always been not only nominally but actually granted by the magistrates at each district; and I think your Lordship will agree with me … that such a system is most accordant to the law of England and the dictates of reason. … The influence and patronage arising from this source is now wholly engrossed by the Governor to the injury of the public … and greatly to the diminution of the influence of the magistrates."[1]
The procedure was settled by Macquarie in the Order of 1813.[2] Applications for licenses or renewals were sent in the form of memorials to the office of the Governor's Secretary. Those which were approved by the Governor were handed over to the Bench of Magistrates, or rather a list of their names was transmitted to them. The applicants attended the meeting of the Bench with their sureties, paid over their fees and securities and received their licenses. "I am sure," wrote Bent, "your Lordship will be surprised on hearing that this list was never in any instance previously committed to me or to any of the magistrates, nor was I ever consulted with regard to a single person named in the list."[3]
Every memorial had, according to the regulations, to be accompanied by certificates from the resident chaplain and magistrate of the district in which the applicant resided. After 1815 the Superintendent of Police was for this purpose the Resident Magistrate of Sydney. But the Bench, who technically granted the licenses, really acted as "the clerks of the Governor". "And I cannot but think," said Bent, "that it would have been much more delicate and less injurious to the credit of the magistrates, as well as equally legal, if his Excellency had directed them to have been made out and granted exclusively by his Secretary".[4]
The certificates of the magistrates and chaplains attached to the memorial were to certify the applicants' "correct, orderly and strictly moral conduct," and each applicant was to possess a good and commodious house.[5] But the Governor frequently
- ↑ Bent to Bathurst, 1st July, 1815. R.O., MS.
- ↑ G.G.O., 30th January, 1813.
- ↑ Bent, see above. From 1816 to 1820 the only magistrate who attended the meeting of the Bench at which licenses were granted was Wentworth, and he came in order—as Treasurer of the Police Fund—to receive the fees. See Wylde's Evidence, Appendix, Bigge's Report. R.O., MS.
- ↑ See above.
- ↑ G.G.O., 19th August, 1815.
