ut their accusations made a deep impression on a certain
class, and the tyranny of the settler magistrates, of whom thirty were
dismissed from the commission, was denounced with increasing boldness
and asperity.

Among the most effective writers of the time, was William Angus Watt,
who held up the angry magistrates to derision, and their partisans, "as
a faction dwindled to a shadow--

A mumping phantom of incarnate spite;
Loathed, but not feared, for rage that cannot bite."[219]

The career of this man is a curiosity of Australasian literature. Both
Dr. Lang and Major Mudie have spread his fame by their works and their
parliamentary evidence. He committed a crime in Scotland, for which he
was outlawed; for a second, in London, he was transported. At Wellington
Valley he won the favor of his superintendent employed in an office at
Sydney, he conciliated the good-will of Bishop Broughton and several
other clergymen, who interceded for his pardon. This was refused, but he
obtained a ticket-of-leave, and engaged in the service of the editor of
the _Gazette_, the reputed organ of the government. The profligacy of
his habits, and the insolence of his writings, exposed him to
observation. He lived with a female illegally at large, whose child,
born in the factory, was baptised in his name. To involve the editors of
the _Herald_ in a prosecution for libel, Watt procured, by the agency of
a printer in their office, a slip proof of a letter they had resolved to
suppress. This he transmitted through the post to the person
calumniated, to give him the necessary evidence of publication. For his
share in this scandalous trick he was tried, but the paper stolen was of
so little value that he was acquitted. In addressing the jury, he
pointed out Major Mudie as his unrelenting persecutor, and as an
oppressor of unfortunate prisoners. Mudie, to punish the alleged
insolence of his defence, accused him of immorality and habitual lying,
and demanded the revocation of his ticket-of-leave. The investigation
lasted several weeks, and ended in the dismissal of the charge, which
was not unfairly attributed to the animosities kindled by newspaper
warfare, in which Mudie was more than a spectator. Judge Burton
represented that the residence of Watt in Sydney was pernicious, and
Governor Bourke ordered him to the district of Port Macquarie; whither
he was followed by the proprietress of the _Gazette_, with whom he
married, by the govern