THE EMBARRASSMENTS OF AN AUTOCRAT. 257 



inserted a notice in the Gazette on the roth of December re- 

 leasing the two magistrates from further duty in the Supreme 

 Court. 1 



Bent at once wrote to Macquarie that on reference to the 

 letters-patent for the establishment of the court he found that 

 the Governor had " no power of discharging from that duty, 

 . . . the only mode by which they can be relieved . . . being 

 the appointment of new members in their stead. A discharge 

 of the members without the appointment of others would be 

 a virtual dissolution of the court; and were any Governor 

 entrusted with such authority it would be in his pleasure to 

 postpone or prevent the trial of any actions which might be 

 disagreeable to him and materially to injure persons obnoxious 

 to him, by the expenses consequent thereupon. . . . Should 

 your Excellency persist in the right of discharge, and refuse 

 to nominate other members, I shall leave to your Excellency 

 the responsibility attending such an extraordinary attempt at 

 an avoidance of His Majesty's Charter ; satisfied with the full 

 confirmation of my opinion, that while such extravagant notions 

 of authority and such measures of arbitrary tendency character- 

 ise the administration of this Colony, it would be impossible to 

 give effect to the present establishment of the Courts of Justice, 

 except by an utter dereliction of every sound principle of Eng- 

 lish Law, an adoption of maxims suited only to a military des- 

 potism, and-a servile submission to the views and wishes of your 

 Excellency." 2 



Bent's successor had not yet arrived, but Judge-Advocate 

 Wylde was already in Sydney. Macquarie, at the end of all 

 patience, appealed to Wylde and asked him to draw up an order 

 suspending Bent and enforcing his recall. A copy of the Order 

 was at once sent to Bent, who returned the packet unopened. 

 It was then published in the Sydney Gazette of the I4th Decem- 

 ber, 1816. 



The Order quoted the despatch from Lord Bathurst in which 

 Bent's recall had been announced, and went on to describe his 

 recent actions in issuing " certain process, directing the Provost- 



1 See S.G., loth December, 1816. 



2 Bent to Macquarie, loth December, 1816. Enclosure to D. 12, 3rd April, 

 1817. R.O., MS. 



17 



