Society and thought in eastern Australia, 1835-1851

Abstract

The thesis deals with the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land; it begins when J.T. Bigge's ideal had come to crisis, and ends with the gold rushes. By "J.T. Bigge's ideal” is meant a society in which the Church of England and a land-owning elite joined with the executive government to establish a way of life, both hierarchical and harmonious. The Church and the gentry respectively comprise the core of the first two chapters, which describe the ideology and strength of colonial conservatism. In the former the central figure is W.G. Broughton, first Anglican bishop in Australia and remarkably sensitive to the difficulties which beset the conservative ideal. His beliefs and insight shape not only this chapter but the whole thesis. Following a description of the typical Anglican reaction to the major features of colonial life, particular emphasis is placed on the Church's attempt to assert its opinion sometimes through, sometimes against the power of the State. Here, as at many other places throughout the thesis, the education issue becomes very prominent. The Church appears as the strongest bastion of conservative thought, denouncing every aspect of society which made for change and disruption. Although not numerous, there were other thinkers who proudly claimed to he conservative. To represent these, the second section of chapter one gives an account of the Sydney Morning Herald*s editorial policy. In the thirties the journal was ultra-Tory, in the forties an intelligent disciple of the classic political economy of Adam Smith and his school. Although the gentry suffered heavily during the forties, they remained coherent enough to study as a group. In chapter II stress is put on the degree of social responsibility among them, and so their capacity to play the role of leadership which Bigge had postulated. This involves discussion of their family background and way of life, their attitude to political and economic questions. The final section of this chapter describes other sources of support for conservatism - higher civil servants, merchant princes, Governors Fitzroy and Denison. The four chapters which comprise part two of the thesis investigate factors inimical to conservatism. First is the squatting movement. Many participants were conservative by instinct and taste, but the nature of their pursuit forced them to oppose authority, to arouse antagonism among all other groups, to break the gentry, and to strengthen the forces of barbarism. Following the Waste Lands Act of 1846 this position altered, but before 1850 not enough to affect the general picture. The following chapter concentrates on political history in order to indicate deep-rooted forces subversive of general stability. First, attention is paid to the desire of all colonists, 'natural' conservatives well to the fore, to secure self-government. No man could anchor his ideas to a settled constitution, everyone talked of political rights and the need for change. Next appear the 'Australians' - successors to the old emancipist party and bearing witness that the penal system had bestowed a legacy of men inclined to opportunism and barren assertion. Finally, the rise of working-class, more or less democratic, feeling attracts notice. The third and fourth chapters of part two study the 'disruptive' quality of the remaining two branches of Christianity - the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism. Both were strong enough to rule out any possibility of society achieving union through common religious belief, or - in more practical terms - the ascendancy of the Church of England. Both encouraged that secular liberalism which Broughton detested; Rome especially forged strong links with political radicalism. Extremists in each camp execrated the other, and behaved in such a way as to foment malice, fear, and hatred. Therefore the pillars which Bigge had designed were not strong enough to maintain Australian society. Anarchy, greed, factionalism and mutual antipathies threatened to run rampant. Whence was to come that Authority, necessary to the survival of every group? The answer is 'Moral Liberalism', a concept described in the final part of the thesis. Sprung from the Enlightenment, and more immediately from Transcendentalists and Utilitarians, this creed taught that men could create Utopia on earth, and that striving to do so fulfilled the supreme end of man. The transformation of human nature and the human environment could come about in various ways - through applying the mind, through understanding the psyche, and through exercising the will. These three components of moral liberalism are studied in turn. In connexion with the first arise ideas concerning education, the arts, and science; with the second, phrenology and mesmerism; with the third, the Temperance movement. A further section describes the essential, if not fully acknowledged, antipathy between moral liberalism and traditional Christianity. This theoretical discussion takes two chapters, while a third measures the practical acceptance of the creed by 1850; then the reasons for this acceptance, and its import for the history of Australia and even the wider world.