150 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



the future the offenders would be brought before a court-martial. 1 

 In 1814 a somewhat similar warning was given to the civil 

 officers, 2 and in i8i6 3 the warning was made stronger by quota- 

 tions from a despatch of Lord Bathurst's. After that time there 

 were no complaints of a public nature, and though Macquarie 

 wrote to the Secretary of State that several officers of the 46th 

 had entered into grazing speculations, he took no action against 

 them in the Colony. Very likely they managed their business 

 through agents, or at least made it appear as though they them- 

 selves were not actually engaged therein. So long as grants of 

 land were given to civil and military officers, it was of course 

 impossible to prevent them turning their estates to as profitable 

 uses as they could. The civil staff continued throughout this 

 period to have grants almost as matters of right, and indeed to 

 the judges they were offered as inducements to taking the posts. 

 But with regard to the military officers, Macquarie as early as 

 1813 asked for written instructions prohibiting him from mak- 

 ing them grants, wishing to have Lord Bathurst's support 

 publicly given in following an unpopular course. 4 Although 

 Lord Bathurst did not give the instructions required, Macquarie 

 consistently refused to give further grants to any officer or 

 officer's wife. 5 As land was selling at as low a price as 5s. an 

 acre, those who wished to have farms of their own might pur- 

 chase them, but in many ways the Governor strove to prevent 

 them from touching trade concerns. Thus in 1814 he put an 

 end to a profitable business which had long been carried on by 

 Government servants of buying articles from the King's stores 

 ostensibly for their own use and then selling them with great 

 profit to the settlers. 6 



JH.R., VII., p. 471, isth December, 1810. 



3 G.G.O., 1814. Ubid., 1816. 



4 D., July, 1813. R.O. He had up to that time given only three grants to 

 members of the garrison. One to Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connell, " in his civil 

 capacity of Lieutenant-Governor, on his marrying the daughter of Governor 

 Bligh," the second, to the wife of Major Geils, because "they had so large a 

 family " ; and the third, to the wife of Paymaster Birch, made at the time when the 

 latter was insane " as a provision for his young family, he having purchased a 

 large stock of horned cattle while he was labouring under that mental derange- 

 ment." 



8 Lieutenant Blomfield complained to the Colonial Office that the Governor 

 refused to give him a grant when he married Miss Brooks, which he thought a 

 very great hardship as her dowry consisted of a herd of cattle. 



8 See G.G.O., 1814, above. 



