constables so as to provide at least a night patrol for Queen's Road, appointed a ridiculous corps of 44 Magistrates; (9) that, by irregularities connected with the Survey Department, which he placed under the charge of a relative of his own, and by looseness in the management of land-sales, as well as by granting Crown-lots to officials, he furthered the growth of a regular gamble in land and house property; (10) that he unduly postponed the organization of civil jurisdiction, left the Magistracy for years in the hands of a military officer having no legal knowledge or instinct whatever, whilst the Criminal Sessions, presided over on one occasion (March 8, 1844) by himself, were a solemn farce, and his final measure of handing over all civil suits to arbitration by Justices of the Peace was a reckless measure unsuited and injurious to the Colony; (11) that socially he isolated himself to such an extent that he never was in touch with any section of the community, whilst he, and the civilians nearest to him in office, thinking that the community were but opium dealers and smugglers intent only upon robbing the Government, acted throughout on the principle of not granting anything that could possibly be withheld.
It remains to sketch briefly the social life of this period. After the departure of the fleet and of the troops of the expedition, in the winter of 1842, the social life of the Colony underwent, as above stated, a sudden revolution. Previous to that time the head centre of social entertainments was formed by the head-quarters, where diplomatists, military and naval officers and local Government officers, domineered, and the leading merchants were but condescendingly admitted. With the commencement of the year 1843, the mercantile community had the preponderance, the Governor and his favourite officials insulated themselves at Government House, whilst the principal merchants kept open table for military and naval officers and visitors, gaining for themselves by their boundless hospitality the title of merchant princes. The European mercantile community (prevailingly British, but interspersed with a few German, American, Dutch, French and Italian
