Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/249

 In the Governor's Court matters took a different turn. As the procedure there was summary, and suitors were not called upon to employ solicitors, and as the amounts recoverable were below £50, the emancipist attorneys were less eager for admission and did not seek the Governor's intervention. They knew too that the Judge-Advocate was opposed to them, and when the court met after a short postponement on 15th May, there were no petitions for admission brought before it. Associated with Ellis Bent were Richard Brooks and Charles Hook, both respectable and undistinguished colonists. They agreed at once to the adoption of the rules proposed by the Judge-Advocate, of which the first ran as follows:—

"It is ordered by this court that no person whatsoever who has been struck off the rolls of attorneys of any Court of Justice in any part of His Majesty's dominions for any offence for which such persons are liable by the Laws of England to be transported, shall on any account be admitted to practise as an attorney of this court."

The court then proceeded to hear suits brought before it. A month afterwards Macquarie asked for a copy of the Rules and Regulations, "conceiving myself entitled," he wrote, "to such information from you according to the tenor of the new patent". Since the 22nd of April he had known that the Judge-Advocate concurred in his brother's opinion, and had of course heard of the rule which had been passed in the Governor's Court.

Ellis Bent sent the copy asked for, but added, "I respectfully beg leave to be understood as by no means admitting a right on the part of your Excellency to controul that court in the adoption of such rules as it may think proper to form as the basis of its practice".

The closing of the Supreme Court created great commotion. The emancipist attorneys proposed to hold a public meeting, and brought a requisition to the Provost-Marshal. But when it was laid before the Governor, he felt that the signatures were