Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/311

 right to remonstrate with Macquarie, and even direct his administration as well as to inquire into the whole conditions of the Colony. He arrived in 1819 and left in 1821, and, as was perhaps inevitable, he and Macquarie were more than once engaged in arguments. Twice their disputes led to a complete rupture in their relations, and on each occasion Macquarie was certainly in the wrong. It is useless to raise the dust over all these past contests again, for the time was not one when they could lead to further result. It was a period of waiting; the time of Macquarie's departure was growing near; the Governor's administration had been assailed in the House of Commons and in two pamphlets by the Hon. H. Grey Bennet, M.P., and it was well known that, so soon as Bigge's Report had been presented, great changes would be introduced. It was what had happened before Bigge's arrival rather than what happened while he was in the Colony that was of real importance. That Macquarie should dislike the commission was natural, for whatever Bigge's finding, his appointment in itself was a reflection upon Macquarie's administration by showing that inquiry was felt to be necessary. His resignation also had been neglected, and he wrote in 1820 in a tone of extreme depression to Lord Bathurst, saying, "Two years and two months having now elapsed since the sailing of the Harriett for England, I cannot conceal from your Lordship the regret and mortification I feel at your Lordship's not condescending even to notice the receipt of my letter of resignation, and thereby leaving me utterly at a loss to know when I am to be relieved.

"After the arduous and harassing duties I have had to perform in the administration of the Colony for now upwards of ten years, the constant counteraction I have experienced here even to my best measures, and the cruel and base calumnies circulated to the prejudice of my character at home, I must confess, my Lord, I am now heartily tired of my situation here, and anxiously wish to retire from public life as soon as possible.