Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/197

 hold an inquiry into the death of the Lascar, as a result of which Walker was committed to gaol until future proceedings might be decided upon. The evidence was sufficient to support a charge of murder, and, on the advice of the Judge-Advocate, Walker was admitted to bail, and the matter referred to the Secretary of State.

Lord Bathurst consulted the Home Office and the Law Officers, and in July, 1815, instructed Macquarie to send Walker and the necessary witnesses to England in order that he might be tried at the Admiralty Sessions under a special Commission.

It was not easy for the Governor, when he received these instructions at the end of 1815, to get together the witnesses who had been examined by the magistrates in 1813, nor could they be compelled to go to England. In the end he sent Walker home with as many witnesses as he could. Nothing further appears of the case in any Colonial Office Documents. It seems that Walker was never tried, and the only result of Macquarie's labours was the ineffective Act of 57 Geo. III., cap. 53.

By this Act "murders and manslaughters committed on land at the settlement of Honduras by any person within the settlement, or committed on the islands of New Zealand or Otaheite or within any other islands or places not within the British dominions, nor subject to any European state or power, nor within the territory of the United States of America, or any person sailing in or belonging to a British ship, or who had sailed in or belonged to and had quitted any British ship to live in any such island or place, might be tried and punished in any