History of Australia of the Corps soon became involved in the corrupt and lucrative rum trade in the colony. In the Rum Rebellion of 1808, the Corps, working closely with the newly established wool trader John Macarthur, staged the only successful armed takeover of government in Australian history, deposing Governor William Bligh and instigating a brief period of military rule in the colony prior to the arrival from Britain of Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810. Macquarie served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social and economic development of New
A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II portion of that spirit of liberty which he & he alone preserved in this country for years". Reviewing the book in the "Edinburgh Review", Francis Jeffrey praised it as "the only appeal to the old principles of English constitutional freedom, and the only expression of those firm and temperate sentiments of independence, which are the peculiar produce, and natural protection of our mixed government, which we recollect to ave met with for very many years". According to Lord John Russell the book was "a work which contains more sound constitutional opinions than any other history which I am acquainted". The