It will be proper, however, first to retrace the penal history of these
settlements, and to mark the incidents which moulded their form, and
contributed to their failure or success. The administration of the penal
laws cannot be understood, except by a broad and continuous survey. The
developments of one colony re-acted on the other: Van Diemen's Land,
long the satellite of New South Wales, attended all its motions, and
with it prospered or suffered. From the fortunes of that colony, the
history of Tasmania is inseparable.
The evils described, were not of a recent origin; they may be traced
from the commencement of penal colonisation: the journals of the first
officers exhibit all sorts of mischief, which only entered into new
combinations as times advanced, and property was diffused. Collins,
whose account descended to the close of the century, records a perpetual
struggle with vice and crime. What could be expected of men who burned
their gaol at the risk of their lives, and the church to escape
attendance on worship?
The first expiree, James Rouse, who was established (1790) as a settler,
was industrious and successful. Phillip, anxious to test the competence
of the land to sustain a cultivator, cleared two acres for this man,
erected his hut, and supplied him with food. Fifteen months after, he
relinquished his claim on the King's stores, and received thirty acres
of land, in reward for his diligence. It thus became common to afford
similar facilities to expiree convicts,[97] but generally in vain.
The solicitude of Phillip was displayed in every form of kindness; but
the proneness of his subjects to intemperance, defeated all his efforts:
he gave them stock; and had scarcely left the land, when his gifts were
sold for rum. His successor was not more successful, when he tried the
same plan. Cargoes of American spirit produced the madness of
intoxication; and the freed settlers neglected their farms, or
anticipated their produce to obtain the liquid destruction. Their
passion for gaming was universal: they sometimes staked not only their
money and their goods, but even their clothing, and were seen to labor
in the field, as free from clothing as the savages who surrounded them.
In spite of the dread of famine, they consumed their time and substance
in intemperance: sold their seed, lent to insure their harvest. In the
distribution of stores, robberies were daily committed; double rations
were issued; and Collins ingenuously confesses, that office converted
the most trusty into thieves; and that peculations were forgiven,
because a change of agency was useless. All in superior circumstances,
unprotected by military vigilance, were robbed and robbed again.
Missionaries, who fled from Tahiti, found their countrymen more savage
than strangers: one was wounded, and plundered of all his property; and
another, murdered with an axe, while writing a receipt for a payment,
which his destroyer thus hoped to evade. The Governor, in an imploring
tone, enumerated the robberies which every day occurred, and hoped that
the constables, in whose presence they were committed, did not profit by
such crimes! Those who obtained their freedom, were a source of infinite
annoyance: unable to depart from the country, they refused all kinds of
labor; and, joined with others equally worthless, astonished the
officers by the vigour and ingenuity of their spoliations.
The account given by Collins, is a valuable delineation of society when
set free from moral influence, and proves how little simple coercion can
check a general disposition to crime. So rare was reformation, that a
single instance is mentioned with triumph: among the few who redeemed
that settlement from utter dishonor, was George Barrington, celebrated
for his dexterity as a pickpocket, and for his pathos at the bar; who
robbed a prince with the grace of a courtier, and was the _beau ideal_
of swindlers. He was distinguished in New South Wales for his integrity
in the office of chief constable, and his diligence as a farmer. He died
regretted, in the year this dependency was colonised.[98]
Governor Hunter authorised the opening of a theatre at Sydney. The
principal actors were convicts, and in default of a chamberlain, they
were threatened, for a second offence, with the _penal_ settlement. The
price of admission, one shilling, was paid in meal or rum, taken at the
door! Many had performed the part of pickpocket in a London play-house,
but at Sydney this was more difficult; yet they were not discouraged:
they saw by a glance at the benches what houses were left unprotected,
and proceeded to rob them. The motto of the actors was modest:--"We
cannot command success; but we will endeavour to deserve it." Their
first play was _The Revenge_: the first prologue, characteristic both of
the actors and the audience. The aptitude of one of these couplets, has
transferred it into a proverb; but it is worth seeing in its connexion,
as a representation of the real sentiments with which violations of the
law were remembered.[99]
PROLOGUE.
From distant climes, o'er wide-spread seas we come,
Though not with much eclat, or beat of drum,
True patriots we, for be it understood,
We left our country, for our country's good;
No private views disgraced our generous zeal,
What urged our travels, was our country's weal.
But, you inquire, what could our breast inflame,
With this new passion for Theatric fame?
He, who to midnight ladders is no stranger,
You'll own will make an admirable Ranger.
To seek Macheath we have not far to roam,
And sure in Filch I shall be quite at home.
As oft on Gadshill we have ta'en our stand,
When 'twas so dark you could not see your hand,
From durance vile our precious selves to keep,
We often had recourse to th' flying leap;
To a black face have sometimes ow'd escape,
And Hounslow Heath has proved the worth of crape.
But how, you ask, can we e'er hope to soar,
Above these scenes, and rise to Tragic lore?
Too oft, alas, we've forc'd th' unwilling tear,
And petrified the heart with real fear.
Macbeth, a harvest of applause will reap,
For some of us, I fear, have murder'd sleep;
His lady, too, with grace will sleep and talk,
Our females have been us'd at night to walk.
Sometimes, indeed, so various is our art,
An actor may improve and mend his part:
"Give me a horse," bawls Richard, like a drone,
We'll find a man would help himself to one.
Grant us your favor, put us to the test,
To gain your smiles we'll do our very best;
And, without dread of future Turnkey Lockits,
Thus, in an honest way, still pick your pockets.[100]
The connection between ardent spirits and the early disorders of our
penal colonies is patent at every stage of their progress. Then the
habits of the navy were intemperate; rum was considered the great parent
of valor. The founders of our colonies never entertained a suspicion
that society could exist without its aid. Thus the first fleet, in their
progress, touched at a port to take in a large supply, which proved of
the most deleterious kind:[101] every vessel was deeply laden with the
same commodity. The limitation of wholesale dealing to the officers, was
not to restrain its consumption, but to monopolise its profits. The
advantage of its distribution, as an incitement to labor, atoned for the
moral ravages it spread: for this reward alone, would the prisoners
yield their full strength; and when the taste, inflamed by indulgence,
drove them to crime, or laid them in the dust, their ruin suggested no
reflection beyond the general evils of intemperance. Had the light of
science illuminated the imperial authorities, they perhaps had provided
some check on this grand incentive to crime.
The deposition of Bligh was occasioned by this fatal appetite: whether
from sullenness, or conviction, he discouraged the vendors of rum, and
attempted to obstruct their living on the vices of the prisoners. The
landing of a still, and its seizure, was followed by a series of
altercations, which led to the military rebellion, and terminated his
government. This event roused the public attention for a moment, to the
state of the colony. In 1811-12 a committee of the House of Commons was
appointed "to enquire into the manner in which the sentence of
transportation had been executed, and the effects produced by that mode
of punishment." The result was remarkable: the committee advised that
more constitutional tribunals should be established, and distillation
allowed.[102] The ministers of the day feebly vindicated the royal
commission violated in the deposition of Bligh; and having once more set
in motion the machine of legal government by the appointment of
Macquarie, fell back into long slumber. Thenceforth, and for many years,
rum was a great agent in the working of government, and the source of
private opulence. The monopoly escaped official hands, but the expirees
succeeded to the profitable calling. The large fortunes accumulated by
many, were rarely derived from any other trade. Their prosperity was
traced with startling uniformity: they sold their spirits to the
settlers for produce, which they vended at the royal stores: they
indulged them with credit, until hopelessly involved, when mortgages
were executed, and foreclosed with a rapidity and precision which leaves
modern conveyancing in the shade.[103] Individual powers of consumption
were incredibly great: the expiree farmer, and his not more intemperate
prisoner servant, broached the vessel, poured out its contents into
buckets, and drank until they were insensible, or until, roused to
frantic vigor, they were swift to shed blood. Such scenes were
common.[104]
The specious advantage to the revenue, exhibited by our colonial
statistics, protected a vice so useful. The influence of this interest
cannot be overstated: to put down spirit drinking would, in equal
proportion, disturb colonial finance. The demands of the public service
were always in advance of its means, and no colonial administration was
found sufficiently enlightened or courageous to add the prevention of
this poisonous indulgence to the other consequences of banishment.
