114 THE PASTOBAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



enemies of the con\act class with studied harshness. 

 Marsden, in particular, he used with signal injustice. 

 He banished him from Government House. After 

 Marsden had resigned his position as a magistrate, 

 Macquarie, who had ignored the letter of resignation, 

 arbitrarily removed him from the bench. He refused 

 Marsden leave to visit New Zealand, where he was 

 doing a noble civilising work. And after he had left 

 the Colony he levelled grave accusations against the 

 chaplain. Did Bligh treat Mc Arthur Avorse than 

 Macquarie used Marsden ? Yet Marsden submitted for 

 the sake of peace, while McArthur raised the mihtary 

 in rebellion against Bhgh and had him deposed. 



Then the British Government, ill at ease in conse- 

 quence of persistent rumours about Macquarie's eccen- 

 tric methods of governing New South Wales, sent out 

 Commissioner Bigge with instructions to probe to the 

 bottom his management of affairs and the state of the 

 Colony. His mission resembled the strict inquest that 

 was made into the administration of the Spanish 

 viceroys of South America before they could be allowed 

 to return to Spain. He censured the building-craze 

 of the Governor. He inquired minutely into the rela- 

 tions of the Governor ^v'ith the convict-class. He 

 condemned the favour shown to the ex-convicts and 

 their enforced patronage. He disapproved of the 

 Governor's ideal of the Colony as primarily a convict 

 settlement, and he recommended that its gates should 

 be thrown open to free immigrants, whose advent 

 should be encouraged. 



His recommendations soon bore fruit. The Royal 

 Instructions to the Governor accompanying the Con- 

 stitution Act of 1823, directed that the pampering of 

 the ex-convict class was to cease. Convictions for 

 forgery, mutiny, and rebellion were no longer to be 

 passports to political privileges. Such injunctions 

 could not very well be put into a statute, but they 

 were express and explicit. 

 They were not therefore implicitly obeyed. Certain 



