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to induce him to accept, Macquarie declined the offer on account of his ignorance of the Portuguese language. Eleven days later he was appointed to the headquarters staff as assistant adjutantgeneral for the district of London, under the command of the Earl of Harrington.

Macquarie retained his staff appointment in London until April, 1805. During this period he became a typical courtier. He was frequently in attendance on the Earl of Harrington at reviews and inspections. He attended courts and levees, and indulged in the usual social routine of a staff officer in London. He was commanded to dine with the Prince of Wales, H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence, and other members of the royal family, and in January, 1805, his appointment as an aide-de-camp to the King was under consideration. He was elected a member of several exclusive associations, and it is clear that his career was assured when the opportunity occurred.

In June, 1804, he obtained two months' leave of absence in order to visit his aged mother at Oskamull, whom he had not seen for seventeen years. During his visit to Scotland, he met his future wife, and on the 26th of March, 1805, shortly before leaving England, he became engaged to Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell, the youngest daughter of his second cousin, John Campbell, of Airds. At the same time, it was arranged that the marriage should not take place until after Macquarie's return to England.

In March, 1805, Macquarie was ordered to return to India to take command of the 86th regiment, which was without a field. officer. On the 25th of April, he embarked at Portsmouth for Bombay, where he arrived on the 11th of August. He assumed command of the regiment, and his old friend, governor Duncan, again appointed him military secretary whilst he was stationed at Bombay. On the 1st of June, 1805, his appointment as lieutenantcolonel of the 73rd regiment appeared in the London Gazette.

Towards the end of the year 1805, a campaign against Holkar was commenced, and for the last time Macquarie was engaged on field service. In December, he took command of the frontier station at Dohud, where he remained until it was evacuated on the 22nd of January, 1806. Four weeks later he returned to Bombay and resumed his duties as military secretary to the governor. Governor Duncan had decided to leave India at the

beginning of the year 1808, and Macquarie had agreed to travel to England with him; the latter's anxiety, however, to return to his fiancée induced him to obtain a release from his engagement, and on the 19th of March, 1807, he left Bombay for Bussorah to travel by overland route to England. From Bussorah he journeyed by water to Bagdad, by caravan to the Caspian sea, across Russia, by boat to Yarmouth, and arrived in London on the 17th of October, 1807.

After his return to England, Macquarie was married to his second wife, Miss Campbell, and he took command of the 73rd regiment, which was quartered in Scotland.

In the year 1808, the Peninsula War was commenced, and public attention was concentrated on the war and the struggle against Napoleon in other parts of Europe. In the month of September, the news of the usurpation of the government in New South Wales and the arrest of Governor Bligh was received in London. The report at first caused scanty comment; but in a few weeks Viscount Castlereagh decided to appoint a successor to Governor Bligh, and to send a regiment to the colony to relieve the New South Wales Corps. In December, the appointment as governor was offered to and accepted by brigadier-general Nightingall, who had recently returned from service in the opening campaign of the Peninsula War. About the same time, choice was made of the 73rd regiment under the command of Macquarie as the proposed relief for the New South Wales Corps.

Preparations for their departure were pushed forward by both Nightingall and Macquarie. Nightingall busied himself in details of administration, and in March, 1809, selected Ellis Bent as the new judge-advocate for the colony. In the same month, Macquarie was superintending the arrangements for the embarkation of his regiment on the Hindostan, man-of-war, and the Dromedary, naval store-ship. In the midst of the preparations, Nightingall was taken ill, and about the middle of April it was realised that it would be impossible for him to undertake the government. A new governor was required, and at the end of the month Viscount Castlereagh had given the appointment to Lachlan Macquarie. His formal commission and instructions as captaingeneral and governor-in-chief were dated the 8th and 9th of May, 1809.

It is evident that the appointment of Lachlan Macquarie (then lieutenant-colonel) as governor of New South Wales was entirely due to the accidents of life. Nightingall and the 73rd regiment had been chosen to re-establish an authorised government in the colony. Macquarie as commanding officer of the regiment was practically second in command to Nightingall. The embarkation of the regiment was intended to take place within a few days, when it was announced that Nightingall's health prohibited his assuming his duties as governor. Little time was available to select a substitute, and it was not unnatural that the choice fell on Lachlan Macquarie, the virtual second in command. Macquarie's commission was dated the day after the regiment had actually embarked at Yarmouth. At the same time it must be remembered that Macquarie had influence in high quarters; he had considerable experience of administrative duties in India; his knowledge of Indian affairs had been commended by governor Duncan, of Bombay; his extended staff service had developed habits of tact, courtesy and caution in his dealings with his fellow-men; he was possessed of independent means, and was unlikely to make use of his position for his pecuniary advancement; and in minor posts. at Galle and Kohud, he had been commended for his administrative capacity.

