Читать книгу Early Australian History. Convict Life in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land - Charles White - Страница 10

Table of Contents

MACQUARIE'S PERSONAL CHARACTER—BRICKS AND MORTAR—ENERGY AND SELF-CONCEIT—RESTORATION OF ORDER—REINSTATEMENT OF THE OLD OFFICIALS—SMALL SETTLERS AND EMANCIPISTS—HIS PARTIALITY FOR THE LATTER—FIRST CONVICT MAGISTRATE—COLLISIONS WITH THE OFFICERS—THE GOVERNOR AND THE JUDGE—DISCOURAGING IMMIGRATION—LIBERAL GRANTS OF LAND—THE "EXCLUSIVES" COMPLAIN TO THE HOME GOVERNMENT—A COMMISSIONER OF INQUIRY SENT OUT—MINGLING OF THE MASS—ENCOURAGING SETTLEMENT—IMPROVING THE ROADS—OPENING THE COUNTRY—SKILLED LABOUR MONOPOLISED—GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY—CROSSING THE BLUE MOUNTAINS—THE CONVICT EXPLORER—RAPID INCREASE OF STOCK—NEW SOURCES OF WEALTH—DEATH AGONY OF THE CONVICT SYSTEM—MACQUARIE'S RECORD—HIS RECALL.

Governor Macquarie followed Bligh, and he assumed the Government of the colony on 28th December, 1809. Briefly put, he was a man of energetic action, self-reliance and determination, but a poor financier; a man of good intentions but terribly self-conceited, his chief weakness being the delight of affixing his name to everything requiring a name in the colony, whether public buildings, streets, rivers, or mountains. His hobby was bricks and mortar, and he rode it most unmercifully. The records show that during his administration, extending over twelve years, he caused to be erected in New South Wales upwards of two hundred buildings and in Van Diemen's Land about fifty, on the front stone of nearly every one of which the name of 'Macquarie' was carved. Yet, not without reason, his era has by many been looked upon as the commencement of the prosperity and rising greatness of New South Wales; for he did more than any other Governor to open up the yet unexplored country and develop its natural resources.

One of Macquarie's first acts was the issue of a proclamation declaring the King's displeasure at the mutinous proceedings which had just previously taken place; and this was speedily followed by another declaring null and void all the acts of the interim Government. All the officers who had been removed when Bligh was arrested were reinstated, and the power of the once dominant clique having been completely broken, the Governor himself being colonel of the regiment of the line which formed the garrison (the 73rd), the small settlers and emancipists were encouraged to hope for a season of quiet enjoyment of rights and privileges to which they had long been strangers. Their hope was more than fulfilled, as will be seen further on.

Macquarie's administration was chiefly remarkable for (1) the elevation of the emancipist class into higher positions of social, civil, and political life; (2) the stimulus given to agricultural pursuits; and (3) the successful exploration and settlement of new country.

He had a great partiality for the emancipated convicts, and went to extremes in seeking to raise them to the highest level of respectability. Within a month of his arrival he appointed to the office of the magistracy a Scotch convict named Thompson, who had amassed not a little wealth by dealing, and who, although possessed of considerable natural ability, was nevertheless not a man of good reputation. This act naturally gave great offence to the 'aristocracy,' whose pride and position had thus been literally dragged in the dust.

They protested and threatened, but the Governor met all their objections by the simple remark that there were but two classes in the colony to choose from—those who had been transported, and those who ought to have been. As a further mark of favour Thompson was admitted to the table of the Governor, and to that of the officers of the 73rd Regiment, although the members of the mess went as far as they dare in the direction of resistance. Other similar appointments followed, the object of making them evidently being to shew the convict class that good behaviour would bring its reward. Had the Governor used wise discrimination in distributing his favours the good results hoped for might have followed; but he was not wise, and the opposition of the wealthy free colonists appeared but to goad him to excess of foolishness. His whole conduct towards the convicts may be described as foolish and dangerous favouritism, and one writer has declared that 'the circumstance of being notorious for a life of open and outrageous profligacy was no impediment to promotion or employment under the government of Major-General Macquarie,' who at times appears to have acted on the principle that 'prosperous vice ought to be rewarded and encouraged.'

