An Act for the more effectual Resumption of Crown and Church and School Lands was passed and assented to on 29th September.

On the 2nd September, 1829, the Governor laid before the Council, "An Act for regulating the Trial by Jury of actions at Law brought in the Supreme Court," and called attention to the circumstance that several blanks had been left in the Bill in respect to the qualification of Jurors, and the number to be fixed to try actions. The Bill was read a second time on the 11th September. In Committee, on 15th, the Chief Justice moved that the following be the qualification of jurors, viz. :

"Every man (except such as shall hereafter be excepted) between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, who shall reside within the Colony of New South Wales, and shall have in his own name or in trust for him, a clear yearly income arising out of lands, houses, or other real estate, within the said Colony, of at least fifty pounds."

This was agreed to. The Chief Justice then moved,—“That two hundred pounds of personal estate be likewise a qualification for Jurors." The Archdeacon moved an amendment, that five hundred pounds be the minimum. The original motion was carried by 10 to 3. The Chief Justice then moved that the following clause be adopted in the Bill, which motion was agreed to, viz. :

"Provided also, and be it further enacted and declared, that no man, not being a natural born subject of the King, is or shall be qualified to serve on Juries or Inquests; and no man who hath been or shall be attainted of any treason or felony, or convicted of any crime that is infamous, unless he shall have obtained a free pardon, nor any man who is under outlawry or excommunication, shall be qualified to serve on Juries or Inquests in any Court, or on any occasion whatsoever."

The next day the Venerable William Grant Broughton, Archdeacon of New South Wales (successor to Archdeacon Scott), took his seat at the Council.

On the 24th the Council resumed, in Committee, the discussion on the Jury Bill. The Chief Justice moved, that transported convicts who had also been convicted in the Colony of Felony or Treason should be disqualified from serving as Jurors, which was agreed to. After various suggestions and proposals had been made by different members, it was ordered, on the motion of the Chief Justice, that the Bill be referred to a sub-committee, which was instructed to prepare a Bill upon certain general principles.

On the 29th September, the Chief Justice brought up the amended Jury Bill, which had been prepared by the sub

committee upon the general principles laid down by the Council. During its consideration, Mr. John Thomas Campbell moved that the clause disqualifying persons twice convicted should be confined to persons subsequently convicted in the Colony, which was seconded by the Colonial Secretary, and agreed to.

On the 5th October, the Governor informed the Council that he had approved of the amendments they had proposed on the Jury Bill, and now laid it again before them in order to its being passed into law. The Bill was then read a third time. On the 9th October the Bill, intituled-" An Act for regulating the constitution of Juries for the trial of Civil Issues in the Supreme Court of New South Wales"-was passed. The Act conferred a discretionary power upon the Judges of the Supreme Court, enabling them to order a trial by a jury of twelve civilians in any civil case in which either of the parties to the suit should claim to have it so tried. The clause enacting that no man should be qualified to serve on a civil jury who had been or should be attainted of crime, unless he had received a pardon, was interpreted as excluding the great bulk of the Emancipists, and gave rise to much subsequent social conflict.

On 18th January, 1830, Mr. Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur having been appointed by His Excellency the Governor to the vacancy in the Council occasioned by the death of Mr. John Thomas Campbell, took his seat at the Council.

The Governor, on 27th January, then laid before the Council a Bill to amend the Act for regulating the publica. tion of Newspapers, which had been passed in 1827. This was, on 29th January, passed and assented to. Certain provisions of the Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act were repealed, the most notable of which was that referring to the punishment for said libels. In lieu of the former provision, one was inserted providing that persons twice convicted should be banished from the Colony for a term not less than two nor more than seven years, as the Court might order.

The Governor then presented to the Council a Bill for the amendment of an Act lately passed for regulating Trials by Jury in Civil Cases. He desired the Clerk to read an extract from the despatch received from the Right Honorable the Secretary of State, relative to the establishment of Juries, which having been read accordingly, the Governor observed, that understanding it was the intention of some of the inhabitants to petition Parliament on the subject of extending

