to be "particularly cautious" not to advance to the magistracy any person "who shall not appear … fully and respectably qualified". He considered that he had heretofore acted on this principle.
He thought at this time that the "illiberality of sentiment" of which he had complained was growing weaker, though those who still felt it were to be found in the higher class, "where a more enlightened and liberal sentiment might have been reasonably expected to be cherished".[1]
It was unfortunate for the peaceful administration of the Colony that he placed Ellis Bent within this unenlightened class.
Macquarie made the protection of the emancipists his great work. He was their special providence, visiting with swift displeasure all who looked at them askance or were even indifferent in their cause. He was as zealous for them and for all that concerned them as ever a man could be for his own children. In every sense "respectable" himself, stiff and unbending in conduct,[2] he easily condoned in this favoured class vices which would have deeply shocked him in others. He had, as it were, "discovered" the emancipist, and he had all the eager advocacy of a pioneer in the cause. Because Bent did not go so far as the Governor, the real liberality of his opinions was overlooked. He felt that "such persons ought not to be forced forward into office or society contrary to the current of general feeling; and that the early received and honest prejudices of others … are entitled to much regard and consideration". He disapproved of Simeon Lord's appointment because Lord had neither the respectability nor influence to make him useful as a magistrate, and Bent considered that his elevation "was as contrary to publick opinion as it was painful to my own feeling as a member of the English Bar".[3]
To the Governor, on fire with the vision of leading the lost lambs of society back within its bounds, the Judge-Advocate's sentiments appeared in quite a different light. Macquarie declared himself "particularly hurt by the illiberal manner in which
- ↑ D. 11, 7th October, 1814. R.O., MS.
- ↑ Macquaries's ideal of a man and a gentleman would probably have been Sir Thomas Bertram of "Mansfield Park".
- ↑ Bent to Bathurst, 14th October, 1814. R.O., MS.
