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Rum Rebellion: A Study Of The Overthrow Of Governor Bligh By John Macarthur And The New South Wales Corps
285 pgs., Angus and Robertson Ltd, printed in Australia, 3rd edition, 1943. Blue cloth hardcover with gold lettering on spine, corners show almost no shelf ware, top and bottom of spine some shelf ware, natural age tanning of text, binding is tight. No dust jacket. No inscriptions, text markings or writing. Note, this copy has the original With Compliments of the Australia Attorney-General sheet included. A crisp copy!
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
240 pages
First published January 1, 1938
About the author
H.V. Evatt
11 books1 followerThe Right Honorable Herbert Vere Evatt served on Australia's High Court from 1930 to 1940, the youngest appointee in the court's history (as of 2021). In 1941, he was appointed the country's Attorney General under Prime Minister John Curtin, serving in the role for nine years. In 1948 and 1949, he was President of the United Nations General Assembly, helping to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For this role, he was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Curtin's successor Ben Chifley lost the 1949 election, and died in 1951. Evatt was named the new Leader of the Australian Labor Party, a position he held for 9 years. He served as Leader of the Opposition in Federal Parliament during this time, up against Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister Robert Menzies. The period was especially fraught for Labor due to the rise of Communism and the Red Scare, which saw the party famously split in two.
Nevertheless, Evatt found time to publish several non-fiction volumes including his classic "Rum Rebellion", telling the story of the 19th century overthrow of New South Wales' Governor Bligh by wealthy landed interests in the colony.
By 1960, having staved off several attempts to remove him as leader of the party, Evatt accepted a position as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which was seen as a way for him to leave politics of his own choosing. Stress and declining health saw him step down from the role in October 1962, aged 68. Evatt spent his retirement in Canberra with his wife Mary until his death in 1965. The following decade a northern suburb in Canberra was named Evatt, in his honour.
Curtin's successor Ben Chifley lost the 1949 election, and died in 1951. Evatt was named the new Leader of the Australian Labor Party, a position he held for 9 years. He served as Leader of the Opposition in Federal Parliament during this time, up against Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister Robert Menzies. The period was especially fraught for Labor due to the rise of Communism and the Red Scare, which saw the party famously split in two.
Nevertheless, Evatt found time to publish several non-fiction volumes including his classic "Rum Rebellion", telling the story of the 19th century overthrow of New South Wales' Governor Bligh by wealthy landed interests in the colony.
By 1960, having staved off several attempts to remove him as leader of the party, Evatt accepted a position as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, which was seen as a way for him to leave politics of his own choosing. Stress and declining health saw him step down from the role in October 1962, aged 68. Evatt spent his retirement in Canberra with his wife Mary until his death in 1965. The following decade a northern suburb in Canberra was named Evatt, in his honour.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 19, 2024
Like most Australians of my generation, I was brought up with the warm and fuzzy notion that The Rum Rebellion was a good thing. The baddie, Governor Bligh, an evil man of Mutiny of the Bounty infamy was found out once again and deposed by the goodie: Macarthur, who is held in our National esteem as being the Father of the sheep industry, upon whose back the fledgling colony was saved.
I had picked the book up at random at a book fair, drawn by the colourful jacket illustration of the soldiers of the NSW Corp and the simple time The Rum Rebellion. I thought that a quick read might continue my long term study of Australian history since 1788, and accordingly I sat down one winter's day and started to read.
I had read 2 lines of the introduction before I had to flip back to the front cover and check the name of the author: H Evatt.
Now I had some knowledge of H v Evatt, but it is best to give this precis, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Herbert Vere Evatt, QC, KStJ (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965), usually known as H. V. Evatt or Bert Evatt, and often as "Doc" Evatt on account of his Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree,[1] was an Australian judge, lawyer, parliamentarian and writer.
Evatt was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940; Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949; the third President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1948 to 1949, when he helped to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Leader of the Australian Labor Party (and Leader of the Opposition) from 1951 to 1960; and Chief Justice of New South Wales from 1960 to 1962.
So, as you can see, this is a man of letters, as they say, and all legal ones.
Back to the book and a solid session reading what could best be described as a detailed legal dissection of the whole matter from Governors King and Hunter time, through to the arrival of Macquarie and the subsequent court martial of Johnson, Commander of the NSW Corp and leader of the revolt.
It could have been heavy and dry as dust: it wasn't. It could have been boring: it was not. Whilst Evatt doesn't come right out and say Guilty or not on the part played by the main characters, the reader is left in no doubt whatever about where guilt lies, and that is squarely with Macarthur, who is portrayed as a master of plotting, intrigue, manipulation and self promotion and preservation, well beyond the capacity of people like Bligh and Johnson to comprehend.
Evatts strength is that he has access to all the papers and evidence that wasn't available 150 years ago, and of course the intelligence and background to interpret those papers into what I can imagine is the truth of the matter.
if nothing else, the story shows a unique insight into the society and civilisation of Sydney Town, then still considered a Penitentiary and not even considered to be inside the King's Realm.
Fascinating.
I had picked the book up at random at a book fair, drawn by the colourful jacket illustration of the soldiers of the NSW Corp and the simple time The Rum Rebellion. I thought that a quick read might continue my long term study of Australian history since 1788, and accordingly I sat down one winter's day and started to read.
I had read 2 lines of the introduction before I had to flip back to the front cover and check the name of the author: H Evatt.
Now I had some knowledge of H v Evatt, but it is best to give this precis, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Herbert Vere Evatt, QC, KStJ (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965), usually known as H. V. Evatt or Bert Evatt, and often as "Doc" Evatt on account of his Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree,[1] was an Australian judge, lawyer, parliamentarian and writer.
