Читать книгу Early Australian History. Convict Life in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land - Charles White - Страница 6

Table of Contents

MAJOR GROSE AND CAPTAIN PATTERSON—A MILITARY DESPOTISM—THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS—DIVIDING THE SPOILS—FOUNDING A COLONIAL ARISTOCRACY—JOHN MACARTHUR, CAPTAIN AND PAYMASTER—IMPROVING THE BREED OF SHEEP—AN UNSCRUPULOUS "RING"—OFFICIAL HUCKSTERERS AND EPAULETTED DEALERS—A CURRENCY OF RUM—COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY—MONOPOLY AND EXTORTION—500 PER CENT.—DISTRIBUTION OF CONVICTS—HIGH PRICES—OUTDOING THE CONVICTS IN LICENTIOUSNESS—THE RUM HOSPITAL—SELLING A WIFE—EMANCIPATED CONVICTS IN BUSINESS—A GAOLER PUBLICAN—KILLING THE TRAFFIC—INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

During the greater portion of the three years following Governor Phillip's departure the Government of the settlement was practically a military despotism. The Government devolved, first upon Major Francis Grose, and secondly upon Captain Patterson, senior officers of the 102nd Regiment of the New South Wales Corps, and these officers by incompetency on the one hand and wretched militaryism on the other succeeded in establishing an order of things the whole tendency of which was evil, and the results of which have extended down the whole line of the hundred years which have now passed since the foundation of the colony.

A word or two here concerning the "New South Wales Corps," of which these officers were distinguished members, must be said. The corps had been raised in England in 1790-1 for service in the colonies—a service which was not considered at that time either dignified or honourable for any British officer of much repute to engage in; and consequently many of those who found their way into it possessed a very low estimate of morality and honesty. They were, therefore, quite prepared to engage in any work, however dirty, or unjust, or arbitrary, that would bring pecuniary profit to themselves or satisfy the gross sensuality of their natures. And they found in the convict settlement a splendid field for the exercise of their evil inclinations.

The first use Grose made of his power was to issue an order merging the civil in the military authority. From this time forth the officers of the Corps held the reins of power, and they were not slow to avail themselves of the opportunities thus offered for self-aggrandisement; and so firmly did they batten themselves on the life of the colony—social, civil, and political—that for nearly a quarter of a century after the issue of Grose's first order they literally wielded the helm of State, against Governors and people alike.

Their first division of the 'spoils' consisted in land appropriation. Although Governor Phillip had only alienated about 3,000 acres of the public land to private individuals, these military robbers appropriated more than 15,000 acres to themselves within a very short time, their own immediate friends coming in for a share of the plunder. And for long after their messmates had vacated the gubernatorial seat this small but powerful class continued to 'grab' the public estate with greedy fingers, and those of them who were steady as well as unscrupulous thus became the founders of wealthy families who, even at that early day, and with the dirt still clinging to their fingers, assumed the powers and privileges of a 'landed aristocracy.' The leader of the class which assumed such privileges was Mr. John Macarthur, who was captain and paymaster of the Corps, but who after a few years service left the ranks of honour and developed into a large landed proprietor and owner of stock; subsequently becoming so powerful as to disturb even the seat of Government, and plunge the whole colony into confusion. The one redeeming feature in his career was the successful attempt he made to improve the breed of sheep; but it is questionable whether, even in this act, he had any higher patriotic motive than that furnished by the possibly louder jingle of coin in his own pocket. It is but just to say, however, that he set a virtuous example in private and social life which put the conduct of many of his fellow-officers to the blush, his family being one of the best-regulated in the colony.

