154 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



Elizabeth in the act of landing goods. 1 The Tottenham 

 brought a varied cargo valued at more than ,\ ,000 2 and was 

 seized by Mathew, a Sydney trader, on the 2Oth November, 

 1818, while she was landing goods under the Governor's permit- 

 Mathew had great difficulty in getting his information against 

 the ship sworn to, and after some trouble it was accepted by 

 the Registrar of the Court of Vice-Admiralty. 3 The Judge- 

 Advocate proposed to open the court for the hearing of the 

 case on the ipth December. This long delay seemed to 

 Mathew a proof that the Judge-Advocate desired to deny him 

 justice. The truth of the matter was that Wylde, who knew 

 very little Vice- Admiralty law and was in that respect not 

 unlike the rest of the colonists, was at first in doubt whether 

 the matter was one for his court to take cognisance of, and 

 when he had persuaded himself that it was, had the more 

 difficult task of persuading the Governor. Macquarie insisted 

 that in allowing Mathew to bring his case, the Judge- Advocate 

 was acting in a manner hostile to the Governor's measures and 

 derogatory to his authority. When the Judge- Advocate per- 

 sisted, a complete estrangement took place between them which 

 lasted until the 2pth of December. 



When the court opened on the iQth, Mathew claimed that 

 the cargo should be condemned on the grounds that the goods 

 had been shipped contrary to the regulations of the Navy Board 

 and without paying customs duties, and that the ship had no 

 legal clearance. The information against the Tottenham was 

 thus laid for a breach of the Revenue and Plantation Laws, and 

 Wylde saw no way in which he could refuse to adjudicate. 

 Macquarie, however, held that once his permission had been 

 given to the ship's master to land the cargo, any attempt to seize 

 the ship or goods or question the legality of the ship's clearance 

 was an insult to his supreme authority as Governor, and as such 

 not within the jurisdiction of any court in the Colony. Wylde 

 was by nature a placid man and had borne with Macquarie for 

 two years, but he knew that in giving way here he would be 

 taking upon himself a very grave responsibility. However,. 



1 The case of the Elizabeth was never proceeded with. 



2 See Ship's Manifest, Appendix, Bigge's Report. R.O., MS. 

 3 J. T. Campbell, the Governor's Secretary. 





