268 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



these attempts made at the desire and with the support of the 

 Governor to force the emancipists upon the company of the 

 officers, made their social exclusion more rigid than ever. The 

 feeling of antagonism, though manifested only by exclusion from 

 social gatherings, was a factor to be reckoned with in all the 

 affairs of the Colony, and was especially to be regretted at this 

 moment when the colonists as a whole were looking forward to 

 the end of military Government and to some diffusion of politi- 

 cal power. 



The desire to bear a part in the management of the affairs 

 of the Colony grew stronger year by year, and from 1816 

 Macquarie himself gave recognition to the feeling by frequently 

 calling together the magistrates or a selected number of settlers 

 to discuss measures that he had in contemplation. 1 At these 

 meetings Wylde, who would have made an excellent borough 

 councillor, played an active part, and he took a great interest in the 

 many associations formed for various purposes during these years. 



A small society had been established in Sydney so early as 

 1813, for "Promoting Christian Knowledge and Benevolence," 

 and the first of these objects formed the purpose of "The 

 Auxiliary Bible Society of New South Wales," a larger organisa- 

 tion founded in 1817 to co-operate with the British and Foreign 

 Bible Society. This and the Benevolent Society were the only 

 organisations of any size which had the distinction of combining 

 all classes of the population, emancipist and free, in their man- 

 agement. 



The Benevolent Society was founded to succour the poor in 

 1818. The poor were for the most part the old and infirm, 

 many of them men who had been sent to the Colony as prisoners 

 when they were already aged, and were no longer able to work 

 for themselves. There were also many of the middle-class 

 prisoners who had been given tickets-of-leave because they 

 were unsuited to manual labour and were unable to find other 

 work. Riley spoke of the "hard position of certain classes of 

 prisoners old or young people of the middle class who from 

 the multiplication of persons of this type can find no means of 

 making a living ".' 2 



1 e.g., to discuss currency proposals, the question of poor relief, etc. 

 * Riley, C. on G., 1819. 



