much to be wished and desired, that
by that change the power may be vested in honest and
incorruptible hands, which may be held out equally to punish the
guilty, and to protect the oppressed; to curb the insolence of
pride, and foster humble merit; and, finally, to render New South
Wales an exact copy from that fine picture of freedom and justice
which is represented in the mother country.

That the trial by jury should be introduced into the colony,
has long been a _desideratum_ amongst the best-informed
inhabitants of the colony; since its effects could not be
otherwise than beneficial where such universal iniquity prevails,
and where even in the courts of law many enter with impure
motives and unclean hands; since the greater part of the
community are more or less implicated in the notorious and
impoverishing impositions which are continually practised amongst
all classes. When I say that this blessing has been desired by
the _well-informed_, I must also be understood to mean the
_well-intentioned_ only; for its establishment in the
settlement would unavoidably prove fatal to that ruinous traffic,
from which several of the superior classes have derived their
opulence and consequence, and it is not therefore to be expected,
that such as these would wish to behold the approach of that
scourge which would remove from them the power of extending
universal evil for the promotion of their individual good. By
these persons the admission of the trial by jury is sincerely and
ardently deprecated, while it is wished for with equal fervency
by others, and particularly those oppressed inhabitants, whose
miseries and necessities have been the means of increasing the
wealth, and hardening the feelings of those who have so long
pursued the destructive system of monopoly. It would not have
been practicable to introduce the trial by jury at the
commencement of the settlement, since there were none but
convicts, and a few free persons who were paid and supported by
the crown; but the case is now materially altered, and the great
influx of free, independent, and respectable inhabitants, which
the later years of the colony have witnessed, not only render
such a measure practicable and prudent, but loudly call for it as
a step rendered indispensable to the welfare of the community.
Numbers have also served their terms of transportation, or have
been made objects of royal bounty on account of their signal good
conduct, and have thus