Volume 75 Issue 12 December 2025

Old Colonists Festival Dinner held at the City Bridge Hotel, Adelaide, 27 March 1851, by Samuel Gill. State Library NSW. Public Domain.

Drinking to Australian Democracy

The colony of New South Wales did not have its own parliament until 1856, but it did have a tradition of public dinners and politically charged toasts.

Henry VIII, by Hans Holbein the Younger, c.1540. Fine Art Images/Bridgeman Images.

The Excommunication of Henry VIII

Henry VIII’s break with Rome was a watershed moment for England and for Christendom. Did the papacy have itself to blame?