The position occupied by the officers of the New South Wales Corps furnished them with singular advantages in the matter of mercantile speculations, and history supplies no record of any more unscrupulous or successful 'ring' than that formed by them. They had absolute control of the King's stores, which were supplies from England and contained all that was supposed to be necessary for the comfortable sustenance of the settlement, and from these stores they would obtain supplies of useful articles at cost price, to retail them out at an enormous profit; and in time they established a monopoly that was as immoral as it was vexatious and disastrous. At first they confined their operations to the wholesale line of business; but as time went on and they saw emancipated convicts amassing wealth by petty dealing among their fellows, they plunged into that business and established a monopoly in that line also, their official command of appliances and facilities giving them great advantages over honest, fair-dealing men. They formed a guild among themselves, having for its object a monopoly of the profits on all importations, by levying a sort of blackmail on all goods landed in the colony, and particularly of such stores as were sent out by the Home Government for disposal to the settlers. The moment a cargo of goods was stored in the Government Warehouse these official hucksterers assembled and divided the goods among themselves; they then placed their marks, and the prices at which the public would be allowed to purchase, on each packet or article; and by this plan, although no money was actually paid, they reaped enormous profits, as all the money above the prices fixed by the Government or the private importers went into their own pockets. They were also in a position to compel the settlers to sell to them, at their own prices, produce which they afterwards re-sold to the Government at the higher rates which had been fixed through their influence; and if a settler raised any objection to this one-sided bargain they literally shut the door of the public store against him. To such a pitch did these commercial weevil carry their scheme that in some years it is said not a single bushel of grain or pound of pork found its way into the Government stores except through their hands. What wonder, then, that the poor settlers should grow poorer and that natural production should fall off! This nefarious system was carried out after the following fashion:—No private person was allowed to enter the public store unless he produced a written order from a Government officer, which order, owing to the officer having a 'finger in the pie,' had to be purchased at a very high rate; so that only those able and willing to pay the heavy premium to the privileged selling class could procure the article they required from the store.

These epauletted dealers also traded in another way.

Rum was the article then, and for many years afterwards, in most frequent requisition throughout the colony. Spirits were, in fact, the currency of the colony. Almost all extra work was paid for in spirits, and the diligence of prisoners even, in unloading a vessel laden with Government stores, was stimulated by giving half a pint of rum to each. Among free and bond, drunkenness was a prevailing vice—a natural result of the system introduced under this military-cum-trading crowd, of officially making rum the currency. How universal became the practice was proved on oath by a gentleman who knew all about it, when giving evidence in 1811 at the trial of Colonel Johnston for his connection with the forcible deposition of Governor Bligh. Mr. John McArthur's evidence was as follows:—

Question:—"Has not the barter of spirits been always practised by every person in the colony, as a matter of necessity, from the want of currency?"

Answer:—"I know of no exception; as far as my observation went it was universal; officers civil and military, clergy, every description of inhabitants, were under the necessity of paying for the necessaries of life, for every article of consumption, in that sort of commodity which the people who had to sell were inclined to take: in many cases you could not get labour performed without it."

Captain Kemp, another of the New South Wales Corps, on the same occasion, under catechism, made a similar reply:—

Question:—"Was the barter of spirits prohibited by Governor Macquarie; or were the officers of the 73rd Regiment allowed to barter spirits?"

Answer:—"The Governor, clergy, officers civil and military, all ranks and descriptions of people, bartered spirits when I left Sydney—viz., in May, 1810."

A rule was established that there should be periodical issues of rum to the officers of the Corps, in quantities according to rank. But they supplemented this 'allowance'(self-granted, be it remembered) by first purchase of the cargo. When a merchant ship arrived in the harbour, the officers of the Corps got the first sight of her manifest and first choice of her cargo; but they were kind enough to allow the free or emancipated convict-merchants to follow in their wake. And they were as vigorous in the retail trade as in the wholesale. Most of the non-commissioned officers had licenses to sell spirits; and in this manner the superfluous rum of the Regiment was disposed of.

But to narrate in detail all the actions of these men, and their results, would fill a bulky volume. It must suffice to say that after they had pursued their system of spoliation for some twenty years they received a check. The injustice they were inflicting upon the free settlers at length became so notorious as to attract the attention of the British Parliament, and in 1812 a Committee of the House of Commons sat to consider the matter. The following extracts from the evidence taken before that Committee will shew the extent to which these gentry carried their depredations:—

MAURICE MARGAROT called in and examined:—

"In what year did you sail to New South Wales? In 1794. And to what period did you remain? Till the year 1810.

"Did you observe that in consequence of the mode in which the convicts at Botany Bay were treated, that their morals and conduct were improved by their treatment? No.

"What do you conceive to be the obstacle to their improvement? The selection of the officers by Government who are sent out there, and the arbitrary mode in which that Government is carried on, for as much as they have no rule to go by but one Act of Parliament, which enjoins them to keep as near to the laws of England as they can.

