hospital, maintained at the public expense, for the convict concubines of gentlemen convicts, enjoying, like Watt, unmerited and grossly-abused indulgence from the colonial executive; the illegitimate child of these worthies having been duly baptised and registered[1] under the name of Watt by the pious chaplain of the neighbourhood. The reader will, of course, have no difficulty in conceiving how connivance of this kind could be repaid by an individual having the command of so powerful an engine as the press.
Watt was at length tried in the Supreme Court of the colony, at the instance of the proprietors of the Herald newspaper, on a somewhat singular charge. In the year 1834 an anonymous letter had been written for publication in that journal, reflecting on the character and conduct of an individual in Sydney, who had formerly been a convict, but was then free. In the hurry of business it was put in type, but, on being read for correction, it was found to be libellous and unfit for publication, and was consequently suppressed. Watt, who was then sole manager in the Gazette Office, got intelligence of the circumstance; and being desirous of having the proprietors of the Herald, who were reputable free emigrants, sub-
- ↑ As the Act directs—not the Acts of the Apostles.
