BY HERBERT HEATON, M.A., M. COMM. 23 



Robertson, in his coufmemeiit in gaol, was soon joined 

 by Melville, who was sentenced in November, 1855, to 

 twelve months' imprisonment, £200 fine, and ordered to 

 iind securities to the extent of £500 for his future good be- 

 haviour. Melville's offence was contempt of court, he 

 having commented on the judge, jury, witnesses, and sen- 

 tence, in a very discreditable trial for cattle-stealing (57). 

 Melville spent his time in prison writing a most unfiatter- 

 ing history of Arthur "s regime, in which he j^leaded for 

 land reform, the stoppage of transportation, representative 

 government, etc. When Christmas, 1835, came round, 

 the Governor graciously liberated Robertson, and on the 

 29th December set Melville free (58). Arthur accom- 

 panied his liberation of Melville with the expressed hope 

 that the release "will lead you in future, by the influence 

 of a better motive than fear of punishment, to abstain 

 from a system of detraction which is not more injurious to 

 the interests of your own famil}^ than it is subversive of all 

 peace and order, and ruinous to the welfare of society.'' 

 This hope of journalistic reform was doomed to disappoint- 

 ment, for both editors at once recommenced their bitter 

 attacks, Robertson especially distinguishing himself by 

 his wild and usually unfounded assertions. 



After twelve years of service Arthur was recalled in 

 1836. On May 27 and 28 of that year, the papers were 

 full of the news. The Radical press went into hysterics 

 of jov and called upon every resource of type to announce 

 the w^elcome fact. The True Colonist burst out in the fol- 

 lowing strain: — "Never has it fallen to our lot to com- 

 municate such welcome intelligence. . . He (Arthur) 

 will be wafted from these shores by the curses of many a 

 broken-hearted parent, and many a destitute child, which 

 owe their miseiy to the foolish and wicked system of mis- 

 government by which the colony has been ruined, and the 

 vindictive system of persecution by which the prospects 

 and characters of individuals were ruined. . . . He 

 was the father of usur}^ — the patron of falsehood, hypocrisy, 

 and deceit — the protector of perjury, and the rewarder of 

 perjurers." Robertson also in June (59) urged the pub- 

 lic to refuse to support a fund which was being organised 

 for the purpose of presenting Arthur with a piece of plate. 

 "Yes, colonists,'' he concluded, "present Col. Arthur with 

 a piece of plate, but let it be symbolical of (the colony's) 

 present state — let it be a shivered fragment of crockery, 

 and tell Col. Arthur that as the fragments can never be 

 united, so has he dissevered society, and caused the colon- 

 ists to be without union, save in one important point, and 

 that is in thanking His Majesty for the mercy he has 