One of the first collisions which Macquarie had with the officers of his government occurred in connection with the establishment of the Supreme Court, shortly after the arrival in the colony of the first judge, on account of certain attorneys who had originally been transported, but whose sentences had expired, claiming the right to practice in the court. The Governor wrote to the judge strongly recommending the petition of the emancipist attorneys; but the judge declared that he would not admit as attorneys, nor administer the oath to persons, who had been transported to the colony as felons. The business of the court was suspended; Macquarie reported the judge to Earl Bathurst, then Secretary of State for the Colonies; and the strait-laced judge was recalled 'on account of conduct which could admit of no justification.' Thus, in the highest quarters, Macquarie fought for and with those who wished to regain the positions which they had lost in the old country.

But he did not rest with this, and here it is that his folly was made more apparent. From the first he appears to have discouraged the influx of free settlers, a steady though small stream of which had set in towards the colony, the attraction doubtless being the liberal offers of grants of land and cheap labour made by the Home Government to those who chose to try their fortunes at 'Botany Bay,' those who came being for the most part small capitalists; and while doing this he did everything in his power to 'bring on' the convicts who were not in chains.

Referring to this period, Bennett says:—"The opposition which the wealthier portion of the free settlers shewed to Macquarie's policy of elevating some of the emancipists to the magisterial bench and to social equality with themselves, was met on his part by daily-increasing-manifestations of favour towards those on whose support he was in a great measure driven to rely. He saw that his predecessor had been deposed by a few wealthy colonists and their military friends, and self-preservation suggested the desirability of raising up a class on whom he could calculate with certainty; and whose numbers, rapidly increasing wealth, and daily extending influence, would be sure to be exerted in opposition to those who had so long been dominant. With the view of encouraging the class of emancipists, Macquarie did not hesitate to depart from the practice of his predecessors, which had been to give grants of land only to free or freed persons of good character. His opponents say that he bestowed farms on all whose sentences had expired, without requiring the slightest evidence that they were worthy of such favours. Many of these men—indeed, the majority of them—averse to the practice of honest industry, soon disposed of land so easily acquired. A few quarts of rum, or any other means of gratifying their passion for present and sensual indulgence, offered too great a temptation to be resisted by people of their habits and character.. .. .. .. .. .. .. . The opposition he manifested to the introduction of a free immigrant population and his avowed opinions in favour of the prison class, were so strong as not only to put a complete stop to the influx of the former during the greater part of his administration, but to create and sustain an opinion among the latter that they alone had any right in the colony, and that the others were intruders whose presence ought scarcely to be tolerated."

Macquarie distributed his land grant favours with a most liberal hand, and identified himself so closely with the emancipists' cause as to incur the undying enmity of the wealthy freemen, or 'exclusives,' who harassed him continually, and whose murmuring even found utterances in the House of Commons. They formulated charges against him of various kinds, and a special commissioner (Mr. Bigge) was despatched by Lord Bathurst to inquire into the condition of the colony. That gentleman's report was very exhaustive and voluminous, and to it may be attributed Macquarie's recall, it being considered that three things, at least, had been proved against him, namely:—excessive expenditure upon useless or unnecessary buildings; the want of proper checks, and the consequent waste in the disposal of the public stores and materials; and the glaring disregard of cleanliness, propriety, and decency in the management of the female convicts. The list of public works executed under his orders fills ten closely-printed pages of a Parliamentary Report, and includes not fewer than 250 items, the chief being barracks for troops, stores for provisions, hospitals, public offices, churches, school-houses, quays, wharfs, watch-houses and police offices. During his administration 276 miles of road were constructed, with all necessary wooden bridges, some of them being of large dimensions.

But although Macquarie's efforts to elevate the emancipists were not directly successful, in after years the fruit appeared, and the 'tainted herd' became merged in the general mass of the population; their descendants, if not themselves, enjoying all the privileges and blessings obtainable by the descendants of the 'Pure Merinos' who had bleated so loudly during Macquarie's rule; so that as to-day one class stands cheek by jowl with the other in private, social, and public life, not even a policeman of the olden time (if there be one living) can tell the difference between them.