Macquarie revived the policy of the Stuarts, in regulating this trade:
to Messrs. Wentworth, Riley, and Blaxland, he granted (1810) the
exclusive privilege of importation, and by the duty they paid (7s. per
gallon), erected a hospital. They proved, in defiance of economists, how
monopoly can, sometimes, enlarge the supply, and thus increase the
demand. They dispatched their agents to the Mauritius, India, and the
Cape, and bought at 2s. 6d. per gallon; and arrack and rum deluged the
colony. The success of their enterprise was great: in less than two
years they obtained sufficient to raise the edifice, which could not
want occupants, and cost more than L20,000.
The effects of this measure were flagrant: a letter, addressed by
Marsden, the chaplain, to Macquarie, depicted the wretched condition of
the prisoners. The scenes of dissipation which passed before him
deprived him of repose. Freed women, living at Parramatta,
unprovided with public shelter, ran headlong into vice, and dropped all
around him, slain by rum and dissipation. He stood aghast and powerless
before the devastation: at times he observed, "I envy the situation of
the most menial servant, who is free from this solemn and sacred
responsibility."[105] The reply of Macquarie was witty rather than
relevant. He told Lord Sidmouth, in effect, that the sorrows of Marsden
were too deep for discovery: noted for the cheerfulness, and even gaiety
of his temper, his movements were too rapid for grief; and his days,
divided between the cares of farming, grazing, and trade--to say nothing
of his clerical occupation--left him no time for sorrow.[106] The evils
he described are, however, proved by uniform testimony: they must exist
where dealing in spirits is the sure path to wealth, and wealth the
title to social distinction.
In the _Rocks_, drunkenness and debauchery were constant and
undisguised: persons of respectable appearance, in the day time, were
liable to mal-treatment; but those who, in the night, entered the
"fortress of iniquity," were usually stripped and plundered. Broils and
boxing matches were of perpetual occurrence; the public-houses were
"fences;" and degraded women, in large numbers, crowded these dens of
thieves.[107]
It is not necessary to give a chronological history of the spirituous
epoch. The reign of intemperance commenced with the first proclamation:
it received all the protection of law, and the favour of government: it
was embodied in our penal administration. Whether it was possible to
check its mischief, some may doubt; but that it has clenched the
population fast; that it has formed our gangs--crowded our prisons; that
it has covered our scaffolds, and filled ten thousand graves--is certain
as death!
The correspondence maintained between the convicts and their friends,
informed them of their prosperity. The alluring picture, drawn by those
whose bondage was past, exhibited a social state, precisely suited to
the taste of their kindred and acquaintance. The sensual and dissolute
were tempted by the riotous jollity of the "Rocks;" those fond of
equivocal commerce with the profits of trade; and others were cheered by
the assurance that a friend in bonds would find a nominal master in a
relative or former friend, when the formalities of inspection were
over.[108] Such as brought out spoil, were besieged with offers of
investment, and found themselves in a market where money was the
passport to favor and indulgence; others, less fortunate, were pillaged
by those who crowded them with welcomes,[109] or drawn into bargains
which proved that no cozening art was lost.
To illustrate the occasional good fortune of prisoners, one Hazard, may
be worth remembrance: he had been before transported; in 1815, he
arrived under a second sentence, for life. While on the voyage out, he
purchased a quantity of tobacco: he received, on landing, a
ticket-of-leave; immediately married the daughter of an innkeeper, and
obtained a license, in the name of his wife, to the same calling: he was
patronised by the most respectable settlers, and enjoyed prosperity
until his death, only five years after his arrival.
In this colony, the acting secretary of the Governor secured his ticket
at his landing, and was long distinguished for the extent of his
influence, and the elegance of his dwelling.[110] It may be presumed
that, however explained on the spot, these examples were not lost on the
republic of thieves; and many were disposed to try that fortune which
was so often propitious.
The ordinary of Newgate, Mr. Cotton, a well-known name, in his evidence
before the Commons in 1818, has left nothing to conjecture. The
prisoners of his day "looked on transportation as a party of pleasure:"
they departed from the prison with huzzas, and bade glad adieu to their
less happy companions and keepers, exclaiming, "what a glorious kangaroo
hunt we will have at the Bay."[111]
"Stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum
Tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore."
VIRGIL.
To distinguish bravado from triumph, is sometimes difficult; but there
must have been little to appall, where there was so much to hope: nor
did they perceive that, though many were fortunate, not a few, at the
brightest era, groaned in bondage; that degradation and suffering,
sometimes, reached their utmost limits, at which death itself stops the
hand of vengeance.
The opinions that prevailed among the prisoners, in reference to the
intentions of the British government, were adopted by Macquarie himself;
he held, like them, that the colony was established for the benefit of
persons convicted, and that in forming a system of political government,
their social welfare was the grand design to pursue. The notion was not
without support. In the nominal list of the first fleet, not more than
fifty in all were banished for terms exceeding seven years.[112] To
suppose that these were perpetually excluded from the immunities of
British subjects, would be to attribute to expatriation a forfeiture
beyond the operation of English law. The opinion was further fortified
by the distribution of land, under regulations which were intended to
encourage their permanent settlement, and limited only to such as, "by
their good conduct and disposition to industry, should be deserving of
favor, and receive emancipation and discharge from their
servitude."[113] This opinion was still further sustained by the
comparative neglect of emigration, and the selection of officers, for
situations of authority and trust, from the ranks of the prisoners. A
comparison of property acquired by the various classes, in 1820,
explains many anomalies[114] in their social aspect, and vindicates the
policy of Macquarie himself. It is shown, that the emancipists and their
children were more than five times in excess of the free; and that their
property in land, trade, and commerce, exceeded by more than one-half
the possessions of the voluntary settlers.
To erect the barriers of caste around so small a section, and to exclude
emancipists from the common intercourse of social life, was a task no
Governor could then accomplish, without danger. The changes which
followed Macquarie's administration, especially the growth of a free
population, enabled his successors to effect what, in 1817 to 1820, had
been attempted in vain. The opposition encountered by Macquarie, and
which he resented with the ardour of his character,[115] enabled his
enemies to represent him as the patron of criminals. He was said to look
upon their offences in the light of misfortunes, which they were to
repair in the country of their exile, rather than to atone by the
severities of toil and privation;[116] and that they were taught to look
upon no title to property, as so just as that which had been derived by
passing from crime to conviction; from thence to servitude,
emancipation, and grant.[117]
The difference of opinion and feeling between the Governor and military,
led to the combination of emancipists, who did not veil their former
condition, but ennobled it by raising it to a political interest; who
adopted a designation, and formed a system of morality, to which it is
useless to look for a parallel. They returned with bitterness the
reproaches of the free, and insisted on the benefit of the proverb,
which ascribes more virtue to the vigor of reformation, than the
constancy of obedience.[118] Their advocates would ask, with exultation,
whether any emigrants were found whose life would bear a scrutiny?
