A MAGISTERIAL PRONOUNCEMENT.
In a little more than a week after the foregoing an extremely important declaration of opinion was obtained. T h e Mayor, and Mr. Simpson, Warden of the County of Bourke, issued a joint circular, convoking the T o w n and Territorial Magistracy to speak out on the Transportation question, and on the 15th March twenty-four Justices of the Peace assembled at the Police Court, when the following resolution was unanimously adopted :— "That the introduction of convicts to Port Phillip under any designation, or in any manner whatever, as contemplated by the Secretary of State, is, in the opinion of this meeting, unacceptable to the great majority of all classes of the community, and injurious to the moral and social interests of the colony." During the Governor's brief sojourn in Melbourne, an interview between His Excellency and the Magistrates took place on the ioth March, and the result was very satisfactory. Sir Charles Fitzroy declared that in consequence of the state of feeling prevalent, and the strong representations made to him by Mr. Latrobe, he had decided that on the arrival of any convict ship in port, the captain should be instructed to proceed with his freight to Sydney. It was further understood that in such event the convicts intended for Port Phillip should be deported to the Cockatoo or Norfolk Island depots, pending thefinaldecision of the Imperial Government. S o m e time after the holding of the meeting in 1847 ^ w a s tne subject of conversation, and innuendo in the newspapers, that no official acknowledgment of the resolutions had been received from the Secretary of State. His enemies attempted to cast blame upon the Superintendent, but Mr. Latrobe bore it quietly, depending on time to place him right with the public. This was done through some disclosures made at the interviewing of Sir Charles Fitzroy, from which it was made apparent that through carelessness or treachery, the resolutions had never been officially transmitted from the meeting to the Executive. T h e culpability was then sought to be shifted from the Superintendent to the Chairman (Mr. H . Moor.) A public meeting was held in consequence at the Mechanics' Institution on the 26th March, 1849, with the Mayor (Mr. Bell) as Chairman, when two resolutions were passed, viz., (1.) " Censuring Mr. M o o r for his carelessness or culpability;" and (2.) "Thanking Superintendent Latrobe for his exertions in supporting the public opinion of the country against the introduction of transportation." Mr. Henry M o o r had some very bitter enemies amongst a certain section of the community, and they watched every opportunity by fair and unfair means to blacken his character. With respect to the omission to forward the resolutions in question to the proper quarter, though prima facie the Chairman should have done it, when it was known that he had a large professional business as a solicitor to attend to, the other principal promoters of the movement must certainly be regarded as accessories after the fact. The settlers in the far west of the Province were in a state of high dudgeon at the effects of the agitation in the Capital. For some months it was known that prison ships would be despatched direct from England to Port Phillip, and it was to provide for such an expected emergency that Governor Fitzroy was induced to order that the criminal cargoes should be moved on northward. Sixty or seventy settlers in the Portland quarter prepared a memorial to the Governor, praying that the valuable labour of the convicts should not be lost to Port Phillip, and that the ships on their arrival in Hobson's Bay, instead of going on to Sydney, m a y be directed to go back to Portland, where their passengers would be cordially welcomed, and their services cheerfully availed of. T h e memorial was referred to the Superintendent, and its prayer was unceremoniously refused, ARRIVAL OF TWO " PLAGUE " SHIPS.
Melbourne was frightened from its propriety on the morning of the 8th August, 1849, by the appearance in the Bay of the " Randolph," from AVoolwich, with a full cargo of convict prisoners and " exiles," guarded by detachments of the n t h and 58th Regiments. Superintendent Latrobe had previously despatched orders to the Pilot Station that on the ship's arrival she was not to enter the Heads, but proceed to Sydney. His mandate was disregarded, but upon imperative instructions being re-issued, the ship sailed away for her new destination on the nth.
