THE PA8T0RALI8T AND THE CONVICT 113 



bar, or because of the spice of rebellion that is often 

 like the iron in a young lawyer's blood, associated himself 

 vnih Wentworth. They were appointed editors of official 

 journals, and they controlled the Government Gazette. 

 Swelling in importance, they soon formed a party in 

 the State, or a political party gathered round them. 

 In 1838 it was described by Sir W. Molesworth as " a 

 powerful political party," whose object was to gain 

 for old convicts the status and privileges of free citizens, 

 including the right to sit on juries. The party consisted, 

 not only of ex-convicts and those members of the free 

 class who naturally sympathized with them, but also 

 of persons of high respectability, who adhered to it 

 " on the ground of political principle." When it is 

 mentioned that the first great statesman of Australia, 

 W. C. Wentworth, and his henchman, Dr. Bland, were 

 among the leaders of the party, its character and im- 

 portance will be appreciated. It formed an Australian 

 Patriotic Association, which had Sir John Jamison as 

 its president and the two public men just named as 

 its vice-presidents. 



It was strong enough to influence the government 

 of Australia and even the policy of the Motherland 

 towards its Australian colonies. Guided by it, aided 

 by the Chief-Justice, and in spite of the veiled protest 

 of one of the puisne judges. Governor Sir Richard 

 Bourke threw open the civil jury to the emancipists, 

 namely, to men who had been convicted of crime, 

 transported, and had served a term of imprisonment. 

 Allied with a kindred party in England, of which Arch- 

 bishop Whately was the leader, it was potent to bring 

 the whole system of transportation to an end. The 

 assignment of convicts to service in towns ceased in 

 1838 ; in 1839 assignment in rural districts ceased. 



While Macquarie reigned, the emancipists were in 

 the ascendant. " In our present state," wrote John 

 McArthur in 1820, the Governor's " distinguished 

 friends are in the majority, and their voices preponderate 

 in every public question." Macquarie treated the 



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