Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/583

men, and 4952 free women. The convict males were no less than 10,391, the women 1627. The military had been increased to 1032; but the total free male population, including the military, was less than the convicts still in government custody, or assigned to colonists as servants. Circumstances demanded that the Governor of such a community should be firm, and Arthur never flinched from duty.

The Chief Justice, J. L. Pedder, did not feel called upon to obstruct the strong Governor. He differed from his brother Chief Justice in Sydney. He ruled that the Constitution conferred upon the colony by the Act 4 Geo. IV. cap. 96 (already explained) did not create juries of civilians, as had been contended by Forbes in New South Wales. By Pedder's construction it was only as provided by the Act, or as extended, under its provisions, by the Crown, that civil juries could be created. Colonel Arthur's enemies alleged that he found in Pedder a pliant tool with regard to the jury law; but the subsequent changes made by legislation were such as to show that not Pedder, but Forbes endeavoured to fasten upon the law a construction foreign to its scope. In 1830 Colonel Arthur passed a local enactment allowing juries in civil cases on the demand of either party in a suit.

The contest with the Press upon which Colonel Arthur entered was not checked at the outset by any apprehensions for friends such as prompted Forbes to withhold his certificate because a newspaper stamp of fourpence was proposed in New South Wales. Colonel Arthur received similar instructions to those issued to Governor Darling with regard to the control of unlicensed printing; and unlike Darling, he encountered no opposition from the Chief Justice.

He passed Acts (1827) which prevented publication of any newspaper without a license, and imposed a Stamp Tax of threepence on every newspaper of a certain size printed in the colony. A discretionary power was left to the Governor to withdraw the tax, but the very mercy of the condition seemed cruel, as it subjected disturbers to the fiat of the Governor. It was also in his power to grant or withhold licenses. Recognizances were to be entered into. A penalty of £100 was enforceable for publication without