Rum Rebellion

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Image:The arrest of Bligh propaganda cartoon from around 1810.jpg The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was the only successful (if only temporarily so) armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history. The Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, was deposed by the New South Wales Corps under the command of Major George Johnston, working closely with John Macarthur, on 26 January 1808. Acting governors took over until the arrival from Britain of Lachlan Macquarie at the beginning of 1810.

Bligh was the fourth Governor of New South Wales. He succeeded Governor Philip Gidley King in 1805, having been offered the position by Sir Joseph Banks. Bligh was a naval officer, well-known as for his overthrow in the Mutiny on the Bounty. It is likely that he was selected by the British Government as Governor because of his reputation as a hard man to reign in the New South Wales Corps, something which his predecessors had not been able to to.<ref>Duffy, pp. 248-9</ref>

Bligh arrived in the colony in August 1806 with his daughter,Mary Putland, and her husband, who died not long after; Bligh's wife remained in England. Soon after his arrival in Sydney, Bligh was given an address of welcome signed by Major Johnston for the military, Richard Atkins for the civilian officers, and Macarthur for the free settlers. However, not long after he also received addresses from the free and freed settlers of Sydney and the Hawkesbury, with a total of 369 signatures, many made only with a cross, complaining that Macarthur did not represent them, as they blamed him for withholding sheep so as to raise the price of mutton.<ref>Ritchie, p. 102</ref>

Bligh, under instructions from the Colonial Office, attempted to normalise trading conditions in the colony by prohibiting the use of spirits as payment for commodities. Bligh communicated his policy to the Colonial Office in 1807, with the advice that his policy would be met with resistance. Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies wrote back to Bligh, his instructions being received on 31 December 1807. The instructions were to stop the barter of spirits and H.V. Evatt concludes in his history of the Rebellion that ... "Bligh was authorised to prevent free importation, to preserve the trade under his entire control, to enforce all penalties against illegal import, and to establish regulations at his discretion for the sale of spirits".<ref>Evatt, pp. 88-9</ref>. Evatt argues that the enmity of the monopolists within the colony stemmed from this and other policies which counteracted the power of the rich and promoted the welfare of the poor settlers.

It is clear that Bligh did make enemies of many of the most influential people in the colony. He dismissed D'Arcy Wentworth from his position of Assistant Surgeon without an explanation, and he sentenced three merchants to a month's imprisonment and a fine for writing a letter which he considered offensive. But Bligh also antagonised some of the less wealthy, when he ordered those who had leases on government land within Sydney to remove their houses. <ref>Ritchie, pp. 106-110</ref>

The greatest enemy he made, however, was John Macarthur. Macarthur had arrived with the New South Wales Corps in 1790 as a lieutenant, and by 1805 he had substantial farming and commercial interests in the colony although he was still nominally an officer with the Corps. He had quarrelled with Blight's predecessors as Governor and had fought three duels: Duffy, in his biography of Macarthur, sees the key to his character and actions in his acute sense of the code of honour.<ref>Duffy, pp. 4-7</ref>

Macarthur and Bligh were engaged in numerous disagreements, including a conflict over landing regulations. A bond was payable and forfeited if a convict succesfully stowed away on a vessel; In June 1807, a convict had escaped Sydney via one of Macarthur's vessels, and in December 1807, when that vessel returned to Sydney, the bond was deemed to be forfeited.

Bligh stopped Macarthur from distributing large quantities of recently arrived wine to the Corps at low prices, and also Macarthur's allegedly illegal importation of brewing stills. Macarthur was also stopped by Bligh from taking possession of and enclosing an area of land granted him by Governor King as it conflicted with Bligh's town planning interests. Macarthur objected to the judge allocated to his trial over the matter of the bond. "Macarthur's protest had the support of the other six members of the court, all officers of the Corps. Without the Judge-Advocate the trial could not take place and the court dissolved."<ref name="SLNSWBlighBanks">{{cite web

| last = 
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| url = http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/series_40/40_view.cfm
| title = Series 40: Correspondence, being mainly letters received by Banks from William Bligh, 1805-1811
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| work = Papers of Sir Joseph Banks: Section 7 - Governors of New South Wales
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On 26 January, Bligh again ordered that Macarthur be arrested and also ordered the return of court papers, which were now in the hands of officers of the Corps. The Corps responded with a request for a new Judge-Advocate and the release of Macarthur on bail. Bligh summoned the officers to Government House to answer charges made by the judge and he informed Major Johnston that he considered the action of the officers of the Corps to be treasonable.<ref name="SLNSWBlighBanks"/>