In no direction was Macquarie's energy more vigorously exercised than in improving the condition of the rural population. From the first he took a deep interest in their welfare, and shortly after his arrival personally went through most of the country districts, in order to see for himself the condition of the people and what improvements in their habits, mode of living, and pursuits could be effected. The result of his observations was published in a General Order on his return to head quarters, and the following paragraph from that Order will shew the condition of affairs rural during the first year of his administration:—"His Excellency cannot forbear expressing his regret that the settlers in general have not paid that attention to domestic comfort which they ought to do, by erecting commodious residences for themselves, and suitable housing for the reception of their grain and cattle; nor can he refrain from observing on the miserable clothing of many of the people, whose means of providing decent apparel, at least, are sufficiently obvious to leave them without any excuse for that neglect. His Excellency therefore earnestly recommends and trusts that they will pay more attention to those very important objects; and, by a strict regard to economy and temperance, that they will, on his annual tour, enable him to give a more unqualified approbation to their exertions."

And he did not simply preach to them. He acted with and for them, working to bring them within easy reach of the only market available by improving the roads leading thereto, and which had received but scant attention before his arrival. He also set an example in the building line, already referred to, and employed nearly all the skilled labour available from the ranks of the Government; but the buildings being for the most part in and around Sydney, those settlers who lived away from the centre did not derive any advantage from the erections. Even when, through his vigorous encouragement of exploration and settlement, the operations of the settlers were carried beyond the mountains, he did not awake to the fact that he was preserving a monopoly of the labour requisite to the carrying out of his advice; and in this way he really hampered the general building work, private enterprise being cramped for want of the assistance of the mechanics who were kept by the Governor under his own eye while carrying out his building hobby. The settlers complained loudly, but to no purpose—all the skilled labour was kept in Sydney and the other towns which were growing up, and an official account shews the Governor's folly in this respect.

Of the skilled mechanics who arrived in the colony during the years 1814 to 1820, the Government retained 269 blacksmiths out of 284; out of 337 carpenters, all but 16; and out of 284 bricklayers and brickmakers, all but five. Hence the perpetuation of bark and slab hovels, and the slow growth of private buildings with any pretensions to decency or stability in fact or appearance. With this exception, however, Macquarie's efforts to improve the condition of the settlers—immigrants and emancipists alike—were honest and earnest, and they were fruitful of good, a stimulus being given to intelligent cultivation of the soil, which not only benefitted the individual settler, but the now rapidly developing colony whose history was being built up. He granted cattle, sheep and goats from the Government herds, to be paid for in grain, with eighteen months' credit, and offered every inducement possible to the rural population to rise to a higher level in profitable industry and social life.

The work of geographical discovery in which Governor Macquarie engaged, and which he pursued with remarkable determination and vigour, was in itself sufficiently meritorious to place his name on the first page of the history of Australian colonization. When he assumed the Government the colony consisted simply of a narrow strip of land, extending about eighty miles along the coast to the north and south of Port Jackson, and bounded on the west by the hitherto impenetrable barrier of the Blue Mountains.

Repeated attempts had been made to pierce this barrier, but without success. The first attempt was made by Captain Paterson, the African traveller, in 1793, but he met so many obstacles in the shape of impassable precipices, &c., that he returned after having covered only a dozen miles from the junction of the Grose and the Hawkesbury Rivers. About this time other unsuccessful attempts were also made by Lieutenant Dawes, Captain Tench, and others. In 1794 one Hacking, quarter-master of the Sirius, essayed the task, but returned foiled after penetration about 30 miles beyond the Hawkesbury. Two years later Mr. Bass, the discoverer of the straits bearing his name, made the attempt, entering upon the work with ropes, ladders, cords, iron hooks, and every other appliance which he deemed necessary for accomplishing the task; but after fifteen days of unparalleled fatigue and suffering from hunger and thirst, he also returned defeated and crestfallen—the country to the westward of the giant hills remaining still secret and mysterious. And when the mountains were pierced a little later on the record of the fact was too strange for acceptance, and it was cast aside by the authorities as unworthy of credit. In 1799, during Governor Hunter's administration, a convict named Wilson, who had lived for several years with the blacks, undertook the work of exploration, taking with him a free servant of the Governor and four other convicts, to carry provisions and render other assistance.

