238 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



" It is not for me to expatiate to your Lordship on the 

 dangerous consequences of any man under a colonial Govern- 

 ment presuming to oppose the ordinary measures of that 

 Government, but more particularly on the extraordinary im- 

 propriety of a Law Officer of Mr. Bent's rank enlisting himself 

 as the champion of a weak and wicked faction to impede the 

 just measures of Government, to increase the taxes on the 

 mother country by annihilating all those levied in the Colony 

 itself, and to pronounce on the illegality of measures which he 

 might possibly have to pass legal judgment upon in his own 

 Court of Justice, were other persons to be found who would 

 render such an appeal necessary." 1 



Macquarie thus confused the legal aspects of the question 

 with the personal one of respect to his authority, and whatever 

 his opinion as to the first, let no doubts disturb the decisiveness 

 of his action. After his declaration in August, Bent had soon 

 commenced hostilities. On the 6th September Redman and 

 Cullen, the proprietors of the Toll Gate at Sydney, made a 

 complaint to Wentworth, the Superintendent of Police. From 

 the depositions sworn by them it appeared that Bent not only 

 refused to pay toll, but when the gates were shut against him 

 shook them open and drove through at a gallop, making use of 

 language natural to an angry Englishman on such an occasion. 2 



Wentworth did not issue a summons immediately, but seeing 

 Bent passing his office he went out to him and tried unsuccess- 

 fully to reach an amicable settlement. The summons was 

 therefore issued and duly served. 3 Bent at once wrote pointing 

 out that as Judge of the Supreme Court he was " by no means 

 amenable to any criminal jurisdiction in this territory," and 

 that he could not appear in answer to the summons. 4 



" It seems very extraordinary," he concluded, " that such a 

 measure should have been adopted on your own authority 

 towards one of His Majesty's Judges, without any avowed 

 communication with His Excellency the Governor." 5 



The suggestion was an ugly one, but it was probably justi- 



1 Macquarie, D. i, aoth February, 1816. R.O., MS. 

 Enclosure, D. i, 1816. R.O., MS. 



3 Wentworth to M., gth September, 1815. Enclosure, D. i, 1816. R.O., MS. 



4 Bent to Wentworth, 8th September, 1815. Enclosure, D. i, 1816. R.O., MS. 

 4 Ibid. 



