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endeavoured to persuade Lord Bathurst that anarchy was in the minds of the free. He admitted "that the only measure of mine" opposed is the reception of convicts "into my society;" but inconsequentially declared in the same despatch that his policy had encountered opposition, adding—

Although the principal leaders who headed the faction which occasioned so much mischief and anarchy in this country (previous to my arrival) have left it, yet the seeds of it were so deeply sown that a considerable part of that factious spirit still exists. . . . I must also inform your Lordship that free settlers in general (not excepting the Messrs. Blaxland) who are sent out from England, are by far the most discontented persons in this country. . . . The best description of settlers are emancipated convicts, or persons become free by servitude who have been convicts."

The Secretary of State ought to have foreseen the probable consequences of the new "policy" propounded with so much ostentation. By not arresting it on the threshold he made himself in part an accomplice. When in after times he administered rebuke, evils had grown so great that censure of Macquarie effected little until the necessity of appointing a Commission of Inquiry brought about a total change.

Macquarie was at least disingenuous in his despatches. He had, indeed, in explaining his general intentions, said enough to rouse Lord Bathurst's suspicions, but it was unjust to recommend for high office ex-convicts, to whose condition he called no attention. On two occasions he thus sinned. An assigned servant was employed by Surveyor-General Grimes in a trusty capacity; and, though he had no scientific knowledge except in practical mensuration, he was, during the absence of Grimes in England, allowed to manage the department. When Grimes resigned office Macquarie, who had admitted the assistant "to his table," appointed him Acting-Surveyor-General, and was disconcerted when the Earl of Liverpool appointed Oxley, an old companion of Flinders, as the new Surveyor-General. Macquarie at once appointed his protégé Deputy Surveyor-General and Inspector of Roads and Bridges, and subsequently devised a scheme for promoting him to the coveted office held by Oxley, who was on the point of starting to explore the interior. Oxley might be lost. Macquarie