these attempts made at the desire and with the support of the Governor to force the emancipists upon the company of the officers, made their social exclusion more rigid than ever. The feeling of antagonism, though manifested only by exclusion from social gatherings, was a factor to be reckoned with in all the affairs of the Colony, and was especially to be regretted at this moment when the colonists as a whole were looking forward to the end of military Government and to some diffusion of political power.
The desire to bear a part in the management of the affairs of the Colony grew stronger year by year, and from 1816 Macquarie himself gave recognition to the feeling by frequently calling together the magistrates or a selected number of settlers to discuss measures that he had in contemplation.[1] At these meetings Wylde, who would have made an excellent borough councillor, played an active part, and he took a great interest in the many associations formed for various purposes during these years.
A small society had been established in Sydney so early as 1813, for "Promoting Christian Knowledge and Benevolence," and the first of these objects formed the purpose of "The Auxiliary Bible Society of New South Wales," a larger organisation founded in 1817 to co-operate with the British and Foreign Bible Society. This and the Benevolent Society were the only organisations of any size which had the distinction of combining all classes of the population, emancipist and free, in their management.
The Benevolent Society was founded to succour the poor in 1818. The poor were for the most part the old and infirm, many of them men who had been sent to the Colony as prisoners when they were already aged, and were no longer able to work for themselves. There were also many of the middle-class prisoners who had been given tickets-of-leave because they were unsuited to manual labour and were unable to find other work. Riley spoke of the "hard position of certain classes of prisoners—old or young people of the middle class—who from the multiplication of persons of this type can find no means of making a living".[2]
