Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/469

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JOHNSTON CASHIERED. JOHN MACARTHUR.
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custody without some particular charge, or by virtue of a magistrate's warrant."

The sentence of the court-martial appeared in a General Order from the Horse Guards, 2nd July 1811. "The Court having duly and maturely weighed and considered the whole of the evidence adduced on the prosecution, as well as what has been offered in defence, are of opinion that Lt. Col. Johnston is guilty of the act of mutiny described in the charge, and do therefore sentence him to be cashiered."

By some writers Johnston's act has been called rebellion. The sentence of the Court shows that there was no proof of any such crime. By the General Order this is clearly made known. The sentence of the Court was acquiesced in, but the Prince Regent added:

"The Court, in passing a sentence so inadequate to the enormity of the crime of which the prisoner has been found guilty, have apparently been actuated by a consideration of the novel and extraordinary circumstances which, by the evidence on the face of the proceedings, may have appeared to them to have existed during the administration of Governor Bligh, both as affecting the tranquillity of the colony, and calling for some immediate decision."

Admitting the principle thus adopted by the Court, His Royal Highness declared that "no circumstances whatever can be received in full extenuation of an assumption of power, so subversive of every principle of good order and discipline." Johnston was therefore simply cashiered and he returned to the colony.[1]

Macarthur suffered a severer fate. It has been seen that the Government allowed no one to reside in New South Wales without permission. That permission they withheld from him. He pined, but not in patience, though in vain. The manner of his return may be told. His letters to his distant wife and children were filled to the brim with affection. He had warm friends who interceded for him, and in 1816 there were hopes of success. In July he addressed the Secretary of State, Lord Bathurst. For seven years he

  1. ↑ Bligh was made Admiral of the Blue immediately after the promulgation of the sentence upon Johnston. Manners Sutton, far from gratifying him, however, by further prosecutions, told Lord Liverpool (4th July) that it was not necessary for the public service, nor do the ends of justice require, that the proceedings respecting the mutiny at Botany Bay should be carried any further."
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