THE DEPOSITION OF BLIGH. 43 



" 3. Resolved, That these Resolutions be signed by the 

 Chairman and printed twice in the Sydney Gazette." 1 



The promoters in strict consistency with the conciliatory 

 character of the resolutions refused to sign them, for a few 

 signatures would have detracted from the general unanimity of 

 the proceedings, and poor Gore was therefore forced as chair- 

 man to affix his own signature in solitary grandeur according to 

 " usage and custom ". Into the Gazette the resolutions never 

 found their way, though at first the Governor gave a gracious 

 consent. Later on, however, he sent for Gore and told him 

 that " upon reconsidering the last resolutions and the original 

 address, as signed by the persons who made the requisition to 

 me, he thought it would be partial and unfair to publish one 

 and not the other ; therefore he directed that neither of them 

 should be published, and neither of them were". 2 



This was the last of Bligh's party as a party, and the pro- 

 ject of holding a meeting at the Hawkesbury was dropped 

 altogether. Bligh sailed in May, and the colonists were left 

 to seek fresh quarrels whereby to train their newborn political 

 instincts. 



It was not until April, 1811, that Johnston was ordered 

 into arrest, and in May his trial for mutiny commenced at 

 London. It lasted until the 2nd July, and never perhaps was 

 a court of military officers so bored by any judicial proceedings. 

 The evidence was voluminous, full of repetitions and quite in- 

 conclusive. No legal justification was found for Johnston, but 

 apparently the Court was satisfied that he had a moral justifi- 

 cation, for though he was found guilty he was merely cashiered. 

 Macarthur declared afterwards that Johnston was frightened 

 into keeping back evidence. 3 He himself proved a most 

 troublesome witness, pouring out with irrepressible volubility 

 matter irrelevant to the questions of his examination, but 

 skilfully designed to impress the Court. The Court, however, 

 was not so easy to dominate as his friends of the New South 

 Wales Corps. 



1 There was a fourth Resolution, " That the above Resolutions were carried 

 unanimously". The promoters were evidently determined that there should be 

 no possibility of mistake on that point. 



2 Gore's Evidence, pp. 102-3 an d Appendix, p. 458, Johnston's Trial. 



3 H.R., VII., Introduction, xlii. 