The appointment of Macquarie no doubt appeared an excellent one according to opinions prevalent at the time, for the English government had not realised that something more was required in the governor of the colony than the mere qualifications of a service administrator, and that a good naval or military officer had many shortcomings when given arbitrary power over a civil community.

Macquarie embarked on the Dromedary, and in company with the Hindostan sailed from St. Helens on the 22nd of May, 1809. After a tedious voyage, the two ships entered Port Jackson on the 28th of December following, but owing to adverse winds it was two days later before anchor was cast in Sydney Cove. On the following morning, Sunday, the 31st of December, Macquarie made his official landing, and was received with due formality by lieutenant-governor Paterson and lieutenant-colonel Foveaux. His commission was read on the following day, and Macquarie assumed the administration.

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Macquarie's government was commenced under the most favourable auspices. For the first time, the governor-in-chief held in his own hands the executive command of the colony and the military command of the troops. By this means the old antagonism between the executive and military powers was modified. This antagonism had been the principal factor in causing unrest and discontent in the colony since the days of Governor Phillip.

He carried with him orders for the recall of the New South Wales Corps. This regiment and its partisans had become the dominant factor in the colony, and its influence had been usually detrimental to the general interests. Its officers constituted the majority in the criminal courts. All ranks had been permitted to indulge in trade, and many of its officers had acquired considerable wealth by traffic in land and spirits. During two periods, 17931795 and 1808-1809, its officers had held the executive power, and had exercised it almost entirely in the personal interests of themselves and their partisans. The mere fact of being the dominant party during a term of nearly twenty years had given the leaders of the regiment their enormous influence. By the recall of the regiment, this power was broken.

John Macarthur had sailed for England in the Admiral Gambier. He had been the most turbulent individual opponent of the executive power. His adverse influence was recognised in England, and his return to the colony was prohibited by the secretary of state until September, 1817.

The English government realised that a change in the form of the administration was necessary. The system based on the fundamental principles of a military occupation was no longer tenable, and it was necessary to formulate a new constitution, giving extended powers and rights to the civil community. Macquarie carried instructions to examine and report on the necessity for a re-constitution of the law courts. Further, the English government was ready to commence reforms and acted promptly on the report of the select committee of the House of Commons and on Macquarie's reports in many instances.

The small settlers, the emancipists, and the expirees were beginning to assert their rights, and the removal of the dominance of the military enabled Macquarie to do some justice to this class.

Under these circumstances, Macquarie commenced his administration. He was energetic, and did not spare himself in his desire to obtain a personal knowledge of the country, as is shown by his two visits to Tasmania and his various tours of inspection in New South Wales. He was far-seeing in so far as he recognised the future possibilities of the colony. His administration was vigorous, but was marred by an ill-regulated judgment. He created the first Australian "boom" by the lavish expenditure of public money, which was followed by the inevitable reaction after his departure.

Macquarie's far-sighted policy had two main objects-the material development of the country, and the reinstatement of the emancipists and expirees to a position in the civil life of the colony. But in the pursuit of both these objects, he showed the want of a well-balanced judgment.

He developed the country by encouraging exploration, by improving the means of communication, and by the laying out of towns. His encouragement of exploration has had far-reaching effects. He sent G. W. Evans and John Oxley on expeditions, which opened up the western watershed of New South Wales; but the credit due to him for these results was diminished by his extraordinary neglect in making due acknowledgment to G. Blaxland, W. Lawson, and W. C. Wentworth for their strenuous exertions in a private capacity in discovering the practicable route across the Blue Mountains. The improvement of the means of communication was a much-needed labour, which had been greatly neglected by his predecessors. Macquarie constructed roads in all the settled. districts, and made the western districts accessible, soon after they were discovered, by making a road across the mountains. These roads proved an incalculable boon to the colonists. He selected sites for towns and laid them out according to well-considered plans, but in the development of these towns his judgment failed him. It was impossible to foresee the requirements of any town, and the erection of large and substantial buildings, before the necessity for such buildings was evident, was a distinct error of judgment. Commissioner J. T. Bigge, in his report to the House of Commons on the state of New South Wales, stated, "It has been his (Macquarie's) misfortune to mistake the improvement and embellishment of the towns for proofs of the solid prosperity

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