Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/280

 having treated him with much more lenity than his mutinous, seditious conduct deserved.

"If, however, it should appear hereafter that I have acted illegally towards Mr. Vale, I am aware of the high responsibility I have incurred thereby, as also of the personal risk such illegal conduct exposes me to, as intimated by your Lordship, and with all deference to your Lordship I must add that I cannot possibly subscribe to the inference drawn from my conduct towards Mr. Vale, that it has the effect of 'diminishing my influence among the more respectable part of the community in this Colony,' for I believe there is not one &hellip; who did not highly disapprove and execrate the mutinous, seditious and insolent conduct pursued towards me by that depraved, hypocritical, unprincipled man." He proceeded "with great submission to your Lordship's superior judgment," to state that his charges against Vale were fully warranted by the Articles of War, for Vale's conduct in seizing the American vessel in the capacity of the meanest excise officer was not only "insolent &hellip; but also derogatory to the sacred character with which he was invested as chaplain and consequently scandalous and vicious &hellip; your Lordship has mistaken my motives in supposing that in my conduct to Mr. Vale, I acted under the influence of sentiments of irritation or passion. &hellip; I have been bred in the school of subordination too long not to respect it; and your Lordship must be fully aware how necessary it is to support it, in a distant Colony like this, and composed of such discordant materials; assured at the same time that your Lordship would not wish to see me degraded by tamely submitting to the subversion of my authority as Governor-in-Chief of this Colony, either by Mr. Vale or any other seditious unprincipled person."

Turning then to Moore he continued: "It is with sentiments of real concern that I feel myself compelled, from a sense of public justice and the respect due to my own high station in this Colony, to decline being in any way instrumental to the reinstating Mr. William Henry Moore in the appointment he held in the Colony as solicitor. This man has acted in a most