Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/375

 OP KING. 315 any correspondence between him and the Government on the ^''^ subject^ it must have taken place after his retnm to England. The communication^ if any, was probably verbal. The Records, at all events, do not show that any official letters passed between Grose and the Home Department with regard to his treatment of King. King obtained from Grose's successor a copy of the minutes of the Court of Inquiry, and Minutes of •^■^. . . the Court ol discovered from them that Lieutenant Beckwith had with- inquiiy. held most material information; and that Sergeant Ikins and Private Bannister had misled the Court by false evi- dence. Some light is thrown on this matter by a passage in the manuscript journal of Lieutenant-Governor King (July, 1794), in which he expressed disappointment and concern that Grose had not thought proper to make any other reply to his long letter of the 19th March, 1794,* than by sending hiTn a copy of his letter to Dundas, in which he confessed that he had been in the wrong. f "I also," Bang went on to say, " received a private intimation that Governor Grose was ready to suppress it (King's letter of explanation and remonstrance) altogether. This proposal I could not hesitate agreeing to, on condition of the Court of Inquiry revising their decision, or some act exculpating me from the unjust censure that has been heaped on me/* So far as can be ascertained from the Eecords, the Court did not revise its decision, nor was anything done to justify King's conduct until it received the formal approval of the ^^^^^ authorities in a despatch sent to Governor Hunter soon ®^**°*******°' after he had taken command at Sydney. Previous to that event a change had taken place in the personnel of the British Government, which, probably, accounts for the fact that King's long letter to the Secretary of State was un- answered. On the 11th July, 1794, Dundas retired from the Home Department, and his place was taken by the Duke of Portland. "Writing to Hunter on the 10th June, 1795, when the new Governor was on his way to Sydney,
 * HiBtorical Becords, toI. ii, p. 173* f Ante, p. 314.