112 PHILLIP 1790 Phillip's despatches written in February, 1790, he informed Lord Sydney of another complication in which he had found himself involved with the Major. In order to prevent the Another nightly plundering of the gardens which supplied the settle- tion. ment with vegetables — at that time a matter of great import- ance, owing to the small stock of provisions remaining in the public store — the Governor had made an order directing the night-watch, then composed of convicts, to detain any soldier or seaman who might be found straggling or in the convicts* Thenlffh^ huts ^^ after the tap-too has beat," and to give information at the nearest guard-house. A soldier having been detained under this regulation. Major Ross immediately interfered. He sent the next morning to tell the Judge-Advocate that he considered a soldier's being stopped when not committing any un- Threatened lawful act as an insult offered to the corps, and that they would Wonet ^^* suffer themselves to be treated in that manner, or be con- trolled by the convicts, while they had bayonets in their hands. When this intimation was reported to Phillip by the Judge- Advocate, the allusion to the bayonets was cautiously omitted, Collins probably thinking that it might be a little too much for his temper. The order was thereupon modi- order fied, and by a new one the night-watch was directed — '^ not, in future, to stop any soldier unless he is found in a riot, or committing an unlawful act, in which case such soldier is immediately to be taken to the nearest guard.^' Major Ross sought to justify his interference in this matter on the ground that the order objected to had "put the soldiers under the command of the convicts^'; although he knew that soldiers were in the habit of robbing the gardens, and could not be checked by any other means. The withdrawal of the order amounted to saying that they might continue to rob the gardens as much as they pleased, withdra^s-n. ^[j^qq the uight-watch would not be likely to interfere with them after that. Phillip, as he expressed it, found himself " driven to the necessity of withdrawing an order calculated for the public service' ; he had either to withdraw the order Order Digitized by Google
