THE PAST0RALI8T AND THE CONVICT 115 



of them were, indeed, carried into effect. In 1822 

 Newcastle was abandoned as a convict settlement, and 

 rapidly overflowed with free pastoralist settlers. Its 

 convicts were sent to Port Macquarie, and thence to 

 Moreton Bay — that is, stationed outside of what is 

 now New South Wales. The Colony was slowly getting 

 rid of its convicts, Avho were being expelled to an ever 

 greater distance from the free settlers. Meanwhile, 

 they were gaining ground in other directions. Chief- 

 Justice Forbes, who was appointed under the new 

 Constitution Act, apparently came out to Australia 

 resolved to treat the ex-convicts as Macquarie had 

 treated them, and especially to give them a place on 

 the jury-list. He is hypothetically described (by 

 Mr. Rusden, surely in error) as the draftsman of the 

 Act, and his friend, Sir James Mackintosh, unsuccess- 

 fully endeavoured to mould the bill in this sense on its 

 passage through the House of Commons. By a trick of 

 interpretation the Chief-Justice thought to admit 

 ex-convicts to juries that sat at Quarter Sessions, but 

 was foiled by the magistrates of Sydney, guided by 

 Saxe-Bannister, the Attorney-General. At a public 

 meeting held on Anniversary Day in 1827 the leader 

 of the Emancipists, Wentworth, admitted that ex- 

 convicts were not yet held eligible for juries, and still, 

 as he reluctantly confessed, justice was done. Never- 

 theless, both he and his ally. Dr. Wardell, clamoured 

 for their inclusion. A new opportunity arose in the 

 discussion on the amended Constitution Act of 1828. 



Thwarted on this line, the Emancipist leaders fed 

 the flames of a constant agitation that was designed 

 to procure for all freedmen the complete possession of 

 political privileges. For many years it was ardently 

 maintained. At last, as he perceived that his con- 

 tention for the rights of the freedmen would injure his 

 agitation for representative government to the Colony, 

 Wentworth insensibly dropped the earlier and lesser 

 cause, or let it merge itself in the greater. But things 

 had not yet come to this pass. 



