Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/288

 900 THK COURl E COhOls ^1 Advocate, autl the nieiiiberB of the Criminal Court being Loinpoacd of otliei* descriptions tlmii the military otticers. ... I most hnmbly submit th^ whole matter to your Lordship's consideration as being muoh conaeeteij with the prosperity of Hia Majesty's subjects in this territory, which thsy as well as niyftelf are well convinced your Lor^Isliip has much at heart.*' The appeal to Lord Hobart was tmnnceessful ; and Lord Camden, who (17th MaylB04) announced that he had been entriiHted '^with the seals of the Colonial Department/' like Lord Hobart, did nothing to improve the Courts in New South Wales. Unlike Lord Hobart, however, he did not found an undeserved rebiilte upon the statements of such men as Captain Colnett, whose grievance was that King had done his duty. Lord Castlereagh, his siieeessor, was aa_^ complimentary as Lord Camden, but neither of them wa^H alive to the importance of improving the Colonial Courts, ^; After dwelling upon the dissensions of the soldier}^ and , the Governor, it is desirable to turn to a subject with regard^ to which a common loyalty, and perhaps a common danger, W united them as one man, Collins, in his history, notices that the L^ish prisoners caused peculiar troubles. Their tempers causecl tliem to combine, not only as prisoners mider constraint, but as conspirators handed against government by Haxons. Many of the disturbers known in Ireland as Defenders-'^ were sent to New SoiUh Wales in 179-1:. Between two and three himdred Irish prisoners were pom-ed into the colony after the rising in Ireland in 1798,^| and nearly five lumdred were in the settlement in IBOO. ^^ One of the first despatches written by Iving (Sept. 1800) told that Hunter had encountered a troublesome spirit amongst them. One Harold, an illiterate Roman Catholic priest, a coorict, was suspected of fomenting it. Pardons were offered by Hunter '*to those who had been deluded,'' but "none took advantage'' of the offer. Hunter, after obtaining evidence before a committee of civil and military officers, with the assistance of King as Lt.-Governor, deter- mined to embody an Armed Association to assist the military^ in case of need. In order to govern by dividing, the sus-™ pec ted ringleaders were sent to Norfolk Island. King secured the barracks in Sydney against surprise, and wrote :^** I have the fullest confidence in the loyalty and robberies^ arsou, and nrurder. of ** defence" in Ireland were night- J
 * " The paradoxical weapons