ence, was a sufficient
compensation. But the charge for constabulary and prisons gradually
increased to L36,000. The land fund, after deducting L97,000, expended
for emigration, for the support of aborigines, and the working of the
land office, yielded in ten years a surplus of L207,000, carried to the
general revenue; but during this time the charge for police and gaols
exceeded L311,000. The increase of judicial expenses, and especially of
witnesses, was proportionately great; and this last item in one year
(1846), although most lighter crimes were disposed of in a summary way,
rose to L6,000. The execution of public works by the crown had been the
sole vindication of these charges. From this arrangement Lord Stanley
departed, and in peremptory terms prohibited a spade to be moved but on
payment from the colonial treasury. Thus at a season of commercial
stagnation the benefit of convict labor was withdrawn, while the charges
for police and gaols rose to one-third of the entire revenue of the
colony, and in two years and a-half a debt accumulated to L100,000.

Notwithstanding the obvious injustice of this burden, the treatment of
the New South Wales legislature gave slight hope of redress. Lord
Stanley directed Sir George Gipps to obviate the threatened resistance
of that council by hastening pardons to the prisoners, by withdrawing
them from the service of the settlers, and by sending those not
otherwise disposable to Van Diemen's Land. He was forbidden to relieve
extreme financial difficulties by drafts on England, or draw from the
military chest, although at the period an immense body of convicts
remained long after transportation had ceased. This disregard of a more
powerful colony led the people of Van Diemen's Land to infer that from a
minister so unscrupulous no justice could be expected while evasion was
possible.

Wilmot was deeply embarrassed, but he determined to adhere to the
instructions of the secretary of state, whose distance prevented his
perceiving the hopelessness of his project until that discovery was
unavailing. The positive nature of these injunctions left no room for
discretion. The governor was commanded not to adopt any detailed
regulations at variance with the scheme prescribed by the crown, or to
depart from its provisions without express authority.[234]

Sir Eardley Wilmot resolved that the utmost extent of taxation should be
tried rather than infringe the orders of Stanley. A bill to rai