General, J. T. Gellibrand, for alleged malpractice in drawing pleas for a plaintiff, and acting officially against him afterwards. Chief Justice Pedder dismissed the application. The Governor appointed a board of inquiry, and after appearing before it, Gellibrand, offended at the conduct of the commissioners, refused to go before them again. The result was that Gellibrand, complaining that he was unfairly dealt with, was suspended by Arthur, and removed by an order from England from the office of Attorney-General, and shortly afterwards Arthur informed him with regard to an application for land—"His Excellency does not consider himself at liberty to make a grant of land to an individual whose conduct His Majesty has disapproved."
Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, consulted by Gellibrand's friends, gave an opinion that Gellibrand had been "ill-treated by the commissioners, that the charges against him were grounded in malice or mistake," that those imputing unprofessional conduct to him were "too absurd to stand for a moment," that it was to be regretted that he did not "remain and conduct his own defence" before the commissioners; but that "against the exercise of the undoubted prerogative of the Crown to dismiss its own officers" there could not be "any appeal as matter of right."
High-handed acts were charged against the Governor. Displeased (1833) with a magistrate, he refused to receive his resignation, removed him from the commission, and took from him all his assigned servants at a time when their labour was of peculiar importance.
The legislation of Van Diemen's Land shows the pressure of the same wants as in New South Wales. In the same year (1826) both colonies passed Acts to regulate the currency and promote the sterling money of Great Britain. The control of the convicts, their transportation, their confinement at Macquarie Harbour and Maria Island; the administration of justice generally; the registration of wills affecting real property; impounding of cattle; the regulation of slaughtering of sheep and cattle; the regulation of the printing and publishing of newspapers; the selling of spirits and wines; the licensing of dealers in spirits; the statutes of usury; an Act (20th Jan. 1830) to remove doubts as to the validity of ordinances passed by the