Whether greater crimes are not tolerated by the refinements of vice than
those which are commonly visited with the vengeance of the law? or,
exhibiting the doctrines of christianity in their aspect to the
penitent, they thundered forth denunciations against the proud and the
self-righteous! The champion of this system, Mr. W. C. Wentworth, turned
the artillery of his wrath against the exclusionists: "and shall not,"
he exclaimed, in the ardour of his youth, "shall not the sole
efficacious remedy be administered (the restoration of the civil rights,
capacity to become magistrates and legislators), because a set of
_interlopers_, in nowise connected with the purposes for which this
colony was founded, wish to monopolise all the respectable offices of
the government, all the functions of emolument, dignity, and power,
themselves." "How can they expect pardon of God, if they withhold
oblivion from their repentant fellow creatures." "Retrospection should
not be pushed beyond the period of arrival, but then subsequent good
behaviour should be subject to the severest tests. The re-convicted
offender, branded with the _lasting_ impressions of infamy, should be
rendered ever after incapable."[119]
Such was the recognised code of the emancipist: it were, indeed, easy to
see that the several convictions of some small rogue might not, in their
aggregation, equal the crime of him who sinks a ship or burns a house,
or the guilt of an atrocious offence, which escapes the last penalty of
public vengeance, by some legal error; but to obliterate the first
stigma of those who constituted the great body of a population, and
whose self-respect was their chief chance of virtue, was not
unreasonable.
The evils which rose from this system of oblivion, are to be traced to
the indiscretion which formed a community of criminal origin. The
effects produced by their equipages, luxury, and licentiousness, on the
British population, when set forth in the language of romance, were not
to be charged on the local government. It is in the nature of commerce
to collect wealth: the traders were nearly all expirees; they became
rich, not because they were transported, but because some were
industrious, others saving, and others fraudulent; and because they were
in the midst of a system of expenditure, which made the Treasury of
England their bank.
The acquisitions of men, who had been prisoners, with great absurdity
and forgetfulness, were attributed to the laxity of the local governors.
Even now, many who are dextrous, shrewd, and persevering, acquire
considerable properties: their prosperity awakens no alarm, because they
are lost amidst a dense population, and are surrounded by emigrants, who
by similar vices or virtues are not less opulent, but far more numerous.
The first sound that fell on the ear of the prisoner, when he stood
before Governor Macquarie, tended to animate his confidence: having
enquired of his treatment through the voyage, he then informed him that
the past was left to oblivion, and that the future would determine his
condition,[120] This was often no vain promise: the sentiments he
expressed were, more or less, recognised by the preceding Governors. The
Commons, in 1812, gave his policy their sanction, and Earl Bathurst,
though with more reserve, favored the same opinion. Macquarie never
disguised this system of mercy.[121] When transportation only
contemplated the establishment of a colony, this system of oblivion was
useful; but the passage from the bar of justice to liberty, was
sometimes not longer than the passage from England: and those who rose
to wealth, by their character and career, gave to public retribution the
aspect of grimace.
On the appointment (1814) of H----, as superintendent of convicts, an
office then of greater _real_ power than any other in the penal
department of the British empire, Macquarie, says Bigge, gave an
enumeration of his merits; and continued frequently to publish in the
_Gazette_ eulogies on his character. This is slily sketched by the
Commissioner himself, and with more precision by Dr. Reid, who was on
the spot at the time. Mr. H---- was a convict, and was placed in office
at Sydney, but breaking into the King's stores, either in person or by
deputy, and taking away a bale of slops, he was re-transported to
Norfolk Island, where he won the government notice by his diligence as a
dealer in pork, and was recommended by the commandant to Macquarie. This
man exercised his functions in the Turkish style: he rigorously
depressed all unseasonable attempts at virtue; but nothing was
impossible to those who were able and willing to pay, for whom he was
accustomed to act as banker. His manners were coarse to loathsomeness,
and he addressed the prisoners in language which outstripped their
own;--"eclipsed them in wickedness, and in revolting filthiness." Nor
was his domestic position more respectable: his wife was one of two, too
bad for endurance, who were forced from the colony, and sent to England
for reformation.[122] Such was the man entrusted with more than
magisterial power.
While the female prisoners were landed, his clerks became brokers
for masters, friends, and husbands. When ships arrived, boats
crowded round them, and the visitors chose, among the female prisoners,
a wife, or such other relative as might answer to their prior
engagements.[123] Having _sworn_ to these ties of kin, the
superintendent assigned them according to the plan of the contracting
parties, who, within twenty-four hours, had been total strangers. We may
imagine the _eclat_ with which so clever a device would be appeared to
the correspondents of the fortunate transport.
Those, whose appearance or dullness excluded them from these resources,
were taken to the factory. On their arrival, "according to custom," they
were met by a body of men, who, having satisfied the constables, spread
before these women the spirits and provisions provided for the feast of
welcome: what followed need not be told. The connivance of the
superintendent, with the most of these excesses, might be expected from
his character; and although he displayed considerable tact in subjecting
the prisoners to his control, his appointment and prerogatives almost
justified, and they fully accounted for, the rancour with which his
patron was opposed and condemned.
Thus Macquarie did not exercise the caution requisite to preserve his
generous designs from parliamentary censure: imprudent efforts to give
effect to his conviction, involved him in a contest which hastened his
recall, and it is said, shortened his life.[124] He raised to the bench,
and invited to his table, several emancipists of wealth, and made their
social reception the condition of his favor. When elevating to offices,
he sometimes violated his own rule of forgetting the past, by basing his
eulogy on the reformation of the person he delighted to honor. The
details of their character, furnished by the indignant or malicious,
cast an air of ridicule on their public reception. The subalterns of the
army refused to join their superior officers in entertainments, at which
emancipists were guests. The resentment of Macquarie aggravated the
quarrel, until the differences divided the colony into factions, and
finally originated the emancipist party; and by provoking observation,
tended to increase the severity which fell on their successors.
In those times of despotism, many were transported for political
offences, which in Great Britain leave no moral stigma, and when
forgiven by the crown, close no social circle.[125]
The prosperity of New South Wales--founded on the government
expenditure, so vast as to excite the most serious complaints, but so
subtle as to elude imperial censure--was but slightly participated by
Van Diemen's Land. Its later occupation, the low character of the first
settlers, and the subordinate station of its ruler, afforded no room for
fashion. Many emancipists in Sydney had become wealthy by the vices of
the less cunning and thrifty, and created a social state, without a
precedent. They could command the most expensive luxuries; and, compared
with them, the highest officers of the government were poor. They looked
for the honors of opulence, and did not perceive that an emancipist must
pass through oblivion to honor; and that, in this case, to distinguish
is to stigmatise.
It was observed by Mr. Bigge, that when Macquarie made some emancipists
magistrates, and professed by that dignity to restore them to the
station they had lost, he forgot that they were elevated to a rank they
had never filled. It was equally true, that a large number of free
colonists, whose pretensions in early life were equally limited, rose by
opulence to a superior station, and higher pretensions: to deny the
usual appendages of their position, would be virtually to degrade them.
Whether just or not, the formal exclusion of emancipists was a
supplement to the penalty of the law, and, as such, must have been
taken. It is not the actual exaltation, but equal eligibility of British
subjects to the highest station, which constitutes that equality so
grateful to Englishmen: the son of a sweep may keep the conscience of a
king.
There were freed men, who were even detestable for their wealth; others,
whose offences would not have excluded them from any society. Such was
that of Mr. Redfern, transported when a boy, for dropping a word to the
mutineers of the Nore. Society will ever make its exceptions, founded on
the nature of the offence, the proofs of reformation, or the general
character; but Governor Macquarie resolved to wash out the stain by
authority, and to treat those as enemies who disputed his policy, or
refused to share in its promotion.
The determination of the free to make no distinction between those who
merited the oblivion of their offences, and emancipists atrocious in
their history and character, rendered the hostility of caste more
inveterate.
The measures of Macquarie were followed by years of faction: a press,
representing emancipist interests and emancipist principles, and making
the Governor the instrument or the object of the most violent hatred;
still, on their side, the emigrants were often positive, virulent, and
contemptuous.
