Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/411

 GOVERNOR KING'S CAREER. 388 government of a penal settlement was under the eye of a commander at Sydney, and at Norfolk Island. But as settlement extended to the Hawkesbury, difficulties were multiplied. PhilUp continued his exertions till health gave way. Grose abandoned, Paterson neglected, his duties, and Hunter was incapable. King undertook the increasing duties with energy which knew no check but physical pros- tration. When he wanted money for his Orphan School he imposed taxation by his sole authority with an audacity which excited in after times the censure of William Charles Wentworth.^^ He persuaded successive Secretaries of State to sanction his act. When the military obstructed him he showed that he was independent of them in a matter in which they confidently hoped to reduce him to submission. He brought them to trial resolutely, even though there was no hope of convicting an offender before a court composed of his comrades. He entreated the Secretary of State to appoint a jurist to fill the office of Judge Advocate or of Chief Justice,^^ so that the administration of the law might be duly conducted. He sent folios of reports to bring the true state of affairs to the knowledge of the Secretary of State, and to persuade him to send out a small artillery force so that, for defence purposes, the arrogant corps might be in part dispensed with. He was irascible, and was accused of being violent. Yet, when in 1803 the officers of the Criminal Court put the officiating Judge- Advocate under arrest, he recognised the gravity of the situation, summoned a council of advice, comprising Captain Kent of H.M.S. Bvffaloy Colonel Paterson, Mr. Marsden, and others, and at their suggestion appointed a substitute for the arrested Judge-Advocate, though his own desire had been to suspend the proceedings of the Court until His Majesty's pleasure "* Wentworth was born at Norfolk Island when King covemed there in 1793. He admitted that King devoted the fruits of his illegal taxation to objects of great importance and utility, though he hinted that Bligh was not so scrupulous. But the taxation, under the " ipse dixit of a governor," was an ** unprecedented deviation from all constitutional authority." — worth was twenty-six years old when the first edition of his work was published. '«» Vide pp. 233, 250, 258, 259.
 * Description of the Colony of New South W'^ales." London : 1819. VV^ent-