"Point out what you conceive to be the principal defects in the system adopted by the officers sent out by this country.—Trade and personal interests; for to nothing else can their behaviour be attributed; it is barbarous and cruel in the extreme.

"Do the majority of the officers to whom the Government of the colony is entrusted embark in trade? All, to a man.

"What is that trade? In consists, first of all, of monopoly, then of extortion; it includes all the necessaries of life which are brought to the colony. The trade in which the officers are engaged is, first, the supply of the stores with wheat and pork, sometimes beef and mutton, to the exclusion of the settlers; next, vessels arrive from different parts of Europe, and from India, with such articles as may be deemed luxuries; tea, sugar, rum, wine, little matters for clothing, silk handkerchiefs, &c., and a variety of articles; the officers purchase them and retail them at perhaps 500 per cent. profit. There is likewise another monopoly; the Government has been very kind to the colony, and sent out various articles for the use of the settlers and prisoners, such as sieves, hats, clothes, linen, coarse cloth, and a thousand other articles; when a ship of that kind has arrived, and the goods have been landed in the King's stores, after a few days the stores are opened to the officers, who go in, lay their hands upon every thing of value, and have their names affixed to it as purchasers, and they leave nothing but the refuse for the colony; having so done, by themselves or by their agents, they retail that, as I said before, at 500 per cent. profit. I believe that I am not out when I say that a sieve, to sift meal, which cost them 5/9, has been sold for three guineas, and rum I have known sold at £8 per gallon, which cost 7/6.

"Do you mean that civil officers, or military, or both, are engaged in this trade? All of them to a man. In the year 1797 a combination bond was entered into by them, by which they were neither to underbuy nor undersell the one from the other.

"How was that known in the colony? Because it was offered me to sign, and I refused it, and from thence began my persecutions; some of the upper inhabitants had that bond tendered them to sign; it was brought to me, I refused signing it; it went in fact to do what they have done ever since without it; there was an esprit de corps among them, that although they might jar between one another, if you offended one you offended the whole; and any poor prisoner that had the misfortune to offend any one officer would be sure to get a flogging from some other.

"Are not the settlers supplied with servants upon the first arrival of the convicts? No, they are not; they must wait until all the officers are served; they must wait until they can make interest with some person in office to obtain one.

"Do you think the colony was in a more flourishing state when you came away than when you went there first? Proportionately less. There were about 4000 inhabitants when I went there; there were but about 11,000 or 12,000 when I left it.

"Did the respectable part of the colony appear to you to be increasing? There was very little respectable there."

WILLIAM RICHARDSON called in, and examined:—

"In what year did you go to Botany Bay? I do not recollect the year; I went out with Governor Phillip in the first fleet.

"Till what year did you remain there? I came home last Christmas was twelve months—Christmas 1810.

"Were the articles you bought for yourself expensive to you? Very expensive; shoes 20/- a pair; for a shirt 20/-; sugar 7d. per lb., and tea a dollar an ounce; spirits, generally 20/- a bottle.

"Were those high prices owing to a temporary scarcity, or was it a general thing? It was general for the poor; the rich could get it cheaper.

"Are you able to account for these high prices? No, I cannot; but from gentlemen having an opportunity of going aboard, and buying things of the captain; we could not go on board because we were always paid with copper coin, and therefore we could buy nothing; if I had got £10 soldier's pay I could not get one individual thing from a ship."

[N.B.—This man had gone out as a convict for seven years, and had enlisted as a soldier on becoming free.]

Mr. ROBERT CAMPBELL called in and examined:—

"In what year did you go to Botany Bay? In the year 1798, from Bengal.

"To what year did you remain? I was there, with the exception of two or three short intervals, down to the year 1810.

"For what purpose did you go? On a mercantile speculation, to procure seal skins for the China market, and supply the colony with necessary articles of merchandise from Bengal.

"Did you receive that encouragement from the Governor which you had reason to expect? When I first arrived, in 1798, no class of settlers were allowed to purchase any articles of merchandise but the officers on the establishment, civil and military.

"Were you allowed to sell your merchandise at your own price? No.

"In what manner were the prices fixed? In 1798, the officers fixed the price of all articles of merchandise which I had then for sale. In 1800 and from that time till my departure, in 1810, the Governor fixed the price of spirits and wine; the other articles we were allowed to dispose of to the best advantage.