trial by Jury to this Colony, he was desirous of drawing the attention of the Council to the circumstance of the Secretary of State having directed in the despatch which had just been read, that the members should be called on to state their opinion, for the information of Her Majesty's Government, as to the expediency of introducing generally Trial by Jury. He said he had adverted to this circumstance to show that His Majesty's Government was not opposed to the measure, should it appear that the Colony was in a state to profit by it; and he assured the Council, should this prove to be the fact, that the Local Government would be found in no way inimical to it. The Governor then pointed out how unadvisable it appeared, considering the disposition which Government had evinced to adopt the measure in question, to attempt to force it prematurely to do so, conceiving, as he did, that it was impossible for the Secretary of State to accede to any application which might be made from the colony, until he should be put in possession of the sentiments of the Council as required by the despatch. He further observed that although persons outside the Council, in ignorance of the instructions he had received from home, might naturally feel anxious to urge on the matter, this anxiety would not attach to the members of the Council. They knew the nature of those instructions, and the readiness the Government had already evinced to introduce Trial by Jury. With that knowledge, they would not press the Government to adopt that measure until satisfactory information had been received that it could be adopted advantageously. The Governor then explained the reason why he had not yet called on the Council for their opinion, and stated it to be from a desire that the members should have an opportunity of ascertaining how the juries in civil cases, according to the arrangements now in progress, answered the object intended. The Governor repeated, in conclusion, that there was no disposition whatever on the part of the local Government to interfere with the introduction of Trial by Jury, but he begged again to point out that whatever steps gentlemen out of doors might take, being unacquainted with the Secretary of State's instructions, it might be as well that the members of Council should abstain from interfering or appearing to force the Government, by subscribing to any petition for such purpose.

The Bill was on the 3rd February passed and assented to. It enacted that nothing contained in the Juries for Civil Issues Act of 1829 should be construed to the qualifying

"of any person who, either while serving under a sentence passed upon him in any part of the British dominions, or after the expiration or remission of such sentence, shall have been convicted in New South Wales of any treason, felony, or other infamous offence."

A Licensing Act and a Customs Act were also passed in 1830.

On 20th September, 1831, the Council, after a lapse of sixteen months, resumed its sittings. His Excellency laid before the Council a statement of the Revenue and Expenditure of the last year, together with a Comparative Statement of the same for 1829 and 1830.

A Bill to repeal so much of the amended Libel Act of 1830 as related to the sentence of banishment for the second offence, was also laid before the Council, and on 27th September passed.

A second expedition under Captain Sturt, to proceed down the Murrumbidgee, and thus penetrate the south-west interior, was fitted out in November, 1829. Along the upper course of that river-N.W. by W.-a succession of flats was discovered, which, according to Captain Sturt, for richness of soil and for abundance of pasture could nowhere be excelled. Farther to the westward an inferior, and approaching its junction with the Lachlan a still inferior, country was opened up. About 50 miles to the westward of the latter the Murrumbidgee, taking a south-westerly course, emptied into a noble river flowing from the east, which Captain Sturt named the Murray. "Its reaches," the discoverer wrote, "were from half to three-quarters of a mile in length, and the views upon it were splendid; its transparent waters were running over a sandy bed at the rate of two and a half knots an hour, and its banks, although averaging 18 feet in height, were evidently subject to floods." Pursuing their journey in spite of many obstacles and dangers the brave band of explorers discovered in longitude 142° E. the junction of the Darling with the Murray. Still onward pursuing the course of this grand stream, which in longitude 139° 40', latitude 40°, altered its course to the southward, they reached Lake Alexandrina, and discovered the future province of South Australia. In the course of another journey to the northward in 1827 Mr. Allan Cunningham crossed four considerable streams forming the upper waters

of the Darling, two of which he named the Gwydir and the Dumaresq. He also discovered, in the latitude of Moreton Bay, a splendid tract of pastoral country, which he named the Darling Downs. These Downs, which are nearly 2,000 feet above sea-level, are now all occupied by pastoralists and agriculturists.

Australian geographical discovery made considerable progress under Governor Darling. The outcome of the drought of 1812 was the discovery of the fertile plains beyond the Blue Mountains; the outcome of the drought of 1826 was the discovery of the Darling by Captain Sturt, and subsequently of the future province of South Australia. With the view of solving the problem to which Oxley's former expeditions to the Macquarie had given rise, Captain Charles Sturt, an enthusiast in the cause of discovery, accompanied by Mr. Hamilton Hume, set out on the 10th September, 1828, on an expedition commissioned by the Governor. On the 26th December they reached the great marshes whence Oxley had been forced to retreat. To the northward, however, a chain of ponds was discovered communicating with the dry bed of a torrent which Captain Sturt regarded as the re-appearance of the Macquarie. This torrent was

traced further north, and found to communicate with a large salt-water river, which the explorer named the Darling. Having traced this river for 90 miles, first in a northwesterly and afterwards in a westerly course, Captain Sturt reluctantly returned. "In the lower part of its ascertained course, it was 60 yards in width at the extremity of the drought, and was flowing to the south in majestic loneliness."

The influx of free immigrants had received a check from the financial reverses that occurred in 1827 and 1828, in consequence of the sheep and cattle mania. But Dr. Lang, who had been refused assistance by the Governor in establishing the Australian College, visited England, and having appealed with success to the Home authorities, returned to the Colony in 1831, bringing with him in the Stirling Castle" about sixty Scotch mechanics, with their wives and families. A vessel also arrived from Ireland about the same time, bringing fifty young women, trained in an orphan school in Cork.

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The Sydney Water Supply was commenced during Darling's administration. Up to this time the inhabitants of Sydney