#6. The Newspaper War.#--Governor Darling was never popular. During the greater part of his period of office intrigues were continually on foot to obtain his recall; and from this state of feeling there arose what has been called the newspaper war, which lasted for four years with great violence. The first Australian newspaper had been established in 1803 by a convict named Howe. It was in a great measure supported by the patronage of the Government, and the Governors always exercised the right of forbidding the insertion of what they disliked. Hence this paper, the _Sydney Gazette_, was considered to be the Government organ, and, accordingly, its opinions of the Governors and their acts were greatly distrusted. But, during the time of Brisbane, an independent newspaper, the _Australian_, was established by Mr. Wentworth and Dr. Wardell. A second of the same kind soon followed, and was called the _Monitor_. These papers found it to their advantage, during the unpopularity of Darling, to criticise severely the acts of that Governor, who was defended by the _Gazette_ with intemperate zeal. This altercation had lasted for some time, when, in the third year of Darling's administration, a very small event was sufficient to set the whole colony in an uproar.
A dissipated soldier named Sudds persuaded his companion, Thompson, that their prospects were not hopeful so long as they remained soldiers; but that, if they became convicts, they had a fair chance of growing rich and prosperous. Accordingly, they entered a shop and stole a piece of cloth. They were tried, convicted, and sentenced to be transported to Tasmania for seven years. This was what they wished; but Governor Darling, having heard of the scheme they were so successfully carrying out, took it upon himself to alter the course of the law, and directed them to be chained together with heavy spiked collars of iron about their necks, and to be set to labour on the roads. Sudds was suffering from liver disease; he sank beneath the severity of his punishment, and in a few days he died--while Thompson, about the same time, became insane. This was an excellent opportunity for the opposition papers, which immediately attacked the Governor for what they called his illegal interference and his brutality. The _Gazette_ filled its columns with the most fulsome flattery in his defence, and Darling himself was so imprudent as to mingle in the dispute, and to do what he could to annoy the editors of the two hostile papers. Very soon the whole colony was divided into two great classes--the one needlessly extolling the Governor, the other denouncing him as the most cowardly and brutal of men. For four years this abusive warfare lasted, till at length the opponents of Darling won the day; and in 1831 he was recalled by the English Government.