Struggle amongst strangers

On 29 June 1894, John Arthur Andrews, a professed anarchist, appeared before the magistrate's bench at the Water Police Court in Phillip Street, Sydney over the publication of a pamphlet, A Handbook of Anarchy. Andrews had neglected to include a printer's imprint in his self-published tract, although he had identified himself on the back cover as the author and publisher, and provided an address. For this oversight Andrews, and two others who had sold copies of the Handbook, Messrs. Robinson and Wolfe, were sentenced to three months in prison. Andrews believed that they were imprisoned for the Handbook's contents, not for a technical breach of the law, an interpretation apparently shared by the Stipendiary Magistrate who reportedly told Andrews that the anarchist was being tried for 'sedition'.