Читать книгу Under the Broad Arrow - George Forbes - Страница 10

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WHEN Jane New recovered from her swoon, it was to find her husband beside her, ready to comfort and assist her with his advice and protection. To him she briefly narrated the circumstances of her unexpected meeting with Fitch and his dissolute companion, and, with tears and lamentations, she expressed her belief that trouble would surely come of it.

In his endeavor to calm her, New pointed out how unlikely it would be that Fitch would attempt to interfere with her, seeing that he would have nothing to gain by such interference, which might only bring him into disfavor with the authorities. Besides, he bade her remember that they lived in a British community, under British laws, which boasted an equal measure of justice for all. But although in the end he succeeded in partly allaying her fears, poor Jane could not shake off the conviction of impending trouble, and that her anxiety was not without foundation was soon to be placed beyond doubt.

One morning, James New being absent at his work, and when Jane was employed with her household duties, a lady, well-dressed, and apparently in affluent circumstances, called to see her with the expressed purpose of engaging New to make certain alterations in her house in Pitt-street. Jane, gratified by this recognition of her husband's skill as a tradesman, was careful to note the particulars of the work required to be done, and the lady invited Jane to accompany her to her house in order that she might the more readily be able to explain to her husband on his return the nature of the improvements contemplated.

Unsuspicious of the infamous plot that was being weaved around her, Jane accompanied her professed friend and patron to her house in Pitt-street, from which she subsequently returned to her own house, once more devoting herself to the care of her boy, and the ordering of her little establishment. Within an hour, however, the lady was back, this time accompanied by John Fitch and another policeman. At the sight of Fitch, poor Jane turned pale, and her senses seemed about to desert her. Not heeding what she did, in her endeavor to escape from her persecutor, Jane fled from the house by the back door, and this was subsequently regarded as proof positive of her guilt. She was easily captured, and brought back by the constables, who, on searching her, found the lady's purse, containing five pounds in gold and silver, concealed upon her person.

In a flood of tears, Jane besought the villain who had formerly brought disgrace and ruin upon her, to spare her further punishment. Clasping her boy to her breast, she begged that she might not be parted from her child, while, at the same time, she vehemently denied all knowledge of the theft of which she was accused. But her entreaties fell upon deaf ears. She was a convicted felon, and her statements were not to be believed.

Jane was brought to trial before Mr. Justice Dowling and a jury, and, on being found guilty, sentence of death was recorded against her under Statute 12, Ann, ch. 7 (the Statute which takes away benefit of clergy from the offence of stealing in a dwelling above the value of forty shillings). This conviction, however, it being ascertained that the Statute was not in force in New South Wales, was, on appeal to the Full Court, declared void; but the sheriff, instead of releasing Jane, by direction of the Governor, who had revoked the assignment, executed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, of the prisoner to her husband, removed her from the common gaol at Sydney, as a prisoner of the Crown, to the factory at Parramatta, where she once more became eligible for assignment to some other master or mistress, and for which new assignment the very woman who had charged her with theft, and who was none other than the friend referred to by Parkhurst, was an applicant.

The infamous nature of the plot against the unfortunate Jane New now stood plainly revealed, and James New, in his despair at the discovery, would probably have been driven to the commission of some desperate act in defence of his wife's honor, had it not been for the skill and courage in connection with this case displayed by one whose name will always be associated with what is best in Australian history.

Mr. William Charles Wentworth was, at this time, among the leaders of the Australian bar, and to him James New carried the tale of his trouble. Wentworth was one of the few men who had the courage, when his duty impelled him to such a course, to set himself in opposition to the Governor of the day, a military martinet, who succeeded, during the term of his administration, in making himself the most hated man in the colony, and, at the risk of incurring his Excellency's displeasure, he boldly questioned the Governor's right to revoke the assignment of prisoners except in the case of pardon, and, as the counsel instructed for that purpose by James New, he moved the Full Court, on application, that the prisoner, Jane New, be discharged from custody, and delivered over to her husband on the grounds, first, "that the Governor of this Territory had no power to cancel the assignment to a master of any prisoner of the Crown except for the purpose of granting a temporary or partial remission of the original sentence," and, secondly, that at all events he could not cancel the assignment of a prisoner who had been transported from England to Van Diemen's Land; that being a separate and independent colony, not within the government or jurisdiction of the Governor of New South Wales.

These points were argued before the Full Court at great length—the Attorney-General (Baxter) contending that the Governor had the absolute right, at his pleasure, to cancel the assignment to a master of a prisoner, and to re-assign such prisoner to some other master or mistress, while Mr. Wentworth maintained that the Governor had no such power, and that the property in the assigned servant remained in the master, except in the case of the misconduct of such master, until the expiration of the prisoner's sentence, or until such prisoner received a free pardon.

This case caused intense excitement in the colony at the time, for it was felt by the settlers that, if the Governor possessed the arbitrary power which he claimed, those who differed from him in his autocratic methods of government would be deprived of the services of their farm laborers, and reduced to penury.

The judges, to their credit be it recorded, although they subsequently incurred the censure of the Secretary of State for so doing, inclined to the more liberal view of the matter, and held that the Governor did not possess the power of revoking the assignment of Jane New to her husband by the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, and she was consequently ordered to be restored to him.

Chief Justice Forbes, in delivering his judgment in this case, said: "The right of private property, when once acquired, is held to be so inviolable by the laws of England that I cannot easily suppose it to have been the intention of Parliament, after having created this right in the assignee of a prisoner, in the most express and formal manner, and having carefully preserved it through the successive provisions of a chain of statutes, to take it away by a word, and that without any cause alleged, or any previous enquiry or any definite course of proceeding directed for so strong and anomalous a power—a power which would be, perhaps, without precedent in the records of Parliament."

Happy indeed was the reunion between Jane and her husband, and her boy, whom she would not see while she remained in prison, and the recall of the regiment to which Lieutenant Parkhurst belonged saved her from further persecution from that quarter; whilst, not long afterwards, John Fitch became involved in a serious offence, which it was impossible to overlook or condone.