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Town of the last two or three ships of which we have heard, each containing from 200 to 300 convicts, they have been immediately surrounded by many hundred persons, including members of the League, eagerly applying to hire the services of the labourers the ships had brought.

It must, however, be admitted, notwithstanding these facts, that a large and influential portion of the population of the Australian Colonies, including Van Diemen's Land, regard the reception of con- victs with a feeling of dislike and dread, which has been increased by the discoveries of gold.

This feeling has been expressed to me in public remonstrances and private communications, which preclude any doubt of its being strongly and gene- rally entertained.

But whatever may be the wishes of the colonists upon this subject, the wonderful discoveries of gold in Victoria and New South Wales, together with the probability that gold may be found in Van Diemen's Land itself, suggest other and no less grave considerations.

The various stages of punishment through which a convict sentenced in this country to transportation has to pass, are not generally understood; and there is reason to dread the moral effect which may be produced by an impression in the public mind, how- ever erroneous in some respects that impression may be, that the criminal who has been convicted of serious crime will be sent sooner or later to that auriferous land to which thousands of the best and most industrious of our population are anxiously seeking the means of transit.

It may be argued that, our other convict colony, Western Australia, on account of its great distance from the gold fields, is not open to this objection, and that no reluctance to receive convicts has yet

been evinced there.

>

But such an answer would not be satisfactory.

It would be inexpedient, if not impossible, to send the whole, or nearly the whole, of the transports we have now annually to provide for to a colony in which it has already become difficult for ticket-of- leave men to find free employment, and to which, from the superior attractions of other colonies, we

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could not send a corresponding number either of women or of free emigrants.

Having stated these views, I turn to the question which naturally arises under such circumstances, whether it may be desirable to revive the plan which was adopted by Mr. Gladstone, but subsequently abandoned by Earl Grey, of establishing a new Con- vict Colony to the north of our existing settlements in Australia, or elsewhere in Her Majesty's domi- nions.

Upon this subject I have received several sug- gestions.

The Falkland Islands have been recommended as

a convenient situation for a convict colony,

1 have received two offers from proprietors of islands in the Hebrides.

And it has been suggested to me, that if convicts were to be sent to Jamaica, the means of due punish- ment might be obtained, and at the same time valuable assistance by convict-labour be given to the planters; and that by a judicious selection of locality, these advantages might be gained, without

any

risk to the life or health of Europeans.

undue

I will not now enter into the considerations which

bear upon these plans.

may

It may perhaps be ultimately necessary to adopt

such a plan for the reception of our worst class of convicts; but it seems to me that, as regards the dif- ficulties in this country which I am now considering,

the establishment of a new Convict Colony would not afford the relief which we require.

There is no difficulty at present with respect to the second stage in the sentence of transportation.

The second stage is the period of compulsory labour on public works, and is abundantly provided for, and likely for some time to be so, by the esta- blishments at Portland, Bermuda, Gibraltar, and

our Dock-yards. It is when this stage has been passed, and the sentence is to be completed by banishment under the system of tickets of leave, that the question arises as to the country to which the convict is to be banished, and for this object a new Convict Colony would afford little assistance.

I submit, therefore, that under existing circum- stances, the attention of the Government ought to

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