328 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



of his government both within and without the Colony should 

 have been directed not to Macquarie, but at the original founders 

 of New South Wales. Its affairs had never run smoothly, and 

 Governors had always been on bad terms with one or other of 

 the colonists, a fact due probably to the confusion and lack of 

 definition of the Governor's powers. But so long as the number 

 of the inhabitants was small, and so long as there was no man 

 learned in the law amongst them, disputes, oppressions and 

 severities might continue without check. When quarrels were 

 referred to the Colonial Office they were treated wholly in 

 their personal aspect and disclosed no difficulties nor doubts as 

 to the Governor's legal powers. The growth of population, the 

 improved judicial constitution, and, more still, the advent of 

 Ellis Bent had brought about a new phase. 



The struggle between Ellis Bent and Macquarie no doubt 

 originated in a divergence of opinion on other matters, but it 

 has been shown how their opposition gathered round the totally 

 different conceptions held by each of the rights of the executive. 

 Macquarie, in exercising the powers of legislation, taxation, and 

 judicial control, had simply accepted the traditional rights of 

 his position, and up to that time these powers had not only been 

 adopted by each Governor with the tacit support of the Colonial 

 Office but had been accepted in the Colony without declared 

 opposition. No sooner, however, had Ellis Bent become Judge- 

 Advocate than he found himself forced to contest the huge as- 

 sumption of previous Governors, and to fight for judicial in- 

 dependence and the supremacy of the law. While he fought 

 alone against Macquarie for this doctrine of judicial integrity, 

 his brother banded himself with each opposing faction and gave 

 voice to every complaint which arose or could be invented 

 against the Governor. It was in great measure owing to the 

 dignified protests of Ellis Bent and the turbulent fury of Jeffery 

 Bent that Macquarie was the last Governor of New South Wales 

 who exercised control over the courts, made laws and levied 

 taxes at his own will, and ordered a punishment without trial. 

 Still, in justice, it must be remembered that Macquarie did not 

 originate the system of military government, but that he had 

 the misfortune of carrying it on in a Colony which was clearly 

 outgrowing its possibilities. 



