in the roar which greeted it the meeting was doomed. The address was put, declared carried, signed by a few and carried away. Bligh's people retired, and the meeting was left to the other side. At once Simeon Lord and Gregory Blaxland,[1] two leaders in Johnston's party, brought forward two motions, condemning the meeting as likely to promote discord, and pledging themselves to Governor Macquarie to stand loyally by the Proclamation of 1st January.
Gore refused to put these motions, claiming that the business for which the meeting had been called was completed and that it could deal with nothing else. Blaxland and Lord hurried off to complain to the Governor. A few minutes later, Macquarie sent for Gore and rated him for his partiality. Gore was very aggrieved; and though he was with good reason partial to Bligh, was very likely, as he said, "only attempting to do his duty under extremely trying circumstances". But he gave in at once, saying he would put any questions that any one present should give him. All three returned to this very patient meeting and it was adjourned until three o'clock. Gore tried to get out of the distasteful business by refusing to take the chair, but the meeting would not forego the triumph, and declared that "usage and custom" required that he should preside. The following resolutions were then put and carried:—
"1. Resolved unanimously, That this meeting, convened for the purpose of addressing William Bligh, Esq., is calculated to provoke and renew animosities, which must tend to destroy that unanimity and good understanding so essentially necessary to the advancement and improvement of this infant and rising Colony.
"2. Resolved, That it is the firm and unanimous determination of this meeting to support and carry into full effect, as far as in them lies, His Excellency the Governor's Proclamation of the 1st of January, 1810, recommending harmony and a conciliatory spirit to subsist between every individual in the Colony.
- ↑ Report of Johnston's Trial, which is the authority for this account, has John, not Gregory, Blaxland. But John Blaxland had already left Sydney.
