264 



A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



"has been by no means so rigid as that in regard to the 

 other." 1 



Though Macquarie freely admitted their right to act as they 

 pleased in drawing up rules for their mess, he felt "that a 

 courtesy was due to me as their General and Governor of this 

 territory, in regard to making my table the rule or standard 

 for the admission of persons into society, and I could not but 

 feel chagrined that a courtesy so usual and so becoming should 

 have been withheld by a corps of officers to whom I had shown 

 a particular inclination to pay every personal respect and atten- 

 tion within my power. The officers of the 46th Regiment in 

 adopting a Rule of Exclusion, previous to their having acquired 

 any local knowledge of the country, could not impress me with a 

 very high opinion either of their good sense or their liberality : 

 but I was peculiarly hurt at the consideration that Colonel 

 Molle, in whose friendship and candour I had so fully reposed, 

 and who constantly expressed himself in terms of admiration 

 of the principles I was acting upon, should have privately lent 

 himself to a measure which he was either ashamed to avow, or 

 had not candour enough to make me acquainted with." - 



Outwardly all remained on friendly terms until Captain 

 Sanderson of the 46th joined the regiment from England in 

 1815. This officer came before the magistrates for some petty 

 misdemeanour and treated their authority with contempt. For 

 this he was "reproved and admonished privately" by Mac- 

 quarie, whose admonitions had the result of turning Sanderson 

 into the leader of what Macquarie called a faction against him. 

 The truth was that amongst a certain set of officers it became 

 the correct thing to make fun of the Governor and his friends 

 and all that they did. Even Molle, who was on intimate terms 

 with those colonists who were least friendly towards Macquarie 

 with Bent, Harris, Jamison and others, sometimes had to lecture 

 his officers on the " bold license they gave to their tongues". 3 

 Finally a young ensign, spending a dull day on duty at the 



1 See D. 27, 25th July, 1817. Enclosure to Commander-m-Chief. R.O., MS. 



* D. 27, 25th July, 1817. R.O., MS. Probably this means no more than that 

 Molle refrained from adverse comment. Macquarie would be quite ready to take 

 that for approval. See, e.g., his belief that Lord Bathurst approved of his emanci- 

 pist policy. Chapter VI. and later in this chapter. 



3 See Macquarie to Commander-in-Chief, above. 



