Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/531

PHILLIP AND THE MAJOR. 417 between a military duty** and an extra duty in com- 1789. pliance with an Act of Parliament " — a refinement to which ® Ma.r. its author apparently attached some importance. The result was^ therefore^ that the Major did not find a single supporter .among them — ^a fact which enables us to JJ^SSa*^ understand the secret of Campbeirs opposition. The matter was too simple to admit of any doubt about it all ; and if it was clear to the subalterns, it may be inferred that it was equally clear to the Captain and the Commandant. So far as this question was concerned, there was no room left for further discussion ; but another and very different one, which assumed the undignified appearance of a squabble, broke out immediately afterwards. Some one was kind enough to report to Phillip certain unguarded expressions with reference to his conduct which had been made use of Another by Ross when addressing the oflScers at the meeting. How this complication came about, and what was done in con- sequence of it, was explained by Phillip in his letter :— Being sometime after informed that the officers bad been assembled and the Governor's conduct in calling on Captain slandering Campbell to sit as a member of the Criminal Court had been nor.^°^^'" stated to them by Major Ross as oppressive, and that endeavours had been used to induce them to join in Captain Campbeirs opinion " that the Criminal Court was not a part of their duty," I then thought it necessary to enquire what grounds there were for such a report ; and the first officer I spoke to on the subject doubting of the propriety of saying what passed at a meeting to which he had been called by his Commandant, I directed the Judge- Advocate to send for some of the senior officers then in ofBwretob*' quarters, and to ask them the necessary questions, and the adju- JJSS!'*** tant who had assembled the officers and attended the meeting was afterwards sent for. The course adopted by Phillip in this matter seems to show his intention to deal with Ross as a quasi-delinquent. Instead of sending him a formal request to assemble the officers and report their separate answers to certain definite questions, as he did before, he instructed the Judge- Advocate Digitized by Google