68 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



sent a circular letter to the magistrates saying : " The number 

 of applications made yesterday for free pardons or emancipa- 

 tions having far exceeded the Governor's expectations, and 

 being in fact more than double the number he can comply with 

 for two years to come, it is his desire that you shall not counter- 

 sign any further or new applications of that nature, until 

 those you have already certified shall have been finally disposed 

 of". 1 In 1814 he received five hundred memorials, and con- 

 sequently directed that no more should be presented in i8i5, 2 

 and in i8i6 3 he ordered that none should be presented in 1817. 

 Finally in 1820 he refused to receive petitions for conditional 

 pardons or tickets-of-leave. 4 Bigge was present when those for 

 1819 were presented to Macquarie, and gave an account of the 

 proceedings. 5 " The crowd . . . was very great ; and observ- 

 ing their impatience the Governor addressed them, and informed 

 them that he would grant no tickets-of-leave to those who had 

 not been three years in the country, nor any other indulgence, 

 except in conformity to the terms of his Proclamation of the 

 year 1813." This address produced no effect. There was 

 great difficulty in preserving order in the presentation of the 

 petitions to the Governor, who, on perusing the statements and 

 looking at the certificates, either wrote in pencil or in the margin 

 the initial letters of the indulgence that was to be given, or re- 

 jected the petition altogether. The petitions exceeded seven 

 hundred ; they were collected by the major of brigade and two 

 clerks, who, with the superintendent of convicts, were the only 

 persons present. 



From the returns sent in to Bigge it appeared that at this 

 period Macquarie did actually grant two free and sixty-five 

 conditional pardons as well as thirty-eight tickets-of-leave 

 which were exceptions to his regulations. 7 



Quoted in G.G.O., xoth December, 1814. 



2 G.G.O., loth December, 1814. 3 Ibid., 1816. 



4 Ibid., nth November, 1820. 



5 Bigge's Report, I. The Governor was ill in December, 1819, and therefore 

 received the petitions, etc., early in January, 1820. 



8 i.., G.G.O. of 1813. 



7 In Return in Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. The number of 

 pardons granted varied little from year to year. In 1813 there were fifty-one free 

 pardons given and in 1814 thirty-nine. But from 1815 to 1820 the number never 

 rose above twenty. In 1818 there were 312 conditional pardons granted, but in 

 other years, from 1813 to 1820, there were never more than 170. 



