THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 65 



in " the exercise of his supreme authority," l to deviate in par- 

 ticular cases from the lines laid down by himself. He was 

 supported in this belief by many colonists. 2 But he never made 

 even an attempt to enforce rigidly the three years' residence 

 in regard to tickets-of-leave. In the despatch of the 28th June, 

 1813, he wrote that they were frequently conferred immediately 

 on the arrival of the convicts who had been "in the line of 

 gentlemen " before their condemnation. Sometimes they were 

 given very recklessly as in the following two cases. A convict 

 was transported in 1815 for the second time. His sentence was 

 a life one. Immediately he arrived at Sydney he was given 

 a ticket-of-leave. He married the daughter of a publican, and 

 with her dowry, and the proceeds of a tobacco investment he 

 had been allowed to make on the voyage from England, he set 

 up a licensed house in Sydney. 3 The other example is that of 

 Lawrence Halloran who arrived in 1817. Macquarie was cen- 

 sured by the Colonial Office in 1820* for having granted him 

 a remission of sentence. He explained that he had not done 

 so, but had simply " exempted him from manual labour by giving 

 him ... a ticket-of-leave, which is revocable at the Governor's 

 pleasure, or even by a single magistrate in case of an offence 

 being proved against the holder. . . ." The man was advanced 

 in years, had a short sentence of seven years, was " of liberal 

 education," and so far as Macquarie knew there was nothing 

 very serious against him. 5 Bigge, however, found out some 

 curious facts about the matter. 6 Halloran had been known to 

 the Governor's Secretary some years before as a schoolmaster 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, and before he had entered on the 

 career of blackmail and defamation against Earl Caledon and 

 General Grey, the two successive Governors of that Colony, which 

 had been the cause of his transportation. Not knowing of 

 these facts, the Secretary had suggested to the Governor that 



1 See G.G.O., 24th March, 1814, in which he proposes to deviate from a rule 

 laid down by himself as to the distribution of spirits. He uses the words quoted 

 above in explanation of his action. 



2 e.g., Riley. See Evidence before C. on G., 1819. 



3 The licence was in his wife's name. He could not hold one, being still 

 technically a prisoner. His behaviour seems to have been good on the whole, but 

 he had not been transported for a second time merely to increase his fortune ! 



4 D., i 4 th July, 1820. C.O., MS. 



5 D. 10, 20th March, 1821. R.O., MS. 



6 Bigge Report., I., III., and Evidence in Appendix to Reports. R.O., MS. 



5 



