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[Page 6]
although I have deliberated to this moment on the oath I have taken so far back as the 25th of January, I am still firmly persuaded and convinced that I was not in error, for the Prisoner Mr. McArthur was not in my custody, nor in any Custody that I knew of, at the time I made the Deposition to that effect: but he could not be in the custody of any other Person without executing a legal Bond to me.
Lastly Gentlemen as in civil cases I am answerable to the party injured, so in criminal matters to the Crown. Had I of my own mere discretion any right and authority to permit the prisoner Mr. McArthur to be delivered to his former Bail without observing even the formality of a Bond? Would I not have exposed myself to a prosecution at the suit of the crown, and would I not be indebted to the lenity and forbearance of His Excellency Governor Bligh, if he did not instantly on the affair coming to his knowledge place me under an arrest and call a court martial, on me, if my offence was a military one, or would he not, put the question in