A FEW REASONS WHY THE AGRICULTURAL POOR SHOULD HAVE ENOUGH LAND FOR RAISING THEIR OWN FOOD (Author's annotated copy)

13 pages, half calf with matching marbled boards, titled gilt on the spine, numerous handwritten annotations in the text, a very good copy.

2 copies listed in A South African Bibliography vol 3 page 699: A British publication reprinted by Greig. The author urges the allotment of land to the poor where food can be grown for their own consumption in lieu of a ‘poor rate’ tax designed to to raise money for the support of the unemployed poor of England.

A pencil note on the inside front cover states that this is the author’s own copy with his own annotations throughout.

Commander Pole in the preface states that in the three years since he published the pamphlet he 'has not been in England, nor do I know much of what is going on there' and had presumably arrived in the Cape where local events confronted him. He initially wrote the pamphlet in response to the 'The Swing Riots of 1830' which were a widespread uprising of agricultural labourers in southern and eastern England, protesting against low wages, poverty, and the introduction of threshing machines.Named after the fictional leader "Captain Swing," the riots involved smashing machinery, arson of barns, and riots, which started in Kent and spread to over 70 towns. Events at the Cape and the passing of Ordnance 50 in 1828 perhaps persuaded George Greig, the printer and publisher of the South African Commercial Advertiser, the Cape's first independent newspaper, to issue a new edition of the pamphlet.