That Wilson succeeded, not only in crossing the Blue Mountains, but in penetrating the country westward as far as the Lachlan river, does not admit of doubt, and the writer believes that to him must the credit be given of being the first white man to scale the heights and pierce the gloom of that ponderous curtain of rocks and trees which for so many years had hidden the beautiful lands of the western interior from the eyes of the men who had assumed possession of Australian soil. On his return he gave to the Governor an account of the distance he had travelled, the nature of the country through which he had passed, and the adventures he had met with—and his story, although discredited by everyone but the Governor, in after years received ample confirmation. He estimated the most remote place which he reached as 130 miles south-west by west from Parramatta, and said that eighty miles west he had found coal and limestone, and twenty miles beyond, to the north, an open and thinly wooded country. The stream at the termination of his journey he described as almost as wide as the Hawkesbury, and sluggish, but running apparently from south-east to north-west. It was apparently this fact which caused the wise men and mighty of that day to discredit Wilson's story. They could not understand that a large river should run backwards from the sea, and their faith was then as small a quantity as their knowledge and experience. They afterward learned that the river did really run inland, but it is questionable whether they even then bethought them of Wilson's wonderful services and story. So little value was attached to the account given by this enterprising convict that not only was no action taken to follow up his work, but no authentic narrative thereof was preserved. Had Governor Hunter been cast in Macquarie's mould, who knows but that his name would have been perpetuated in the waters of a river in the west, instead of one in the north; that Macquarie Plains would have been Hunter's, and that the City of the Plains—Bathurst—would have been twenty years older than it is!

Between this time and 1813, two other attempts were made to cross the mountains, but without success, and then followed the courageous and successful journey of Messrs. Gregory Blaxland, W. C. Wentworth and William Lawson—three names which will live as long as the mountains which they crossed shall stand, although the credit given to them of being the first white men to accomplish the feat is not properly theirs. In more senses that one the debt the colonists owe to the convicts is greater than that they owe to the free men for whom those convicts worked.

The effort of the three gentlemen named was rendered necessary by the rapid increase of the live stock of the colony, which at that time amounted to 65,121 sheep, 21,543 cattle, and 65,121 horses, and the limited pasturage of which had been rendered more limited by reason of a serious and long-protracted drought. The exploring party ascended the mountain ridge that abuts upon Emu Plains on the banks of the Nepean River; and following that ridge in all its multitudinous windings, they at length, after encountering great difficulties and hardships, reached its termination at Mount York, twenty-five miles due west of Emu Plains, and which looked down upon the valley afterwards called the Vale of Clwyd. This was the limit of their discoveries, and they returned to Sydney to report progress to the Governor, who without loss of time despatched Deputy-Surveyor Evans to follow up their track and explore the unknown country to the westward. The result of this expedition was the discovery of the famous Bathurst Plains, and the Macquarie and Lachlan Rivers.

Three years later the Governor despatched the Surveyor-General of the colony, Mr. John Oxley, on an exploring expedition on the Lachlan, and he traced that river down for upwards of 400 miles to what he considered its termination in extensive morasses; although had he continued his journey for a few hours longer he would have discovered where it joined the Murrumbidgee, one of the finest rivers of interior. It was on his return journey that he crossed that fine tract of country, Wellington Valley. During the following year Oxley followed the Macquarie until it lost itself in the level country, spreading out, as he supposed, as the commencement of a great inland sea.

In the meantime the country to the south was being explored and opened up by Hume and others, and two-years before Macquarie's departure the discoveries in that direction had been pushed as far as the Murrumbidgee. In these journeys Goulburn plains and a great part of the county of Argyle was opened up. By these important discoveries the area of the colony was increased enormously, and new sources of wealth were brought within reach of those enterprising colonists who were panting for larger room and freer air.

Macquarie took the greatest interest in this work of exploration, and it is more than probable that he would himself have been found pushing through bushes, fording rivers, and scaling rocks in the search for new country, if his presence had not been necessary at headquarters. As a proof of the interest he took in the work, as soon as the discoveries were made known, he saddled horse and visited the new land to the west and to the south, going as far as Bathurst in one trip and Goulburn in the other. The full account of these discoveries, which formed such an important stepping-stone to the accomplishment of that colonization which has been one of the chief events of the nineteenth century, will be given when the subject of life in the interior is being dealt with further on. Suffice it now to say that under Macquarie's administration the key was found of that barrier which had shut out from the world a land containing within itself possibilities of wealth and greatness second to those enjoyed by no other country in the world.

