MUDIE, James

The Felonry of New South Wales.

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printed for the Author, by Whaley and Co. London, 1837. Octavo, folding frontispiece map, all edgesgilt; fine in tan polished half-calf with gilt spine by Rivière, bookplate of George Mackaness, single sheet of the original decorated publisher's cloth tipped in at rear. An excellent copy of Mudie's pointed attack on the policy of convict emancipation in New South Wales under Governor Sir Richard Bourke.

James Mudie (1779-1852) was a prominent landholder in the Sydney region: he emigrated in 1822 after a dishonourable discharge from the Marines and the failure of his subsequent business ventures in London. Through the industry of Mudie and an ample supply of convict labour, his land grant on the Hunter River, grandly named Castle Forbes, flourished into one of the finest farms in the colony. Despite the fact that Castle Forbes was known for its severe discipline, in 1830 Mudie was appointed a justice of the peace by Governor Darling: it was this that precipitated Mudie's downfall, as his arbitrary misuse of power brought him into conflict with Darling's successor, Sir Richard Bourke.

The two men held irreconcilable positions on the treatment of convicts as Bourke's policy of ameliorating the brutality of their lives contradicted Mudie's ambitions. Relations between the two deteriorated further: in 1833 Bourke initiated an investigation into Castle Forbes that infuriated Mudie who issued a vitriolic pamphlet in his defence.

Such actions alienated the majority of important figures in the colony, and Mudie was effectively forced to return to England in March of 1836 after selling Castle Forbes for the tidy sum of £7000. In the following year he wrote The Felonry of New South Wales; despite the author's obvious prejudice the book is an invaluable insight into the uses and abuses of convict labour at a crucial time. Indeed, the very identity of Australia as a penal colony was increasingly contrasted against the demands of free settlers for a fair and equitable society. Significantly Mudie gave evidence to the Select Committee on Transportation while writing this book though much of his testament was edited from the final published report.

As a result, this is one of the most polemical and important accounts of late colonial Sydney.
Ferguson, 2312; Goldsmiths', 29867.1.

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• Antiquariat: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)