The Secretary of State agreed in cautious terms with the general principle, for he thought "perpetual exclusion" would be an obstacle to the reform of the convicts of the settlement. "But this principle," he continued, "may be carried too far, and I confess that I am not as yet prepared to say that it would be judicious, unless under very peculiar circumstances, to select convicts for the office of magistrates. The illiberal, though not unnatural, prejudice which you have had to encounter in your endeavour to restore meritorious convicts to their former rank in society would be still more violently excited by their elevation to the magistracy; and the hostile spirit which prevails between the two classes … if it did not influence the conduct of the magistrate himself, would at least diminish the respect and deference which ought to be paid to his decisions. A failure also in an experiment of this kind would not only render it difficult to recur to it again, but would confirm those prejudices against associating with convicts which I trust that time and a proper exercise of discretion on your part will ultimately overcome."[1]
Before he left for New South Wales, J. H. Bent, in conversation with Goulburn, suggested that Lord Bathurst had not expressed his disapproval of the appointment of convict magistrates with sufficient distinctness, and received the answer that as "Governor Macquarie had adopted this policy without acquainting His Majesty's Government that he had done so, Lord Bathurst thought that those words would be a sufficient hint to him to withdraw from it, and that it would be fair to give him that opportunity of silently altering his system".[2] Bent rightly doubted "from Governor Macquarie's known obstinacy of character, whether anything less than a positive command would be attended to," for Macquarie treated Lord Bathurst's letter as giving unequivocal approval to his policy.
"It has," he said, "afforded me the most sincere gratification to find … that your Lordship approves of my motives and conduct in regard to the re-admission to society of certain persons who had formerly been convicts. …" He proposed
