and was answered by Goulburn,[1] who pointed out the fallacy of his arguing from the information before the Committee of 1812 (really describing the Colony before 1810) as to the present conditions. There had, he said, been only six executions within the last two years.[2] Reference was made in the course of the debate to the fact that the House knew nothing of the result of the 1812 Committee, and shortly afterwards the despatches of Lord Bathurst and Governor Macquarie were laid on the table in accordance with a request of the House.[3] No discussion, however, took place upon them.
In April the Opposition proposed that the Third Secretary of State for War and the Colonies should be abolished. A lively debate and a fairly large division in favour of the Government resulted, 182 voting for and 100 against them,[4] and just a year later another similar attempt resulted in another defeat, the division showing 190 votes to 87.[5] In the course of both debates New South Wales was proclaimed by the Opposition as belonging by logic and convenience alike to the Home Office as part of the prison system of the country. It was true that the Home Office had much to do with its administration in regard to the number and class of convicts sent thither, but the penal character of the Colony was yearly becoming less prominent, and this change was marked by an event in 1817. Bennet presented a petition, on the 10th of March, from free British subjects in New South Wales.[6] It was the document brought to England by Vale, and exaggerated and possibly false though it was, it was the cry not of convicts but of free settlers oppressed by the weight of an autocratic Government. Lord Castlereagh "took occasion to observe that he rose only at present to say a few words for the purpose of guarding the reputation of the gallant officer (General Macquarie) from being prejudiced in any way. … He had filled the office of Governor many years; he had been brought under his (Lord Castlereagh's) notice, when
- ↑ Hansard, vol. xxxiii., p. 990, 5th April, 1816.
- ↑ See Hansard, above. The number of executions between 1816 and 1820 was sixty-nine. See Appendix to Bigge's Reports, R.O., MS.
- ↑ House of Commons Journal, 11th April, 1816.
- ↑ Hansard, vol. xxxiii., p. 922, 3rd April, 1816.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 82, 29th April, 1817.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. xxxv., pp. 920-921, 10th March, 1817.
