24 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



well in the background. It was the year in which the Penin- 

 sular campaign commenced, and in September the uproar raised 

 by the Convention of Cintra was at its height. The events of 

 January, however, the subversion of Bligh's government by the 

 military garrison, demanded some attention, and when despatches 

 arrived, scanty as was the information they conveyed, some 

 course of action had to be agreed upon. On the one side, there 

 were despatches from Bligh enclosing letters from Gore, his 

 Provost-Marshal, who had been deprived of his office and 

 suffered harsh treatment, and from Palmer, the Commissary, 

 whose lot had been similar. From the revolutionary party 

 came an official despatch, an interesting and partial account 

 from the pen of John Macarthur, who then held the self-created 

 and unsalaried office of Colonial Secretary. There were also 

 two letters from Doctor Townson, the first explaining his 

 reasons for supporting Johnston, the second his reasons for 

 withdrawing his support. By neither action had he found him- 

 self any nearer to his prime object, the grant of land and 

 servants promised him, and though he certainly gave both sides 

 of the matter, his letters rather clouded than cleared the real 

 issue. For he took both sides with a fiery vehemence and 

 reckless zeal in searching out unworthy motives that created 

 scepticism rather than assisted conviction. 1 



But whatever the final judgment was to be, it was impossible 

 to pass over a successful mutiny, even of a far distant garrison, 

 and immediate action had to be taken. 



On the 2Oth October (and in pre-telegraphic days, with a 

 great war in progress near at hand, this cannot be considered 

 dilatory procedure), the Commander-in-Chief agreed with the 

 Colonial Office that the New South Wales Corps should be 

 immediately recalled. Originally enlisted in England for 

 service in the Colony, it had been stationed there for nearly 

 twenty years, and had conclusively proved the impolicy of per- 

 manently keeping any regiment in such a situation.' 2 Even 

 Macarthur, whose allies and tools they had been, wrote of the 

 officers in 1810 that " a more improper set of men could not be 

 collected together than they have latterly become." 3 



1 For these letters see H.R., VI., pp. 299, 571, 575, 738. 



8 Castlereagh to Duke of York, nth October, 1808. H.R., VI., p. 778. 



3 Macarthur to his wife, 3rd May, 1810. H.R., VII., p. 368. 



