Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/242

---

government were military at the first, but the Governor stood in Bome degree apart from and above them. When Phillip departed, Grose, minghng the otBce of governor with that of commandant of the New South Wales Corps, abrogated the eivil law and fostered arrogance in the minds of the military. The absence of ordinary control left faults unchecked. Impunity in wrong-doing intensified the evil and made wrong-doers impatient of any curb which a future governor, especially one who was not also their commanding officer, might impose upon them. These difficulties must not be forgotten in judging the conduct of Hunter, He was involved in acrimonious disputes with John Macarthur in 1798 ; but in the same year was con- gratulated by the Eev, Mr> Johnson and by Marsden on his efforts to promote public morality. He did not willingly submit to the resistance he encountered. He wrote to the Secretary of State : — "After the departure of Governor Phillip a general change took place. All his plans and regulations were completely laid aside, the civil magistrate was superseded entirely, and all the duties respecting the distribution of justice, and every other concern of that office was taken into the hands of the militar3%" (He took credit for reinstating the civil magistrate, but it must be remembered that the Secretary of State bad, in 1795, laid down distinct rules on the subject in response to King's ap|>eal from Norfolk Island against the displacing of civil authority, and that Hunter had received instructions on the subject,) On the restora- tion of law, ** those changes, I had soon reason to observe, were not well relished by those of the military. Since that time frequent indirect and some direct attempts luive been made to annoy the civil officers officiating as magistrates/' (1796). Hunter vainly strove to repress the traffic in spirits* Even officers had been {179(>) ** engaged in a most destruc- tive traffic with Bjurituons liquors,*' which were sold to settlers **at an immense protit, to the destruction of all order, to the almost total destruction of every spark of religion, to the encouragement of gambling, the occasion of frequent robberies, and, concerned 1 am to adtl, to several rerj recent and shocking murders." In July 1797 he