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Excerpt from The History of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, Vol. 3 of 5 N ot till 1795 was a successor to Governor Phillip appointed meanwhile a military ring established themselves in power, who substituted martial for civil law, and took measures to secure a monopoly of trade, which they shamelessly exploited. Against this faction, which secured powerful allies in England and debauched the Colony, successive Governors contended in vain. Probably no other British Colony has ever fallen into a condition so debased and disgraceful as that in which the settlement of New South Wales existed for sixteen years after lieutenant-colonel Phillip's departure. Moral restraints and the common decencies of life were cast aside. Rum was recognized as the ordinary medium of exchange. The more desperate convicts escaped, and lived in the wilds as marauding bush-rangers.' Not a few who had been emancipated returned to their evil ways oggings and hangings failed to suppress the crimes of violence with which the Colony was rife. Sydney, and the little towns about it, were like unto Gomorrha.' At length the scandal of New South Wales became intolerable the inquiry instituted in 1808, on the recall of Governor Bligh, who had been actually put under arrest and deposed by the military commandant, led to drastic changes and Lieutenant Lachlan Macquarie, who ruled the Colony from 1809 to 1821, was placed in effective authority. With the aid of the more respectable settlers, whose numbers were steadily increasing, he succeeded in putting the affairs of New South Wales upon a sound basis, and earned the title of father of the Colony.' But the character of its first batch of immigrants, and the abuses which prevailed during the time of military ascendancy, left their mark in the history of New South Wales, and on the character of early Australian society. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgott