330 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



is nothing less than startling. Two reasons only seem forth- 

 coming, the one that he regarded the women as incapable of re- 

 form and that he felt himself incapable of dealing with the 

 problem they presented. The other, a less creditable but not 

 less human cause, that he was the more unwilling to give time and 

 energy to improve their dwelling and discipline, and to put aside 

 other projects originated by himself, because it was Marsden, 

 whom he so bitterly detested, who first called his attention to 

 the frightful abuses which were occurring. 1 His neglect remains, 

 however, a blot upon his reputation for an almost sentimental 

 humanity. 



There can remain no doubt that the post filled by Macquarie 

 was one of exceeding difficulty, nor can it be said that he filled 

 it without credit. He was probably mistaken in overlooking 

 altogether the previous convict status of many of his favourites. 

 It was a policy which he was unable to carry through, and one 

 which at that time must inevitably have created ill feeling be- 

 tween freed and free. It would have been better had he bent his 

 energies not to forcing forward the men and women who had 

 been branded with crime in their mother country, but rather 

 that stalwart generation which sprang from them and which in 

 these years he saw growing up around him. 



Yet even when Macquarie failed in his essays to introduce a 

 new system even when he must be blamed for his administra- 

 tion of the old, there remains much in the long period of his rule 

 for which respect is due. He had definite aims and high ideals, 

 and he spared himself neither in his efforts to enforce these, nor 

 in his attempts to administer what he rightly called " the least 

 grateful and most arduous Government in the King's dominions". 2 

 The chief difficulty of the task consisted in the fact that no 

 one at that time was able to lay down a complete and consist- 

 ent policy for governing the Colony. Nor would it be possible 

 at the present time to speak without hesitation upon the subject. 

 The problem of colonisation is still unsolved, and the problem 

 presented by the criminal seems to grow each year more difficult. 

 New South Wales presented them both, inextricably enwound 

 one with the other. 



1 Marsden's letter, ist July, 1815. 

 "Letter to Lord Sidmouth, 1821, p. 3. 



