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Sir, Impressed with the most lively sense of the wrongs you have suffered, I feel my indignation roused to a great degree at the recent outrage which has been offered to your person. Was it not sufficient, that those Men who have so daringly subverted His Majesty’s Government in the colony, and who have subjected Your Excellency to such a long and painful imprisonment, surrounding you constantly with armed Men, and impudently circulating the most scandalous falsehoods to undermine your reputation and cheat the deluded people, to answer their own diabolical ends, was not this sufficient but they must add afresh to their crimes: as though they had grown wanton in power and would gratify themselves by insolence and cruelty.— Down my nature was shocked when I beheld my much respected and worthy Governor forced from his House and taken through the streets of Sydney, under every insult and indignity that could be offered—your amiable and truly affectionate Daughter following in the agony of grief, dreading what might be the fate of her beloved Father while in the hands of such Men.— Every thing was to be dreaded, particularly when we reflect how deeply they had involved themselves in Guilt.— Reason and Equity, Truth and Justice, afford but a feeble protection against your Enemies already loaded with crimes, and who possess the armed Force of the Colony.— Though perhaps they would

(Page 2) not have recourse to the dangerous expedient of putting you to Death, yet would endeavour by the rigour of your confinement and by loading you with calumny, to break your spirits and destroy your health.— Happily our apprehension for Your Excellency’s safety are in part removed; since you have been permitted to return to your House, and your friends are allowed to visit You.

I must Sir I am confident have required no common share of fortitude to have supported You under the many evils, insults, and calamities that have surrounded you during your long and painful confinement in this infamous Country.— But Sir the Just and Virtuous mind always finds resources within itself which enables it to bear up against the baseness and ingratitude of mankind, such alone can have supported Your Excellency; confident in your own uprightness, and the goodness of your intentions; such reflections alone are capable in times of affliction and distress of giving comfort.— Believe me Sir when I tell You this is the language of sincerity, and that it is from the heart of one who is devoted to your cause from a sense of the wrongs you have suffered; and who is further instigated to give You his support from a sense of Duty.— Respect and attachment to Your Excellency, I consider as loyalty to my beloved Sovereign— Though I am now suffering

(Page 3) for that attachment, I esteem it an honor.— Yes Sir, I thank God that I have had discernment to know the Duty I owe to my King and Country, and that as an Englishman, as a British Subject, I am bound to risk my life in their defence,— and shall I not abide by my lawful Governor— him who has spent a long life in their service, who has so frequently exposed his life for their glory, and who in the service of his King and Country, has gained immortal honor.

If the laws are not enforced and respected, how can we hope for their protection.— When an Individual daringly puts the law at defiance, and places himself above all established Authority; and having corrupted the Armed-Force to join him; what then remains to enforce and protect the Laws in a colony so far removed from the Mother Country.— History informs us that Governments have commonly been overturned by that power which was fed to protect them.— The evil has here been some time growing, and having met with an incendiary fit to put it in motion it at length burst forth.— One of the first causes of our present evils, was the Officers of the Establishment, connecting themselves with the Convict Women with whom they think it no disgrace openly to cohabit, and appear in public as though they were their lawful Wives;— And indeed these Women have a much

(Page 4) greater influence over them than a virtuous woman, and instigate them to things which a virtuous woman would be ashamed of.— This brought on a connection with the other class of convicts and laid the foundation for dealing and extortion, and made the interest of the Officers and Convicts inseparable.— Another evil had its root in the enlisting convicts into the New South Wales Corps.— How is it possible that Men who have for the most part from the earliest period of their lives been accustomed to violate Laws and Property can become the Guardians of either.—

It was obvious to every one that the measures Your Excellency had adopted were calculated to remove many existing abuses, and promote generally the welfare of individuals and the prosperity of the colony.— But the evil had gone too far— the remedy though a good one was applied too late.— However it is to be hoped that the daring outrages which have been committed will rouse the vigilance of Government, and lay open the secret springs of baseness which have so long existed in the colony.

Let a Governor’s abilities be ever so great he can do nothing here unless he is

(Page 5) supported by virtuous and honorable Men, who will do their duty.— The object of the Officers has been to accumulate wealth, and from the length of time they have many of them been in the colony, and the Authority and influence they have had, together with their connections, has given them great opportunity of gratifying their Avarice.— As long as they had a Governor who would parcel out the Land to them and would buy their support with Permits for Spirits and other indulgences, it was very well.— But when a Governor came unacquainted with the mean acts by which they were to be managed.— But who was determined to do his duty and govern from himself, who looked to the general good, whose object was to suppress Vice, to cherish and promote industry by every laudable means.— A combination was quickly formed against him, and every obstacle thrown in the way of his Government, and they even argued that if he would not be governed by them, he should not be Governor.—

I leave every Man to judge how formidable the opposition to a Governor may be made when there are Men in the colony who came convicts who are said to live at the rate of Three Thousand Pounds a Year.— Our Courts of Justice are not free from objection.— They in a great measure made every Man dependent on the Military— and he who shall be so unfortunate as to

(Page 6) send one of these can have that small hopes of Justice.— In the present system an honest and independent spirited Man if he lives in this colony must be content with poverty and misery.— I would ask any unprejudiced man what chance of Justice I could expect, when out of respect and duty to Your Excellency, I had given offence to Colonel Foveaux; he appoints six of his Officers to try me, immediately under his command.— This is certainly contrary to every principle of justice.— It is true while there is a Governor independent of the Military; there is an Appeal beyond them; but in the present unfortunate state of the colony there is none, and all causes both Civil and Criminal will be decided agreeable to their interest.

Whatever fate may attend You Sir, I shall be proud to be ranked among the number of your friends— and my services be ever both from Duty and inclination at your command. I have the honor to be, Your Excellency’s ever faithful and most obedient Humble Servant (Signed) Geo. Suttor

(Page 7) [Annotation on the back of the document] Copy of an Address to Governor Bligh from Mr. George Suttor (Free Settler) confined in Sydney Gaol