The National Register.
London, England, 1811-06-09 00:00:00

Proceeding, summoned the Bench of Magistrates, to take the
matter into. consideration. Colonel ilehnsoin the then Com-
manding Officer at head-quarters, was sent for from his house,
four miles from Sydney, to be present at this meeting ; but, in
consequence of a fall he received from his chaise, he sent word
to the Governor that he .could not astend. The Magistrates,
after mature deliberation, came to a determination, at the sug-
gestion of the Governor, to summon the six officers to appear
the next mortfrig at Government-Howie, to ,answer for their
conduct; awl it was resolved to accuse them with treasonable
practices, and according to the answers they should give on their
examination, either to.oommit them to prison, or dispose of
them othermitie according tis the nature, of circumstances. In the
evening of this say (the Atli of January) whilst the Governor
was sitting over his wine, with one of the Magistrates, he
receives' lam-maim that the .whole of the 102 d xegiment,
with Colonel Johnson at their heid, were marching up to Go-
vernment House, with band playing and colours flying. The
Governor apprehending some. serious attack upon his person,
retired ue stairs to the room where his papers were, in order to
secure the most important, and to itbopt such means of
escape as presented themselves The soldiers, in the mean
time, surrounded the houee. and .a party entered in ..search of
the Governor. Aft, r a fruitless pursuit of about an hour and a
bait', they at length found his Excellency concealed under a
servant's bed in a, small room, at the top of the house. They
immediately put him in arrest, and brought him down stairs. to
Colonel Johrison. The Colonel expressed his 'sorrow at being
obliged to take such a step, but declared that he did it in
pursuance .of the wishes of the whole Colony, who were
discontented at the Administration of his Excellency. and had
presented him a requisition to that efftxt. The Governor was
then ordered to remain in close confinement, in GOveinment
House, with a guard of six" soldiers over his person ; in which
situation he was kept a whole year. At the end Of whiCh
period he got possession of hi: oastn ship, the Porpoise, in
which he remained cruising in the South Seas, until the..ar, ival
of Goveitior M'Quarry from England, who had orders to re-
instate him in his authority for 2,4 hours, and to declar, the acts
of the usurping Government nuli and void. As soon as the
Governor was put in arrest, all the Civil Officers in the Pea.
blishment of.tbe Colony, Were removed from their situations,
and Colonel Johnson appointed others in their stead, tun it his
l'vlajesty"s pleasure should be known. In fact, a revolution in
the existini,, Govern/mot was completely effected.
On the part of Col. Johnson; the fact of his having put the
Governor in arrest was avowed, but alledged to he justified
upon the ground of absolute necessity, in order to save his
Majesty's Colony of New South Wales from actual destruction.
To support this justification a great number of -witnesses were
celled, consisting chiefly of the officers of the 102 d regiment,
some of the Civil Establishment and a few of the most re-
spectable Settlers of the Colony. The object of their testimony
was to thew that Governor Bligh, by a series of oppressive
Measures, had reduced the Colony to a state of discorrctit and
disaffection, approaching to absolute insurrection. That by
depriving people of their houses, lands, arid other property,
without any pretence whatever; that by interfering with the
proceedings of the Coprts of Justice ; that by ordering persons
who bad been acquitted of offences alledged against them before
the Criminal-Court, to be tried again and convicted by a Bench
of Magistrates upon the very same charge, arid that by em-
ploying the most abandoned and disgraceful characters to be his
Clounsellorg and confidential inmates, he had spread consterna-
tion and dismay amongst the inhabitants : that by his coarse
and ungentlemanly language towards almost every individual,
high and low, with whom he had any communication, he had
rLndered himself the object of execration and unpopularity.—
That to the inflitarfih particular, many of whose lioUses he was
allediTil to have threatened to pull down, he had made himself
partieui •rly obnoxious, by his to7rse and low abuses of them.
AU the witnesses den•td the Governor's allegations respecting
the barter of sirits, and they declared that his restrictions in
that res:- ect formed no part of that discontent which prevailed
through the Colony. In this state of things, when the report
reached the people that the Governor had determined to put
the siv officers of the Criminal Court under arrest, upon a
charge of treason, they burst forth in a phrenzy of discontent
and dissatisfaction, considering, as they did, the Criminal
Court to be the only barrier left between them and the arhitary
conduct of the Governor. Colonel Johnson, who was inforrned
of-Governor Bligh's sletermilAtion iu respect of the Criminal
Court, came to. Sydney about five in the afternoon, although
his arm was in a sling, and he was otherwise disabled in body.
The moment he arrived at the Barracks, the people assembled
!mod him in crowds, demanding that ie would immediately -
put the Governor under or -eat, and declaring that if he did not,
aninsurrection sotasi break out in the Colony, and that every
of blood.spilt eras the occasion would lie at his door.
to-Shis effect was drawn up by Mr. M'Arthur)

THE NAtIONAL

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and signed by several of the most respectable Settlers and
Officers, and then presented to Colonel Johnson. Witm
himself, with extreme concern, the impending danger tha
peared to surround him, and firmly believing that an i
rection would break our, and that many innocent lives w
be deatroyed on the occasion, and that possibly the Governor's
life would also be sacrificed, he -letermined, from motives of
heal for the public welfare, and a sense of what he conceived to
e his duty, to aiopt the measures so strongly urged by
the inhabitants; and accordingly he put his Excellency under
,arrest.
After an able reply on the part of Governor Bligh, the whole
of the proceedings were closed. The verdict of the Court can-
not, of course, be known until it receives the sanction of the
•Prince Regent.