populatiou/* In these words may be read the intensity of the strife created by Bligh and fostered by Mact|uarie, Again, when in 1825 an address, imbued with wild no- tions, was presented to Sir T. Brisbane, the leading resi- dents, with Macarthur at their liead, prepared a memoriaL They dischiimed sympathy with the address. They feared that the dissemination ** by a licentious press of doctrines tending to inflame the worst passions of the lower orders — to excite a spirit of animosity towards the npper classes, and contempt for all legitimate authority, will (unless timely connteracted) subvert tbat disposition to peace, good order, and loyally, for wdiich the colonists of New South I Wales have been hitherto distinguished." They advocated an enlargement of the Legislative Council by nomination by the CrowUj and *'an extensiou to the Supreme Court of trial by jury, founded upon tliesame principles with respect to the c]nalification of jurors as are in England considered indispensable to secure im|)artial administration of justice/'
- ^ Such measures would disarm agitatnrs uf power to do
' iniscbief."^^ Tbough Macarthur lived in comparative retirement, the inquiries of Counnissioner Bigge had so far attracted him to public affairs that he furnished Brisbane with recom- mendations upon them. He advocated some provision for the moral and religious instruction of convicts, and before Brisbane succumbed to the influence of Douglass and of the Chief Justice ho promised to adopt Maearthur's suggestions. Macarthur did not rely on moral suasion only, for on the ground that a thief's most vulnerable part is his belly/' he advised the stoppage of allowances to misbehaving as- signed servants. The saWog which accrued was to go, not to the master, but towards a rural pohce fund. He earnestly advocated the establishment of
- a bf>dy of really res^jKic table aettlLTa ; itmn of real capital, not needy
advent urpps* They alitmld have estates of at least 10,1)00 acres, with reaervea contiguouu of tsq^ual extent. Such a lx>dy of propi'ietora would iu a few years " ** Among the memorialists were several Macarthurs and Nortona, Oxley, Bowman (Principal Surgeon), Maevitie, Cordeaux, Lethbridge, Chishnhii, Walker, Harrington^ 8cott, CainpbeU, Allen, Buahy, Alexander Berry, W. H. Moore, Riehard Jones, De Meatre, A. B. Spark, and othera joined them* jj2
