Item #105923 British Colonization and Coloured Tribes. Saxe BANNISTER.
British Colonization and Coloured Tribes

British Colonization and Coloured Tribes

London, William Ball, 1838 (later issue in the same year).

Small octavo (196 x 119 mm), xii, 323, [1] (publisher's advertisement - 'By the Author') pages plus 4 pages, duodecimo ('New Works Published by William Ball') bound in at the rear.

Dark blue cloth extensively decorated in blind on the front and rear covers, with the title in gilt on the otherwise-plain spine sunned; small piece snipped from the head of the front flyleaf; these trifling blemishes notwithstanding, essentially a fine copy, uncut and partially unopened.

Saxe Bannister (1790-1877), barrister and attorney-general - indeed, he was the first attorney-general of New South Wales. He was 'sworn in at the first sitting of the Supreme Court on 17 May 1824 ... A succession of defeats in court lessened confidence in his professional competence.... [Chief Justice] Forbes deplored his "irascibility", "indecorous conduct" in court, and tendency to megalomania. With [Governors] Brisbane and Darling, he thought that the attorney-general was at times mentally unbalanced'. Bannister threatened to resign if his (manifestly inadequate) salary was not increased; needless to say, it wasn't, and in late October 1826 'much aggrieved, Bannister left for England, his parting shot being ... in a duel from which both men emerged uninjured. By disposition philanthropic and humane, Bannister was devoted to the welfare of children, convicts and coloured inhabitants of the Empire. To his credit stand the establishment of the first infants' school in Sydney, a booklet urging the immediate abolition of transportation, numerous pamphlets on behalf of natives in the colonies, and a book entitled "Humane Policy; or Justice to the Aborigines of New Settlements" (London, 1830). His other works dealt with the laws of the Cape of Good Hope, and the Constitution and laws of the United States. They were the writings of a scholar, steeped in British colonial history, and able to express himself clearly and interestingly' (Australian Dictionary of Biography). Curiously, the ADB does not mention this title, which contains much of direct relevance to Australasia. Ferguson 2438[ii] (variant advertising).

Item #105923

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