From this, Van Diemen's Land was free: there were few whose wealth or
education could pretend to rank. One gentleman so situated, Mr.
Gatehouse, by his respectability and intelligence, won the respect of
all classes: he was admitted to the table of the Governor, and was only
distinguished by the colonists for his enterprise and probity. When an
office of trust was in their gift, they chose him to share it with the
chief merchants of the island; and thus pronounced the judgment which
good men will adopt, against both an undiscriminating ban and an
unlimited admission.
The Commissioner, Bigge, joined with the anti-emancipists, in almost
every prejudice or opinion. Great as were the services he rendered by
his keen observation and courageous delineation of colonial society, in
this, and some other instances, he overlooked those facts of its
history, which gave a disastrous prominence and authority to the
emancipist settlers; and enabled them to claim consideration which
offended the free men, not always superior in substantial merit.
But disabilities, far more serious and unexpected, united the
emancipists, and obtained the sympathy of many who could not be charged
with indifference to crime. The remission of punishment was in the
discretion of the Governor-in-chief: the 30 Geo. iii, authorised the
granting of pardons, and the commission of the Governor, which recited
this provision, was supposed to convey the power. In 1811, Macquarie
declared that a long course of good conduct would be an essential
preliminary; but the rule was more easily stated than enforced: and, in
1813, one day in the year was fixed for pardons. It was declared that
conditional pardons could only be granted when ten years, or half
sentence, had expired; or, for absolute pardons, until fifteen years, or
three-fourths had been fulfilled.
Fond of dispensing mercy, he appointed a day, when those who thought
themselves entitled crowded his presence. The petitions, drawn up by
letter-writers, dwelt on every topic calculated to move to compliance;
among which were profuse compliments to the Governor's benevolence and
humanity. The concourse of suppliants was often very great--many
venturing to ask, who did not hope to obtain; and whose sole claim to
mercy, was the bad terms on which they lived with the law. The crowd
pressed on with their (700) petitions, which the Governor read in their
presence, and by one letter of the alphabet gave liberty to the
impatient captives, or sent them back to merit freedom, as freedom was
then merited. The _Court of Clemency_, thronged by suitors, would have
afforded a fine subject to the artist--a scene unique in the history of
man.
The dispensation of pardons was not regulated by any uniform principles.
The interest of superintendents was given, as the reward of task-work
performed for the crown; more successful, by services rendered to
themselves. Such was a common condition; but many are mentioned, who
obtained their pardons on easier terms than personal labor. The loan of
a horse and cart, driven by his assigned servants, procured the
liberation of the lender; others hired vehicles to convey his
Excellency's baggage during his progresses, and thus payed in money the
price of freedom. The bargain was public, and questions of national
policy never entered the minds of him who granted, or those procuring
the royal mercy. The grant of pardons, thus formed an important
department of Macquarie's government.
A decision of the Court of King's Bench, Bullock _v._ Dodds, where the
plaintiff was an emancipist, seemed to peril their freedom and property.
The defendant, when sued in England on a bill, pleaded the attaint of
the plaintiff, who had received the pardon of Macquarie. The validity of
these remissions, which affected great numbers, was thus brought to the
test. The Chief Justice, Abbott, declared that an attainted person was,
in law, as one _civiliter mortuus_: he might _acquire_, not because he
was entitled _to hold_ any possession, but because a _donor_ could not
make _his own act_ void, and reclaim his _own gift_. Thus, a person
giving or conveying property, could not _recall_ it, but the convict
attaint could not _hold_ it; and it passed to the hands of the crown, in
whom the property of the convict vested. This being the law, any
ticket-of-leave holder, or any person whatever standing on the pardon of
the Governor, was liable to be deprived by the crown, or obstructed at
any moment in attempting to recover by suit at law.
The practice of the Sydney Supreme Court had long virtually rejected
such distinctions. The mixed considerations of convenience and equity
induced the judges to allow the witnesses and plaintiffs the same
privilege, whether under attainder or not. Judge Field[126] declared,
that while the crown did not interfere, the court would not touch the
property of the convict: nothing but an attested copy of conviction,
would be admitted as evidence of conviction. Nor would the proof of
transportation, of itself, as the law then stood, prove the incompetence
of a witness. His time might have expired; his expatriation might have
been the condition of his pardon, or his offence might have been a
misdemeanour, and not involve the corruption of blood;[127] and, except
for perjury or subornation of perjury, the King's pardon might restore
his competency to give evidence, or hold property. On these grounds the
courts of New South Wales were enabled to evade the plea of attainder in
bar of a just action.
But the decision of the King's Bench discovered a serious omission in
the forms of pardon issued by Macquarie, and further enquiry even threw
doubt on his power to grant them at all. The Act of Parliament empowered
the crown to delegate the _authority to remit_ a sentence of
transportation, to the Governor of New South Wales; but the commission
of Macquarie said nothing of this power, except the criminals were
colonially convicted, when he could grant reprieves and pardons. His
_instructions_ authorised the pardons to British offenders, and those
instructions were warranted by _parliamentary enactment_; but the royal
commission gave _no such power_: and thus all his pardons were legally
void.
Another essential condition was neglected: to give effect to the pardon
of the Governor, it was required that he should transmit to the
Secretary of State the names of the persons whose sentences he remitted,
to secure their insertion in the next list of general pardons. This
course had never been taken: no list of remissions had been furnished to
Downing-street.
Among the extraordinary omissions of the government at home, was in many
instances the place of trial, and even the sentence of the transports;
to save the labour of penmanship, "ditto," was sometimes the sentence
found under another name, in the line of which 7, or 14, was written;
not at full length, but in numerals. Some "indents" exhibited erasures:
in one, a sentence of seven years had been converted to "life." More
strange than all, some were sent without even their names, and others
without any sort of information of their crime or sentence; and the
authorities felt justified in gaining by artifice, from the unsuspecting
prisoners themselves, what the ministers had neglected to furnish.
An Irishman, who could give no information, was suited to a sentence by
a process of analogy: he was set down, in compliment to his comrade, for
"life."[128] The regular transmission of this kind of information was
neglected, chiefly, by the Irish executive; ever slow to perceive the
obligation of reason and justice. The longevity of abuses is among the
most instructive lessons of history. The first fleet left their lists
with the owners of the transports: soon after their arrival, several
prisoners declared their sentence was completed; this, the government
was unable to affirm or deny, and therefore did nothing; but one of the
claimants, having expressed his discontent in a manner disrespectful to
the Lieutenant-Governor, received 600 lashes, and six months in
irons![129] Such atrocious neglect of the first principles of equity, is
a sad set-off against the license of indiscriminate pardons. The Roman
judge was a far better casuist: "For it seemeth to me unreasonable, to
send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against
him."[130]
A quarrel between Mr. Justice Field and Mr. Eagar, an emancipist
attorney, displayed more forcibly the effect of the decision of the
English Chief Justice. Judge Field presided at a session of magistrates
at Parramatta, when Eagar attempted to act as counsel: this was
prevented by the court; and the judge, as chairman, expressed himself,
in reference to Eagar, in terms of severe disapprobation and contempt,
stigmatising him as a common _barrator_, or mover of quarrels, whom the
Governor might justly prosecute for sedition, or banish from the colony.
Eagar, not daunted by the philippic of the judge, resolved to sue him in
a secondary court for slander, and to recover back fees paid in the
Supreme Court, and which he alleged the judge had levied illegally; but
Judge Field ordered his solicitor to file an affidavit of his belief
that Eagar was under attainder, and prayed for time to obtain an office
copy of his conviction: this course was allowed, and the action
defeated.
