laying the whole matter of their insubordinate behaviour towards him "at the foot of the throne" by writing to the Commander-in-Chief. Molle, meanwhile, attempted to bring Wentworth to a Court-Martial on the ground that he had aided and abetted the publication of the libellous "pipe," but Wylde decided that Wentworth's military commission as surgeon did not make him amenable to a Court-Martial for such an offence.
Luckily the regiment was then, in 1817, on the point of departure, and they left at the end of the year amid the general regrets of the inhabitants, except indeed of Macquarie and the emancipists.[1]
The behaviour of the 48th was rather different. Lieutenant-Colonel Erskine, the Lieutenant-Governor; Major Morriset, afterwards Commandant at Newcastle; and Major Druitt, the Chief Engineer, were all on friendly terms with emancipists. They even took Redfern to call on other officers, though not one received them.[2] When Redfern appeared at mess as Erskine's guest, the junior officers immediately rose from the table, and Erskine in consequence of this occurrence promulgated a mess-rule "that no officer should quit the table until the first thirds were drunk".[3]
In spite of the ill-feeling between Macquarie and the majority of the officers, he and Erskine continued on such excellent terms that the situation with the 48th never became so strained as that with the 46th.[4] But the discussions aroused by
- ↑ See Riley, C. on G., 1819, and Harris, Evidence in Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. Harris was a leading member of a Masonic Lodge founded in Sydney some time before 1817, of which Molle and J. H. Bent were members. When they left the Colony the Lodge presented them with addresses, of which Harris was an active promoter. Macquarie regarded this as a proof of Harris's hostility to his Government. Rusden, in vol. i., p. 546, writes, "Many regiments bear on their banners mottoes telling of their past services, but it may be questioned whether the scutcheon of the 46th could be more nobly adorned than by the memory of their conduct in New South Wales, which smells sweet across the lapse of half a century".
- ↑ In referring to this episode Rusden makes an insinuation against the character of Macquarie's Brigade Major which appears to be wholly unfounded. See History of Australia, i.
- ↑ Bigge's Report, I.
- ↑ Bigge remarks that the intercourse between the commanding officer of the 48th and emancipists encouraged an objectionable intimacy between the private soldiers and the convicts, which caused uneasiness in the Colony generally. See Report I. Probably it had always been impossible to prevent this intercourse between the rank and file and prisoners, and there is no evidence which distinctly shows that it was greater with the 48th than the 46th.
