NEW SOUTH WALES AND PARLIAMENT. 303 



and was answered by Goulburn, 1 who pointed out the fallacy 

 of his arguing from the information before the Committee of 

 1812 (really describing the Colony before 1810) as to the 

 present conditions. There had, he said, been only six executions 

 within the last two years. 2 Reference was made in the course 

 of the debate to the fact that the House knew nothing of the 

 result of the 1812 Committee, and shortly afterwards the de- 

 spatches of Lord Bathurst and Governor Macquarie were laid on 

 the table in accordance with a request of the House. 8 No dis- 

 cussion, however, took place upon them. 



In April the Opposition proposed that the Third Secretary 

 of State for War and the Colonies should be abolished. A 

 lively debate and a fairly large division in favour of the Govern- 

 ment resulted, 182 voting for and 100 against them, 4 and 

 just a year later another similar attempt resulted in another 

 defeat, the division showing 190 votes to S/. 5 In the course of 

 both debates New South Wales was proclaimed by the Opposi- 

 tion as belonging by logic and convenience alike to the Home 

 Office as part of the prison system of the country. It was true 

 that the Home Office had much to do with its administration in 

 regard to the number and class of convicts sent thither, but the 

 penal character of the Colony was yearly becoming less prominent, 

 and this change was marked by an event in 1817. Bennet 

 presented a petition, on the loth of March, from free British sub- 

 jects in New South Wales. 6 It was the document brought to 

 England by Vale, and exaggerated and possibly false though it 

 was, it was the cry not of convicts but of free settlers oppressed 

 by the weight of an autocratic Government. Lord Castlereagh 

 " took occasion to observe that he rose only at present to say a 

 few words for the purpose of guarding the reputation of the 

 gallant officer (General Macquarie) from being prejudiced in 

 any way. ... He had filled the office of Governor many years ; 

 he had been brought under his (Lord Castlereagh's) notice, when 



1 Hansard, vol. xxxiii., p. 990, 5th April, 1816. 



2 See Hansard, above. The number of executions between 1816 and 1820 

 was sixty-nine. See Appendix to Bigge's Reports, R.O., MS. 



3 House of Commons Journal, nth April, 1816. 



4 Hansard, vol. xxxiii., p. 922, 3rd April, 1816. 

 6 Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 82, 2gth April, 1817. 



6 Ibid., vol. xxxv., pp. 920-921, loth March, 1817. 