Not long after, Eagar attempted to recover certain penalties imposed by
the Act of Charles II. on foreign merchants trading in the British
plantations: the penalties were enormous, and the law was obsolete. The
particular object of Eagar was, to suppress the competition in the sale
of tea, which the superior trading connection of Messrs. L. Mestre and
Co. enabled them to offer. The French merchant very fairly pleaded the
attaint of the plaintiff, and Judge Field, in giving judgment, insisted
on the obvious injustice of the suit; that men, whose trading was
permissive--themselves the creatures of indulgence--and who, by
connivance, were allowed to become wealthy and prosperous--should
endeavour to rouse forgotten and restrictive statutes, to put down
useful commerce, and abuse privileges conceded by the clemency of the
court; to force the court to become the instrument of oppression: he
therefore allowed the plea of the merchants to bar the action of the
plaintiff.
All this, on the face of it, was just; but the emancipists saw that it
gave to the judge a discretion which laid them helpless at his mercy:
the same plea might be offered, to cover a fraudulent debtor, or deprive
a large majority of traders of legal protection. Nor was it a competent
answer, that the policy of the colony had been of an opposite
description: to stand on suffrage, was to stand in peril.
Prompted by this feeling, the emancipists formed themselves into
committees at all the settlements, and obtained the countenance of the
Governor to a plan for moving the British legislature, to correct the
anomalies of the law. At a public meeting, Mr. Redfern presiding, the
administration of Governor Macquarie was the subject of their glowing
eulogy. They predicted, that his name would be immortalised by the
gratitude of their descendants, who would remember his policy with
veneration. Against this meeting the judges protested, and professed to
foresee great peril to the dignity of their tribunals, and to the public
safety; but the calm and guarded proceedings of the emancipists avoided
the scandal, and gained their cause some support. The indignation of the
judges was unreasonable: in the administration of justice they had
usually protected the equitable rights of the emancipists; but it was no
reason for astonishment, that a large trading interest felt uneasy in
holding by indulgence privileges of so great importance, and were
anxious to obtain, by a declaratory statute, the remedy of their
grievances. Mr. Eagar was nominated secretary to their body, and
instructed to obtain parliamentary support: in this he was successful.
In the discussions of the Commons, the discontent of the emancipists was
condemned by the tories, and vindicated by the whigs. Peel charged
Macquarie with culpable neglect, in omitting to forward the lists; but
he observed, no general pardon had been issued for fifty years: what it
meant, was unknown! The Act required the Governor to send home the
names, and the Secretary to insert them in a general pardon; but he
could not tell in what manner to perform this duty. This was, he said,
of no practical moment: an individual might sue out a pardon, under the
great seal, without cost. He strongly opposed vesting by law in the
Governor, a power to grant absolute pardons--an interference with the
prerogative royal, and dangerous to public justice. To sustain this
opinion, he instanced the case of a man who had been transported for
forging a title to an estate, and who, under such a pardon, had returned
to Scotland to pursue his claim.
The zeal of Eagar in the cause of the emancipists, provoked the
animadversion of ministers: they hinted that he was liable to be treated
as a felon at large, and was indebted to the lenity of the executive for
his safety; but Sir James Mackintosh, who gave respectability to the
cause he espoused, vindicated the claims of the emancipist with great
warmth, and excused the earnestness with which the confirmation of his
title to liberty had been sought. That great and good man displayed, in
every debate, the generosity of his temper: always the enemy of
despotism, every form of oppression called him into action, and the
emancipists were largely indebted to his eloquence. After long delay,
this agitating question was settled, but with a reservation of serious
moment. The new law[131] confirmed all the pardons granted in New South
Wales, with the rights they included; rendering them of full effect when
they should be ratified by the crown. It further provided that no future
pardon should be held valid until allowed by the Secretary of State, and
then only within the colony of New South Wales and its dependencies--a
serious drawback from the attractions of the boon, as understood before;
but which was no barrier to the further extension of the royal clemency.
The opponents of Macquarie argued, that the profusion of mercy had not
been followed by reformation: the emancipists, they alleged, were
unchanged in principle, and never abandoned their habits of crime. This
view was sustained by Mr. Wentworth's representations, which were
intended to subserve another end. He attempted to prove that financial
oppression had driven back the expiree on his former course, which the
anti-emancipists maintained he had never forsaken.[132] It was, however,
the universal opinion, that atrocious crimes were diminished, and
misdemeanours increased.
The penal statistics were swollen by the extensive jurisdiction of
police: by the cognizance of acts which, in other countries, are left to
opinion. The distribution of public money, annually increasing towards a
quarter of a million, placed within the reach of all the pleasures they
were accustomed to obtain, without the risks of crime. A closer
inspection does not, however, exalt our opinion of their moral worth; of
4,376 emancipists, reported by the chaplains, 369 were tolerable, but
296 only were respectable.[133] Nor was the accusation without force,
that the proof of reform, admitted by Macquarie, was the possession of
money; that to thrive, by whatever means, within the letter of the
statute, was to honor the law, and to deserve well of the crown.
The administration of Macquarie was attacked with great vehemence,
and every detail of his scheme called in question. The British
government never had a system: the ministers treated every difficulty
as a thing apart from all others; and thus to arrest one form of
mischief, they released another. They directed the establishment of
separate settlements, and thus occasioned the vast expenses of their
control. They then approved the concentrated labor of Macquarie, and
when its cost became severe, advocated dispersion. Every parliamentary
discussion terminated in the abandonment of some principle, or the
establishment of some novelty. Always affected by the passing aspect of
transportation, the people of Great Britain never acquire a connected
view of the causes which alter its results; and have thus condemned or
applauded the local officers, for events casual or inevitable.
To diminish the pressure of the prisoners on the British treasury,
Macquarie granted tickets-of-leave: the holders, without employment and
without capital, became robbers. Then he turned his thoughts to public
works of permanent utility, and requiring continued labor: these
projects gradually absorbed his attention, and perhaps perverted his
judgment. Inspired by an able architect, whom the chances of public
retribution had thrown in his way, his erections greatly surpassed the
simple constructions of his predecessors. The settlement assumed the
aspect of a large building establishment, such as were seen in the
ancient world, when captives were subject to task-masters, and generals
were chief masons. The more skilful the mechanic, the greater his value
to the works, and the smaller his chance of liberty: yet, to reconcile
him to his lot, he was mostly permitted to choose his own abode, and was
enabled, by his surplus time, to obtain all the comforts and luxuries of
the colony. But the expenditure, which added to the opulence of the
settlers, enabled them to build also: they looked with envy on the
government which detained so large a proportion of the mechanical power:
they forgot that the unproductive employment of large numbers created
the demand for their crops, without which no dollar had been theirs to
spend. Their outcries rung in the ears of the Commissioner: he blamed
the improvidence of the Governor, who had rejected their applications,
and threw some ridicule on his architectural ambition. The Commissioner
only saw a gaol, but Macquarie believed, that when he erected an edifice
he was forming a model; and that in aiming at symmetry and refinement,
he was fixing the taste of a people.
The difficulty of reconciling adverse elements in penal colonisation,
has been ever visible. The modern principles of colonisation demand
concentration: the establishment of so many branch settlements was
considered, from the beginning, a great economical error; and by those
unaware of its justification, was the subject of strong and pointed
condemnation. No sooner, it was observed, had the settlers landed their
boxes, than they started a division for Norfolk Island; and others, in
rapid succession, broke off into fragmentary colonies. The same bridges,
schools, and courts, would be sufficient for ten thousand united people,
but must be multiplied with the separate settlements. It was urged that
the concentration of labor would decrease the expense of its
supervision, and extend the resources of the community, by varying its
industry. Such were the doctrines of political writers,[134] but when
they were adopted they were found to produce unforeseen practical
results.
