STORY OF HENRY SAVARY.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1819, 10 January 1913, Page 2

STORY OF HENRY SAVARY.

Sydney, December 31. The first novel published in Australasia was a three-volume octavo work entitled "Quintus Servinton," printed by James Melville, of Hobart, in 1830. The library authorities only know of two copies, one being in the Petherick collection. Mr Petherick, who picked his up in a London bookshop for 1-ls, would not take £IOO for it now. The author of the book was Henry Savary, who was transported to Van Dieman's Land, as Tasmania was then called, for forgery. A remarkable feature of his trial was that he insisted on pleading guilty, although the judge begged him to consider what he was doing, urging that if he maintained the plea nothing could save his life. But Savary was adamant. Happily powerful friends rescued him from the gallows. He was transported under a life sentence.

* In the novel Savary puts into the mouth of Quintus Servinton, the heroic character from whom the book takes its name, the extraordinary reason for this plea. "Why should I plead not guilty?" says Servinton. '' Why should I pull my other foot into the slush of iniquity? Why should I, by deliberate untruth and advancing argument, founded only on sophistry, endeavour to prevent the inevitable payment for this crime?" The book is marked with a sweetness of style pleasing to one's sense of rhythm, and there is throughout a delightful faith in the true penitence. He was a thoroughly educated Englishman. He was the only child of a wealthy banker, and as such was made much of, not only by his parents, but by his father's satellites. He had abundant ability, could tell a tale well, shoot well, ride well, and sing in various languages. It was when his father's bank failed that he found himself heavily loaded. He had an affectionate but expensive wife, a large confectionery business, and vicious monetary tastes. He gambled. He forged. He wept and prayed. Then, with a supernatural belief in salvation through penance, he decided to pay the law's price for forgery. Most of this is told in the novel. It is replete with good advice from a penitent forger. Savary died in Hobart in 1842.