Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/225

 by whose opinions he would naturally be guided on his first arrival."

He laid the blame on Foveaux, who steadily denied any responsibility, saying that he cautioned Macquarie against both men. Bigge heard in 1820 that Foveaux had recommended Thompson, then Chief Constable at Windsor, as "a useful man," a recommendation not inconsistent with cautious treatment, and in no way implying that he would make a good magistrate. The appointment was a precipitate and remarkable one for which the whole responsibility belonged to the Governor.

In the case of both Lord and Thompson the measure was counter to colonial opinion. Reference has already been made to Marsden's views and those of Riley were similar. He declared "that there was no person capable of reflecting on the measure, who did not regret that the Governor had taken so premature and unexpected a step; and I think this sentiment has equally prevailed on the minds of the discriminating proportion of those who had originally been prisoners themselves, as among the inhabitants who came free into the Colony. The appointment unquestionably lessened the respect of the inhabitants towards the magistracy; it was viewed by the mercantile connections of the Colony abroad, and by every stranger who visited it, in the same light."

Thompson died just after his appointment, and beyond a supposition that "the Governor had formed too sanguine an expectation, and that it was unlikely he could have commanded the respect of the district," there was nothing to be said of his magisterial capabilities. But Lord, though not lacking in natural sagacity, was ignorant and illiterate, and followed the trade of auctioneer and retail shopkeeper. These means of