Letter: Governor of NSW Lachlan Macquarie to Reverend Samuel Marsden, 13 April 1814
Governor of NSW Lachlan Macquarie
University of Otago Library
Digitised from the Hocken LibraryCollection Number MS-0054/038
Trimble 38
CMS Number 33
Digitised by the Marsden Online Archive
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Letter
Maori Subject Headings
Reverend Samuel Marsden
13 April 1814
New South Wales, Australia
New South Wales, Australia
14 November 1814
British English
Political science
Dwellings
Government
House
13th
April
1814
Sydney gazette
19th
March
Macquarie
Marsden
Chaplain
Wales
Government House Sydney, 13th April 1814 Sir, I am favoredfavoured with your Letter of the 9th Instant, and am sorry to find that you feel a necessity for Complaining of two anonymous Papers Published in the Sydney Gazette on the 19th of March and 2nd Instant, which you consider as attacks upon your Character— It is scarcely necessary for me to observe to you, that altho’although the Sydney Gazette is Published by authority, yet it is not thence to be inferred that each particular Paragraph, or Article contained in it, is either warranted by Authority or at all times approved of when Published.
The Publications, in the Sydney Gazette, are meant to Convey, in addition to the Notifications of Government itself, such useful information as the Editor can collect, so as to fill his Pages and render them at Once useful and interesting; And much care has been taken to prevent the Gazette from becoming the medium of Slander or illiberal attacks upon any Individual, within the Period of my Administration of this Government. The Series of Letters which appeared in the Gazettes, commencing with the Paper of the 5th Ultoultimo and ending with that of the 2nd Instant, in which are included those of which you complain, certainly did not appear to me of that offensive Personal Nature, which you consider them, else I should have made the Editor answerable for their insertion— This, however, being matter of opinion, in which I may be Mistaken, I see only One Mode of redress to which you can resort, which
is an Appeal to the Courts of Justice, And if the Letters should be there deemed “Criminal”, the Editor will for his own sake avow the Author— For other Motives than those of Justice, it does not appear reasonable to require a Surrender of the Author’s Name; And I would not feel Myself acting with that impartiality which my situation demands, and my own disposition dictates, were I to require an exposure in a Case where Criminality does not attach in my view of the Publications in question;— I am Sir, Your most obed[ien]t Ser[van]t (Signed) L. Macquarie To the Revd Samuel Marsden Principal Chaplain of N.S. Wales Parramatta