32 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



That day Johnston, the officer in command of the forces, came 

 up to town. On the following morning, January 26th, 1808, 

 Macarthur was released by the soldiers from gaol and a requisition 

 presented to Johnston calling upon him to arrest Bligh and take 

 over the Government. This was immediately carried out. It 

 was afterwards claimed that had the officers been sent to prison, 

 the regiment would have mutinied and got beyond all control, 

 and that Bligh's life was saved by his arrest. It was certainly 

 a very peaceful revolution which was accomplished, for within 

 two hours the " subversion " of Bligh's government was com- 

 plete with no shots fired nor violence of any kind. 



It was with Bligh, the mutiny's victim, with Johnston the 

 commander and Macarthur, " the prime mover and instigator," l 

 and with Foveaux who had by implication approved the arrest, 

 that Macquarie's instructions dealt. ' 2 Immediately upon his 

 arrival, if he found Bligh still in Sydney, he was to reinstate him 

 in the Government. But Biigh had disturbed the tranquillity of 

 the Colony and of the Colonial Office. Complaints against him 

 had been many and weighty. His temper too was one more 

 inclined to indignant revenge that decent clemency. Influenced 

 by all these things, the Colonial Office decided that discipline 

 required only his nominal reinstatement, and he was instructed 

 to hand over the Government to Macquarie within twenty-four 

 hours and return as soon as possible to England, where he would 

 be needed for the prosecution of the insurgents. 



Major Johnston was to be placed under close arrest and sent 

 to England, there to be tried by court-martial for mutiny. 

 Foveaux's case was to be left over for the time being. He 

 would return with the New South Wales Corps, and then a de- 

 cision would be arrived at. It was more difficult to deal with 

 Macarthur. The members of the Madras Council were tried in 

 England by virtue of a statute 3 relating to offences committed 

 in India, but for offences committed by a civilian in New South 

 Wales he could be brought to trial in that Colony only. 

 Macquarie's orders were that if Macarthur was still in New 

 South Wales and charges were preferred against him, he was to 

 be brought before the Criminal Court of the territory. 



1 Bligh's term for Macarthur. 



a Letter from Castlereagh, itfog, I4th May. H.R., VII., p. 143. 



13 Geo. III., cap. 63. 



