Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/517

 Brigade-Major, of lax domestic rektions, accompanied the proitufl' in calling on the otHcerK of the 48th. All theoffieern, except the Colonel ami two Majors, denied admittance to their would-be visitor. Er^kine, nevertheless, at Macqna- rie*s instigation, invited him to the reghnental mess. The nature of the issue was fully understood. It was not a question of prescrvmg a decorous foihearance on casually meeting an improper character. The man's character, whether good or had, was almost immaterial. It was to he decided whether Macquarie could break down all harriers and debase the free element of the population to the level of the convicts, now pouring in at the rate of a thousand a year in a colony where he was doing his utmost to dis- leof the 4fith, and on the same day the pmti'fjf, uninvited by the officers, appeared at the mess as Erskine's guest. The officers did not aliruptly depart, nor display rudeness ; but they so comported themseheH that the cause of dispute appeared amongst them no more. Macquarie learned that his liigh-luinded tyranny evoked a spirit of resistance. As the man whom the officers thus repelled was the same whom the Governor endeavoured to smuggle into the position of principal surgeon on D'Arcy Wentw^orth's retirement, it may be imagined that the indig- nation of the defeated plotter was unbounded. Many of the facts are to be found in Mr. Bigge's report laid before Parliament ; and the impetuous William C. Wentworth (son of I>*Arcy Wentworth) was unwise enuugli to give them further circulation hy a violent diatribe iti favour of Mac- quarie's creature and his father's friend. Another convict, transported for life in 1798 (who like Crossley was an attorney, and had been employed as a clerk in the Secretary's oftice) was suffered by Macquarie to copy his despatches ; and to become a sort of poet-laureaitvi^ V*^!*- ing comphmen ts to Macquarie, aa thti waa *' Vo ^Vvmv ^^-