The legislative council passed several acts of great colonial consequence. The Abolition of Differential Duties Bill (July, '46) exacted the 15 per cent, ad valorem on colonial commerce, in obedience to the policy of ministers. Thus the inter-colonial trade was loaded with burdens of great severity, and in many instances it was cheaper to send raw material to London and import English, than to exchange colonial manufactures. The measure was welcomed by some sheep-holding members as a tax on Port Phillip sheep, but the government disclaimed any other object than the increase of the revenue. A heavy retaliatory rate was then imposed by the New South Wales legislature. They however addressed their governor to obtain, if possible, a disallowance of the exactions of Wilmot. Messrs. Dunn, Orr, and Stieglitz entered their protest against the bill, and avowed the principles of free trade.
A bill for electing commissioners of paving and lighting for the city of Hobart passed the council (August, '46), and although disliked as an indirect scheme of taxation, was not unpopular. The first election under it occasioned a keen competition and considerable excitement. It was the first instance of representation, but the bill made no provision for a scrutiny, and the returning officer declared the poll against the protests of the defeated candidates. Many fictitious votes had swollen the numbers of their antagonists. The commissioners sat for some months, and gave exemplary attention to their duties; but when the time came for rating the city, the defect of their election appalled them. This objection was long foreseen. An election without a scrutiny might not be founded on one valid vote. The government, unwilling to admit the defect of the bill, did not attempt to reform its details, and at length it fell into disuetude.
A measure of still greater ultimate importance was enacted by the council, intended "to restrict the increase of dogs." A heavy tax was imposed on the keepers of this indispensable protector of house and fold. The multitude running about the streets was felt to be a nuisance, and the destruction of flocks required some check; but the frame-work of the bill was objectionable, and the charge excessive. It will be seen hereafter that the tax occasioned the most serious disputes.
The administration of Sir E. Wilmot was, however, suddenly brought to a close. Reports, forwarded by Mr. Forster, and adopted by the governor, extolled the outlines of Lord Stanley's system, while events were constantly occurring which, amply sustained by respectable testimony, demonstrated its sad consequences. Evils of a serious nature were extensively prevalent,—some, inseparable from every scheme of penal discipline, others aggravated by the excessive dimensions of the probation system, and not a few the result of the failure of demand for labor. The worst effects of sensuality were the most alarming feature of the system, but even they were probably only more flagrant because the extent of transportation gave them a wider range. Remedial measures demanded an outlay and inspection which the instructions of the home government had prohibited in language the most distinct. The ministers, having tied up the governor's hands, complained that he had carried economy to a pernicious extent, and in reporting the state of the prisoners, had passed over important questions. But those who examine the despatches of Wilmot with care will be compelled to question the accuracy of these complaints. There is scarcely an evil which the progress of the scheme unfolded that he did not admit and illustrate. These evils he thought partly accidental and partly inevitable in all penal schemes; but still he maintained that, with all its defects, the probation system, as such, was the best ever devised by the British ministry. Lord Stanley indeed stated that in "five reports from Captain Forster and seventeen despatches from Wilmot, he had either received no intelligence or that their remarks were casual, slight, and few." Thus at the end of three years he found himself destitute of any clear understanding in reference to the conclusions which Mr. Forster, as the immediate agent, or the governor, as the chief superintendent, must have formed respecting the soundness of the principles or the wisdom of the plans which both had been called upon to administer (September, '45). It was thus apparent that the colonial-office held the governor responsible not only for obedience to positive instructions, but for their results; and that, in the event of a sacrifice being required, the officers on the spot would be devoted: and so it happened.
In closing the session (September, 1845) Sir E. Wilmot announced his recall. Although not usual then to address the council, he stated that he could not permit the members to disperse without acknowledging their assistance. A delusion for a time might expose a public man to popular injustice; but however misjudged, either during his life-time or after death, his character would require no other vindication than truth would afford. He informed them that his recall was not occasioned by his differences with the late members, but was ascribed to an imputed neglect of the moral and religious welfare of the prisoners; and he added, that the memory of their kindness would remain with him during the short remainder of his life.