It has been well said of Macquarie by one writer:—"He found New South Wales a gaol, and he left it a colony; he found Sydney a village and he left it a city; he found a population of idle prisoners, paupers, and paid officials, and he left a large free community, thriving on the produce off flocks and the labour of convicts." Yet, even then the tone of society in the population centres was horrible. There was no educated or honourable class, no church worthy of the name; no schools except for the wealthy, and those taught chiefly by convicts; there were slave masters who sold rum, and slaves who drank it; an autocrat surrounded by parasites, whose fortunes he could make by a stroke of the pen. Virtue and honour were as scarce as freedom, and wretchedness and prosperity embraced in the persons of individuals and the community.

Macquarie had been in the colony about ten years when the commissioner of inquiry, Mr. John Thomas Biggs, was sent out from England to report fully upon the condition of life in the new possessions, the institution of this inquiry being partly the result of representations made in a work published by Mr. W. Wentworth, during a visit paid by him to England for the purpose of being called to the Bar. The inquiry occupied two years, and its publication for the use of the House of Commons had considerable effect in directing the attention of the British public to the resources of Australia, eventually leading to the influx of a superior class of emigrants; and from this date there was a marvellous outreach towards prosperity.

The first fitful throbbings indicating the death agony of the penal system of the colony were now heard, and the first breathings of that free national life now in full vigour were observed. When Macquarie was recalled in the latter part of 1821, after having held the reins of government for twelve years, the colony was undergoing a change which in its completion was to exhibit New South Wales to the world as the grandest instance of successful colonization ever recorded in history, and not a few of the blessings this day enjoyed may be traced to the vigor of Macquarie's administration. Even in his day the progress towards freedom and greatness was well marked, and he had the satisfaction of recording to the Home Government a few facts indicating the material progress that had eventuated during his term of office. Here are a few extracts from a communication which he addressed to Earl Bathurst almost immediately after his his return to England:—

"I found the colony barely emerging from infantile imbecility, and 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 and mouldering to decay; the few roads and bridges formerly constructed rendered almost impassable; the population in general depressed by poverty; no public credit, nor private confidence; the morals of the great mass of the population in the lowest state of debasement, and religious worship almost totally neglected. Such was the state of New South Whales when I took charge of its administration on 1st January, 1810. I left it in February last (his communication is dated July, 1822), reaping incalculable advantages from my extensive and important discoveries in all directions, including the supposed insurmountable barrier called the Blue Mountains, to the westward of which are situated the fertile plains of Bathurst; and, in all respects, enjoying a state of private comfort and public prosperity, which I trust will at least equal the expectation of His Majesty's Government. The change may indeed be ascribed in part to the natural operation of time and events on individual enterprise: how far it may be attributed to measures originating with myself, as hereinafter detailed, and my zeal and judgment in giving effect to my instructions, I humbly submit to His Majesty and his ministers.

"Statement of Population, &c., (including Van Diemen's Land):—

Population,......................March, 1810..................Oct. 1821.

including military.................11,590.....................38,778

Horned Cattle..........................12,442....................102,939

Sheep.......................................25,888....................290,158

Hogs..........................................9,544......................33,906

Horses......................................1,134.........................4,564

Acres cleared and in tillage......7,615.......................32,267

"On my taking the command of the colony in the year 1810, the amount of port duties collected did not exceed £8000 per annum, and there were only £50 or £60 of a balance in the Treasurer's hand; but now duties are collected at Port Jackson to the amount of from £28,000 to £30,000 per annum. In addition to this annual colonial revenue, there are port duties collected at Hobart Town, in Van Diemen's Land, to the amount of between £8,000 and £10,000 per annum."

Governor Macquarie may have been fussy and conceited, but he was withal active, energetic, prudent and patriotic; and at this long distance from the time when he administered the affairs of the colony we can look back and share in the honest pride which he displayed when rendering an account of his stewardship. He died in England in 1824, two years after leaving the colony for whose material advancement he had so diligently laboured.