Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/297
At the same time he asked for copies of the Statutes at
Large, "particularly the late Acts respecting Sedition and
seditious meetings, of which we are much in want." One
of the Scotch exiles, not honoured with notice on the
Edinburgh monument, was a thorough revolutionist, though
not of the mean type of Margarot. When King sailed
from England in 1799 he took with him a person to teach
and superintend a linen factory in the colony. The man
was drowned at sea. Among the convicts was the Scotch
enthusiast Mealmaker. He had been of sufficient importance to preside at some of the meetings of the Edinburgh
Convention. Unlike Margarot, he was industrious, and
King made him superintendent of the linen factory. But
it was not likely that he would escape from the malign
influence of Margarot, and Mealmaker was alleged to have
been drawn into plots, which caused him to be shipped to
Norfolk Island. He averred his innocence, and it is pleasing to know that he was soon released. Margarot wrote
(April 1802) that "King, au poltron et fou, desarma tous
les habitans (pour renforcer ses ennemis les officiers)," but
added afterwards that King appeared "très rassuré en
apparance," and ordered Margarot "me rendre a Parramatta." To try his patience, in July Margarot applied for
leave to land 20 gallons of rum for his own use. The
Governor took the paper and—"il le déchira sans mot dire."
Until 1802 it had not been definitely fixed that King should be appointed actual Governor. As Lt.-Governor he had superseded Hunter in 1800, and it was not until Jan. 1802 that Lord Hobart informed him that he had been made Governor.
There was a peculiar Irish difficulty in the colony. Irish prisoners had been sent there without information as to the nature of their sentences. King applied for it, and Lord Hobart sent him the following reply from Lord Hardwicke at Dublin: "Their sentences were mostly by courts-martial prior to the time when the proceedings of such courts were sanctioned by law, and in other instances the convictions were summary before magistrates, who exercised their powers under the Injunction Acts, and whose proceedings were in the disturbed state of the country not recorded." Some sent by one vessel "were