necessary to mark my sense of it" (his conduct) "in such a manner as I considered his insolence merited, and for this purpose I have given directions for his salary of £300 to be discontinued to him from the Police Fund from the day of his assisting Mr. Vale … in making the seizure, and I have ordered him not to be continued on the Government stores;[1] at the same time withholding every other indulgence from him which I might, under other circumstances, have been disposed to extend to him".[2]
These appear remarkably severe measures and much beyond the occasion. What spurred Macquarie on to such a vindictive course was certainly the fact that he knew Vale and Moore were not acting on their own initiative.
"I have to state to your Lordship," he told Bathurst in his first despatch on the subject,[3] "that Mr. Vale and Mr. Moore on the occasion of the seizure proceeded direct from the house of Mr. Justice Bent (with the notifications of seizure ready drawn up) on board the Traveller, and I have besides much reason to apprehend that their proceedings herein were under the private advice and recommendation of that Law Officer."
It is impossible to say to what extent Bent was responsible for their action. He admitted himself that he warned Captain Piper, the Naval Officer, "that he would do well to do nothing with regard to her" (the Traveller's) "entry without authority from the Governor,"[4] but said he had no more to do with it. In any event, after the seizure he was active in his support of both Vale and Moore. Moore, he said, who had acted only as an agent, had been more severely punished than Vale, and without any examination into his conduct having been held. As to Vale, Macquarie had acted illegally in bringing him to a Court-Martial, and Bent condemned Macquarie's behaviour to both in a letter to the Colonial Office.[5] Vale also wrote to Lord Bathurst, taking somewhat the same line as Ellis Bent had taken a few years before … "I trust if it should be
- ↑ He had received rations for himself as a member of the civil staff.
- ↑ D. 4, 8th March, 1816. R.O., MS.
- ↑ D. 4, 8th March. R.O., MS.
- ↑ Evidence before C. on G., 1819, and letter to Lord Bathurst, 11th March, 1816. R.O., MS. His evidence on this subject is very confused.
- ↑ Letter, 11th March, 1816. R.O., MS.
