The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Spence, Charlotte H.

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1448736The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Spence, Charlotte H.Philip Mennell

Spence, Charlotte H., daughter of David Spence and sister of John Brodie Spence (q.v.), is a lady of great cultivation, who has contributed numerous articles to Australian and English periodicals, and was a friend and correspondent of the famous George Eliot. Miss Spence contributed a valuable literary essay on the genius of the great female novelist to the Melbourne Review, and also wrote on Daudet and the later French school of fiction. She is connected with the State Children's Department of South Australia, and is the authoress of "The Laws we Live under, with some chapters on Elementary Political Economy and the Duties of Citizens," which was published in 1881, under the direction of the Minister of Education of South Australia. Miss Spence was born at Melrose in 1825, and went to South Australia with her parents in 1839. In 1854 she published "Clare Morrison, a Tale of the South Australian Gold Fever"; in 1856 "Tender and True"; in 1865 "Mr. Hogarth's Will"; and in 1868 "The Author's Daughter." "Gathered In," another novel from her pen, appeared in the Adelaide Observer and the Queenslander. In 1884 Miss Spence published anonymously in London "An Agnostic's Progress," written from a theistic point of view. She is a strong advocate of the Hare system of representation, and thirty years ago published a pamphlet in Adelaide entitled "A Plea for Pure Democracy," arguing for its adoption in South Australia. Miss Spence has taken a practical interest in the working of the boarding-out system as applied to the neglected children of South Australia, and is a warm champion of the outdoor relief system wisely administered.