THE STIRRING OF POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS. 265 



Guard House, chalked up a caricature of the Governor on one 

 side of the wall. Older officers came in to look at it, and 

 though they should have been wiser, encouraged the lad by 

 their laughter, and even wrote " scurrilous labels " around it. 

 The matter was reported to Molle, who was of course officially 

 severe, and held an inquiry at which the young officer confessed 

 that the drawing was his. Macquarie was furiously angry and 

 proposed to Court- Martial the boy, who only escaped by mak- 

 ing a contrite apology and begging that he might be allowed to 

 return home to his family and friends and not have to stay longer 

 in this remote country where he was so miserable and so lonely. 

 The boy's pitiful letters were full of terror and dismay, and the 

 Governor allowed him to go back to England. 



As Molle made no inquiry into the conduct of the officers 

 who had allowed the caricature to remain upon the Guard 

 House wall, and had added to its humour by their comments, 

 the relations between Macquarie and the regiment became 

 strained and the officers began to decline invitations to Govern- 

 ment House. Just at this moment two lampoons appeared 

 one after another and were distributed about Sydney. These 

 " pipes," as they were called in the Colony, contained a very 

 bitter and libellous attack on Molle, who being a very excitable 

 and enthusiastically sentimental man, was much perturbed. He 

 was exceedingly anxious to discover the author and ready to sus- 

 pect every one about him. Even his officers, for whom he had 

 a sincere affection, came in for some of his suspicion, which was 

 finally laid to rest by Wentworth, who told Molle that he had 

 'accidentally discovered that the first " pipe" had been written 

 by his son William who had just left Sydney to finish his educa- 

 tion in England. 1 Molle was for the time completely satisfied 

 with this knowledge, and a reconciliation took place between his 

 officers and himself. The officers presented him with an address, 

 to which he replied in writing, and Macquarie was asked to 

 publish the documents in the Gazette. This he refused to do, 

 and they were circulated in manuscript. The officers' address, 



1 This was the famous William Charles Wentworth, who was at this time 

 sowing his literary wild oats in a defence of the wealthy emancipists, in which 

 class his father, who had as a matter of fact never been a convict, was placed by 

 common consent of the gentlemen-settlers and officers. 



