Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/460

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strict arrest by the Secretary of Statti — when all proceed- ings by the ad inferhn administration were declared null- — it is clear that if Bligh had bad many friends in Sydney they could with such eocounigement bave commanded a majorit}^ at a )uiblic nleetiu^^ Yet they failed to do so. Macquarie bad ruled for three months* Bligh was honoured by Inin. The timt^ seemed propitious for eliciting sympatliy towardB Bhgh, His friends, Messrs. Campbell, Palmer, Fulton, vSuttor, and two others, requested the Provost-Marelial to convene a meeting in Sydney to refute the cliarge made by Johnston in bis despatch to Lord Castle- reagh, that the arrest was necesBary to prevent insurrection of the inhabitants, and to protect Bligh and his friends from violence. A similar meeting was asked for at the Hawlveabnry, Both requisitions were duly advertised in ! the Stfdtti'ff Gfiirtte, where nothing coubl appear without Macqnarie's sanction. The student of the (ji^zeUc can find no Further trace tberehi. The trial nt Johnston furniahes the clue* Gore, the Provost-Marshal, swore that Mac- quarie permitted the meeting. Bhgh's friends in Sydney assembled to denounce Jolniston. But though Johnston was absent his friends were alert. The* mustered more nnmeronsly than Bligh's, aitbough the sun of the arrested Johnston was supposed to have set in gloom. The Provost- Marshal was one of Bligb's friends, aud endeavoured to sway the meeting. He asked from the chah wbether any present had a design to massacre Bligb. All said *'No!*' and B'Ai'cy Wentworth said, "lATnit, man! do you think we are going to put a rope round our own necks?" Gore considered the answer to bis question satisfactory, and va» proceeding to elicit further responses^ when an amendment was moved, *'Tbat this meeting, convened for the purpose | ot addressing WiUiam Bligb, Esquire, is calculated to pro- voke and renew animosities, which must tend to destroy that unanimity and good nnderstautliog so essentially necessary to the advancement and improvement of this infant and rising colony." (lore, seeing that the amend- ment would be carried, refused to put it to the meeting* There w^as disorder. Some of the majority w^ent to Mac- ^narie to complain of Gore*s refusal. Macquarie sent for him. Jjligh s friends went away with their own resolutions