"Had you an opportunity of seeing the manner in which the merchandise sold to the military and civil officers was afterwards retailed in the colony? Yes.

"At what profit were the articles retailed? Spirits sometimes at 500 per cent., at least; on other articles generally about from 50 to 75 per cent."

And, as these gentlemen were not honest, neither were they virtuous in other respects. Let Dr. Lang speak:—"The officers of the New South Wales Corps were neither all married nor all virtuous men. Some of them, it is true, lived reputably with their families, and set a virtuous example to the colony, even in the worst times; but the greater number took female convicts of prepossessing appearance under their protection, and employed them occasionally in the retail business. In so small a community as that of New South Wales, at the period in question, a liaison of this kind could scarcely be concealed: decency was outraged on all hands; and the prison population laughed at their superiors for outdoing them in open profligacy, and naturally followed their example.. .. .. A large proportion of the civil and military officers of the settlement were unmarried men, of loose principles and dissolute habits; who, setting at defiance the laws of God and the opinions of virtuous men, lived in a state of open and avowed profligacy, thereby setting an example which was but too generally followed by the convicts, and the demoralising and debasing influence of which was long widely perceptible throughout the territory."

Although not in proper chronological order, it may be as well to bring this unsavory subject to a close, to prevent re-opening. Under the pernicious system introduced by the New South Wales Corps, lands, houses, and property of every description, real and personal, were bought and paid for in rum. The first large and substantial hospital in Sydney was built by three gentlemen under a contract with the Governor which gave them a monopoly of the sale and importation of rum for a certain time; hence its title of 'The Rum Hospital.' This happened in Governor Macquarie's time, and the 'rummy' contractors who entered into this agreement with him were Messrs. D'Arcy Wentworth, Blaxcell, and Riley. The simple conditions were that in return for erecting the building they were to receive a certain quantity of rum from the King's store, and have granted to them the right to purchase and retail 15,000 gallons of ardent spirits annually for four years!

The workmen of the colony were as much as possible paid in rum. It is recorded of one of the officers of the New South Wales corps that 100 acres of land having been distributed in half-acre allotments as free grants amongst some soldiers of the regiment, he planted a hogshead of rum upon the ground, and bought the whole hundred acres with the contents of the hogshead. Years afterwards a moiety of this land was sold in Sydney and realised £20,000. Judge Therry, in his 'Reminiscences,' when referring to this period, says:—"Not only was concubinage thought no shame, but the sale of wives was not an unfrequent practice. A present owner of broad acres and large herds in New South Wales is the offspring of an union strangely brought about by the purchase of a wife from her husband for four gallons of rum!"

When Governor Hunter arrived he vainly attempted to check this vicious barter. But the evil was too deeply rooted and the official traffickers too strong in wealth and numbers to be easily corrected. His successor. Governor King, sought to apply the homeopathic principle of like curing like to the evil, but instead of curing the disease by such a course he intensified it. He saw that the military influence was dangerously active in the colony, and he endeavoured to counterbalance it by attempting to bring forward the emancipated convicts as competitors in the rum market against the Corps, by granting to them licenses to sell. "Such licenses," says Dr. Lang, "were accordingly dispensed with a liberality and profusion above all praise; for even the chief constable of Sydney, whose business it was to suppress irregularity, had a license to promote it, under the Governor's hand, by the sale of rum and other ardent liqours; and although the chief jailer was not exactly permitted to convert the jail into a grog-shop, he had a licensed house, in which he sold rum publicly on his own behalf, right opposite the gaol door." Governor King's successor, however, (Captain Bligh) applied the lancet to this social gangrene with better effect. He came armed with full instructions from the Home authorities, and immediately on his arrival applied himself to the work of destroying the military monopoly existing, and especially in the article of ardent spirits. Governor Hunter had recommended the Imperial Government to withdraw the New South Wales Corps, but the latter were powerful in the colonial office across the water as well as in New South Wales, and the recommendation was not adopted, although Governor Bligh received instructions to prevent the landing of any spirits from any vessel coming to the settlement, 'without your consent, or that of our Governor-in-Chief for the time being, previously obtained for that purpose.'

