Contemporary Reflections upon Personal Government

Abstract

In the early nineteenth century authority had two faces. One of these was private and meant to be seen only by the governor and his immediate family, and the only records of it are in the intimacy of his diary or private letters. Brisbane’s frequent justifications of his government were chiefly intense analytical statements to himself. They might influence his conduct, but they were not for public consumption. Not until his death, thirty-five years after leaving Australia, was his private face exposed to the public gaze. During his governorship one of Brisbane’s sympathizers would have only seen the exterior of a statesman who shared some common Whig beliefs in the sanctity of the British Constitution.