The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-08-30 00:00:00

PaiVAik PUPIL

ASAItRIED awl 11rorlie..t1CLERGYMAINI,
Sesiding *phis -Mbroinies Rile of L00k..., and
streasseowrot fur many Irra•Y lb locative A FEW PUPIL%
law bin Huai.. bat moo a Vibes/bey. Tbe most aalisfaelory
Reftrernee• emu he giieu to Ploblemes and Grotkeen whom
foss bare Gera loud., his care.

-
t.. ho 1-ft for Rev. G. R. Me. Jeffreys, It•eksener,
4. Its9-seell, Louie*.

NliW SOUrit WALES.

EXTRACT PROM THE REPORT OF IRE COMMIS•
'WEIR OP INQUIET INTO THE STATE QP THE
COLONY OF NEW MUTH %ft LES.
[Printed by Order of the Heave of Commons.]
(ftotlaued frost our Paper of Wednesday loaf.)
••••••••

Nato/ of Orr Lamm of Cowokre Its tAsf Service Of
. . •
,40/1104 •
.rearti -
At Xst early period the Rev. Mr. Marsden antl
Mr. Hannibal &Partitive, the', acting Alagistrates
for the town um! districts of Paratnatia. fiad heen
so strongly•imi.ressed with the mischievous conse-
quences of collecting together in one place so many
couvieto, and idacing theurourier no better control
than the constables of the districts, that they etas-
ed to give effect to the Governor's proclamation, in.
these over which they prisided as magistrates.
'These effects had been represented, Had Made the
subject of complaint to your Lordship by Mr.
Bayley. a aettler in New South Wales, who en.
joyed the confidence and friendship of the Rev.
Mr. Marsden. Your Lordship having been pleased
to refer the inattl-rsitated to this complaint to' Go-
vernor Illeaq?arne, • circular letter was addressed
by his secretary to the magistrates,- requesting their
iiiformation and report upon the effects of the Sun-
(lay musters; a considerable majority of the ma-
glair:AV* reported that these musters had produced
a favourable effect upon the convicts; bat Mr.
wis of opinion, that this effect was COW,
finest to places where the convicts bad an opportu-
nity of attending divine service, and that their
meetings on Sundays in the -presence and at the
houses of 'the dietria constables only led to pro-
tracted absence front the houses of their masters,
and to debauchery and licentiousness
Mr. Hannibal M'Arthur considered, that although
these mischievous consequences were less sensibly
felt in Pliers %here the convicts could attend di-
vine worship. yet that their association and Meet-
ing with dissolute characters at the muster had led
them to form improper connexions there, and that
the Sunday muster had not been productive of any
visible benefi'.
The opintou of the chief constable of this Wind-
saellnitriet is ',goody unfavourable to it as a mew.
sore OXice; grounded upon the opportunities that
it 'Words to the convicts for combining together
and forming plans of criminal, enterprise; it a ob-
vious, moreover, that whenever the muster is care-
ies.iy executed by the district constable, or where
he fails to make his report of the absentee*. or ill-
conducted convicts to the magistrates on the follow
nig tidy, it is much more likely to be attended with
mischief than with advantage ; and that whatever
may be the vigilance of the constable, it affords a
pretext to the convict for absence from his master's
estate, that May, and often has beeh used to the
prejudice of both.
The good effects that this weekly muster has pro-
duced,have been found to consist in the more cleanly
appearance of the convicts, and in the opportunitiri
that it affords to them of making known any
ficiencv of their allowance of clothing, or any other
complaint that they may have to make, for it is
through the district constables that these complaints
are directed to be made; and it also affords to the
same officer an opportunity of becoming better ac-
quainted with the persons as well as the conddct of
the convicts in his district, and of better determin.
ing the references that are frequently !nude to hie
by the magistrates, upon local and disputed points
of wages and labour.
From the information that I received upon this
subject, I am of opinion that the Sunday musters
of the convicts, if strictly attended to by the'Me-
gistrates of New South Wales, may be-productive
of great advantage, but that the character of the
district constables in the colony is not such as to
justify a belief that the regulations intrusted to
them eau •be either faithfully or accurately -per-
formed. •
The repeated proofs that Mr.
,Maraden end Mr.
Hannibal M'Artltur had received or the mischievous
consequences or bolding the Sunday musters in the
town and districts over which they. presided, had in-
duced theM to refire their attention to it ; and iris
not to be supposed that any good conorquencel
, would ever arise from collecting so many convict
' servants in the town of Peramoitat on Sundays, even
with the advantage that they there possessed of eb
tending divine service.
The temptation to doesipation and indulgence that
this town is well known to afford to them, formed at
once a decisive objection to holding any assemblage
of them here at any time, and uuder any circum-,
stances. Strong as these objections might have sp.'
reared to a full and literal compliance with thb
proclamationof Governor Macquarrie, by Mr.Mons-
den and Mr. M'Arthur, there existed no reason tbat
prevented those gentlemen from commuaizating to
film the observations that their experience had slog-
grated respecting it ; and certainly mine that war-
ranted them, without such communication, to ex-
brcise thei• own discretienin relaxing the operation
of a public order which they had beep sojoined
enforce, and which the governor liad coneidevd to
be useful.
A ceiisure upon these Magistrates for their nes
• f°26l in 'tinfoil:Mg the proclamation was :publicly
given. by Goveroor Macqoarrie. in an order that
;Filmied .ip the Sythery (Anew on the 7th of Fe-
bruary, 11110,ond some further regulations were
made for giving greeter facility to•the Musters In
the diffeient districts.' I fdund that this regulation
-was, in many of then., hi verrioconapkte
bon and that this citcuatatance ergs moth to be

