Freedom to Libel? : Samuel Marsden v. Philo Free

Australia's First Libel Case

Peter G. Bolt, Malcolm Falloon, Peter G. Bolt, Malcolm Falloon

• Publisher: Bolt Publishing Services Pty. Ltd.
• Year: 2017
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780994634931
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies
• Index: History

CHAPTER 1

THE LETTER SIGNED PHILO FREE

Peter G. Bolt

To THE EDITOR OF THE SYDNEY GAZETTE.

MR. EDITOR,

1	Early in the last century the famous South Sea scheme was projected, and ran through its short-lived but disastrous career, all its dreams of golden showers having proved a mere illusion, by the bursting of that never-to-be-forgotten-bubble, which
5	involved in its explosion a great mass of the English Nation, and induced much public distress; leaving all, but the few artful and designing projectors themselves, to deplore too late their credulity and national gullabillity [sic]. In our days, a “New South Wales Philanthropic Society” has been formed, and liberal
10	subscriptions entered into for the laudable purpose of extending “protection and civilization to such of the Natives of the South Sea Islands as may arrive at Port Jackson.” Now, Sir, although the circumstances will not perhaps warrant its being also termed a bubble, yet there are some features in the two
15	schemes so much alike that I think an able hand could make no bad parallel between them—“si jus est magnis componere parva”.^1 Thus, the South Sea scheme held out the bait or lure of such extravagant profits in the way of trade, that the sordid and mercenary were dazzled at the prospect, and shares originally
20	purchased at £100, were frequently transferred at eight times that amount.—The illusion however lasted but a few months, and all the fabrick went to ruin, leaving not a wreck behind. The South Sea Islands Philanthrophists in 1813, without the temptation of the gilded pill of wealth uncountable having been
25	held out to them, cheerfully subscribed their money under the assurance that they should have the spiritual consolation at least of having performed charitable acts, and rendered humane services to the Natives of the South Sea islands!—These were the profits that the subscribers in general had in view:— how
30	they have been realized we now in 1817, all know too well; for, to this day, we have never been favoured even with a single report of the application of the funds; and thus, like the bubbletonians of 1720, after having come down with our dumps, we have had no return, either to our purse or to the
35	stock of our benevolence; and “for aught that I can learn or read,” we are not likely to be gratified with such a result.
	In former times the active and enterprizing spirit of the Jesuits led them, for religion’s sake ostensibly, to visit the most remote regions of the known world; their zeal for the Church of Rome
40	never slumbered. But they soon superadded thereto the lust of wealth, power, and dominion; and that fraternity commencing in holy and religious zeal, degenerated into temporal factions, which at length wrought their own downfall, and relieved Europe from their domineering and tyrannical usurpation
45	of the exclusive trade of those Settlements where they had established themselves.—Now, a missionary spirit of a somewhat more humble cast has pervaded the Islands in the South Seas, introducing with it the art of distillation, and that tiny race of animals, which on being boiled, do not prove to be
50	lobsters!—An ardent thirst for the influence of this spirit at this time pervades the inhabitants of all the Islands of the Pacific, with which we have any intercourse; and pigs, and pine trees, New-Zeal-and flax, &c. are the returns made in full tale for the comforts of the spirit instilled into them, and by which they are
55	inspired. The active exertions of him who is the worthy head of these sectarian visionaries or missionaries (whichever you please, Mr. Editor), in propagating the Gospel by such means, and the transmission from time to time of muskets and cutlasses, will, no doubt, redound much and highly to the
60	honour of the Christian Mahomet, and of the church so planted,
	whilst the pecuniary advantage of the chosen-few will not be altogether overlooked. But what availeth all this, Mr. Editor, to you and me, in the common class of the subscribers? Those who bolt the pork and the profits, should, in my opinion un-bolt
65	their coffers, and bear also the expences of their gospel venders and bacon curers; and, for myself, I shall be well content to see them possessed equally of the exclusive honour of evangelizing, by such means, the New Zealanders, the Otaheitans, the Eimeoaans, &c, &c. But to be very candid with you, I do not
70	wish to see men in any garb, or under any mask or pretence whatever, arrogate to themselves such consequential airs of importance, for acts of public beneficence, which they have never exhibited in their private lives; and still less, if possible, in their public characters towards the abject Natives of New South
75	Wales. True it is, that these people are not yet qualified or enabled to make other returns than those of humble gratitude and peaceful demeanour; and these, perhaps, are not worthy of being recorded in the faithful pages of an Eclectic Review, with the exalted deeds of the evangelizing heroes, whose never
80	dying fames are there trumpeted forth.
	Although this may be the case, I am notwithstanding one of those who wish to introduce civilization, and the pure doctrines of the Christian religion among the sable sons of Australia, maugre^2 all the objections started by vulgar prejudice, or sordid
85	views of personal aggrandizement; and I do not hesitate to say, that I feel it an imperious duty owing to those among whom I live and have my subsistence, to make the effort to reclaim these children of Nature, even if that effort were to be rendered nugatory by any circumstances whatever. This leads me to
90	inform you, and by that means the Public also, that in a conversation lately with some other members of the New South Wales Bubble (the trading concerns thereof being duly excepted from that appellation), it appeared to be the general wish that the subscriptions should be restored and appropriated to the
95	establishment of schools for the children of the poor within the Colony, and the diffusion of Christian knowledge among the heathen natives. A Bible and general Book Society is I
	understand in contemplation, to be connected with the school institutions; and by these means (if even the advantage of the
100	library originally destined for the poor, by its humane donors, should continue unavailable), the great and glorious object of dispelling the dark and gloomy clouds of ignorance under which it has pleased Providence to permit the Aborigines of this Colony to remain unto the present time, the nineteenth century
105	of the Christian era, and the twentieth-ninth year of the British settlement on its shore, may be happily effected.
	I can assure you, Mr. Editor, that many of the wisest and best men among us are most zealously anxious, for such establishments being commenced upon; and I have the vanity
110	to think, that even the desultory remarks made in this hastily drawn up letter, written in my cabin, without the aid of books (for my little collection went a pilgrimage, I have been told, to the Friendly and Society Islands), will tend to remove some ill-founded prejudices, to confirm liberal and generous
115	dispositions, and to open the eyes of all, to a sense of duty and Christian charity towards our adopted country, and its harmless, though uncivilized natives.

