He was the governor of New South Wales from 1825 until 1831. A rigid disciplinarian, he faced many difficulties, largely because of continuing conflict between emancipists and exclusionists in the colony. In the controversial Sudds and Thompson affair (1826) Darling’s harsh punishment of these two soldiers was, in popular opinion, responsible for the death of Sudds. The continued agitation over instances of alleged misgovernment resulted in a British House of Commons select committee of inquiry (1835), which exonerated him.