attributed,to the general state cifielactettey of the
'peke in New South Wales, thou nine unfavoura-
ble efieets of the tneainire.

At Paramatta, and in the districts or the Negates-
' bury, the Sunday musters have been much tp,..
sleeted; but in the districts of Evan, Cooke, end
Bringelly, and at Liverpool, they were olvierved
with some regularity, and, as the Magistrates in-
formed me, with considerable advantage. The
convicts asrigned to settlers are not allowed to teasel
from one district to another without a pass, signed
by • magistrate, sad their names, as well as those
of the settlers to whom they are assigned, are direct-
ed to he registered in a book kept by the chief con-
sbibleof each district; and the changes that occur
in their destination ought likewise to be noted there.
A pees, signed by the wester of a convict, is re-
quisite to enable him S. Varyl to any part of his
own district ou his master's business; bat it is not
now required. when he is sent to Sydney market.
nor in any case is the pass directed in be shown to
the chief constable of Sydney, or Ilse principal super-
intendent there, but is addressed to all whom it may
concern.

These regulations are as nec e yat the present
period as they were at that of their first promulga-
tion in the colony ; but they do not seem to be in
as active operation as they were then, or is they are
now in van Dientan's Lund ; nor is the detailed
exactness that they require either so well understood
or performed as it is to that settlement.

The principal ceases of this defect appears to
me to have proceeded from'the want of a general
superintendence of the police of New South Wales
by one netson, to whom the Magistrates of the dif-
ferent districts should address their returns of the
distribution and changes of the convicts, and 'to
whom all p oven to convicts should he directed
and shown. It Ai also to he 'attributed to the great
incresse of the convict population, beyond the de-
mands of settlers who were in a condition to main-
tain, employ, and control them. Much also is
justly attrilnited to the relaxed state of labour and
discipline that prevails amongst the convicts in the
employ of Government, and the general preference
that is given' to it by them over the Service of-the
settlers.. '

The jurisdiction of most of the Magistrates in
New South Wales, until the 3d February, 1841,
was limited by the terms of their commission& to
particular districts; and pertly by appointment,
and partly by- tacit acknowledgment and aenitbity,
fdttr of them had scquited • kihd of special control,
iodt•pendent of, but not inconsistent with the terms
of their commissions.
Thal of Mr. Wentworth's was an exception, for
he was specially Charged withille police of Sydney ;
bet the Rest: Mr. Ma►adan rievekshl a similar *is."
diction at-Paramatta, winch, On his retirement from
the magistracy, devolved upon Mr. Hannibal
M'Arthur; Mr. Co: was considered the principal
magistrate in the ll.iwkesbury districts and at
Windsor; and Mr. Moore at Liverpool. The
duties of these megialtstei have latterly 'so much
increased, that their attendance at Paramatta,
Windsor, and Liverpool, which was in the year
1819 only twice in the week, is now required on
three or four days, and that of the police magistrate
pf Sydney is on every day, and sometimes pro.
filleted to a late hour. 'The bench of magistrates at
Sydney consisted of Mr. Minchin, the superintend-
ent of police, who succeeded Mr. D. Wentworth
in the month of March. MO, Captain Piper, Mr.
Brookes, and Mr. J. L6icl; "Mr. Judge Advocate
Wylde sometimes gave his attendance at Sydney,
and upon these occasions acted as chairman; sod
Mr. T. F. Campbell, the Governor's Secretary, has
upon very few occasions assisted. Lieutenaut•Cio.
vernor Erskine also received a commission as ma.
giat✓tite of the territory, upoft his arrival in the
colony with the 46th regiment, 'but has never acted
either at Sydney, Where he resided, nor at any other
place.
Mr. J. Qoulbarn, the colonial secretary, Mr.
Riley, and .Mr: SolNitie, were added to the number •
of the magistrates at Sydney previous to my depot..
tart.

