Colonization of South Australia. By R. Torrens, Chairman of the Colonization Commission for South Australia
London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1835.
Octavo, xvi, 304, xxii pages plus a folding frontispiece map ('Part of Southern Australia from the 132 to 141 degree of East Longitude', with an inset map of Australia, both hand-coloured in outline, 200 × 255 mm).
Early blind-tooled calf, rebacked to style; edges marbled; covers slightly worn; map a little offset; occasional foxing (generally light); a few other trifling signs of age and handling; an excellent copy (unopened in places).
A presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title to 'The Lord Durham, from the Author'. John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792-1840) was a preeminent figure in early nineteenth-century British colonial policy, and a sometime close colleague of the author. He was chairman of the New Zealand Company in the 1820s (Torrens was a director), helped draft the Reform Bill of 1832 (earning the nickname 'Radical Jack'), and was appointed Governor-General of British North America (Canada) in 1838. There he served alongside Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who helped him prepare the important 'Report on the Affairs of British North America' (London, 1839), which was instrumental in delivering responsible government to Canada. Lord Durham's armorial bookplate and Lambton Castle library label are mounted on the front pastedown. Robert Torrens (1780-1864), 'officer of marines, political economist and colonization commissioner'; his 'economic writings are of much importance in the development of economic theory' (DNB). In the preface to this book, he writes: 'The art of Colonization is based upon the science of wealth; and the rules of the art are principles of the science naturally applied. In replying to objections, and in explaining the plan, and in unfolding the prospects, of the New Colony, the Author was naturally, and indeed, necessarily, led into discussions upon some of the fundamental doctrines of Political Economy. In some of these discussions, as it is believed, new, and not unimportant views have been opened'. Not least, he was the father of Sir Robert Richard Torrens, the lands title law reformer after whom the Torrens system is named. Ferguson 2056.
Item #139494
Price (AUD):
$9,500.00