228 



A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



were admitted, however, and probably Bent's opinion, though 

 unfounded, was the one generally held. Macquarie approved 

 of Garling's behaviour as Judge-Advocate so much as to recom- 

 mend that his appointment should be made permanent. 1 



He had, however, neither the standing nor education to fit 

 him for such a post, and in any event other circumstances had 

 made such a course impossible. 



Ellis Bent's letter criticising the new patent and Macquarie's 

 administration 2 reached England in June, 1815. In December 

 the Governor's despatch of February, 1815, which described the 

 dispute over the Port Regulations, was received. The Secre- 

 tary of State addressed a reply to Bent on the nth December, 

 1815. 



" I should," he wrote, " willingly have taken your observa- 

 tions into consideration if there had been any intention ... of 

 remodelling the charter ... so lately promulgated." Bent's 

 commission also must remain unaltered, for " The Colony did not 

 appear to His Majesty's Government sufficiently advanced to 

 admit of withdrawing that appearance of military restraint 

 which had been found necessary in its first foundation, and 

 which the composition of its population had rendered it indis- 

 pensable subsequently to maintain. The continuance therefore 

 of a judicial officer who bore a commission exclusively military, 

 and who, though a military officer, was by the charter placed 

 above the civil judge, appeared to have many advantages with 

 a view to the maintenance of that due subordination in the 

 settlement upon which its welfare depends." 3 



Bent's proposal to register the Governor's regulations in the 

 courts was opposed as " tending to give but little if any addi- 

 tional publicity . . . while it tends to encourage an opinion that 

 the sanction of the court is necessary to give validity to the 

 acts of the Governor ". 



His conclusion conveyed a warning. "There could not 

 exist a greater misfortune," he wrote, " to a settlement of so 

 peculiar a nature . . . than a spirit of resistance, or anything 



1 D. 2, 24th February, 1821. R.O., MS. 



*i.e., letter of October, 1814. R.O., MS. 



8 It appears from the foregoing pages that the military commission of Judge- 

 Advocate had so far created nothing but conlusion, and had not in the least 

 fulfilled the objects for which, according to Lord Bathurst, it was retained. 