The dispersion of the first era was necessary to safety: in the time of
Macquarie the public was in no apprehension of rebellion or famine, and
thus prisoners could be combined; but the aggregation of bad men will
always exhibit an appalling and disgusting aspect: and the excesses,
sufferings, and debasement connected with the public works, the
peculation of the officers and the indolence of the men, brought again
in view the evils of associated labor; and reinforced the arguments for
dispersion. The men, when together, became dealers, and indulged in all
the vices of cities; scattered, they became savage, and filled the
colonies with crimes.
The secondary settlements have been often the theatres of great iniquity
and oppression, and the commandants have dared injustice, which no
supreme authority would venture: to these meaner, and sometimes
contemptible agents, the prisoners must be subjected, on the principle
of dispersion. Such practical difficulties start up at every instant,
and thus expose the policy of the government to perpetual oscillation.
An instance, of later date, will demonstrate the danger of minute
sub-divisions, which exclude a public press and a public opinion. A
commandant resolved the seduction of the daughter of a prisoner: he
crept into her father's house, and offered violence. The father wrote to
the Governor (Brisbane); his letter passing, of course, through the
office of the commandant; who read the complaint, and ordered the aged
parent to the triangles. The doctor, knowing the nature of the offence,
refused his sanction, on a plea of health. The tyrant still insisted;
but the obstinate humanity of the surgeon prevailed. What then? The
father was sent from the station, and, after a while, the daughter was
thrown on Sydney, a prostitute. This officer had an accomplished wife:
she detected improper company in her room, and her exasperated husband
broke her arm to repress her outcries! It is to such hands that the
prisoner has been too often entrusted: to men, only known for their
vices--broken down by debt and dissipation--who have taken refuge, with
the wrecks of their fortune and reputation, in a military command.
The obligation of this history to the Reports of Mr. Bigge, renders it
proper to explain the origin, nature, and operation of his commission.
The representations of several colonists, that the administration of
Macquarie was subversive of public justice and favorable to crime; that
his expenditure was lavish, and his projects ridiculous, had reached the
house of parliament. To these charges the Rev. Samuel Marsden, chaplain
and magistrate, added the full weight of his authority. This person,
from his long residence, had assumed a prominent place among the
magistrates. By his connection with two great societies for the
propagation of Christianity (the Church, and the London), he commanded
large influence in the religious world. Nothing can be more opposite
than the estimates of his character, given by the partisans of the
emancipists, and those furnished by his ecclesiastical associates.
Soured by the vices rampant around him, and perhaps deteriorated by the
administration of justice, when it was hard to distinguish the
magistrate from the executioner, he does not always appear to have
merited the unmeasured eulogies of his friends.[135] He was, however,
celebrated for his attention to the islands of the Pacific, whose
welfare he promoted with exemplary diligence: his house was the home of
the missionaries who touched at Port Jackson; whose letters spread
through Europe the reputation of his benevolence. In reference to his
ultimate intentions, their apprehension of his character was probably
just; but the magisterial office is rarely compatible with the duties of
an ecclesiastic--least of all, when punishments were discretionary, and
inflicted on the spot. The servant, charged with a misdemeanour, he
flogged; who then took to the bush, and re-appearing, charged with a
capital crime, was hanged; and the magisterial divine attended him on
the scaffold. This was not peculiar; most clergymen were magistrates.
But Marsden was warm and sensitive--perhaps, resentful. The punishments
he inflicted were distinguished for their severity: his opposition to
vice, his unsuccessful struggle to prevent it, and some methods of
coercion, not then uncommon, but which now look like torture, exposed
him to the hatred of the prisoners. The differences between Macquarie
and this resolute clergyman, were frequent--they ended in open rupture;
and at length became so personally offensive to the Governor, that
Marsden was dismissed from the commission of the peace.
Mr. Henry Grey Bennet, member of parliament for Shrewsbury, addressed a
letter to Earl Bathurst, founded on the material furnished by Mr.
Marsden. This publication delineated a great variety of abuses, and
charged Macquarie with ignorance, rashness, and oppression. Having thus
prepared the way, a motion was made in parliament, which led to the
issue of the Commission of Enquiry, entrusted to John Thomas Bigge,
Esq., a relative of Mr. Bennet, and by profession a barrister. The
Commissioner was attended by Mr. Hobbs Scott, formerly a wine-merchant,
and afterwards Archdeacon of New South Wales; on whom the prosecution of
the enquiry devolved, in the event of the Commissioner's death. The
appointment of this commission was extremely painful to Macquarie: it
expressed distrust in the government, or the ascendancy of his opponents
in parliament. Nor was it difficult to foresee, that an enquiry
conducted by one individual, who must depend on the statements of
factions, and colonial factions, of all the least scrupulous--always
liable to many serious errors--must become a formidable instrument in
the hands of one or other of the parties struggling for supremacy.
The Commissioner landed (October, 1819) in New South Wales, with the
honors due to a gentleman distinguished by the royal confidence. The
civil and military officers, with a large assemblage of the colonists,
collected to witness the ceremony of presentation. The oaths of
allegiance and supremacy were administered by the Judge Advocate, and
the commission read. This document recited that it was necessary to
enquire into the laws, regulations, civil, military, and ecclesiastical;
and to ascertain the revenue, trade, and resources of the colonies. The
Commissioner was charged to report the information collected, "and his
opinions thereon."
Macquarie addressed the Commissioner, and congratulated himself and the
colony on the arrival of a servant of the King so eminent. Nothing could
inspire him with greater hope for the public weal. The assistance in his
power, he would cheerfully afford: the prosperity of the colony would
gratify the first wish of his heart.
The Commissioner then addressed the assembly, stating that though the
terms of his commission were explicit and comprehensive, he deemed it
right to embrace the occasion to explain the object of his Majesty's
government, and to prevent any possible misapprehension of their
motives. The increase of transportation to these colonies, and the
doubts entertained of the efficacy of the system of secondary
punishments, had prompted the enquiry. His arrival had been delayed, but
the time would give opportunity for minute researches into the state of
crime, undertaken by Mr. Buxton; and for the revision of the penal code.
It belonged to himself to examine whether these colonies had answered
the purposes of their institution, and whether their attainments in
civilisation had not disqualified them from fulfilling their original
design; or whether it were yet possible, to render transportation a
terror at home, and an instrument of punishment and reformation. This,
though the principal topic, would not exclude others of moment: he
expected assistance from every class, and felt encouraged from the
display of candour by the head of the government; from which he augured
the most beneficial results. He then concluded in the following
words:--"I will only add, I bring to this investigation the deepest
conviction of its importance: I approach it without any prejudice that
can influence my future opinions, either of systems or individuals. I
feel a determination, from which no earthly consideration shall move me,
of conducting it to its conclusion, with the strictest impartiality _to
all_. In the course of the enquiry I mean to pursue, I shall give
sufficient opportunities to those whose attendance I may require, to
consider the points submitted to them for their declarations and
opinions. I wish to impress on every one, that my principal object is
the attainment of truth; and while I am free to declare, that nothing
is to be apprehended from a fair and candid disclosure of truth, yet I
am equally bound to apprise the community, that nothing is to be hoped
for from the concealment of the truth for private purposes, or from the
gratification of malignant feelings and personal resentment." He warmly
acknowledged his honorable reception from Governor Macquarie, who
assigned him precedence to all but the Lieutenant-Governor.
The Commissioner's arrival in Van Diemen's Land (1820) was attended with
the same military honors: wherever he went he was received with
ceremony, and watched with jealousy and apprehension. The habits of Mr.
Bigge were simple, complacent, and industrious: he labored to draw from
all classes their feelings and designs--nothing escaped his curiosity.
