An ANU seminar on “Books that Changed the World” opens up the delicious possibility that the opinions of a controversial English historian, the first female English historian – and republican – were carried to our shores at the time of white settlement. Catharine Macaulay (1731-91) argued strongly against the monarchy as the basis of inequality in her eight volume “The History of England” published between 1763 and 1783, well before the First Fleet sailed for Botany Bay. Although critical of Oliver Cromwell, she considered the Commonwealth of England “the brightest age that ever adorned the page of history”. As a moralist grounded in Christianity, she believed that “only a virtuous people could create a republic”. She described self-interest “as the worst fault a king or politician was capable of” if their devotion to politics was vested in personal gain rather than the advancement of liberty. More information about Catherine Macaulay is included on the link below. A new book about her by philosopher, Associate Professor Karen Green from the University of Melbourne, is in preparation.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
