Читать книгу The Felonry of New South Wales - James Mudie - Страница 10
ОглавлениеTo His Excellency Lieut-General Ralph Darling.
ON THE EVE OF HIS DEPARTURE FROM THE COLONY.
SIR,
We, the members of the legislative council in New South Wales, are anxious, on the conclusion of your excellency's administration, to offer a sincere and unanimous expression of the sentiments which we entertain towards you, as the representative of our most gracious sovereign.
The cordiality and good-feeling which have subsisted between your excellency and the legislative body, we attribute, in a great degree, to the freedom from interference with which we have been permitted to deliberate upon every measure which, under a sense of public duty, your excellency has brought before us, for the benefit and security of the colony. Whatever may be the character and effect of those measures, we are sensible that this council, by adopting them, has taken upon itself an equal share of the responsibility which attaches to them. If we were to particularize any of the acts, which will most permanently mark the period of your excellency's presiding over us, we should refer to those by which great progress has been made towards the general establishment of trial by jury, to the control which the legislative authority has, for the first time, exercised over the duties hitherto levied by proclamation; and to those coercive measures of the last session, which we are sensible that nothing but the penal character of this settlement, and the disturbed state of the country at that time, could have justified; but the expediency of which acts of vigour has in the event been proved by the restoration of general tranquillity.
It cannot but be a source of lasting pride and satisfaction to your excellency to reflect, that you leave the colony in this state of internal security; that, notwithstanding a continuance of disastrous seasons, its natural resources have been gradually and strikingly developed; and that its increasing foreign commerce is testified by the daily accession of vessels to our ports, and the extension of all our mercantile relations.
We trust that your excellency's successor will have the gratification of witnessing an increase of that prosperity, the groundwork of which is already securely laid; and we request you, in vacating the government, to accept our congratulations on the prospects under which he will assume it. We desire to express, collectively and individually, our unabated esteem for your excellency; and that, after a safe return to your native country, you may, together with your family, enjoy many years of health, happiness, and prosperity, is, we beg to assure you, the unfeigned prayer of,
SIR,
Your Excellency's Most obedient and very humble Servants,
(Signed)
FRANCIS FORBES, Chief Justice.
WILLIAM GRANT BROUGHTON, Archdeacon.
ALEXANDER McLEAY, Colonial Secretary.
JOHN KINCHELA, Attorney-General.
BURMAN LAUGA, Chief Officer of Customs.
WILLIAM LITHGOW, Auditor General of Colonial Accounts.
PATRICK LINDESAY, Colonel.
ROBERT CAMPBELL.
ALEXANDER BERRY.
RICHARD JONES.
EDWARD CHARLES CLOSE.
HANNIBAL HAWKINS McARTHUR.