His opinions are given on every subject with equal quietness, whether
they relate to the salting of beef, or the most profound questions of
government. The Reports he sent to the Secretary of State descended to
the smallest matters: he noted every rood of land granted, and every
ration issued. The style of these documents is felt to be prolix, and
their arrangement perplexing. Their contents excited very general
interest in England, and in Australasia unbounded indignation.[136]
Whatever epithet of hatred and contempt could be applied by impotence
and wrath, for years fell on the imperturbable Commissioner and his
secretary. He was charged with eaves-dropping, back parlour scandal,
partisanship, and wilful lying. The particular delineation of individual
conduct, and which he thought requisite to illustrate systems, excited
the utmost vexation: it was painful to officers, to find their
character, their habits, and the profits of their places, laid open to
national observation. Perhaps, those details were sometimes beyond an
obvious political necessity; but the plain exhibition of principles in
old English phrases--giving vice its true name--measuring the results of
transportation by a standard recognised outside both the mess-room and
the gaol--was of vast advantage to the colonists themselves. The
reference made to Bigge's Reports in this work, however, is always
limited to facts, which could not be distorted or colored. His
connections, and the spirit of his mission, prejudiced his judgment,
respecting a system which had been the growth of circumstances; but his
integrity is transparent, not less than his prepossessions. Time will
extract the sting of his disclosures; but their moral results will
remain. They tended to destroy those evils which can only live in a
congenial atmosphere--and wither, except in the shade.
The Reports of the Commissioner were published by order of the House of
Commons in 1822: Macquarie closed his official career on the 1st
December, 1821, having held the government for twelve years. Thus their
labors and opinions came before the parliament and the world together.
Macquarie, when he considered himself entitled to reward, for a period
of service of unusual length, found it was necessary to defend his
reputation. Betrayed by the warmth of his temper into some irregular
acts, which ill expressed the ordinary spirit of his government, he was
vulnerable to his assailants. The flogging of freed men, notwithstanding
the precedents left by his predecessors; the scandalous neglect of moral
precautions, in the disposal of the women; and prominent instances of
unjustifiable lenity; constituted serious deductions from his merit. He
was, however, exempted from pointed censure, and the crown assigned
L1,000 per annum, as his retiring pension. This favor was scarcely
conferred, when he was called before that Tribunal, where conduct and
motives are seen together: he died at St. James's, London, on the 1st
January, 1824, and his remains were carried to the Isle of Mull, North
Britain; where, according to his last wish, they rest in the tomb of his
fathers.
General Macquarie is entitled to be regarded as the founder of these
colonies: before his time, they were but hutted camps. To their
improvement he devoted all his energies: he foresaw and felt the
inspiration of their destined greatness. His disinterestedness was
exemplary: throughout his long administration, no sordid project was
connected with his name. No patriot ever labored more earnestly for his
country's welfare. Every device, which seemed to promise material
advancement to the community, was certain of his favor; every
contribution from the meanest settler, was sure to obtain its reward.
But if he accepted neither gold nor silver, as the recompense of his
cares, he took pledges of the colonies for the immortality of his name.
It resounds in every place, and is united in every form with the natural
objects and history of these regions. The name of his son, of his wife,
of his native mountains and early haunts--all flourish in this
hemisphere: of these, many were conferred by the flattery or kindness of
his friends. Their frequent recurrence confuses geography; they echo
from hill to dale, and from the river to the sea.[137]
The moral character of Macquarie was not impeached. Happy in his
domestic relationships, as a husband and father he exhibited an example
of fidelity and tenderness. The people quickly learned this key to his
regard, and he felt with all the gratitude of a generous nature, the
reverence paid to the virtues of his wife, and the interest affected for
his son. Mrs. Macquarie supported his efforts to reclaim the colonists
from the habits of concubinage, which disgraced their early history: she
could not, without utter seclusion, enforce those social rules which are
proper in more settled society; but her sentiments were unequivocal, and
hastened many a marriage--and saved many escutcheons from a bar! Mrs.
Macquarie survived her husband ten years: she expired at Mull, in March,
1834.
The indifference to moral worth, ascribed to Macquarie, will admit
another view. He estimated too highly the agency of affluence, in
raising the moral sentiments; but in promoting external decency, it has
considerable power. Macquarie was a soldier, and a man of the world:
those delicate springs, which set in motion the finer affections of the
soul, are open to the Christian, but are not found on the battle field,
in the courts of law, or the seat of government. The notions of this
ruler were material: he believed that another generation would cast off
the habits of the passing, and abhor and forget the vices of their
parents: nor was he mistaken.
The admitted political errors of Macquarie's government must be largely
ascribed to his peculiar position. When we scan the system he
constructed or modified, justice requires that we should consider, not
only the materials he possessed, but the condition in which he found
them. The rebellion of the officers had destroyed their authority, the
stores were exhausted, discipline relaxed, and those who had exacted the
most servile homage, were themselves dependant for impunity on the royal
clemency. He employed the discretion with which he was entrusted, to
avert the miseries of forfeiture; but he could not restore the relations
between the bond and the free, which revolt had shaken; or dispense with
the counterpoise of emancipist support.
Many years elapsed, ere the re-action of his system attracted the
attention of parliament; until then, it was approved or tolerated by the
crown. The pressure of a strong and united party, what ministers have
the courage to withstand? They were willing that the Governor should
bear the odium of measures, long subject to their cognizance, which they
had passed by unreproved, and sometimes even applauded. Macquarie
thought he had gained a triumph, when he raised emancipists to social
distinction, and detained a mass of transgressors within the rules of
obedience; and, for a time, so thought the ministers. They desired to
establish a city, out of the materials of the gaol; but when they saw
the success of their plans--half civic, half felonious--they were
terrified at their own creation, and wished the city had remained a
prison. In this feeling, Macquarie did not participate: he delighted in
the result of his policy; and wondered at the inexorable cruelty of
those who grudged an asylum to their unfortunate countrymen--who
attempted to dash from their lips the liberty and hope they began to
taste.
Whether it were possible, without a free community, to retain ten
thousand persons in perpetual vassalage, or to uphold a system of simple
coercion and social exclusion, in a colony so remote, remains a
question; but it is none, that the name of Macquarie will become more
illustrious, as the traditions of faction subside, and classes are
blended in the unity of a people. It will be said that he found a
garrison and a gaol, and left the deep and broad foundations of an
empire!
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 97: The instructions to Macquarie (1809) were--grants at 6d.
quit rent. Thirty acres to an expiree, twenty for a wife, and ten each
child.]
[Footnote 98: _Collins's New South Wales._]
[Footnote 99: The _Life of George Barrington_, written by himself, a
respectable volume in size and typography, was published in 1810: nearly
every paragraph is copied from Collins, the style being first debased;
and the colored sketches are a mere piracy from other volumes. It was
thought fair, by the ingenious booksellers to use the name of a popular
pickpocket, rather than one so little known as a Lieutenant-Governor. Of
posthumous agency in thus picking the pockets of the prigging race,
George Barrington's memory must be acquitted.]
[Footnote 100: _Life of Barrington._]
[Footnote 101: Tench.]
[Footnote 102: Heath: _Par. Pap._]
[Footnote 103: Terry kept blank deeds ready at his
public-house.--_Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 104: "Eighteen years ago (1802), the period when I arrived in
this colony, it was lamentable to behold the excess to which drunkenness
was carried. It was no uncommon occurrence for men to sit round a bucket
of spirits, and drink it with quart pots, until they were unable to stir
from the spot."--_Dr. Redfern's replies to Macquarie; published by
Parliament._
This reference to the past was intended to contrast favorably with the
present (1820), but drunkenness was not greatly diminished: the bucket
and pannikin still were in request at more remote parts of the colonies,
and their use was recommended as a "measure of police," to prevent the
drunkards from robbing each other. Poured into a bucket, none could be
unfairly abstracted--_all_ shared alike; but had it not been so
arranged, some rogue of the party would have removed some bottles, when
the rest were off their guard; and thus reserved for himself the
pleasures of intoxication, when the others were obliged, for lack of
spirits, to be sober!]
