64 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



no further. The regulations remained in force, and the Governor 

 continued to exercise full powers of granting remissions of sen- 

 tence throughout Macquarie's time. But in 1819 the question 

 was again raised. 



The Hon. H. Grey Bennet, a member of Parliament, who 

 was instrumental in obtaining a House of Commons Committee 

 on New South Wales in 1819, published in the following year 

 " A Letter to Lord Bathurst," in which he commented on the 

 evidence delivered before it. l He approved of Macquarie's 

 regulations of 1813, but asked "Are they practically in force? 

 Have any exceptions been made and in what instances ? Were 

 these rules meant to have any operation in New South Wales, 

 or were they only to produce an effect on the Colonial Office, 

 and obtain the rescinding of that Order, arising from the sugges- 

 tion of the House of Commons Committee in 1812 ?" A com- 

 parison of dates at once shows that this last suggestion was 

 without foundation. Macquarie published his regulations before 

 he received the report of the Committee and Lord Bathurst's 

 despatch proposing to adopt the suggestion. But Macquarie's 

 own despatches and orders, the evidence before the Committee 

 of 1819, and the information collected by Commissioner Bigge 

 in 1819 and 1820 show that Bennet's other queries were fully 

 justified. 



In two respects Macquarie deviated greatly from the rules 

 he had laid down firstly, in regard to length of residence and 

 secondly, in regard to granting the indulgences at one time of the 

 year only. 



From 1813 to 1 8 20 2 he granted 170 free pardons, and in 

 twenty-six instances the necessary length of residence had not 

 been reached. In the same period he granted 1,217 conditional 

 pardons, 285 of which were exceptions, while amongst 1,716 

 tickets-of-leave no less than 450 had been issued before the 

 recipients had been three years in the Colony. 3 



Macquarie undoubtedly considered that he had the right 



1 " A Letter to Earl Bathurst ... on the condition of New South Wales and 

 Van Diemen's Land as set forth in the evidence taken before the Prison Com- 

 mittee in 1819, 1820." A copy of this pamphlet is to be found in the Library of the 

 Royal Colonial Institute and another in the Colonial Office Library. There is no 

 copy in the British Museum. 



9 i.e., from the time when the Order came into force. 



3 Appendix to Bigge's Report. R.O., MS. 



