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selected as the most harmless convicts who could be met with, for the purpose of their being dispersed over a territory of vast extent, and in the midst of a large population. The resistance, however, made to admitting this single ship-load of men was so violent that it can hardly be characterized by any term short of rebellion.
Attempts were made to paralyze the Civil Govern- ment and to starve the troops, and to prevent ordi- nary supplies of food and of other necessaries from being sent off to the convicts, who were suffering severely in health from the want of refreshments. Nor was this all. So virulent was the public feeling on the subject, that hecause an old officer in the army furnished the troops with some supplies from his farm, he was cut off from all intercourse with his fellow-colonists; an immediate pressure was made for payment of all his debts; tradesmen were prohi- bited from selling him the necessaries of life; and even his physician was interdicted from visiting one of his children which was lying dangerously ill, and which accordingly died without medical aid. Another individual, a merchant of high respectability, met his fellow-townsmen at a public assembly, aud honestly expressed his objections to the violent course which was pursued, and afterwards assisted the military in procuring food. For this offence he likewise was put under the ban; he was mobbed, pelted, and severely wounded; he was renounced by his friends, and deserted by his customers; and when long afterwards he was leaving the Colony a ruined man, no purchaser was permitted to attend the sale of his property, so that he was not allowed to realise its value even to quit the country which had used him so hardly. Such ferocious conduct upon so small a provocation it would perhaps be difficult to match in anty civilized community. Indignant, however, as it may make an impartial observer, it is not the less significant as an example of the furious passions into which colonists are capable of being lashed on the present subject.
Inasmuch as there was no real subject of dispute, since it had never been meant to introduce convicts regularly without the full concurrence of the inha- bitants, it was thought better to send on this parti- cular party; and on the 8th of November, 1848, it was intimated that the Neptune" should proceed
If it should ever be wished to look further to Van Diemen's Land.
into this, the views which had actuated the
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There the convicts, having
Government at home will be found fully throughout behaved with entire submission and good explained in a despatch from Lord Grey, dated order, received conditional pardons; and so the November 30, 1848. All the despatches are matter closed.
contained in a Parl. Paper, April 4, 1849.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
Western Australia alone, of all the Colonies applied to, expressed its willingness to receive convicts. From various causes this Settlement had languished to a degree unknown in
any other
part of Australia. Although the climate may be numbered among the best on the globe, the soil is far fromı good; the coast is iron-bound; and there is not one good harbour near those districts which were first settled, and are nearest to the capital. King George's Sound is no doubt a fine port, but the country around it is bad, and remote from the best parts of the Colony. The Settlement also was formed on erroneous principles, and may be said to have been ruined by the profuse grants of land made to a few favoured individuals on its first occupation. In 1850, after the lapse of thirty years, this Colony contained less than 6,000 European inhabitants, including men, women, and children.
Such were the circumstances in which, in 1849 and 1850, the population of Western Australia, impressed with their own stagnant condition, and not inservible, it must be supposed, to the contrast presented by the Settlements on the other side of New Holland, implored the Government to send convicts to their Colony. The representation was unanimous, both from the resident colonists and from those connected with them in this country. Partly they looked to the supply of hands, and prin- cipally, perhaps, although this was not avowed, to the stimulus which they might hope to derive from the large public expenditure on a new convict establishment. The Government assented to their wishes; and the first party of convicts arrived in June 1850.
But before pursuing this part of the subject further, it is necessary to return to the course of events in Van Diemen's Land.
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