312 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



only reason why your Excellency has not yet been armed with 

 such an Act of Parliament is that his Majesty's Government are 

 not sufficiently aware of the great amount of the duties, or of the 

 rising importance of the Colony ". 



Macquarie somewhat reluctantly did as Field advised. Field 

 wrote himself to Goulburn on the same subject in November, 

 saying, " If the Act of Parliament alluded to be not already 

 passed, I am sure that the Earl Bathurst will see the necessity 

 of an early consideration of the subject, since our duties are now 

 so high that the practice of smuggling is already begun, and it 

 is not to be wished that such a community as this should know 

 that the law is impotent to enforce the payment of those duties." l 



Apparently it had come before them in another way also, 

 for Goulburn now explained, 23rd March, 1819, that "of late 

 several persons had refused to pay, and their representations 

 brought the matter for the first time under the notice of Govern- 

 ment ". It had not previously been thought of because when he 

 came into office the duties were already in existence. The case 

 was referred to the Crown Law Officers and their opinion was 

 that it was illegal. The opinion was given on the pth March, 

 and the Government intended to bring in a Bill on the subject.' 2 



However, the Government were willing to wait until the 

 Commissioner had been to New South Wales before making 

 any further changes. After a speech from Bennet 3 in which 

 he made the totally inaccurate statement that the " single differ- 

 ence " between the power of punishing criminal offences in New 

 South Wales and in England was that in the former " trial by 

 jury was not necessary if the alleged crime were committed by 

 a convict," the discussion on the petition came to an end. It had, 

 however, the result of hastening the investigations by the Com- 

 mittee on Gaols, and a few days later Bennet informed the 

 House that the Committee had decided to enter immediately 

 upon the subject. 4 



They began forthwith to take evidence, and on 7th April 



1 Field to Goulburn, I3th November, 1818. He drew attention to another 

 matter which was also taken up by Bigge later, namely, the fact that the Act 

 27 Geo. III., c. 2, related only to the Criminal Court, that the Civil Charter of 

 Justice was not based on any Act of Parliament. 



2 Hansard, vol. xxxix., 23rd March, 1819, p. 1136. s Ibid., p. 1137. 

 *Ibid., p. 1168, 26th March, 1819. 



