population." In these words may be read the intensity of the strife created by Bligh and fostered by Macquarie.
Again, when in 1825 an address, imbued with wild notions, was presented to Sir T. Brisbane, the leading residents, with Macarthur at their head, prepared a memorial. They disclaimed sympathy with the address. They feared that the dissemination "by a licentious press of doctrines tending to inflame the worst passions of the lower orders—to excite a spirit of animosity towards the upper classes, and contempt for all legitimate authority, will (unless timely counteracted) subvert that disposition to peace, good order, and loyalty, for which the colonists of New South Wales have been hitherto distinguished." They advocated an enlargement of the Legislative Council by nomination by the Crown, and "an extension to the Supreme Court of trial by jury, founded upon the same principles with respect to the qualification of jurors as are in England considered indispensable to secure impartial administration of justice." "Such measures would disarm agitators of power to do mischief."[1]
Though Macarthur lived in comparative retirement, the inquiries of Commissioner Bigge had so far attracted him to public affairs that he furnished Brisbane with recommendations upon them. He advocated some provision for the moral and religious instruction of convicts, and before Brisbane succumbed to the influence of Douglass and of the Chief Justice he promised to adopt Macarthur's suggestions. Macarthur did not rely on moral suasion only, for on the ground that "a thief's most vulnerable part is his belly," he advised the stoppage of allowances to misbehaving assigned servants. The saving which accrued was to go, not to the master, but towards a rural police fund. He earnestly advocated the establishment of
"a body of really respectable settlers; men of real capital, not needy adventurers. They should have estates of at least 10,000 acres, with reserves contiguous of equal extent. Such a body of proprietors would in a few years
- ↑ Among the memorialists were several Macarthurs and Nortons. Oxley, Bowman (Principal Surgeon), Macvitie, Cordeaux, Lethbridge, Chisholm, Walker, Harrington, Scott, Campbell, Allen, Busby, Alexander Berry, W. H. Moore, Richard Joues, De Mestre, A. B. Spark, and others joined them.
