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(No. 103.)

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.-CONVICTS.

No. 3.

Cory of a DESPATCII from Earl GREY to Governor Sir H. G. ŚMITH, Bart,

SIR,

G.C.B.

Downing-street, November 30, 1849.

1 navi: hitherto deferred replying to your Despatches, No. 106,* of the 29th of June, and No. 123,† of the 24th of July, which reached me nearly together in the middle of the month of September, because I had every reason to believe that they must be almost immediately followed by further Despatches from you, which might probably convey to me intelligence of a considerable change in the aspect of affairs in the colony. My Despatch of the 18th of April, announcing the determination of Her Majesty Government to abstain from sending any more convicts to the Cape, which might have been expected to reach you even earlier than the date at which you wrote, and could hardly fail to do so very soon afterwards, was calculated, as I trusted, to calm the excitement which had been created, while I hoped that a similar effect would be produced, when it was found, on the arrival of the expected ship with con- victs from Bermuda (which had been heard of at Pernambuco, as having reached that port, and again proceeded on her voyage), that the convicts so sent, who were not to be followed by any more, were of a very different description from the criminals usually sent to a penal colony. Hence believing that a very short delay would be occasioned by waiting for further intelligence from you, I consided it better to incur this delay, than to send you immediate instructions, which that intelligence might show to be no longer well adapted to an altered state of affairs.

2. But I now find, by the usual list you have forwarded of Despatches received by you, that mine of the 18th of April, though it has not been answered, had reached you some time before the date of the last advices. I learn also from the newspapers published in the colony, that the "Neptune," with the convicts from Bermuda had arrived, but that the convicts on board had not been per- mitted to land, being detained on board in Simon's Bay, as it is stated, till fur- ther instructions are received from myself; and that the excitement which has been created, far from having subsided, had appeared greatly to have increased. I am further informed, by a communication I have received from the Admiralty, of the attempt which had been made to prevent any description of supplies from being furnished for Her Majesty's service, naval, military, or civil, with the view of enforcing the departure of the " Neptune" with the convicts; but though I have despatches from you on other subjects up to five days after the arrival of the "Neptune," I have none containing any informa tion of the arrival of the "Neptune," as to what had then occurred on this sub- ject, or as to the measures which you might have in contemplation. In these circumstances, I can no longer postpone transmitting to you instructions for your guidance; and in doing so it will be necessary that I should, in the first place, briefly review the past course of proceedings upon this subject, and explain what have been the grounds on which Her Majesty's Government have acted in the various measures which have been adopted.

3. I need hardly remind you that in the Circular Despatch which I addressed to the governors of different colonies to which it appeared to me that convicts when they became entitled to tickets-of-leave, might be sent with advantage, I did not contemplate that this measure should be adopted with respect to colo- nies which had not originally been established as penal colonies, and in which it should appear that the inhabitants were opposed to it. But about the time when this circular was written, a very serious difficulty arose as to the disposal of certain Irish convicts, who had been transported to Bermuda, for offences com- mitted during the pressure of the famine in Ireland occasioned by the failure of the potatoes. It was of urgent importance to remove some of these men from Bermuda, as it was found that they were entirely unsuited to undergo the discipline and labour which are there enforced. It was necessary, therefore. that they should be removed; but at that time the state of things was such in Van Diemen's Land from the very large number of convicts who had been sent there in the years preceding 1846, that there was no prospect that if sent to that colony with tickets-of-leave, they would have been able to find employment, and to maintain themselves by their labour.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE-CONVICTS.

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4. It was also highly desirable, considering the character of these convicts, that they should not be placed where they would be forced to mix with ordi- These men were in general peasants, who, under the pressure

nary criminals. of extreme want, had committed depredatious, which though they could not be passed over without punishment, yet implied comparatively little moral degra- dation. This circumstance of their being of so different a class from ordinary criminals, while it afforded a strong reason against sending them to a colony where they could mix with the latter, seemed also to remove all just grounds for objecting to their reception in the colonies to which convicts are not usually sent. I remembered that the agricultural labourers who were transported to New South Wales at the beginning of 1831, for the riots of the previous winter, had proved a most valuable accession to the labouring population of that colony, and I believed that the Irish convicts who had in like manner been betrayed by special circumstances into crimes which they had not been in the habit of com- mitting, or had been convicted of political or agrarian offences, which out of Ireland they would have no temptation to repeat, might be removed to a colony where there exists a great want of labour, and where they would not be ex- posed to the influence of bad associates, with great advantage, not only to them- selves, but to the colony, and I did not conceive it to be possible that even if the inhabitants of the Cape should entertain a fixed objection to the reception of convicts of an ordinary description, and as a general practice, there could be any such objection to receiving, in that vast territory, between 200 or 300 con- victs of this peculiar description, when Her Majesty's Government would thus be relieved from a difficulty of a very serious kind.

5. Under this impression, I recommended that the convicts in question (to whom were afterwards addled some others specially recommended for indul- gence on account of their peculiar good conduct, or length of detenfion without committing any fault,) should be removed to the Cape, without waiting till your auswer to my Circular Despatch could be received, believing that in doing so, I was not departing in any degree from the spirit of that circular, which re- ferred to the adoption of a permanent system. The letter, indeed, in which I informed you of the special measure intended to meet the immediate emergency, bore the same date as the circular, and was forwarded by the same opportunity. With the information now before me, I greatly lament that this step should have been taken. Had I been aware how strong was the feeling which existed at the Cape on this subject, I should not have advised the measure which was adopted, but I confess I fell into the error of supposing that whatever might be the objection felt to receiving convicts as an ordinary practice (an objection which I readily admit to be founded on feelings that are entitled to respect) there would still be amongst the inhabitants of the Cape so much regard for the general interest of the British nation, to which they had just been indebted for such truly generous assistance, and also so much of common humanity towards the unfortunate men as to whom the difficulty had arisen, that it might safely be calculated, that they at least would be received without sition. This is an error which I acknowledge, and which I greatly lament.

oppo- 6. In the mean time, long after the orders for the removal of these convict- from Bermuda to the Cape had been given, I received from you the first inti- mation of the very strong feeling which existed on this subject, amongst the inhabitants of the Cape. I received this intelligence with much regret, be- lieving, as I still believe, that in refusing to receive, in very moderate numbers, convicts whose conduct under a preliminary system of punishment has been such as to entitle them to the indulgence of tickets-of-leave, and whose best chance of being reformed, consists in their being dispersed as widely the inhabitants of the Cape were declining the share of the common burthens as possible, of the empire, which they might fairly be called upon to undertake. Still, when the strength of the feeling which existed was fully understood, no time was lost by Her Majesty's Government in making a public amouncement in the House of Commons, that no more convicts would be sent to that colony, and in my Despatch of April the 18th, I formally communicated to you this de- termination. At this time, however, there was nothing in the information which had reached me, which led me at all to suppose that this determination to abandon the general plan of sending convicts holding tickets-of-leave to the Cape, would not be sufficient to calma the excitement which had been created, or that so violent an opposition would be made to the reception of the com-

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Reference-

C.O. 885

1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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