Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/206

 102 PHILLIP l788-«2 power. So far, however, from that being the case, there is no difficulty in showing that Phillip's disposition was not by any means a cruel one.* Many instances might be given of his leniency. When, for instance, he was attacked and Nortoond wounded by a native with a spear he made no attempt to cruelty. retaliate; but as soon as he had recovered from the wound, he visited the natives in order to show them that " no animosity was retained on account of the late accident, nor resentment harboured against any but the actual perpe- trator of the act."t His power to pardon, reprieve, and remit sentences was freely exercised. Of six convicts sen- tenced to death at the second sitting of the Criminal Court one was pardoned and four reprieved, the latter being "afterwards exiled to a small island within the bay, where they were kept on bread and water.*' A King's birthday was always accompanied with a release of prisoners, j; Not an His own Opinion was that hanging is not the most effec- hangtog. tive punishment, simply because it does not deter men of criminal tendencies from committing crime. In the ''memo.*' in which he jotted down his ideas about the government of the projected colony, he anticipated the question of capital punishment as applied to the convicts, expressing himself • In Phillip's Voyage, p. 68, he is described as " intelligent, active, per- severing, with firmness to make his authority respected, and mildness to render it pleasing.*' That was the opinion expressed of him in Eoffland ; and a similar estimate seems to have been formed of his character by his critics in the colony. Collins, for instance (p. 72), speaking of the captwre of Cesar — a notorious offender who had incurred the penalty of death — says that " the Governor, with the humanity that was always oonsmcaous in lus exercise of the authority vested in him, directed that he should be sent to Garden Island, there to work in fetters ; and in addition to his ration of provisions, he was to be supplied with vegetables from the garden." And West, in his History of Tasmania, vol. ii, p. 144, states that " the solicir tude of Phillip (for the welfare of his people) was displayed in every foim of kindness." t Collins, p. 136. X On the first celebration of the royal birthday at Sydney Cove, "the three convicts who had been sent to the rock, in the hope that lenity to them might operate also upon others, were on the occasion of his Majesty's birthday liberated from their chains and confinement, and his Exodlency forgave the offences of which they had been respectively guilty." — Collins, p. 33. Another birthday was marked in the same manner. "And to make it a chearful day to every one, all offenders who had, for stealing IndiaD com, been ordered to wear iron collars, were pardoned." — p, 165, Digitized by Google