CHAPTER VII.
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE AND THE JUDICIARY.
Authorities.—Despatches, etc., in Record Office (especially for the years 1814, 1815, 1816). Colonial Office (especially for the years 1815, 1816). Sydney Gazette. P.P., 1819, VII. Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. VII.
In 1809 the Secretary of State expressed the opinion that, however suitable the judicial arrangements of the Colony had been to its infancy, they had already been outgrown. He therefore instructed both Macquarie and Ellis Bent to report on the changed conditions and the alterations which they considered advisable in the Charter of Justice. Macquarie was ready at that period to accept Bent's lead in such matters, and it is therefore to Bent's letters that most importance attaches. Writing to Lord Liverpool[1] on the 19th October, 1811,[2] Bent described in detail the judicial needs of the settlement, laying stress on five main points. In the first place, he advised that Criminal and Civil Courts should be established in Van Diemen's Land. A Deputy Judge-Advocate had been appointed for that settlement and had been paid a salary since 1803, but had never received any patent of justice or commission, and consequently had never held a court.[3] The New South Wales judicature served very inadequately for the whole settlement.
Turning then to New South Wales, he dealt with the defects of the Civil Court. In the two years during which he had been in the Colony, 1,008 cases had come before him, involving sums amounting to £184,500. The costs of these suits had
- ↑ Castlereagh was Secretary of State until October, 1809, and was followed by Liverpool, who held office until June, 1812.
- ↑ See H.R., VII.
- ↑ According to Rusden, History of Australia, vol. i., p. 503, Collins, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, considered the commission of the Deputy Judge-Advocate related only to Port Phillip. He says that he had been appointed to act in that district, where an attempt at settlement was made in 1803.
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