Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/520
of Commons on Prisons in 1819, and publicly denounced
by H. G. Bennett, M.P., in his letter to Lord Bathurst in 1820.
Macquarie (replying to Mr. Bennett's letter to Lord Sidmouth in 1819, and) generally justifying himself in a letter written in Sydney in 1820, and published in London in 1821 admitted that one of the men, William Blake, had never been a convict, and that two others, Henshall and Reid, had become free; but he denounced them as "far from respectable," and thought them "very fit subjects to be made an example of." He did not order the punishment "hastily," or in "passion or anger," but
"coolly and deliberately. . . . In vindication of myself for having ordered these profligate men, though at the time free, to be corporally punished, I can only say that I did at the time consider, and now still remain of the same opinion, that I was legally authorized, in my capacity as Governor-in-Chief and first magistrate of this territory, on such positive and clear proof of their guilt (Macquarie had spoken to the apprehending constables), to direct them to be punished in this summary manner, without any regular trial or examination before a Court. . . . Even granting that it was according to the strict letter of the law legally wrong, which I do not by any means allow, still I maintain that ordering such punishment was morally right; and on this ground I am neither ashamed nor sorry for the act." (But for) Mr. Justice Bent and a few other factions discontented men of lower ranks in the colony, all of whom joined in making a subscription to defray the expenses, and the pious advice of the Rev. Mr. Marsden and other equally amiable counsellors, these poor men never would have thought of quitting this country to seek redress in England."[1]
He declared that the punishment inflicted (19th April 1816) "was so slightly laid on that it was hardly felt by those who received it." Macquarie's defence, after four years' reflection, proves that if he had ever valued the liberties of his country his perceptions had been corroded by the unhappy course of his government. That a Governor could suppose in haste, or argue at leisure, that "without any regular trial or examination" he was entitled
- ↑ Macquarie's language in the colony was less measured than in his letter to Lord Sidmouth. One of the colonists who had signed the petition to England applied to the local government on a matter of business. By Macquarie's command he was told (Nov. 1816): "Your conduct in having signed a petition lately sent from this country by a few despicable. factions, and malignant individuals, and well known to contain the most false, libellous, and seditious matter, is an instance of such unprincipled depravity, that His Excellency can never think you deserving of any indulgence whatever from this government."