50 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



presented in writing either as petitions or memorials before 

 twelve o'clock every Monday. In cases of great urgency 

 alone was any departure from these rules to be permitted. 1 



Governor King had once issued an order that no applica- 

 tions were " in future to be made to the Governor on Sundays, 

 nor will (he) be interrupted when passing through the streets 

 or speaking to an officer ". 2 The order well illustrates the 

 haphazard methods it sought to cure. It was not the smallest 

 of his virtues that Macquarie accustomed the Colony to formal 

 regularity in public business. But it was no easy task, and 

 when he altered his hours in 1813 he concluded the order in 

 the following terms : 



" In order to prevent frivolous and unnecessary applications 

 in future, His Excellency desires it may be clearly and dis- 

 tinctly understood that having laid down the foregoing Regu- 

 lations for his own government, he will not in any instance 

 deviate from them." 3 



By the new order, requests of a general nature .were to be 

 made on the first Monday of each month. Applications for 

 land and cattle were to be submitted once a year only, on the 

 first Monday in June, and petitions and memorials for pardons 

 and other mitigations of sentences on the first Monday in 

 December. 



During the Governor's occasional absences from head- 

 quarters, the commanding officer of the garrison took his 

 place, under the commission of Lieutenant-Governor, receiving 

 reports and conducting the ordinary business routine of ad- 

 ministration. He could not, however, under Macquarie's in- 

 structions, call the courts together, grant land or stock, pardons 

 or emancipations, or undertake new expenditure. 4 No diffi- 

 culties arose under these instructions until 1821. In that year 

 Macquarie made a tour of Van Diemen's Land, leaving Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor Erskine in command at Sydney, with Major 

 Goulburn lately arrived from England as Colonial Secretary. 

 One day the latter called upon Mr. Justice Field and asked 



1 S.G., G.G.O., 8th January, 1810. 

 "G.G.O., 2 4 th January, 1801. H.R., IV. 

 G.G.O., gth January, 1813. P.P., H.C., 1816, XVIII. 



4 Macquarie's Instructions to Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connell. H.R., VII., 

 p. 634, 30th October, 1811. 