PHILO FREE

A SETTLER AT BRADLEY’S HEAD 4th January 1817³

Although dated 4 January, the first Sydney Gazette for 1817 was not printed until the following day.⁴ Typesetting the issue, compositor George Williams had been excited.⁵ After running as a two-page broadsheet basically since mid 1805, this was ‘the first of the new form of four pages’.⁶ However, it was not the new form that created a ‘general sensation’⁷ on the streets of Sydney, but a brief portion of its contents. Across one and a half columns, a four-paragraph letter sparked the first Libel Action in Australia⁸—or at least in the reconstituted Sydney Courts. According to solicitor W.H. Moore, such a response was to be expected, because ‘anonymous publications [are] always infamous’.⁹

To be more technically correct, the letter was not anonymous (without name), but pseudonymous (with a false name), to deliberately mask the author’s true identity. After becoming notorious in 1817, the pseudonym ‘Philo Free’ signed here, would later be attached to other public letters expressing similar outrage.¹⁰

As well as protecting the real author, a cleverly chosen nom-de-plume also provides the opportunity to summarize, or sloganize, in order to firmly thereafter embed the point being made in the readers’ minds. In this case, the combination of a transliteration of the Greek word for ‘Love’ (Philo) adding solemnity through classical pretensions, and the English word ‘Free’ makes the meaning clear: the author was concerned about something love-less.¹¹

And, indeed, this was not the first time a nom-de-plume had been adopted by a correspondent to the Sydney Gazette making a simil...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Publisher's Preface
• Studies in Australian Colonial History
• Contents
• Contributors
• Table of Figures and Illustrations
• 1. Peter G. Bolt The Letter signed Philo Free.
• 2. David B. Pettett Marsden in the Hands of Australasian Historians.
• 3. Joel Atwood ‘So important in its nature, so difficult in its execution, and so doubtful in its result’. The Mission to the South Seas from 1786 to 1830
• 4. Greg Anderson The early colonial mission context of Philo Free
• 5. Craig Schwarze A Secret Enemy. The turbulent relationship between Marsden and Macquarie.
• 6. Malcolm Falloon Mission Trading In The South Pacific By The Active (1814-1822) and The Accusations Of Philo Free.
• 7. Peter G. Bolt The failure of the Philanthropic Society.
• 8. Jane M. Tooher A Friendship Revealed. The Marsden & Stokes Family Correspondence.
• 9. David B. Pettett Marsden’s Supportive Circle. Friendship in Controversy.
• 10. Elizabeth G. Moll Unmasking A Shielded Secret Enemy. John Thomas Campbell and the Philo Free Trials.
• 11. Michael Gladwin The Bigge Picture: Colonial Manners, Mission, and the Imperial Context of Australia’s First Libel Case.
• 12. Caitlin Hurley Freedom of Speech and of the Press in Colonial NSW.
• 13. Alexander C. Bolt, Paul R, Cerotti, & Konrad Peszynski Normative Ethics In Early Colonial Australia And The Country’s First Libel Case.
• 14. Malcolm Falloon The Breaking of the Storm: Marsden and the Missionary Cause.
• 15. Bibliography