service. The slight sentence passed upon Johnstone was a stigma he carried to his grave. He died in 1817.
Since the time of Bligh there have been colonial governors as violent in temper, as tyrannical in disposition, but their powers have been limited not only by law, but by public opinion, the influence of a free press, and the effects of a ready communication with Europe.
Without a free press or a public to restrain him, out of sight and h caring of a British Parliament, had Bligh confined his tyrannies to the humbler classes he might have lived honoured and prosperous, while his victims sank brokenhearted, or died under the lash, as hundreds have on the shores of Port Jackson and Paramatta; but he ventured to attack a gentleman—the comrade of soldiers—a man of courage, eloquence, and determination—and the unjust governor fell.
CHAPTER VI.
GOVERNOR MACQUARIE.
1809 TO 1821.
COLONEL MACQUARIE directed the government of New South Wales for twelve years the longest period that any governor has enjoyed that office. He exercised a pure despotism, but it was neither a stupid nor a brutal despotism, according to the light of the day.
The following extract from his first despatch not unfairly describes the state of the colony on his arrival:—
"I found the colony barely emerging from infantine imbecility, suffering from various privations and disabilities; the country impenetrable beyond forty miles from Sydney; agriculture in a yet languishing state, commerce in its early dawn, revenue unknown; threatened with famine, distracted by faction; the public buildings in a state of dilapidation, the few roads and bridges almost impassable; the population in general depressed by poverty; no credit, public or private; the morals of the great mass of the population in the lowest state of debasement, and religious worship almost totally neglected."
He was the first man of decided talent appointed to office in
