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mittee of the House of Commons, presided over by Sir William Molesworth, which sat in 1837 and
1838. Lt was condemned as being--
Unequal;
Without terrors to the criminal class; Corrupting to both convict and colonist;
Extravagant in point of expense.
And the Committee recommended the substitution of punishment in penitentiaries both at home and abroad, some of them in Van Diemen's Land.
The conclusion of the Government was to inflict a arger portion of the punishment in this country; to send more convicts than previously to the public works at Gibraltar and Bermuda; and finally, to try to improve the discipline in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, And in 1840 it was further resolved to put an end altogether to transportation to New South Wales.
Various causes postponed the intended improve- ments in Van Diemen's Land. At length they were framed by Lord Stanley in the year 1842. The convicts were to go through various stages of work and control, until they should attain to tickets. of-leave, and finally "conditional pardons." The rules were elaborate, and designed to carry the prisoners through a progressive course of reform. But carefully as this scheme was digested, two causes, found to be all-powerful, prevented its suc- cess. First, by being congregated in such large masses on the public works, the prisoners corrupted one another; and secondly, the numbers accumu- lated in Van Diemen's Land soon became so great, that no employers were to be obtained for these men, although they had been taught to look to qualified liberty as a reward. They fell back on
the hands of Government for support.
The crime of which it is painful to have to speak had become fearfully prevalent. The officers were discovered, many of them, to be of inferior qualifi- cations. There was a want of sufficient buildings to separate the men properly at night and preserve good order.
Shocked at the reports which arrived, Mr. Glad- stone decided, in 1846, that at all events transporta- tion to Van Diemen's Land must be suspended for two years, to give time for recovery from the existing evils, and for deliberation on the future.
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Sir Geo. Grey, January 20, 1847
Lord Grey, February 5, 1847;
Parl. Paper, February 1847.
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Mr. Gladstone also determined upon the forma- tion of an entirely new settlement, to be called "North Australia." But before this measure could be carried into effect a change of Government took place, and eventually the project to found North Australia was abandoned. The suspension of trans- portation to Van Diemen's Land continued through- out 1847 and part of 1848.
The plan of the Government in the beginning of 1847 may be seen in the letters of Sir George Grey and Lord Grey, and also in the debates
It
Debates in the Lords, March 1847. in Parliament, referred to in the margin. Debates in the Commons, June
1847.
was, that transportation, as it had hitherto been
Parl. Paper, May 1848, p. 131.
Parl. Paper, May 1848, p. 132.
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carried on," should be discontinued; that every pri- soner should undergo, first, a period of solitary con- finement; secondly, a course of labour on some public works at home, or in Bermuda, or Gibraltar; and thirdly, removal from this country as an exile. Lord Grey's letter mentioned the fitness of the Australian Colonies for receiving the convicts in this last stage, and throughout 1847 and part of 1848
they were sent in large numbers, in that capacity, to Port Phillip in New South Wales. But it should be mentioned, that a despatch of Lord Grey's to Sir W. Denison, referring to a letter from a clergyman named Fry, mentioned that transportation to Van Diemen's Land would be finally discontinued, with- out introducing the explanatory words " as hitherto carried on," used as above seen, in the more imę portant communications between the two Secretaries of State. The language held by Government in Parliament as well as in the contents of those two letters, could hardly leave a doubt as to their real intentions. But the unqualified words used in the despatch to Mr. Fry misled the Governor. stated to the Legislative Council, that transportation was not to be renewed at the end of the period for which it had been suspended; and this occurrence has been the foundation of the charge which has been brought of a breach of faith on this subject.
In a despatch dated the 20th of August, 1847, Sir William Denison alluded to the fact that a public announcement had been made in the colony of an intention to discontinue transportation.
He
On the 26th of April, 1848, Lord Grey acknow- ledged this and other despatches from the Governor respecting transportation, and then proceeded to
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