wore the appearance of public welcome.

The open and affable address of the governor attracted the people. He
rapidly traversed the island. The agricultural knowledge he possessed,
his promptitude in forming and expressing opinions, contrasted with the
habits and manners of his predecessor. Those who were experienced in
official life foresaw the dangers of a temper so free and of movements
so informal. The opponents of the late governor recommended the neglect
of all the distinctions which had limited intercourse, and some persons,
never before seen at government-house, were admitted to the closet, and
boasted their intimacy and influence.

Scarcely had Wilmot entered office, when an exercise of mercy brought
him into collision with one of the judges. Kavanagh, a notorious
bushranger, was condemned to death. He had fired on a settler, whose
house he attempted to pillage. In giving sentence the judge remarked
that he had seldom tried a culprit stained with so great an aggregate of
crime. Ten minutes before the time appointed for his execution the
governor granted a reprieve. Judge Montagu was indignant, and those who
had suffered by the depredations of the robber shared in his opinion.
The press, in commenting on the commutation, predicted that the culprit
would not long escape the scaffold. He was implicated in the murders of
Norfolk Island, and suffered death (1846). Judge Montagu, shortly after
the reprieve, tried four men for a similar crime, and instead of
pronouncing sentence, directed death to be recorded. He stated that the
sparing of Kavanagh could only be justified by the almost total
abolition of capital punishment. At a meeting of the Midland
Agricultural Association Wilmot noticed these reflections, and declared
that he would never inflict death in consideration of offences not on
the records of the court, and that in this case robbery only had been
proved. He thus early complained of anonymous attacks, and admitted that
in offering these explanations he was out-stepping the line of his
situation. Topics of a far more agreeable nature were suggested by the
special business of the day. He dwelt with great fluency on the
advantages of agriculture, and dilated on the importance of independent
tenants and an industrious peasantry. "You," he observed, "are to
consider yourselves as the column of a lofty pillar; but, depend upon
it, a tenantry form the pedestal,--a virtuous, moral, and industrious
peasantry the