warmly for his endeavour to reconcile the difference between them and Major Ross, but added that so violent was the treatment they had received, and so disgraceful their present situation, that they could not consent to have their arrest taken off 'until a public reparation should have been made for the indignity we have been used with.'
But much more serious than this dispute was the refusal of one of the marine officers, and the reluctance of others, to sit as a Criminal Court. By their act, had it been persisted in, the Governor's authority would have been set at defiance by any convict who chose to break the regulations of the settlement. Pounds weight of despatches resulted from this affair, and it was not until the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown arrived from England in 1791 that it was finally settled.
The Attorney-General and Solicitor-General, in expressing the opinion that officers were bound by the Act establishing the Criminal Court to do as Phillip requested them, wound up their letter with these common-sense remarks:—
'A military officer serving in New South Wales is bound to perform the duty of a member of the Criminal Court when duly summoned for that purpose … and will be guilty of a misdemeanour by refusing to perform a duty imposed upon him by the King's authority, derived from an Act of Parliament passed for the purpose of giving that
