Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/525

PHILLIP AND THE MAJOR. 411 that the judge's letter was not intended to convey the 1789 offensive meaning attributed to it by the captain, he in- 5 June, iormed Major Ross accordingly, in order that his friend's sense of injury might be removed. At the same time he was quite prepared to deal firmly with him, and for that jortiter purpose requested to have a statement in writing of his reasons for declining to sit. The Major then undertook to see his friend, the result of their consultation being another visit to the Governor : — Major Ross soon after brought me a letter, and as he told me Captain Campbell was fixed in his opinion that the sitting as a member of the Criminal Court was no part of his duty, and which he therefore declined, I desired that the officer next on the roster for that service might be named in his room ; but Major Ross said that he did not see how that could be done, as he Ross's repro believed I should find the officers in general of opinion that the ^" * ^^' sitting of members of the Criminal Court was not a duty to which they were obliged to submit, but a service in which they had volunteered, and added — " That he knew of no articles of war to compel them." The letter brought by the Major was the one he had received from Captain Campbell, and which he did not think fit to produce at his first interview with Phillip. It raised the question whether there was any power, outside the Commanding oflScer, to compel oflScers of the detach- ment to sit as members of the Criminal Court against their inclination. Here we get an insight into the reasons of the Major's opposition. He objected to his officers being oflRdai ordered to do duty by any other hand than his own. He ^^^^' had heard the Act of Parliament read, and consequently knew that it authorised the Governor — or in his absence the Lieutenant-Governor — to convene the Court from time to time ; but, nevertheless, he would not admit the force of it, and did everything in his power to induce his men to resist the Governor's exercise of authority over them. This interpretation of his conduct is suggested by the opening lines of Campbell's letter, which plainly imply that, if the officers should choose to resist, the Major admitted that he Digitized by Google