OFFICERS LEFT TO LEARN THEIR DUTY. 409 pointy the fact that no care was taken to prevent miscon- 1789 ception on the subject, is a singular instance of the negligent manner in which the business was conducted. The Act and Letters Patent were so worded as to bear the interpre- tation put upon them by Collins ; they were equally open to a very different construction. Putting that question Ambiguity aside, something might have been done to make their pro- visions known to the officers concerned before they left England. As it was, two only of them had seen the Act before the Fleet sailed. The others made their first ac- quaintance with it when it was read out at the proclama- tion of the colony. The Judge- Advocate being the only person in it holding a legal appointment, every question of the kind was left in his hands ; and it is not surprising if, without any experience or training to fit him for his task^ Marioe law. he so interpreted the Act as to place himself in the extra- ordinary position of a judge, a prosecutor, and a juryman combined.*
- The coDBtitntion of the Criminal Court was strongly condemned in the
Report of a Committee of the House of Commons, published in 1812. Referring to the evidence given ^ the witnesses examined on the subject — among whom were Governor Hunter and Governor Bligh— the Report said : — ** Your Committee have to observe that all the evidence examined on the subject, unequivocally condemns the manner in which the Criminal Courts are thus established . . . Your Committee are of opinion that the manner of administering criminal justice may be altered with great advantage to the colony, ft is not to be expected that the inhabitants should view, otherwise than with jealously and discontent, a system which resembles rather a Court-martial than the mode of trial the advantages of which they have been accustomed to see and to enjoy in their own country." Digitized by Google
