Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/588

Letters Patent, . . . has not assumed the execution of his office, nor has yet arrived within this island," and there was no reasonable expectation of his arrival "within any certain short period of time," the Governor might appoint another person pro tempore, and in the meantime, pending an appointment by the Governor, "the powers and authority of the Court and the two Judges thereof shall be vested in and exercised by the single remaining Judge, and it shall be lawful for such Judge to sit and act alone. The Act served its purpose.

Baxter never profited by the King's letters. Colonel Arthur^[1] wrote (25th Oct. 1831): "Mr. Baxter has arrived from New South Wales; but, from circumstances, is unable to enter upon the duties of his office; he has therefore requested permission to return to England, to which I have this moment acceded." The post was given by Arthur to Algernon Montagu, the Attorney-General.

Within the general bounds which contained convicts in the island there was an inner one, Macquarie Harbour on the west coast, where the most ferocious and incorrigible prisoners were held in durance; and the accounts of them and of the severity shown to them made the name of the place a synonym for all that was odious. Governor Arthur removed the establishment to the east; first to Maria Island, and then to Port Arthur, where on a peninsula with a narrow neck nature seemed to have provided a prison.

In 1827 Arthur divided the island into police districts, and brought the convict population more directly under the control of the government. In 1829 he showed how imperiously he asserted that control. A receiver of stolen goods, escaping from Newgate after committal, sailed to Van Diemen's Land, whither his wife had been transported, and under an assumed name obtained her as his assigned servant. The facts were reported to England by Arthur. The Secretary of State directed that the runaway should be arrested. A writ of habeas corpus brought him before the Supreme Court, and Judge Pedder did not agree with the Attorney-General that the warrant was valid, or that he