THE STIRRING OF POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS. 267 



laying the whole matter of their insubordinate behaviour towards 

 him "at the foot of the throne" by writing to the Commander- 

 in-Chief. Molle, meanwhile, attempted to bring Wentworth to 

 a Court- Martial on the ground that he had aided and abetted 

 the publication of the libellous " pipe," but Wylde decided that 

 Wentworth's military commission as surgeon did not make him 

 amenable to a Court-Martial for such an offence. 



Luckily the regiment was then, in 1817, on the point of 

 departure, and they left at the end of the year amid the general 

 regrets of the inhabitants, except indeed of Macquarie and the 

 emancipists. 1 



The behaviour of the 48th was rather different. Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Erskine, the Lieutenant-Governor ; Major Morriset, 

 afterwards Commandant at Newcastle ; and Major Druitt, the 

 Chief Engineer, were all on friendly terms with emancipists. 

 They even took Redfern to call on other officers, though not 

 one received them. 2 When Redfern appeared at mess as 

 Erskine's guest, the junior officers immediately rose from the 

 table, and Erskine in consequence of this occurrence promul- 

 gated a mess-rule " that no officer should quit the table until the 

 first thirds were drunk". 3 



In spite of the ill-feeling between Macquarie and the 

 majority of the officers, he and Erskine continued on such ex- 

 cellent terms that the situation with the 48th never became so 

 strained as that with the 46th. 4 But the discussions aroused by 



1 See Riley, C. on G., 1819, and Harris, Evidence in Appendix to Bigge's 

 Reports. R.O., MS. Harris was a leading member of a Masonic Lodge founded 

 in Sydney some time before 1817, of which Molle and J. H. Bent were members. 

 When they left the Colony the Lodge presented them with addresses, of which 

 Harris was an active promoter. Macquarie regarded this as a proof of Harris's 

 hostility to his Government. Rusden, in vol. i., p. 546, writes, " Many regiments 

 bear on their banners mottoes telling of their past services, but it may be ques- 

 tioned whether the scutcheon of the 46th could be more nobly adorned than by 

 the memory of their conduct in New South Wales, which smells sweet across 

 the lapse of half a century". 



2 In referring to this episode Rusden makes an insinuation against the char- 

 acter of Macquarie's Brigade Major which appears to be wholly unfounded. See 

 History of Australia, i. 



3 Bigge's Report, I. 



4 Bigge remarks that the intercourse between the commanding officer of 1 

 48th and emancipists encouraged an objectionable intimacy between the private 

 soldiers and the convicts, which caused uneasiness in the Colony generally. See 

 Report I. Probably it had always been impossible to prevent this intercours 

 between the rank and file and prisoners, and there is no evidence which distm 

 shows that it was greater with the 48th than the 46th. 



