THE EXECUTIVE AND THE JUDICIARY. 211 



how far the Law of England may have provided for the subject 

 matter of them, l and they are not regularly registered in any of 

 the Courts of Justice here nor . . . submitted to His Majesty 

 for approval. 



" I hope that I am not presuming too much when I express 

 a humble confidence that it never could be intended that so 

 vast a power should be placed in the hands of any one man 

 without the smallest provision against its abuse ; a power which, 

 as far as this Colony is concerned, and under the bare pretence 

 of local circumstances, I will be bold to say sets the Governor 

 of New South Wales above the Legislature of Great Britain, and 

 at once resolves the rule of action here into the mere will of the 

 Governor, a will not subjected to any previous advice or 

 controul." 2 



So far as these considerations affected him as a judge he 

 had no longer any doubts. " I am now convinced," he wrote, 

 " that it is impossible for me, unless some alteration takes place 

 in the opinions and conduct of Governor Macquarie, honestly 

 and uprightly to perform my duties under such a commission 

 without a total sacrifice of my peace of mind and injury to my 

 health, already much broken." He asked that " with the func- 

 tions of a judge " he should also have the title, and " that inde- 

 pendence of the Colonial Government which . . . is so essential 

 to the upright execution of my office ". 



Macquarie's exasperation compares badly with Bent's 

 dignity. He wrote that Bent was " insubordinate and disrespect- 

 ful," and that he would have suspended him or sent him to 

 England had there been any one in Sydney capable of per- 

 forming his duties. 



At the same time the Governor's faith in the Port Regula- 

 tions had been severely shaken, and he transmitted them both 

 old and new for the opinion of the law officers of the Crown. 8 



1 An instance of this occurred some years later when Macquarie published 

 some Orders increasing the penalties on trespassing. Judge Field pointed out 

 that they went far beyond the English Law on the subject, and persuaded the 

 Governor to revise the Orders. See Appendix, Bigge's Reports. R.O., M.S. 



2 ist July, 1815. R.O., M.S. 



3 D. i, 24th February, 1815. R.O., MS. No opinion appears to have 1 

 given, and in 1819 Macquarie. apparently taking silence for consent, gave them t 

 Judge- Advocate Wylde to put into shape. The Judge- Advocate objected to so 

 of them, but Macquarie replied simply that the law officers had allowed 