Mr. Gladstone, who had received the seals of office, conveyed to Wilmot the notice of his removal. The despatch is a singular example of its author's mental habits. While he complained that the governor's statements were obscure, he gave his own views in odd and scarcely intelligible terms. Thus, the governor had adverted to the moral condition of the convicts "in a manner too little penetrating:" he had not made it a point of his duty "to examine the inner world of their mental, moral, and spiritual state." Mr. Gladstone charged him with neglecting the vices of the stations—an error in judgment so serious as to render his removal imperative. These whimsical terms of reprobation excited universal astonishment. Practical men felt that the knowledge of the thirty thousand prisoners except by their conduct, to be ascertained by collating statistics, was rather more difficult than the hopeless task of similar investigations in ordinary life. The English press, with some truth and bitterness, described such demands as an encouragement of hypocrisy and religious pretence. No wise or good man will discredit religious teaching, but all such will look with suspicion, if not dread, and even disgust, on the statistics of prison piety—generally false and designing, in proportion as it is loud and ostentatious. The defects of the governor as a legislator were not taken into account. Mr. Gladstone indeed attempted to balance with much precision the merits of the patriotic six. He admitted that advice and assistance to the Queen might sometimes take the form of strenuous opposition to the executive. He denied the distinction between the offices of an elective and of a nominee legislator—between a council of advice and a representative legislature. He doubted whether Wilmot had properly calculated the difficulties which would follow the passing of the estimates, or the sympathy which the six would receive from the people. He censured mildly the accusation of disloyalty, but at the same time he stated the quarrel with the six was in no degree the cause of the recall.
In his last address to the council Wilmot alluded to the benign influence of time on a slandered reputation. This was soon after explained. Mr. Secretary Gladstone had accompanied the recall with a private letter which stated that rumors reflecting on the governor's moral character had reached the colonial-office, of a nature to hinder his future employment. Nothing specific was stated, and no clue to enquiry given. Rumors had been long current, and they were spread with activity. The Atlas, a Sydney journal, compared the governor to the tyrant of Capreæ, and referred to his private habits with expressions of disgust. Remarks of a similar tendency appeared in a London periodical. It stated that the conduct of Wilmot excluded the respectable inhabitants of Hobart from his society, and made it impossible for ladies to enter his house. This was instantly rebutted by Sir John Pedder and other official persons, who declared their entire disbelief in these charges.
Wilmot conjured Mr. Gladstone to state the time, place, and circumstances, the names of his accusers, and the exact nature of their imputations. In reply he observed that the persons who mentioned these rumors did not profess to support their credit by any statement of particulars, but to found them on general notoriety. He added that it "was not in his power to convey what he had not received." In the House of Commons a fuller explanation was afterwards given, in a discussion raised by Mr. Spooner, a Warwickshire member. It was then stated that the authors of the report were persons in the service of the crown, both in England and in the colony, and its effect, that the accused was living in scarcely concealed concubinage with several women. These preposterous imputations melted away the moment they were touched. Sir Robert Peel, an old neighbor of Wilmot, was highly displeased with the interference of Mr. Gladstone, and pronounced the charges unworthy of belief. The eldest son of Wilmot appealed to Earl Grey for a formal vindication, but he declined expressing an opinion, although earnestly pressed; and excused himself by alleging that, independently of this charge, there was ample justification of the recall. It would have been no great stretch of generosity had a minister admitted that rumors set up as a bar to employment were no longer barriers to the confidence of the crown. Mr. Chester, a brother of Lady Wilmot, transmitted an address[247] presented to Sir Eardley to the Bishop of Tasmania, for his remarks. He replied he could not tell to what reports it alluded, and could not contradict them; but that rumors of the kind had fallen under his observation which he had proved to be groundless: charges had been whispered, but none had been substantiated (May, '47).
The reports in disparagement of Wilmot originated in the freedom of his address—perfectly innocent in itself, but liable to misconstruction. The credit they received depended entirely on the party sympathies of the listener, and they grew as they went. No one, however, attached much importance to them on the spot. Mr. Gladstone was condemned for entertaining them. He seems more worthy of censure for his indefinite method of stating their nature and the authority on which they rested. The moral character of a governor is of moment to a colony, and a just consideration in his appointment; but when assailed it should certainly have all the protection of a full and open enquiry.
No governor ever was more unfortunate in his political position. He could only tax and restrain. There was nothing in his gift. To the substantial difficulties of the people around him he was unable to offer more than those general assurances which often exasperate rather than console. The state of religious parties increased his disquiet. He had to adjust the claims of churches to spiritual authority. In declining to erect ecclesiastical courts Wilmot not only gratified many, but he followed the direction of his legal advisers.