244 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



necessary to mark my sense of it " (his conduct) " in such a 

 manner as I considered his insolence merited, and for this pur- 

 pose I have given directions for his salary of ,300 to be dis- 

 continued to him from the Police Fund from the day of his 

 assisting Mr. Vale ... in making the seizure, and I have 

 ordered him not to be continued on the Government stores ; l 

 at the same time withholding every other indulgence from him 

 which I might, under other circumstances, have been disposed 

 to extend to him ". 2 



These appear remarkably severe measures and much beyond 

 the occasion. What spurred Macquarie on to such a vindictive 

 course was certainly the fact that he knew Vale and Moore 

 were not acting on their own initiative. 



" I have to state to your Lordship," he told Bathurst in his 

 first despatch on the subject, 3 " that Mr. Vale and Mr. Moore 

 on the occasion of the seizure proceeded direct from the house 

 of Mr. Justice Bent (with the notifications of seizure ready 

 drawn up) on board the Traveller, and I have besides much 

 reason to apprehend that their proceedings herein were under 

 the private advice and recommendation of that Law Officer." 



It is impossible to say to what extent Bent was responsible 

 for their action. He admitted himself that he warned Captain 

 Piper, the Naval Officer, "that he would do well to do nothing 

 with regard to her" (the Traveller's) "entry without authority 

 from the Governor," 4 but said he had no more to do with it. 

 In any event, after the seizure he was active in his support of 

 both Vale and Moore. Moore, he said, who had acted only as 

 an agent, had been more severely punished than Vale, and 

 without any examination into his conduct having been held. 

 As to Vale, Macquarie had acted illegally in bringing him to a 

 Court-Martial, and Bent condemned Macquarie's behaviour to 

 both in a letter to the Colonial Office. 5 Vale also wrote to 

 Lord Bathurst, taking somewhat the same line as Ellis Bent 

 had taken a few years before ... "I trust if it should be 



1 He had received rations for himself as a member of the civil staff. 

 3 D. 4, 8th March, 1816. R.O., MS. 



3 D. 4, 8th March. R.O., MS. 



4 Evidence before C. on G., 1819, and letter to Lord Bathurst, nth March, 

 1816. R.O., MS. His evidence on this subject is very confused. 



"Letter, nth March, 1816. R.O., MS. 