Mr. Hannibal. M'Arthur, Mr. Harris, and Mr.
R. Wentworth, after his resignation of the super.
intendence of the police at Sydney, composed the
*eh itParamatta, and Mr. Justice Field gave
them his issistancion Saturday.: Mr. Crix, Mr.
Mitehain, ,Captain Brabyn, and Lieutenant Bell,
forayed that at Windpor ; and Sir John Jamieson;
and the Rev. Mr. Fulton, acted as Magistrates for
the'clistrict of Evan, including that of Castlereagh.
Mr. Moore, assisted occasionally by Mr. Brookes
and Mr. Broughton, and di one period by" Mi.
Redfern, Art Liverpool ; and Mr. Lowe and Mr.
Howe, in the districts of 'Bringelly and Cooke, on
the. river Nepean. peutenalot Lawson, as corn.
=indent of the Bathurst station, exercised a ma-
gi‘feAal jurisdiction over the district that lies be-
tween that settlement and the Nepean river, which
has latterly 'been extended, together with that of
the other Magistrates of the colouy, to the whole
settled disticts of New South Wiles.

Considering the great anion.' increase that took
place, to the convict population of New South .
Wales, from the year 1815 to the year 1819, it is
to he regretted that Governor Macquarie did not
think fit to make .any more considerable addition
to the numbers of the load magistracy, than those
of Mr..Brookes' and Mr. Lowe, 'turn' the com-
mencement of the latter year'; and that the exer-
dise of his anthority• itt selecting the magistrates
upon some occasions, as well as dismissing one of
them on soother, has both diminished the respects-
bait' of the magisterial office in the colooy, and
has deprived it or the assistance of a very valuable
and efficientmember. • The appointments to whit%
• I allude, are theme of Andrew Thomson sod &Tots
:Lord; the first of these having • token place on the
leth of January, 1840,.4nd kbe smokyd on or about
the 3d August of that year.
Both of these person', had been convicts, but
had arrived in the colony yhen thiy were young.
From the account of the4xec7utrir of A. Thant•
ion..4t appears ,that he wart 10441 of .oastland,

•.1.1.

and that his relations there were itinerant traders to
goods. He Ives transported to New South Wales
at the age of 16, sod on his fiat arrival in the co-
lony, served us a labourer in the stone-maions gang
at Paramstfm. On the expiration of lii, sentence
ha wrist in Windsor to reside as a snider, and he
there engaged in thornless as a retail shopkeeper,
and built some small vessels, io whicb.he traded
to Sydney. lie also became superintendent el
some of the convict labourers in the employ of Go-
vet. 1111 l ent at IVindsor. lis all these occupations he
war successful ; his trade extended ; he became
possessed of farms, and made an establishment for
the manufacture of salt, on K small island at the
mouth of the river flawk.Ahury, where he also
continued to build small vessels; and it was bele,
and on the banks of the river, that, according to
the accounts of several weans whom I feetrit. est-
Windsor, Andrew Thomson carried on the illicit
distillation of spirits.
To his other employment., he 'aided those .of
countable and public-house-keeprr, and through
liberal credit sold forbearance, he acqiiired a great
deal of influence amongst the class of sinall,r settlers
in the neighhoueing districts of the H•wkerbury.
To a 'considerable share of natural shrewdness lie
added great activity of mind and body. and though
quite uneducated when he arrived its the colony, he
succeeded afterwards in acquiring the urdiusry
knowledge of a retail shopkeeper.
Nis comlucs in these sevesal capacities is amen-
dered to have been correct : but the habits sit. his
domestic life were immoral. His hum.nity in
affordiog relief to the settlers, whose- holds and
houses had been inuodated upon two occasions by
sodden rises of she river Hawkeshury, has been
much noticed and eulogised by G.vernor Mac-
(loathe, in an epitaph that he caused to be solaced
upon his tomb-stone in the churchyard at
Windsor.

