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during the two years and upwards he presided in the Civil Court, gave the utmost satisfaction to the colonists, as well as to the Governor.[1]
Into these particulars respecting the free institutions of the colony the writer has entered thus somewhat minutely, as they cannot fail to have a material influence upon the state of society, and greatly contribute to permanent prosperity. How these advantages are appreciated in the neighbouring penal settlements, the following extract from a letter in The Tasmanian, a Van Diemen’s Land journal of recent date, demonstrates:—
“The ‘penal settlement’ character of these colonies is a millstone round their necks, which effectually prevents their obtaining their rights of free institutions. Look at Swan River. Depend upon it that, poor as that colony is, her composition being free from penal settlementship, she commands infinitely greater attention in Britain, than does either this, or the great sister colony, with all its wealth. Thus it is that, while we are here subjected to the report of the Crown lawyers, whether we shall possess even the ordinary right of Trial by Jury, the colonists of the Swan River are in full enjoyment of every privilege of Englishmen.”
