70 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



could a single magistrate order a heavier punishment than fifty 

 lashes. 1 



Before Macquarie's time a Bench, which usually consisted 

 of three magistrates, had ordered floggings of three hundred 

 lashes, and sometimes a resident magistrate in a distant part of 

 the settlement exercised the powers of a Bench. 2 But such 

 cases had been exceptional. 



The usual punishments were flogging, imprisonment in the 

 gaols and hard labour in the gaol-gangs, solitary confinement 

 on bread and water, or transportation to the coal mines at 

 Newcastle. 3 Except in the last case, the duration of a punish- 

 ment ordered by the magistrates never lasted more than a year 

 and seldom so long. Before Macquarie, all severe magisterial 

 sentences had been reviewed by the Governor before being put 

 into execution. Under his administration, however, an altera- 

 tion was made in this system. All the proceedings of the 

 Sydney magistrates were laid before him immediately after 

 their meetings, and even the slightest sentences had to be ap- 

 proved by him. 4 But apparently no similar supervision was 

 exercised over the magistrates of other districts. Even the 

 quarterly returns of all fines and punishments ordered by them 

 on delinquents of every description was very irregular, and the 

 details recorded very scanty. 5 Transportation to Newcastle 

 was carried out differently. The magistrates simply committed 

 and the Governor allotted the term for which the prisoner 

 would be kept there, and on the report of the Commandant 

 that term might be lengthened or curtailed. Occasionally, 

 however, the Superintendent of Police at Sydney sent a man 

 thither without the Governor's order if he thought it necessary 

 to separate him at once from his companions. 6 But neither 



1 It must be remembered that a hundred years ago this was a comparatively 

 light punishment. 



2 Hunter's Evidence. See above. 



3 G.G.O., loth September, 1814. There is a reference in this Order to im- 

 prisonment in the stocks as an alternative to corporal punishment, but no stocks 

 seem to have been provided in any part oi the settlement. 



4 Bent to Bathurst, ist July, 1815. R.O., MS. 



5 G.G.O., loth September, 1814. See also Bigge's Report, II. On one 

 occasion, in 1819, the Sydney Bench took upon itself to reconsider and reverse 

 a decision ot the Resident Magistrate at Parramatta, Hannibal Macarthur. 

 Macarthur wrote indignantly both to the Governor and to Bigge, and Macquarie 

 directed the Bench to expunge the record from their Book of Proceedings. See 

 correspondence on the subject, Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. 



6 Riley, Evidence, C. on G., 1819. 



