which appeared in 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1791, 1794, and 1799, were embodied in the second edition of his 'Doctrine of Annuities,' 1821. In 1827 he was examined before a select committee of the House of Commons on friendly societies. He was also much consulted on questions relating to ecclesiastical property. Morgan was a Unitarian of a presbyterian type, like his uncle, Dr. Price, whose views on finance and politics he also inherited. He vigorously denounced the accumulation of the National Debt, and 'the improvident alienation of that fund by which it might have been redeemed.'
The following were his writings on this subject: 1. 'A Review of Dr. Price's Writings on the Subject of the Finances of the Kingdom, to which are added the three plans communicated by him to Mr. Pitt in 1786 for redeeming the National Debt,' London, 1792, 8vo; 2nd edit., 'with a supplement stating the amount of the debt in 1795,' 1795. 2. 'Facts addressed to the serious attention of the People of Great Britain, respecting the Expense of the War and the State of the National Debt in 1796.' Four editions were published in 1796, London, 8vo. 3. Additional facts on the same subject, London, 8vo; four editions published in 1796. 4. 'An Appeal to the People of Great Britain on the Present Alarming State of the Public Finances and of Public Credit,' London, 8vo, 1797, four editions. 5. 'A Comparative View of the Public Finances from the Beginning to the Close of the Late Administration,' London, 1801, three editions. 6. 'A Supplement to the Comparative View,' 1803. He was the author of a scientific work entitled ' An Examination of Dr. Crawford's Theory of Heat and Combustion,' London, 1781, 8vo, and also edited the foil owing: 'Observations on Reversionary Payments, by Richard Price, to which are added Algebraical Notes by W. M.;' 5th edit. 1792-80; 7th edit. 1812, and many subsequent editions. Morgan also edited the 'Works of Dr. Price, with Memoirs of his Life,' London, 1816, 8vo, and Dr. Price's Sermons, 1816.
[The fullest account of Morgan's actuarial work is to be found in Watford's Insurance Cyclopædia, ii. 596-622, iii. 1-23. For all other facts the best authority is A Welsh Family, from the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1885, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1893), by Miss Caroline E. Williams, for private circulation. See also Gent. Mag. for 1833, pt. i. p. 569; Memoirs of Dr. Price, ut supra.]
MORGAN, Sir WILLIAM (1829–1883), South Australian statesman, son of an English farmer, was born in 1829 at Wilshampstead, near Bedford. In 1848 he emigrated with two brothers and a sister, and arrived in South Australia in February 1849. He took the first work that offered, but after a short experience of bush life became an assistant in the grocery store of Messrs. Boord Brothers. In 1851, at the time of the Victoria gold rush, he went with his brother Thomas to the Bendigo diggings, and, succeeding better than the majority, came back to Adelaide and rejoined the Boords, purchasing their business after a short time, and extending it till, under the title of Morgan & Co., it became one of the leading mercantile houses in the colony.
In August 1869 Morgan first entered political life, standing for election as member of the legislative council. In spite of the uncompromising independence of his views on the leases and other questions which were exciting popular attention, he was duly returned on 6 Aug. In the council his shrewdness and foresight rapidly brought him to the front. In 1871 he was chosen by the ministers to be one of the delegates of South Australia to the intercolonial conference, which opened at Melbourne on 18 Sept. On 3 June 1875 Mr. Boucaut was called on to form a ministry, and selected Morgan as chief secretary to represent the government in the legislative council. This was the government locally known as that 'of the broad and comprehensive policy.' Its schemes for the undertaking of new and large public works, and for the readjustment of taxation with a view to its fairer incidence on all classes, were the subject of fierce debate, and were rejected in two consecutive sessions by the council. In the midst of the fight (25 March 1876) Morgan had to retire from the ministry to attend to the extra pressure of business entailed by his purchase of a share in the Balade mines of New Caledonia. In February 1877, when his term in the council had expired, although his private affairs made him anxious to retire for a time from political life, he was returned to the legislative council at the head of the poll.
The new parliament met on 31 May 1877, and Morgan, after leading the attack on Sir Henry Ayers, the chief secretary in the Colton administration, was by a unanimous vote of the house required to assume the duties of its leader in the place of Ayers. The defeat of the Colton administration in the assembly also followed, and Boucaut formed a ministry in which Morgan was chief secretary (October 1877). In October 1878 Boucaut retired, and Morgan himself became premier, holding the office till June 1881, when he retired owing to pressure of
