Jeremy Bentham strong force for democracy in South Australian colony plan seen as radical and republican

English 19th Century radical thinker Jeremy Bentham was a strong democratic element in early plans for a South Australian colony.

Engish philosopher Jeremy Bentham was one of four guiding authors – with Robert Gouger, Anthony Bacon and Charles Grey – of the first Proposal to His Majesty's Government for founding a colony on the Southern Coast of Australia submitted to the British government Colonial Office in 1831.

The proposal was for the colony to be set up by a private company that would be able to remove the governor, despite the appointment being made by the king.

It also proposed free trade, a Legislative Assembly – once the adult male population reached 10,000 – and a circulating library of such works of moral, political and general knowledge as would fit the colonists for self-government.

Proposals of free trade, self government and the power to select the governor were all seen by elements of the British government as radical and republican. Bentham had declared his republican stance in 1818.

Nor was the colony proposal able to attract the investment required by the Colonial Office before it would grant approval and Anthony Bacon attempted to force the British government's hand by misleading potential investors.

The failure of the proposal led to the South Australian Land Company being formed and the publication of Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s Plan of a company to be established for the purpose of founding a colony in Southern Australia, purchasing land therein and preparing the land so purchased for the Reception of Immigrants. 

This document didn’t vary much from previous proposal and the Colonial Office was no more enthusiastic about it. Once again the grand plans for a colony in South Australia fell through.