Johnston, allegedly under pressure from Macarthur, arrested Bligh on the evening of 26 January 1808. During 1808, Bligh was confined to Government House. He refused to leave for England until lawfully relieved of his duty.<ref name="SLNSWBlighBanks"/>

In January 1809, Bligh was given the control of HMS Porpoise on condition that he return to England. However, Bligh sailed to Hobart, Tasmania, seeking the support of the Tasmanian Lieutenant-Governor David Collins. Collins did not support him and Bligh remained on board the Porpoise moored in Hobart until January 1810. In 1809, the British government decided to recall Bligh and replace him with Lachlan Macquarie, who arrived at the beginning of 1810. When Bligh received the news, he sailed from Hobart to Sydney, arriving on 17 January 1810 to collect evidence for the upcoming court-martial of Major George Johnston. He departed for the trial in England on 12 May and arrived in England on 25 October 1810 on board the Hindostan.<ref name="SLNSWBlighBanks"/>

At Johnston's court-martial Bligh was vindicated, and Major Johnston was cashiered from the Marine Corps and British armed forces to become Mr. George Johnston. Macarthur avoided cout-martialling by resigning his commission in the New South Wales Corps and staying in England, but in 1817 he returned to Australia and expanded his already established wool business, which he had left in the charge of his wife.

The new Governor Macquarie arrived with his own regiment, the 73rd Regiment of Foot. The New South Wales Corps (now the 102nd Regiment) returned to England, and afterwards served in the War of 1812. Thus began the tradition of Australia being garrisoned by an assortment of British Regiments, likely in accordance with the terms of their Governors, and also the tradition of the Governor of New South Wales being an Army officer, as opposed to the Naval Officers who previously held the post.

In 1811, having been exonerated, Bligh was promoted to Rear Admiral, and 3 years later, in 1814, promoted again, to Vice Admiral of the Blue.

Michael Duffy, an historian writing in 2006, says

"The Rum Rebellion has slipped into historical oblivion because it is widely misunderstood. Most people believe the autocratic Bligh was removed because he threatened the huge profits that were being made from trading in spirits by the officers of the NSW Corps and by businessmen such as John Macarthur. This view suggests it was nothing more than a squabble between equally unsavoury parties. So what was the cause of Bligh's removal, and why should we commemorate it today? Essentially it was the culmination of a long-running tussle for power between government and entrepreneurs, a fight over the future and the nature of the colony. The early governors wanted to keep NSW as a large-scale open prison, with a primitive economy based on yeomen ex-convicts and run by government fiat."<ref name = "DuffySMH">"Proof of history's rum deal" - article by Michael Duffy, Sydney Morning Herald, January 28, 2006</ref>

Duffy goes on to say that the Rebellion was not thought of at the time as being about Rum:

"... almost no one at the time of the rebellion thought it was about rum. Bligh tried briefly to give it that spin, to smear his opponents, but there was no evidence for it and he moved on. Many years later, in 1855, an English Quaker named William Howitt published a popular history of Australia. Like many teetotallers, he was keen to blame alcohol for all the problems in the world. Howitt took Bligh's side and invented the phrase Rum Rebellion, and it has stuck ever since."<ref name="DuffySMH"/>

Notes

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References

• Duffy, Michael, Man of Honour: John Macarthur, Sydney, Macmillan Australia, 2003.
• Evatt, H.V., Rum Rebellion: A Study Of The Overthrow Of Governor Bligh By John Macarthur And The New South Wales, 1943.
• Fitzgerald, Ross and Hearn, Mark, Bligh, Macarthur and the Rum Rebellion, Kenthurst: Kangaroo Press, 1988.
• Ritchie, John, The Wentworths: Father and Son, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1997.fr:Rébellion du rhum