52 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



Regulations (Martial Law for instance) in the case of the 

 Governor's non-arrival at the dependency for which he sailed, 

 or non-return home by stress of weather or perils of the sea." 



He went on to discuss other powers of the Lieutenant- 

 Governor. " As to the Lieutenant-Governor's power to ap- 

 point members of the Court, the Charter of Justice expressly 

 gives him this ' in the absence of the Governor,' without saying 

 ' from this Territory and its Dependencies '. But in both cases 

 the word ' absence ' must be construed secundum subjectam 

 materiam. In the last case there is no question ; and the 

 question in the first case is, whether this is an absence to the 

 intent and purpose of carrying on the state, which Governor 

 Macquarie does not deny his late absence of three months was ; 

 for he allowed the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint and dismiss 

 constables, to receive returns and reports, etc. Nor does he 

 dispute the ' imminent risk ' which called forth the regulation in 

 question from the Lieutenant-Governor's ' zeal for the service '. l 

 He only asserts ' Ita lex scripta est ' : as long as I am ' geographic- 

 ally within the vast latitude and longitude of the Territory 

 either on land or at sea, nobody else can make Laws or Regula- 

 tions for the Colony '. This is a question which I think a new 

 commission should set at rest." - 



Field's view seems to be supported by law and common- 

 sense. The Colonial Office, however, left his letter unanswered. 

 It was considered again in 1824, but as the Governor no longer 

 exercised legislative powers, it was a matter of no further im- 

 portance. 3 It was not only during the Governor's absence that 

 business suffered interruption. Sometimes the whole administra- 

 tion was brought to a standstill, and the Colony as it were 

 hushed to silence while the Governor and his secretarial staff 

 prepared despatches for England, and while the vessel which 

 was to bear them waited impatiently in the Sydney Cove. 4 As 

 the one direct channel of communication between Ministers 

 in Downing Street and ten thousand British subjects in the 



1 Quotation from Government Notice, i4th July, 1821. 



s Enclosure to Field's letter to Bathurst, ist August, 1821. See Erskine's 

 letter and its enclosures to Bathurst, i5th September, 1821. The discussion led 

 to a violent quarrel between Erskine and Field. R.O., MS. 



* C.O., MS. Papers for 1824 to 1825. 



4 See. e#., S.G., G.G.O., 22nd March, 1817. 



