112 PITT AND DUXDA8. LAW AT NORFOLK ISLAND. for similar atrocities in England ; the ferment in the country^ which was nowhere more noticeable than in Edin- burgh, where a ** British Convention parcelled out in anticipation the whole Iduf^dom into department b withhi which the Heherts and St. Justs of the islands might rival the exploits of their prototypes ; plots against Parliament and liing; tamperings with the soldiery and the deet — were the topics pressing upon Pitt and Dundas when the latter received a long despatch from King conveying minute details as to the wants of Norfolk Island, If he read it at all he must have smiled amidst the dangers of the time'^ at the tale of Norfolk Island. Pitt was nnahle to obtain convictions of the seditious in London ; but Dundas must have had grim pleasure in sending the Scotch convicts, whom a dift'erence in the Scotch law subjected to transportation, to a land where high and low might work with common consent to secure the bounties of Providence. Dundas w^as bitterly accused of straining the Scotch laws to procure eonvictiona. Iving told him that at the island he and the magistrates awarded
- such pains and penalties as are equitable, guided by
Burn's ' Justice' and Blackstone's * Commentaries,' the only law-books we have to guide us/' There were no bar- risters and no attorneys as yet in the soutli land, and those wlio lirat practised were convicts themselves. No lawyer was available to assist the government. The Judge-Advocate in Sydne}^ was an officer of marines. In Norfolk Island there was no Criminal Court. If a '* theft was committed, or any other capital crime/* the rare means of conveyance to Sydney, and the necessity of sending witnesses thither, brought about a denial of justice. Settlers eordd ill leave their farms to go to Sydney. King eubmitted the matter to I)uudas*s consideration. An Act (45 of B4 Geo, III.) w^as passed in 1794 ; a Criminal Court was establislied by letters patent as a Court of liecord ; it was didy proclaimed at Norfolk Island, and a Civil Court tititioned pet hy ^ A frieuti reiJi oust rated with Pill for liia vigorous reaifttaiice to the Bcheniefi of the *' FriemiH of tlj« People.'* Let Jiitii retire rather than vainly resiist. Pitt replied, **My head would he off in six mouths were I to fesigii. "
