CO885(1-2) — Page 571

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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trust render them of very great value to the colony. I am far from thinking, that the pecuniary benefit which the colony will thus receive could be put competition with the frightful moral evils which would result from the continuance of transportation as hitherto conducted. But, on the other hand, it must not be overlooked that the severe pecuniary difficulties to which the colony must be exposed if

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it should cease to receive in any form a supply of convict labour, would not be favourable to its moral and social advancement; and also that so far as pre- sent experience affords the means of forming judgment upon the subject, there appear to be reasonable grounds for hoping that sending out con- victs who have previously undergone a reformatory punishment of the kind proposed, to be dispersed over the colony under the contemplated regulations, will not be the cause of the moral evils which have arisen from the system lately in force.

Her Majesty's Government, however, would not consider themselves justified in trusting solely to the effect of any improvement it may be in their power to introduce into the system under which convicts have hitherto been sent to the colony; they consider it absolutely necessary that the addi- tion to be made to its population from the mother country should not consist entirely, or even princi- pally, of those who have been tainted with crime, but that arrangements should be made for sending free emigrants in sufficient numbers to neutralize the evil effects of a continual accession of persons who have incurred by their offences the sentence of transportation.

With this view it is intended that the whole of the money recovered from convicts in repayment of the cost of the conveyance of themselves and their > families to the colony should be devoted to the promotion of free emigration; and also that the claim of the British Treasury to the revenue derived from the sale of land in return for the annual grant by Parliament for police and gaols should be abandoned, so that a part of the produce of these sales may again become available for emigration. But as at first there can be little or no receipts from these sourees, Parliament will be asked this year to

provide the funds necessary for sending out free emigrants in equal numbers with the convicts who may proceed to Van Diemen's Land. After a cer-

tain time, however, it may be hoped that the repay- ments to be made by the convicts, added to the colonial funds specially applicable to emigration, will afford sufficient means for keeping up a con- tinued stream of free emigration.

I confidently trust that this arrangement, with

the energetic and praiseworthy efforts which I am aware that the clergy of all persuasions are making

to promote religious improvement, will guard the colony from any serious danger of moral injury from the measures which are contemplated. I trust also that the colonists will see in these measures evidence of a no less anxious attention on the part of Her Majesty's servants to their interests, than to those of the mother-country.

You will perceive that all I have hitherto said is applicable only to those convicts whose age and health render them capable of useful labour. These form the great majority of convicts, and those as to the disposal of whom the greatest difficulty has hitherto arisen. There are, however, no incon- siderable number of convicts of a different kind, and who are wholly unsuitable for transportation. In a despatch addressed to yourself as Lieu- tenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, it is not necessary to state in what manner these are to be punished; and I only advert to the existence of such a class in order to observe that it is a circumstance which has not been overlooked, and that such convicts will not be sent to the colony.

With respect to female convicts also, the arrange- ments above describd will require to be somewhat varied. They cannot be sent to public works, and except in doing a part of the household work of the prisons in which they are confined, there

is a difficulty in finding them any useful employ- ment. On the other hand mere expatriation is in general felt as a much more severe punishment by women than by men ; there would not therefore be the same objection to sending then, after short periods of separate confinement to Van Diemen's Land, to be placed, in ordinary cases, at

TELFENESS FINGARH SAEZ.

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