Evatt was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940; Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949; the third President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1948 to 1949, when he helped to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Leader of the Australian Labor Party (and Leader of the Opposition) from 1951 to 1960; and Chief Justice of New South Wales from 1960 to 1962.
So, as you can see, this is a man of letters, as they say, and all legal ones.
Back to the book and a solid session reading what could best be described as a detailed legal dissection of the whole matter from Governors King and Hunter time, through to the arrival of Macquarie and the subsequent court martial of Johnson, Commander of the NSW Corp and leader of the revolt.
It could have been heavy and dry as dust: it wasn't. It could have been boring: it was not. Whilst Evatt doesn't come right out and say Guilty or not on the part played by the main characters, the reader is left in no doubt whatever about where guilt lies, and that is squarely with Macarthur, who is portrayed as a master of plotting, intrigue, manipulation and self promotion and preservation, well beyond the capacity of people like Bligh and Johnson to comprehend.
Evatts strength is that he has access to all the papers and evidence that wasn't available 150 years ago, and of course the intelligence and background to interpret those papers into what I can imagine is the truth of the matter.
if nothing else, the story shows a unique insight into the society and civilisation of Sydney Town, then still considered a Penitentiary and not even considered to be inside the King's Realm.
Fascinating.
January 2, 2021
worthwhile contribution to Australian history; puts Macarthur in a new light
July 9, 2020
The subtitle of this book is "A study of the overthrow of Governor Bligh by John Macarthur and the New South Wales Corps." This took place on 26 January 1808, the only military coup in Australian history. This book was first published in 1938 and was written by Dr. H. V. Evatt, an eminent lawyer and statesman, who later became the leader of the Labor Party. It is a vivid and exciting story, given a special interest by his expert analysis of the legal issues involved.
As Hartley Grattan says in the foreword, Governor Bligh was "hot and short- tempered, violent in language, rude in his relations with his associates, a man whose character would always offend."
However, his opponents were not innocent, either:
"The officers of the New South Wales Corps had come to regard their military duties as being very much subordinate to the advancement of their private interests...They traded and trafficked, they speculated in land, and they dealt in spirits. Some of them actually owned in Sydney public houses and inns, that were no better than brothels...It would have been impossible to expect, at a time when the Napoleonic wars were raging in Europe, to find the flower of the British commissioned ranks in it...Captain Bligh was determined to thwart the scheme of these powerful factions. In his own way he was a just man and had high ideals as to the proper discharge of his duties...Being a determined man, of choleric habit and despotic inclination his attitude towards those whom he saw trying to benefit themselves unfairly at the cost of the public welfare was, to put it in his own way, "He'd be damned if they should."(p.105)
As Hartley Grattan says in the foreword, Governor Bligh was "hot and short- tempered, violent in language, rude in his relations with his associates, a man whose character would always offend."
However, his opponents were not innocent, either:
"The officers of the New South Wales Corps had come to regard their military duties as being very much subordinate to the advancement of their private interests...They traded and trafficked, they speculated in land, and they dealt in spirits. Some of them actually owned in Sydney public houses and inns, that were no better than brothels...It would have been impossible to expect, at a time when the Napoleonic wars were raging in Europe, to find the flower of the British commissioned ranks in it...Captain Bligh was determined to thwart the scheme of these powerful factions. In his own way he was a just man and had high ideals as to the proper discharge of his duties...Being a determined man, of choleric habit and despotic inclination his attitude towards those whom he saw trying to benefit themselves unfairly at the cost of the public welfare was, to put it in his own way, "He'd be damned if they should."(p.105)
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July 1, 2015SPECIAL GUEST ENTITY ARGOBAN QQJJSSVVWWRRKWTHORP SAYS: In his description of the "sole military exploit of the short but disgraceful career" of the New South Wales Corps, good ol' Doc Evatt offers someone's eyewitness account of how Bligh's daughter Mary Putland shut down the drunken rabble.
p. 138 "The fortitude evinced by Mrs Putland on this truly trying occasion merits particular notice, for, regardless of her own safety, and forgetful of the timidity peculiar to her sex, her extreme anxiety to preserve the life of her beloved father prevailed over every consideration, and with uncommon intrepidity she opposed a body of soldiers who, with fixed bayonets and loaded firelocks, were proceeding in hostile array to invade the peaceful and defenceless mansion of her parents, her friend, her protector, and as she then believed to deprive him of his life. She dared the traytors (sic) "to stab her to the heart, but to respect the life of her father". The soldiers themselves appalled by the greatness of her spirit, hesitated how to act, and that principal of esteem and respect which is inherent in the breast of every man who sees an amiable woman in distress, and is not himself a most consummate villain, deterred them from offering any violence to her."
p. 138 "The fortitude evinced by Mrs Putland on this truly trying occasion merits particular notice, for, regardless of her own safety, and forgetful of the timidity peculiar to her sex, her extreme anxiety to preserve the life of her beloved father prevailed over every consideration, and with uncommon intrepidity she opposed a body of soldiers who, with fixed bayonets and loaded firelocks, were proceeding in hostile array to invade the peaceful and defenceless mansion of her parents, her friend, her protector, and as she then believed to deprive him of his life. She dared the traytors (sic) "to stab her to the heart, but to respect the life of her father". The soldiers themselves appalled by the greatness of her spirit, hesitated how to act, and that principal of esteem and respect which is inherent in the breast of every man who sees an amiable woman in distress, and is not himself a most consummate villain, deterred them from offering any violence to her."
June 24, 2014
I enjoy the way Doc Evatt writes - with tireless logic and persuasion. When I was studying law, his High Court judgments were a pleasure compared to some of the tangled, turgid meanderings of his fellow judges. Alas, his career in politics was unfairly blighted - somewhat as he depicts Bligh's fate here.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews