Bruce Smith

1851 - 1937

About the Author

Bruce Smith (1851-1937) was an Australian Barrister and a Member of the Parliament of New South Wales in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Smith was one of the very few (perhaps the only one) Spencerite liberals in the Australian colonies. He was influenced by the writings of the English “Liberty and Property Defence League” which was a group of radical individualists and free traders who had among their members Thomas Mackay and Auberon Herbert.

In The Library:

• author: Liberty and Liberalism: A Protest against the Growing Tendency toward undue Interference by the State, with Individual Liberty, Private Enterprise and the Rights of Property (1887)

Quotations:

• The Australian radical liberal Bruce Smith lays down some very strict rules which should govern the actions of any legislator (1887) (15 August, 2005)
• Bruce Smith on the misconceived and harmful legislation produced by voting as an inevitable though temporary case of “measles” (1887) (12 August, 2010)