278 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



of the territory does not warrant it in New South Wales ; and 

 I think, if immediately extended to it, it would become an evil. 

 In saying this I believe I deliver the sentiments of a majority 

 of the inhabitants who are capable of duly appreciating the 

 result of so important a measure. When I left the Colony I 

 thought many years must elapse before it would be capable of 

 producing a sufficient number of proper jurymen." l 



Cox, Macarthur and Bell, who all signed the petition, were 

 opposed to the establishment of petty juries, and Marsden was 

 opposed to ex-convict jurors. 2 The fact that in spite of their 

 feeling on this point they did sign was a proof of the develop- 

 ment of a spirit of party government, all of them sinking their 

 feelings on this point in the hope of gaining the others. It is 

 noticeable that no one, with the exception perhaps of Marsden, 

 thought it would be possible to exclude ex-convicts altogether. 

 Field, for example, thought the danger of petty juries would lie 

 in the fact that emancipists would be legally entitled to sit upon 

 them, and that jury trial would therefore be the means of still 

 further embittering feeling between themselves and the free 

 population. 3 



It is probable that the military officers who acted as judges 

 and jury in the Criminal Court were as impartial and as intelli- 

 gent as an average English jury. The great objection to the 

 peculiar organisation of the court was that it was unnatural 

 and inimical to the ideas of the people. It often happened also 

 that the decision of questions of guilt lay with a young and 

 inexperienced officer \vho knew nothing of New South Wales, 

 and very little of the world. 4 Wylde complained that the officers, 

 aware that the court was unpopular merely because it was 

 military, too often erred on the side of leniency from a fear of 

 raising ill-feeling, while if a member of their regiment were tried 

 before them, from the same fear they were inclined to be too 

 severe. The officer in command of the garrison complained 

 that the demands of the Criminal Court interfered seriously 

 with the military duties of his officers, and to the regiment the 



1 Riley, C. on G., 1819. 



2 See Appendix, Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. 



3 Field to Bigge. See above. 



4 See Bigge's Report, II. The verdict was a majority and not a unanimous 

 one. 



