Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/92

 no further. The regulations remained in force, and the Governor continued to exercise full powers of granting remissions of sentence throughout Macquarie's time. But in 1819 the question was again raised.

The Hon. H. Grey Bennet, a member of Parliament, who was instrumental in obtaining a House of Commons Committee on New South Wales in 1819, published in the following year "A Letter to Lord Bathurst," in which he commented on the evidence delivered before it. He approved of Macquarie's regulations of 1813, but asked "Are they practically in force? Have any exceptions been made and in what instances? Were these rules meant to have any operation in New South Wales, or were they only to produce an effect on the Colonial Office, and obtain the rescinding of that Order, arising from the suggestion of the House of Commons Committee in 1812?" A comparison of dates at once shows that this last suggestion was without foundation. Macquarie published his regulations before he received the report of the Committee and Lord Bathurst's despatch proposing to adopt the suggestion. But Macquarie's own despatches and orders, the evidence before the Committee of 1819, and the information collected by Commissioner Bigge in 1819 and 1820—show that Bennet's other queries were fully justified.

In two respects Macquarie deviated greatly from the rules he had laid down—firstly, in regard to length of residence—and secondly, in regard to granting the indulgences at one time of the year only.

From 1813 to 1820 he granted 170 free pardons, and in twenty-six instances the necessary length of residence had not been reached. In the same period he granted 1,217 conditional pardons, 285 of which were exceptions, while amongst 1,716 tickets-of-leave no less than 450 had been issued before the recipients had been three years in the Colony.

Macquarie undoubtedly considered that he had the right