AustLit

'Baptist minister Rev. John Saunders is probably best known for his fiery sermon in 1838 during the Myall Creek trial, in which he scorched the NSW squattocracy for their barbarous treatment of local Aboriginal peoples. If you are not familiar with the sermon, ‘The Grace of Goodness’ is worth reading for this alone. But beyond Saunders’ humane and liberal views on the treatment of local peoples, this volume of his collected writings traverses several key issues of the colony in the 1830s and 1840s. Leading church historian Ken Manley and researcher Barbara Coe describe this book as a documentary biography, and they have produced a valuable and lively volume. Saunders was a generous correspondent with family and with the press. His writings are presented thematically, showing Saunders’ deep concern particularly with temperance and education in the colony. Manley and Coe have ensured the texts are richly and carefully annotated and each section is placed usefully in context. There is wonderful detail in Saunders’ writings on immigration and the long sea journey, religious family life and the preoccupations of siblings, and associational and public life in mid-nineteenth-century Sydney. The appendices offer strong genealogical information on Saunders’ family, and delightfully, a detailed list of those who subscribed to the building fund for the Baptist chapel on Bathurst Street and their occupations, from pastoralist Henry Dangar to servants and convict shoemakers. ...'