[Footnote 105: Bigge, however, states, that Marsden himself was a
trafficker in spirits, and felt naturally opposed to the profuse
competition he encountered; yet the reader will recollect that this was
the common article of barter--its use universal, in even the most
correct society; and that it was rather to the disorderly habits of the
houses which vended it, than to its consumption, that the most rigid
moralists of the day would object.]
[Footnote 106: Letter to Lord Sidmouth.]
[Footnote 107: _Surgeon-superintendent Reid's Voyages to New South
Wales._]
[Footnote 108: Cunningham.
The following is a picture of things as they were:--"The madames on
board, occupy the few days which elapse before landing in preparing the
most dazzling effect, on their descent upon the Australian shore." "With
rich silk dresses, bonnets _a la mode_, ear pendants, brooches long,
gorgeous shawls and splendid veils, silk stockings, kid gloves, and
parasols in hand, dispensing sweet odours from their profusely perfumed
forms--they are assigned as servants. The settler expected a servant,
but receives a princess."--_Mudie's Felonry._
This is doubtless the language of caricature; but the extravagant
pretensions of many, could be scarcely exaggerated.]
[Footnote 109: Bigge.]
[Footnote 110: Bigge.]
[Footnote 111: Bennet, p. 77.]
[Footnote 112: _Phillip's Voyages_, 1789.]
[Footnote 113: Macquarie's commission.]
[Footnote 114: _Abstract of the Emigrant and Emancipist Population in
the year_ 1820, _with a schedule of Property belonging to them_:
_compiled from the statements of the Emancipists._
--------------------------------+----------------+-------------+
1820. | Emancipists. | Emigrants |
--------------------------------+----------------+-------------+
POPULATION-- | | |
Adults | 7,556 | 1158 |
Children | 5,859 | 878 |
|----------------+-------------+
| 13,415 | 2,436 |
| 2,436 |=============|
|----------------+ |
Excess of Emancipists | 10,979 | |
|================| |
PROPERTY-- | | |
Acres in cultivation | 29,023 | 10,737 |
Ditto in pasture | 212,335 | 198,369 |
Houses in towns | 1,200 | 300 |
Cattle | 42,988 | 28,582 |
Sheep | 174,179 | 8,739 |
Horses | 2,415 | 1,553 |
Swine | 18,563 | 6,804 |
Vessels | 15 | 8 |
Capital in trade | L150,000 | L100,000 |
|================|=============|
Total estimated Property | L1,123,600 | L526,136 |
| 526,136 |=============|
+----------------+ |
Excess in favor of Emancipists: | L597,464 | |
rather more than as 2 to 1] |================| |
| | |
--------------------------------+----------------+-------------+
[Footnote 115: "Now, in matters of opinion, man is like a pig: if you
force him on he retrogrades. If you are really serious in attaining a
point, make him believe the reverse is your object in view. Governor
Macquarie, finding a number of demurrers to his opinion, instead of
coaxing them into his views, looked upon them as his personal enemies,
and often treated them as such."--_Cunningham_, vol. ii. p. 112.]
[Footnote 116: _Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 117: Ibid.]
[Footnote 118: Mr. Hall, a free immigrant editor, addressed a meeting of
emancipists (1822), and regretted he was not one of their number!--his
sincere regret that he was not an emancipist! This, it must be
recollected, was after dinner.]
[Footnote 119: _Wentworth_, 2nd edit.]
[Footnote 120: _Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 121: When addressing the Secretary of State, Macquarie
observes--"In my opinion (speaking of the voluntary settlers), they
should consider they are coming to a convict country, and if they are
too proud or too delicate in their feelings to associate with the
population of this country, they should consider in time, and bend their
course to some other country, in which prejudices in this respect would
meet with no opposition. No country in the world has been so
advantageous to adventurers as New South Wales: the free settlers,
coming out as such, have never felt their dignity hurt by trading with
convicts, even when they were such." Again--"It has been my invariable
opinion, that a freeman, by pardon or emancipation, should be in all
respects considered on a footing with every other man in the colony,
according to his rank in life and character; in short, that no
retrospect should, in any case, be had to his ever having been
otherwise."--_Letter to Earl Bathurst_, 1813.]
[Footnote 122: _Reid's Voyage._]
[Footnote 123: This was afterwards prevented.]
[Footnote 124: _Macarthur's Present State._]
[Footnote 125: "Men are governed by words: under the infamous term
convict, are comprehended offenders of the most different degrees and
species of guilt. One man is transported for stealing three hams and a
pot of sausages; in the next berth to him, is a young surgeon engaged in
mutiny at the Nore; another, was so ill read in history, as to imagine
that Ireland was ill-treated, and too bad a reasoner to suppose that
nine catholics ought not to pay tithes to one protestant. Then comes a
man who set his house on fire; another, the most glaring of all human
villains, a poacher; driven from Europe, wife and child, by thirty lords
of the manor, for killing a partridge. Now, all these are crimes, no
doubt; but surely to which attach different degrees of contempt and
horror. A warrant granted by a reformed bacon stealer would be absurd;
but a hot brained young blockhead, who chose to favor the mutiny at the
Nore, may, when he is forty years of age, and has cast his jacobin
teeth, make a useful magistrate and loyal subject.
The most inflexible were some of the regiments stationed at Botany
Bay--men, of course, who had uniformly shunned the society of gamesters,
prostitutes, and drunkards; who had ruined no tailors, corrupted no
wives, and had entitled themselves, by a long course of solemnity and
decorum, to indulge in all the insolence of purity and virtue."--_Rev.
S. Smith_, 1823.]
[Footnote 126: Doe, on demise of Jenkins, _v._ Pearce and wife.]
[Footnote 127: 1814: 54 Geo. iii, took away the corruption of blood,
from children born after conviction, except in case of treason and
murder.--_Sydney Gazette_, 1818.]
[Footnote 128: _Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 129: _Collins's New South Wales._]
[Footnote 130: Acts.]
[Footnote 131: 4 Geo. iv.]
[Footnote 132: Mr. Wentworth states the trials in the criminal court in
1806, as 117, in 1817, at 92; but then he asserts, that offences had
increased, subject to summary jurisdiction, from 300 to 1,000, while the
population (20,000) had only doubled. He was not, however, ignorant,
that many of those offences were not such in law or morals, but merely
violations of local regulations (_Wentworth_, 2nd edit.). The colonial
convictions were, with few exceptions, of persons who had been
transported before: of 116 persons for trial at Hobart (1821), 79 were
then under sentence, and 37 expirees--the entire number.--_Bigge._]
[Footnote 133: "With regard to character and respectability allow me to
observe briefly, that while some are in general well-conducted persons,
little that is praiseworthy can be advanced: there is not much religion
among the best, and the far greater part have not the appearance of
it."--_Rev. Mr. Cowper, 1820._]
[Footnote 134: _Edinburgh Review_, 1803.]
[Footnote 135: "His sentences are not only more severe than those of
other magistrates, but the general opinion of the colony is, that his
character, as displayed in the administration of the penal law in New
South Wales, is stamped with severity."--_Bigge's Report._
Such was the idea of the people on the spot; but Mr. Wilberforce
observed, in the House of Commons, he was--"a man who acquired the
admiration of all who knew his merits; a man who shone as a bright
example to the moral world--who deserved the title of a moral hero: who
had overcome difficulties for the amelioration of his species, in the
most unfavorable circumstances; which would always endear his name to
the friends of humanity."--_Wentworth_, 3rd edit.]
[Footnote 136: "For my part, my only wonder is, that Mr. Redfern did not
apply some degrading chastisement to the nose or breech of this cowardly
Commissioner."--_Wentworth_, 3rd edit.]
[Footnote 137: Henderson, 1832.]