284 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



" I therefore most earnestly entreat your Lordship will be so 

 good as to move His Royal Highness the Prince Regent to ac- 

 cept this second tender of my resignation, and to be graciously 

 pleased to appoint another Governor to relieve here as soon as 

 a competent person can be selected for that purpose." 1 



Lord Bathurst replied, " I regret to find that you had not at 

 the date of your former despatch received my communication 

 of October, i8i8 2 . . . as it would have fully explained the 

 reasons on which alone I had thought it my duty to decline 

 submitting your resignation to the King 3 until you had an op- 

 portunity of reconsidering the ground upon which it was then 

 tendered. Finding, however, that your anxiety to resign your 

 command has no longer any reference to the circumstances 

 stated in your despatch of December, 1817, I have thought it 

 encumbent upon me to submit your request to the King, and 

 have the honour to acquaint you that His Majesty has been 

 graciously pleased to accept your resignation." 4 



On the 5th of August, 1820, Major-General Sir Thomas 

 Brisbane, having heard that Macquarie was returning, asked for 

 the command. He had already been suggested for the post by 

 the Duke of Wellington and the late Sir Joseph Banks. Of 

 his own qualifications he refused to say anything save to assure 

 Lord Bathurst of his " utmost assiduity in behalf of that infant 

 Colony". 5 



On the 3rd of November, the appointment was offered to 

 him and at once accepted. He was a soldier of distinction with 

 a knowledge of astronomy and kindred sciences, and it was on 

 account of these that he was anxious to go to New South 

 Wales. He sailed in May, 1821, and arrived in November after 

 a five months' passage by Rio Janeiro. But before speaking 

 of Macquarie's departure, some account must be given of his 

 last attempt to honour, in the person of Dr. Redfern, the class 

 to whom he had throughout his administration shown so much 

 favour. 



Redfern had been an assistant surgeon in the Navy when at 



1 Macquarie to Bathurst, aoth February, 1820. R.O., MS. 

 8 This was not a despatch but a private letter, and it does not seem to have 

 been sent. In any event Macquarie did not receive it. 



3 George IV. D. 14, i$th July, 1820. C.O., MS. 



* Brisbane to Bathurst, 5th August, 1820. R.O., MS. 



