Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/533

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Speaking generally, this Act laid the foundation of a new order of things. Law was substituted for caprice. In the last resort a Governor was still uncontrolled on the spot, but the forma imposed upon hiin in making Orders brought about a graver and more methodical mode of action than €0iild exist under former Governors. The military gave place hually to the civil authority. Another change, not made in terms by the new Act> was enforced by the in- structions to Governors. The pampering of the convict <;lass was to be discontinued. Convictions for forgery, mutiny, and rebelhon were no longer to be passports to the favour of the representative of the Crown. OfBcers in the army were no more to be coerced into social relations with the convict associates of a Governor. Macquarie's ill- a-ppointed magistrates had disappeared from the commis- sion of the peace. The English Government, which had expended four millions sterling in founding the colony, was indeed entitled to a voice in its affairs, and especially in dealing with the class for w'hose control they had spent bo much. When a Governor, an officer in the army, yiekled to the fascinations of graduates in crime, it was high time to redeem the colony, and to enable it to hold up an inno- cent head before the world. Free settlers were to be en- couraged. Grants of land were to be made, and convicts were to be assigned to them io proportion to the land held. Commerce was to he promoted, and Enghsh import duties on colonial products were to be lightened or abolished, iueh were the conclusions arrived at by the English go- fvernrnent. Before giving them legislative shape Macquarie was recalled, and Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane was appointed in his stead. Like his predecessors, Macquarie had contended by Proclamations and Orders against numerous difficulties. A few lines will give some idea of the multifarious objects of his care, and of the life of the colony, ' Some murderers had been executed. Marsden*B magi- sterial activity had led to their apprehension. Macquarie, in an Order, to be read during Divine Service at Sydney, Parramatta, and Windsor, thanked the chaplain for his L** able, Urm, and unwearied exertions as a magistrate,"