THE DEPOSITION OF BLIGH. 31 



Lord Mansfield and a special jury for a misdemeanour. The 

 jury brought in a verdict of guilty and they were fined in the 

 penalty of 1,000 each, a purely nominal punishment for men 

 who had grown rich in the service of the East India Company. 1 

 In general outline Bligh's case was similar. He quarrelled 

 with Macarthur, and very soon, by means which were not illegal, 

 but had the savour of oppression, brought him before a Bench 

 of Magistrates. It is unnecessary to relate the details of the 

 affair. Macarthur was contumacious and was summoned to 

 stand his trial before the Criminal Court, which was composed 

 of the Judge- Advocate, Richard Atkins, and six military officers 

 belonging to the garrison. Macarthur protested that as Atkins 

 owed him large sums of money which he would not pay> and had 

 for long been on the very worst terms with him, on this account 

 he was not a fit and proper person to preside as Judge- Advocate 

 at his trial. The Governor insisted that he had no power to 

 dispense with his attendance as Judge- Advocate and the trial 

 commenced. The prisoner at the bar read a long argument 

 full of citations from legal authorities (though where in a Colony 

 almost devoid of lawyers and lawbooks he found his Blackstone 

 and the rest, it is hard to imagine), in which he sought to prove 

 that the Judge- Advocate, not being an impartial person, could 

 not legally form part of the Court. Atkins was bewildered 

 though obstinate, but the weight of Macarthur's learning com- 

 pletely overwhelmed the six officers, unused as they were to the 

 pomp of civil law. They unanimously upheld the objection 

 and appealed to Bligh. He declared that he could do nothing. 

 Without the Judge-Advocate, he claimed, there could be no 

 Court ; and in the Crown alone lay the power to recall Atkins and 

 make a new appointment. The officers held to their point, re- 

 manded Macarthur to his bail, and adjourned. This took place 

 in the morning. So soon as he heard of what they had done, 

 Bligh summoned the six officers to appear before him on the 

 afternoon of the following day. Rumour said that he intended 

 to arrest them on a charge of high treason. At the same time 

 he ordered Macarthur to be committed to the town gaol, claim- 

 ing that, as without the Judge- Advocate there could be no 

 Court, he could not have been legally remanded to his bail 



1 See Mill, History of India and State Trials, xxi., 1,045. 



