Pasquin. Pastoral, Mineral and Agricultural Advocate. A substantial run of the original edition of this early Adelaide satirical journal, comprising all issues from Volume 1, Number 41, 2 November 1867 to Volume 4, Number 53, 31 December 1870 (the last number)
Adelaide, Eustace Reveley Mitford (to Volume 3, Number 43, 23 October 1869), then Samuel Edward Roberts, 1867 to 1870.
Quarto, 166 numbers bound in one volume, with each drop-title issue comprising 8 pages (the pagination is continuous in each volume). The last issue in each volume is, respectively, Number 49, Number 52, Number 52, and Number 53; this run lacks only the first 40 numbers of the first volume, from Number 1, 26 January 1867.
Contemporary half leather and cloth lettered in gilt on the spine (with the binder's ticket of W.K. Thomas & Co., Adelaide); binding a little rubbed at the extremities, with minor wear to the corners; minor signs of use and age to the contents, but overall in very good condition. Mounted on the front pastedown is an original albumen paper portrait of Mitford (90 × 58 mm). This collection is not to be confused with the abridged reprint edition published in London in 1882, with a Woodburytype portrait of Mitford (an enlarged detail from an example of our portrait). That volume was essentially a memorial to the Mitford years (January 1867 to November 1869) 'freed from advertisements and unimportant matter' (which nowadays means 'lacking all character and a lot of appeal to boot').
Pat Stretton contributed to the 'Australian Dictionary of Biography' the entry for Eustace Reveley Mitford (1811-1869), 'satirist'. It is almost short enough to quote in full - it is certainly worthy of being widely circulated! However, after sampling a few of her introductory remarks, we'll follow her estimable lead and quote Stretton quoting Mitford. He 'found his true vocation in 1867' with 'Pasquin': 'It reviewed plays and books and campaigned on behalf of the oppressed such as prisoners and destitute children but its chief aim was to "aggravate our subscribers in every possible way", and Mitford had a sure eye for what would annoy South Australians most. Introducing the grape was "a great mistake". Democracy was another: "democracy and dishonesty, universal suffrage and universal pillage ... are synonymous terms and inseparable results". Adelaide's architecture was "mediaeval Clapham Common Gothic with a tendency to the Old Bailey Tuscan". Satire resists description. Here is Mitford at his lethal best: "People in England are profoundly astonished to hear that the land has not cost the Government or the country a single farthing - that, in fact well, to put it as mildly as possible - that we stole it! - took possession, you understand, in the Queen's name - just as they used aforetime to burn alive respectable ladies and gentlemen in the name of the Deity - and that when the native rangers attempted to remove the sheep found trespassing on their lands, we shot them like dogs, also in the name of the Queen - and then sent missionaries - very nice men, in white chokers - to inform them of a beautiful new kind of religion, which strictly prohibited theft and murder, or to covet a blackfellow's land or his lubra or his waddy, his boomerang or his beer, or anything that is his, or any other man's. Of course the blacks were deeply impressed with the sanctity and consistent justice of a religion, which was to save their souls, but played the very devil with their bodies, their lands, and their kangaroos. We make as much fuss about permitting settlers to occupy this land as if we had a right to it"'. Mitford died suddenly from a chest infection on Sunday 24 October 1869, as the issue of the following Saturday unhappily informed its readers.
Item #106375
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