[Footnote 78: "Whereas it may be found necessary that a colony and a civil government should be established, and that a court of criminal jurisdiction should also be established, with authority to proceed in a more summary way than is used within this realm, according to the known and established laws thereof." The court, described as above, is then authorised, to try "outrages and misbehaviours, as if committed in this realm would be treason or misprision thereof, felony or misdemeanour."--27 Geo. iii. Nothing is said of legislative power.] [Footnote 79: _Collins_, vol. i. p. 32.] [Footnote 80: _Bigge's Jud. Report_, p. 34.] [Footnote 81: Holt has left a graphic picture of a justice, which must be received, perhaps, with some reservation;--"I was walking with Barrington, the most accomplished pickpocket: he was arm-in-arm with Richard Atkins, Esq. I wished to have some conversation with them. A bottle of rum was produced, and some pleasant conversation about Ireland passed. At length I wished to retire, and Mr. A. said he never allowed any bottle off his table till he saw it emptied. We finished the half gallon bottle, and of course were not a little elevated. Mr. A. acted as a kind of deputy, when Judge Dore was not able, which not unfrequently happened: when spirits were plenty in the colony, he was generally indisposed." Mr. Croker adds, that "Atkins was appointed as a substitute to Collins in 1796, by the secretary of state, until the arrival of Mr. Dore in 1797."] [Footnote 82: _Bigge's Jud. Report_, p. 2. At Norfolk Island a court of criminal jurisdiction departed still further from the precedents of civil justice. An act authorised the government to convene a court of four military or naval officers, to decide on questions of life and death, even when free men were implicated.] [Footnote 83: "Yesterday, the bench assembled, when a free man, formerly belonging to Fort Dalrymple, was found guilty of stealing a silver watch from George Guest, jun., his property, and sentenced to labor for the government for the term of five years, and moreover to receive 500 lashes."--_Derwent Star, Feb. 6th_, 1810.] [Footnote 84: _Holt's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 202.] [Footnote 85: Such punishments were not always unmerited, but they were capricious. A magistrate tied a carter to the wheel of his waggon, and inflicted 300 lashes for cruelty to his bullocks; but Dr. Montgarret ordered the blacksmith to be flogged, for presenting his bill!] [Footnote 86: _Mann's Picture of New South Wales_, 1811.] [Footnote 87: _Bentham's Plea._] [Footnote 88: _Bigge's Jud. Report_, p. 17.] [Footnote 89: Ibid.] [Footnote 90: _Bigge's Jud. Report_, p. 6. _Wentworth_, p. 43. edit. of 1820.] [Footnote 91: _Bigge's Report_, p. 48.] [Footnote 92: _Macarthur's New South Wales: its present state and future prospects_, 1837.] [Footnote 93: _Bigge's Report._] [Footnote 94: 59 Geo. iii. 1819.]