THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 347 



demanded increased police protection, a guard ship for Hobson's Bay, 

 and other palliative measures. But above all things they insisted 

 on some drastic measures being taken to cut off these tainted 

 accessions to the population. A Committee was appointed to suggest 

 the necessary legislation, on which Mr. Westgarth and Mr. Wm. 

 Kerr, the founder of the Argus, served. The latter drafted the 

 statute known as the "Convicts' Prevention Act," but it went so 

 far beyond what its title indicated that the Attorney-General strove 

 hard to modify its form. But the public insistence showed its effect 

 on the Council, and the elective members were solid in their 

 antagonism to the Executive. Looking at the Act now, under 

 peaceful conditions, it certainly seems an extreme measure, and 

 undoubtedly violated some of the principles of British law. It 

 decreed that no holder of a conditional pardon could be admitted 

 to Victoria ; but it did not stop there. It provided that all persons 

 arriving from Van Diemen's Land must prove their absolute freedom 

 to the satisfaction of the authorities, or they would be assumed to 

 be convicts and be punished accordingly. Under these conditions 

 it was possible to do great injustice, and proof was not wanting 

 afterwards that in some cases perfectly free men had been put to 

 work on the roads for twelve months, because the evidence of their 

 freedom was not forthcoming. But the colonists were faced with 

 alarming conditions, and neither the public nor the Council would 

 abate one jot of their demands. Mr. Latrobe, who lived in a con- 

 tinual dread of violence and anarchy, did not resist the measure, 

 and after having formally consented to it he wrote a long and 

 excusatory despatch to the Secretary of State. In this he regretted 

 that the zeal and haste of the framers of the Bill had induced them 

 to overlook many salient principles of constitutional liberty, yet the 

 evils sought to be redressed were compromising to a large extent 

 the maintenance of public order and the security of property, and 

 as he thought it highly desirable for the Government to show every 

 disposition to co-operate heartily with the colonists, he had felt 

 it his duty, under all the circumstances, to yield the Koyal assent. 

 He probably anticipated a hostile reception, for he amplified his 

 reasons with considerable criminal statistics, and announced that 

 the duration of the Act was limited to two years. But he certainly 



