Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/527

 PHILLIP AND THE MAJOB. 413 a hint which there was no mistaking ; it was plainly in- 1780 tended to mean that the Governor wonld not allow himself uJune. to be thwarted in the performance of his duty. .The Court of Inquiry which was ordered to meet on the Judge- Advocate's letter, to which Captain Campbell had taken offence, having reported that they did not think themselves competent to judge of the matter laid before them [as it was a private dis- agreement, which appeared to involve in itself a point of law], that Court was dissolved, and Major Koss came to inform me o^ise that Captain Campbell would protest against the report, which he *^®^^**- said was a partial report in stating that the matter before them was of a private nature, and desired that the request made by the members of that Court for copies of the letters laid before them might not be granted. Captain Campbell declined afterwards OampbeU making any protest against the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry, and copies of the letters, which they thought necessary in order to justify their proceedings to the Admiralty, were given them. The decision of the Court of Inquiry was exactly what might have been expected. The contention raised by Campbell as to the duty of oflBcers in relation to the Crimi- nal Court was not submitted to the Court of Inquiry ; it was merely asked to pronounce an opinion on the merits of a certain letter. It is not easy to see what would have been gained even if the Court had expressed an opinion on the subject, seeing that it could not have touched the main question at issue. The pertinacity with which Ross held on Row's pcrti- to the captain's quibble showed itself much too plainly when he went to inform the Governor that " Captain Campbell intended to protest against the report on the ground that it was partial." The idea of a protest under such circum- stances was even more absurd than that of a Court solemnly sitting to report on a letter. The Major does not seem to have felt any scruple in showing that he looked upon Camp- bell's quarrel as his own, since he did not object to become the bearer of messages between him and the Governor. The adjutant of the detachment had my orders to give the Judge- Advocate, as usual, the names of the officers who were Digitized by Google