A Practical Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament
London, Butterworths, 1851 (second edition, revised and enlarged)/ 1844.
Octavo, xiv, [ii], 644 pages.
Contemporary full calf ruled in gilt and blind, the spine in compartments with a contrasting leather title-label, all edges marbled (with the small stamp of the binder, White of Piccadilly); leather a little scuffed; spine sunned, with the remains of a small paper label near the foot; overall an excellent copy.
Provenance: Sir James Hurtle Fisher (1790-1875), 'one of the most important pioneers of South Australia', with his armorial bookplate on the front pastedown. His signature in pencil appears on an early blank, above an inscription in pencil in his hand: 'With JF's affectionate love & hoping that it will prove useful'. (The bookplate and inscription have a large ink X through them, and the culprit has written his name in the same pen under the inscription: William T. Pope, 1846-1923, a prominent Adelaide solicitor. The few small ink annotations on about a dozen pages are presumably his handiwork.) James Hurtle Fisher commenced practice as a solicitor in London in 1816 and 'was drawn into the colonizing movement in 1835.... [He] was selected as resident commissioner, one of the most important offices under the South Australian Act ... second only to the governor'. Fisher 'left England in July 1836 with the governor's party in the "Buffalo", arriving on 28 December 1836 at Holdfast Bay, where the official oaths were administered, a proclamation was read and a ceremony marked the beginning of settlement. In January 1837 Fisher erected his reed hut and Land Office near the survey camp of Colonel William Light at the north-western corner of the new capital site; the destruction of these temporary buildings by fire on 23 January 1839 caused both men serious loss. Fisher had been allowed to draft his own instructions, which were not shown to Governor [Sir] John Hindmarsh. Disputes between the two men over their respective powers had begun on the voyage and were soon revived in the new Council of Government, and more violently outside, and led in February 1837 to the Resident Magistrate's Court binding the participants over to keep the peace towards each other.... The new governor, George Gawler, was appointed both governor and resident commissioner, a radical departure from the principles on which the colony had been founded' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). Fisher returned to his profession, and became a leader of the South Australian Bar. In October 1840 he was elected first mayor of Adelaide; in 1860 he became the first resident South Australian to be knighted.
Item #118343
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