THE EMBARRASSMENTS OF AN AUTOCRAT. 259 



him, and in regard to these Bent was victorious. 1 In the course 

 of the correspondence he took the opportunity in a letter to the 

 Governor's Secretary of thus contrasting his own and Macquarie's 

 tempers. 



" I regret," he wrote, " that I have now before me but too 

 many convincing proofs under Governor Macquarie's hand, 

 that in respect to acrimony of language, I have been more 

 sinned against than sinning ; I heartily agree that difference of 

 opinion need not excite a spirit of hostility, and if his Excel- 

 lency Governor Macquarie had felt the force of his own obser- 

 vation, he would never have authorised the latter paragraph 

 of your communication, a paragraph which might be returned 

 with double force upon himself, and which it would have been 

 more becoming to have omitted. Our local rank places but a 

 shade of distinction between us, and I have yet to learn what 

 decorum of language ought to be adopted by me in correspond- 

 ence with any Governor of New South Wales which I am not 

 (even as a private individual) entitled to have observed towards 

 me in return, and I will further add that whatever may be my 

 irritability of temper it has never led me into acts either of 

 illegality or oppression." 2 



1 Bent to Macquarie, 25th December, 1816. Enclosure to D. 12, 1817. R.O., 

 MS. 



2 Bent to Campbell, enclosure, D. 12, 3rd April, 1817. R.O., MS. 



