272 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



Gazette, over the signature of Philo Free, a violent attack upon 

 the moral and commercial honesty of Marsden as agent of the 

 Church Missionary Society. 1 



Marsden immediately wrote to Wylde calling upon him as 

 Judge- Advocate to institute criminal proceedings for libel against 

 the printer. Wylde attempted to bring about a peaceful solution 

 of the difficulty and wrote to Macquarie pointing out the im- 

 propriety of the publication and suggesting that a public apology 

 should be made. Macquarie, who was quite ignorant of Camp- 

 bell's part in the letter and was sensible of the wrong done to 

 Marsden, published a Government General Order expressing 

 regret that in the hurry of getting the paper to press the ob- 

 jectionable nature of the contribution had been overlooked. 2 As 

 Marsden had in the interval gathered evidence which showed 

 him quite clearly that Campbell had not only passed but written 

 the letter, it was not to be wondered at that the apology in no 

 wise appeased him. He desired the Judge- Advocate to proceed 

 this time not against the printer but against the Secretary. The 

 Judge-Advocate demurred, and a long correspondence ensued 

 in which Marsden claimed that Wylde must file depositions re- 

 lating to the prosecution ex qffido, and Wylde claimed that he 

 had a discretionary power. 3 The best of the argument seemed 

 to lie with Marsden, for he had the support of the late Ellis 

 Bent's authority, while Wylde could only reply in the confused 

 unintelligible language at his command. 4 In the end Wylde 

 gave way, and the case came on for trial in October. Follow- 

 ing the Judge- Advocate's charge, as his summing up may fairly 

 be called, the officers who constituted the court gave a peculiar 



1 S.G., 4th January, 1817. Marsden's name is not mentioned, but there was 

 no possible doubt of the application of the libel. 

 2 G.G.O., iSth January, 1817. 



3 For all the correspondence see enclosure to D., 2oth March, 1821. R.O., 

 MS. 



4 See especially Marsden to Wylde, 24th April, 1817, in above D. " He al- 

 ways gave it as his opinion that it would be extremely dangerous to the administra- 

 tion of public justice if the same authority was vested in the Judge- Advocate for 

 the time being as that possessed by the Grand Jury in England, and I may 

 venture to say that he never acted upon this principle while he had the honour to 

 preside as Judge- Advocate in our Criminal Courts. He considered that it was a 

 matter of too great importance to every member of the community to be left to 

 the discretion of one man to determine whether a cause should or should not be 

 heard before a legal tribunal, and that it was the sole province of the Criminal 

 Court, and not of the Judge- Advocate alone, to decide upon the evidence in such 

 cases." 



