Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/297

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At the sam© time he asked for copies of the Statutes at Large, ** particularly the late Acts respecting Sedition and seditious meetings, of which we are much in want." One of the Scotch exiles, not honoured with notice on the Edinhargh monument, was a thorough revolutionist, though not of the mean type of Margarofc. When King sailed from England in 1799 he took with him a person to teach and superintend a linen factory in the colony. The man was drowned at sea. Among the convictF? was the Scotch enthusiast Meahnaker. He ha<l heen of sufficient import- ance to preside at some of the ineetings of the Edinburgh Convention. Unlike Margarot, he was industrious, and lung made him superintendent of the linen factory. But it was not likely that he would escape from the malign influence of Margarot, and Mealmaker was alleged to have been drawn into plots, which caused him to be shipped to Norfolk Island, He averred his innocence, and it is pleas- ing to know that he was soon released. Margarot wrote (April 1802) that **King, au poltron et fou, desarma tous les habitans (pour renforcer ses ennemis les offieiers)/' but added afterwards that King appeared **tres rassure en apparance/' and ordered Margarot "me rendre a Parra- matta," To try his patience, in July Margarot applied for leave to land '20 gallons of rum for his own use. The Governor took the paper and — **il le dck^hira sans mot dire.*' Until 1802 it had not been definitely fixed that King should be appointed actual Governor. As Lt.*Governor he had superseded Hunter in 1800, and it was not until Jan. 1802 that Lord Hobart informed hin:i that he had been made Governor. There was a pecuhar Irish difficulty in the colony. Irish prisoners had been sent there without information as to the nature of their sentences. King applied for it, and Lord Hobart sent him the following reply from Lord Hardwicke at Dublin: *' Their sentences were mostly by courts-martial prior to the time when the proceedings of snch courts were sanctioned by law, and in other instances the convictions were summary before magistrates, who exercised their jjowers under the Injunction Acts, and whose proceedings were hi the disturbed state of the country not recorded*** Some sent by one e^«)^l *' ^^x^