Within six months of his advent Governor Bligh issued the following stringent General Order:—

"His Excellency the Governor regrets to find, by his late visit through the colony, that the most calamitous evils have been produced by persons bartering or paying spirits for grain of all kinds, and the necessaries of life in general, and to labourers for their hire; such proceedings depressing the industrious, and depriving the settlers of their comforts. In order, therefore, to remedy these grievous complaints, and to relieve the inhabitants who have suffered by this traffic, he feels it his duty to put a total stop to this barter in future, and to prohibit the exchange of spirits or other liquors as payment for grain, animal food, wearing apparel, or any other commodity whatever, to all descriptions of persons in the colony and its dependencies. If a prisoner is convicted before a bench of magistrates of any of the offences above stated, he shall receive a punishment of one hundred lashes, and be sentenced to hard labour for twelve months:—If a settler, free by servitude, pardon, or emancipation, he is to be deprived of all indulgences from the Crown, sentenced to three months imprisonment, and to pay a fine of £10 to the King:—If a settler who came free into the colony, or any other free inhabitants, masters, or any other descriptions of persons on board of ships or vessels, they are to lose all indulgences granted them by the Crown, and pay a fine of £50 to the King; all of which fines, on conviction, shall be levied by the provost-marshal, one moiety to be given to the informer, and the other to be at the disposal of the Government. His Excellency has the strongest confidence, from the known distress of the colony in consequence of this pernicious barter, that all officers, civil and military, will be aiding and assisting in carrying this order into execution, which ultimately must tend to relieve the distresses of the people, and to give credit and stability to the settlement at large.

"By command of His Excellency,

"E. Griffin, Sec.

"Government House, Sydney,

"February 14th, 1807."

It was, undoubtedly, through his energetic efforts to suppress this traffic that Governor Bligh was subsequently forcibly deposed. He caused a notice to be served upon Mr. Macarthur to deliver up a large still, which had arrived in a ship of which he was part owner, in order that it (with another still which had come for a Captain in the Corps) might be re-shipped to England. Macarthur at first refused to comply, but subsequently the still was taken by the Government officer. Then commenced a war between the Governor (who had the misfortune to be in the hands of incompetent legal advisers) and Macarthur. The latter was eventually charged with sedition, but several of the military officers comprising the court ousted the Judge-Advocate, against whose presidency Macarthur had protested, and sought to pronounce judgment favourable to their friend. This proceeding was, however, upset by the provost-marshal, who procured a warrant for Macarthur in order to his being lodged in gaol; the six friendly officers shortly thereafter also being summoned to answer a charge of inciting to rebellion. His Excellency had in the meantime sent for Major Johnston, commander of the New South Wales Corps, who lived about four miles out of town on his easily-acquired estate; but that gentleman excused himself on the score of illness. On the following day, however, he made his appearance at the military barracks, but instead of supporting the Governor in preserving order he allowed the officers of the corps to induce him to usurp the Government of the colony, and place the Governor under arrest, himself marching to the performance of the valorous deed at the head of the Regiment. The Governor having been forcibly deposed. Major Johnston assumed the reins of Government, to the unbounded delight of the military and civil grog-sellers whose craft he had endangered; but to the disgust of the respectable portion of the free populace, who were, however, powerless to remedy matters. Subsequently Johnston was ordered under arrest to England where he was tried and cashiered. With his fall also fell the gallant New South Wales Corps, which was disbanded, the 73rd Regiment, the lieutenant-colonel of which was Lachlan Macquarie, relieving them. The officers had, of course, feathered their nests in the colony and the majority of them retired to sleep therein, or if not to sleep to hatch a little more mischief. Their official power was gone, but the evil wrought by money-grabbing, licentious practices still remained, and might be seen working its way out in descendants half a century afterwards. The fathers had eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth were set on edge!

During the three years, 1793-4-5, which followed Governor Phillip's departure, and for which term the settlement was virtually in the hands of the New South Wales Corps—serving its apprenticeship in a greater moral degradation than that imposed by the presence and incoming of convicts—signs of material progress were not wanting. At the end of 1795 there were 5000 acres of land under cultivation; the horses had increased from 11 to 57, the horned cattle from 23 to 229, the sheep from 105 to 1553, the pigs from 43 to 1869, and the goats to 1427. The work of coastal exploration had also been prosecuted in a small way; but the period was chiefly remarkable for the breaking of all rules of decorum and morality by the very men who should themselves have rightly observed them and enforced their observance upon others under their control.