Tracing the tactics by which Colonial Office administrators tried to manage the political fallout of scandals provoked by men like Edwards underlines the impact of ostensibly marginal figures on more mainstream political developments. For the authorities, there were both possibilities and dangers presented by manipulating the different registers of information exchange at their disposal. In many ways they were successful in dealing with their critics, yet the Edwards case also emphasises how such practices, which took place at various levels of secrecy, were compromised by the increasingly damaging political consequences that were presented by accusations of spying. Espionage had seemed (somewhat) acceptable during the threats from revolutionary France in the 1790s. But the tide of public opinion had decisively turned by the time Commissioner Bigge arrived in the Australian colonies on the first of his investigations in 1819. Spies had particular rhetorical power in the highly charged political climate immediately following the Napoleonic Wars. In the midst of the political upheavals I have outlined, dramatic revelations that exposed both the reliance on government spies and the role played by agents provocateurs in anti-government conspiracies significantly undermined the state's position on internal security threats. Being caught using espionage against ‘freeborn Britons’ was becoming an increasingly serious political liability.

“Spies and Bloodites!!!”

In seeking employment as a clerk with the Commission of Eastern Inquiry shortly after his arrival in Cape Town, Edwards sought to enter a trans-imperial world of law, letters and governance, a world in which an increasing preoccupation with reform saw opportunities opening up for both personal and political ambition. Instead he found employment by setting himself up as a notary, perhaps little anticipating how important a part he would be playing amongst the imperial information networks within a few short months. Edwards was admitted as a notary on 23 October 1823, and from November of that year he was employed in a variety of diverse minor legal matters concerning inheritance, business arrangements, drawing up contracts of employment and mediating in interpersonal disputes. On 26 September 1823 he applied for, and was subsequently granted, permission to remain in the colony. The Hero was about to depart and needed his paperwork to be cleared before it could do so. Edwards's application described himself as ‘having come to this Colony from the Mauritius for the benefit of his health’.