.in
111 this act, in which it has been said that there
were mixed motives of humanity, in endeavouring
to give l'elief to the unfortunate settlers, and of
sell.inferest in supplyilg them with his own Knock,
A. Thomson derivr.d some assistance from the
boats and convicts•iti the employ of Gove.nruetit,
that were then under his superintendence art
Windsor,

His activity upon this occasion is undeniable; but
his claims to the praise of great humauity, are
more questionable.
I hive been induced to make these observatisns
upon the character and conduct of A. Thomson,
not horn any wish to detract from his merit as an
individual, but because it is stated by Governor
Macquarie, in the epitaph before alluded to, that
Ga it was is consequence of his chewier and cue-
duct that he appointed him to be a magistrate of
the colony, 'and that by the same act he restored
him to that rank in society which he had lost."
These circumstances are also of still further im-
portahee,ss the-appointment of A. Thomson to
the Magistracy was one of those acts of Governor
Macquarie that •has been urged most arongly
against him by his enemies, and has been most
questioned by his friends.
In his inquiry respecting.the conduct of the lead-
ing individuals in the colony, Governor Miscque-
rie, on his arrival, applied to Lieutenant• Connie!
Foveaux for information, and from him received a
strong representation of the merits of A. Thomson,
both as an individual. and an active and intelligent
chief constable. I do not find however that this
recommendation ruched the length of stating him
to hued been fit for the office of magistrate ;
certain it is, that the class of individuals to whom
A. Thomson belonged had been considered and
treated by Lieutenant-Colonel Foveaux in the same
reserved and distant manner in which the civil and
military officers of the colony bad always regarded
thedi.
A. Thomson had suffered some injury from the
persons who succeeded to the government.' out tire
suspension of Governor Bligh, and his 'fidelity td
the legitimate authority of that officer had made
him an object of their dislike and suspicion. The
same circumstances furnished an additional and just
ground' of recommendation of him to Governor
Macquarie, who, in executing the Commando of his
Sovereign to restore the legitimate authority that
had been violated in the persou of his predecessor.
naturally looked towards those individuals who bad
remained steadfast in their loyalty and obedience. '
It must be acknowledged that. the Dumber of
these persons was small, and when Governor Mac-
quarrie succeeded to the command in January,
1810, Mr. George Palmer and Mr. Arodall wete
the only persons who resided at, or in the immedi-
ate neighlioyrhood of Windsor, who were eligible
to the office of magistrate, or competent to perform
duties.its An offer of the magistracy was made to
Lieutenant Bell, who was an. officer in the 1044
regiment, ind.who, though not directly implicated
in the charge of mutiny against Governor
.Bfigh,
had, in obedience to the orders pl' the Chrinnanding
"eitlicer, led
.the detachment of "the regiment that
made Governor Bligh prisimer in the Government
Mine-at •Sydney. The condhet and charscter of
Lieutenant Belt were in all ether respects urrim-
peached. He was solicited by Governor Msequar.
rte to. act as magistrate for-the Windsor district.
in coajnnetion with A. Thomson, and he did not
positively decline it. He however felt so strong ea
'objection to net in suctv‘a capacity with a pecan),
for au accidental association with whom, only a'faer
"months berm* he had been- called to acc•lfht,
'mad reprimanded by his commanding officer, Colts-
net Johastoite, that he availed.himself of an early
excuse for returning to his estate in the neighbour-
hoed, and aftermath was aentramEngland to give •
evidence on Colonel Johnstone'r trial.

"Althougtillte number of candtdates for the ma-
giaterial.dutin was thus lissitsd, it was rather itr.
ih;t.GOvernor Macquarie did not select
some °al of the officers of hi. own regiment, who
id the 'Military Comtnand 'at Windsor might alio
•have exectitied'the duties of the magistmel, rather
than appoint at such an early period-of
hid adusi-
&;aiµrattoq -Atottrew Thomas% who seas the Snit of