224 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



"Can your Excellency," he continued, " really expect that I 

 should under these circumstances make a communication to you 

 from motives of cordiality and courtesy, which I am not bound 

 to do officially, on the very point wherein your Excellency's 

 conduct towards me has been so deficient in the delicacy, the 

 etiquette, and the courtesy due to my rank and station ? or that 

 I should make an appeal to you l on a matter in which you 

 not only formed but publicly expressed an opinion so opposite 

 to my own? I have felt that on this subject, tho' from my 

 commission I am peculiarly entitled to your Excellency's con- 

 fidence, I am wholly without your Excellency's support ; al- 

 though I have every reason to believe that the steps which 

 your Excellency has taken were without the knowledge and 

 against the wishes of His Majesty's Ministers. 



" Feeling it to be inconsistent with my dignity and inde- 

 pendence as a judge to submit to any interference, or investiga- 

 tion, into my judicial conduct on the part of the Executive 

 Government of this Colony, I shall decline entering into any 

 further discussion with your Excellency on this subject except 

 we are understood to meet on terms of equality and independ- 

 ence of each other : and have only to add that I have sub- 

 mitted to the magistrates in question such terms of accommoda- 

 tion as they may accept without compromising their own opinions, 

 and which, if they refused, I shall be justified in considering 

 that an improper attention to the interests and feelings of Mr. 

 George Crosley (my own feelings being considered as a matter 

 of minor importance) is the sole cause of the mischiefs and incon- 

 veniences which will result from the interruption of the proceed- 

 ings of the Supreme Court. I beg to assure your Excellency 

 that I shall be always anxious to evince my personal respect 

 and to do all in my power that can contribute to the welfare 

 of your Excellency's Government, and sincerely lament that 

 any difference should have arisen to disturb our cordiality, 

 which I shall be happy to restore in any way not inconsistent 

 with my own honour, that of my profession and my station." 2 



'According to the charter, when the Judge of the Supreme Court was in a 

 minority, the party against whom judgment was given might appeal to the 

 Governor. But in such a case as this, of admission to practise, it is difficult to 

 see how this cause could have been put into action. 



2 Bent to Macquarie, 3151 May, 1815. Enclosure, D. 5, 1815. R.O., MS. 



