232 



A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



Jeffery Bent was furiously indignant at being recalled and 

 protested hotly against his treatment. Until the beginning of 

 1817 he remained in New South Wales, harassing the Governor 

 and stirring up discontent. He arrived in England after a long 

 voyage by way of India in May, 1818, and began an attack on 

 the Colonial Office. His first demand, for a refund of the ex- 

 penses of his homeward voyage, was successful, but he failed 

 in the next. This was a request for a clear acknowledgment 

 that he had been recalled for political reasons, and also for a 

 temporary provision till he should regain his position at the 

 Bar. He also suggested that he should be appointed Civil 

 Governor of New South Wales. Finally his persistency was 

 rewarded by the Chief Justiceship of Grenada. 1 From that 

 time he passed altogether out of the history of New South 

 Wales. But during the period between the closing of the 

 Supreme Court in 1815 and his departure in 1817 he had by 

 no means been idle, nor had his zeal been altogether fruitless. 



free solicitor off the rolls of his court. There was much discussion in the Colony 

 upon the matter. The free solicitor died soon after some said from a broken 

 heart, others from injuries received in a fall from his horse owing to his great 

 corpulency. There were few free attorneys left, and Crosley and Eager were 

 allowed to practise occasionally under the same terms as previously before 

 Ellis Bent. Crosley was a rascal but competent, and one of the few attorneys 

 who understood court business. See Appendix, Bigge's Reports, R.O., MS. and 

 Report II. 



1 See Colonial Office Correspondence, 1818 to 1820, R.O. Major-General Bayly 

 to Goulburn, 3rd January, 1820, R.O., MS., speaks of him as Chief Justice for 

 Grenada. 



