iments of regard you have been
pleased to express towards me.--I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, your
most obedient and most humble servant,

"(Signed) LACHLAN MACQUARIE.

"To Messrs. R. W. Loane, J. Ingle, T. W. Birch, and
A. Whitehead, the Committee who presented the
Address from the inhabitants of the Settlement at
Hobart Town, in Van Diemen's Land."]

[Footnote 75: The complimentary style in which the settlers addressed
the Macquarie family was not without reason. It is said that Mrs. Kate
Kearney, when the high price of her butter was complained of by the
governor, stopped the supply. Mrs. Macquarie, curious to see this
independent milk-seller, paid her a visit: when she entered, the old
lady received her very graciously, and asked after the health of the
Governor, and added, "how is the young Prince?" The story goes, that she
received a valuable grant of land for this well-timed compliment. A
bullock driver, who attended Mrs. Macquarie during one of these visits,
annoyed her by swearing at the cattle: she promised to obtain him his
free pardon, if he would only treat the animals with more civility. A
hundred such stories are current; but he who has been accustomed to sift
them, may take them for their worth.]

[Footnote 76: See vol. ii, p. 129, of this History, for an account of
bushranging.]

SECTION IV.

In planting the colony of New South Wales, it was requisite to provide a
form of government adapted for a community without precedent. That
instituted was equally alien from established usage. It conferred powers
on the governor beyond the dreams of ordinary princes, and violated all
the constitutional guarantees which support the rights of subjects. The
American colonies derived their constitutions, some from the
prerogatives of the crown, others from parliament, under acts
prescribing their structure and limiting their jurisdiction. In some
cases the British legislature authorised the crown to convey the powers
of government at its own discretion, and its own agents. In the reign of
George III.[77] the parliament passed the Quebec Act, which defined the
powers of Canadian legislation and judicature, and thus established a
course that has never since been abandoned.

The immediate design and composition of the Australian colony precluded
the forms of constitutional freedom: the object of the laws and
regulations were but remotely connected with the ordinary interests of
British citizens. Havi