200 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



The Secretary of State agreed in cautious terms with the 

 general principle, for he thought " perpetual exclusion " would 

 be an obstacle to the reform of the convicts of the settlement. 

 " But this principle," he continued, " may be carried too far, 

 and I confess that I am not as yet prepared to say that it would 

 be judicious, unless under very peculiar circumstances, to select 

 convicts for the office of magistrates. The illiberal, though not 

 unnatural, prejudice which you have had to encounter in your 

 endeavour to restore meritorious convicts to their former rank 

 in society would be still more violently excited by their elevation 

 to the magistracy ; and the hostile spirit which prevails between 

 the two classes . . . if it did not influence the conduct of the 

 magistrate himself, would at least diminish the respect and 

 deference which ought to be paid to his decisions. A failure 

 also in an experiment of this kind would not only render it 

 difficult to recur to it again, but would confirm those prejudices 

 against associating with convicts which I trust that time and a 

 proper exercise of discretion on your part will ultimately over- 

 come." l 



Before he left for New South Wales, J. H. Bent, in con- 

 versation with Goulburn, suggested that Lord Bathurst had 

 not expressed his disapproval of the appointment of convict 

 magistrates with sufficient distinctness, and received the answer 

 that as " Governor Macquarie had adopted this policy without 

 acquainting His Majesty's Government that he had done so, 

 Lord Bathurst thought that those words would be a sufficient 

 hint to him to withdraw from it, and that it would be fair to 

 give him that opportunity of silently altering his system ".- 

 Bent rightly doubted " from Governor Macquarie's known 

 obstinacy of character, whether anything less than a positive 

 command would be attended to," for Macquarie treated Lord 

 Bathurst's letter as giving unequivocal approval to his policy. 



" It has," he said, " afforded me the most sincere gratification 

 to find . . . that your Lordship approves of my motives and 

 conduct in regard to the re-admission to society of certain 

 persons who had formerly been convicts. ..." He proposed 



1 Bathurst, D. 24, 8th February, 1814. C.O., MS. 



S J. H. Bent to Goulburn, 25th June, 1818, 'recalling a conversation held in 

 1813. R.O., MS. 



