" printed in 1834, which, after going through 

 several editions, still remains a standard work of reference. 



Sir Thomas Brisbane was the colony's sixth Governor, and his Administration lasted 

 four years, at the end of which period Sir Ralph Darling was appointed to succeed him. 

 Sir Thomas left Sydney for England in December, 1825, and the Government, pending 

 Darling's arrival, was administered for about a fortnight 

 by Colonel Stewart of the Third Regiment or " Buffs." 



GOVERNOR DARLING. 



It was unfortunate for himself, as well as for the 

 colony, that General Darling's ideas of government, like 

 those of his immediate predecessors, were strongly 

 coloured by his military associations. If Phillip and the 

 naval men who succeeded him, Hunter, King and Bligh, 

 ruled the colony as they had been accustomed to rule a 

 ship from the quarter-deck, the military men who followed 

 them, from Macquarie onwards, were not less distinguished 

 by their love of absolute command. Darling was a strict 

 disciplinarian in every sense of the word ; and not 

 being disposed to encourage the growth of an inde- 

 pendent or popular party in the little community of which he was the head, he soon 

 became involved in fiery squabbles with its leaders. From his stand-point, no doubt, 

 they were no better than rebels or mutineers ; while in their eyes he was simply a tyrant. 



GOVERNOR DARLING. 



