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the subject, and only the last three are pointed out as deserving the consideration of Government. But since each is sure to be recurred to in the present agitation of the public mind, the whole will be adverted to here, in order."

Falkland Islands.

The objection to the Falklands is, that they are wholly unproductive. They are swept by constant gales of wind, which prevent everything but mere garden vegetables from rising above the surface; corn will not grow; trees will not grow even stock cannot be properly managed, from the extreme difficulty and cost of making fences in a country destitute of wood. The present scanty population is languishing in distress and discontent, so much so that memorials have repeatedly been received from some military pensioners who were settled there on land, imploring the favour of a passage to any other part of the world. But then it is suggested that these Islands might be used for employing convicts on public works. Now Mr. Rennie, the late Governor, is an enterprising man, of a sanguine disposition, and connected with one of the first engineering families in this country; but, in his evidence before the Lords, he rejects the idea of any works fit to employ convicts. The want of a suffi- cient rise and fall of tide is adverse to a dry-dock. A patent slip might be useful, but this demands no great quantity of labour. On the other hand, the present Governor and several of his Council have reported that the Colony is quite incapable of success by itself, and that they would be glad, therefore, if they could have the benefit of convicts to drain, fence, form reservoirs, all at the expense of Great Britain, and make roads and jetties. In this or some other manner, no doubt, work could be found for convicts on any spot of the earth, if Great Britain would find the money. But here it is to be remembered that so far as regards mere works for the prisoners in the stage of hard labour, there are not nearly convicts enough, as it is, for the existing public works at Bermuda, Gibraltar, and at home. For some years the public service has suffered real inconvenience from the want of an adequate supply of convict labour for these works, some of which are of national importance. It would be quite idle, therefore, to increase the scarcity by creating fresh works (at an enormous cost, too, for their commencement), unless the new station is supposed to be favourable for the disposal of the convicts afterwards. This is the real question to be considered.

Now what hope can there be that the convicts, when they are set at large, could gain their subsistence in these barren islands, which are already the despair of the poverty-stricken population by which they are inhabited? Shall we be told that they will make their way into the neighbouring countries in South America? This appears a vain hope. All other countries situated near our Penal Settlemenfs have protected themselves against the intrusion of convicts. When vessels arrive from Bermuda, the United States send them away, bodily, if a single pardoned convict is detected on board. The Australian Colonies have made use of equally stringent measures. Why should the Government of Buenos Ayres be expected to be less prudent? As soon as a stream of immigration had set in from some 10,000 or 15,000 English criminals, rendered desperate by want, the country to which they resorted would not be long in discovering the need of measures of self-defence. And, besides, however anxious to find a legitimate outlet for our offenders, it is impossible not to shrink from the odium of trying such manoeuvres to shift the burthen on to friendly States, as should make the British name a pest. No; an attempt, to get rid, wholesale, of our convicts to the South American Republics would no more be successful than it would be worthy of a great nation. But, undoubt- edly, if it were thought fit to pour many thousands of English offenders into these sterile islands, destitute of resources, but full of creeks and bays, and surrounded by numerous fleets of shipping of every size and description, it would not be surprising to hear of fearful outrages, which would soon bring on our Government the reproaches of the commercial world, both at home and abroad.

The Hudson's Bay Territory.

The first and striking objection to this territory is its inaccessibility. There is some talk of an approach by sea which will be adverted to presently; but

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every one knows that the main line of communication for the Company with its Settlements is up the rivers and streams from Montreal. The hardy Indians and Canadian “ Voyageurs "make good their passage in little vessels, drawing u few inches of water, which carry them, and which they sometimes carry in their turn, and which may serve very well to supply the frugal wants of a race of hunters. Any one who may have seen them start from Montreal will not easily forget the picturesque procession. But for the vast and bulky supplies of an English convict settlement, canoes, it is submitted, are expensive transports. This applies to the clothing, bedding, provisions, and numerous other articles wanted for a convict settlement. And next, how are the men themselves to get to their destination? How is it proposed that strings of thousands of English prisoners should be taken, in confinement, along many hundred leagues of the most wealthy, populous, and civilized portion of British North America? Or how are they to be conveyed afterwards through that ruder and more arduous part of their journey where every man must be free in order to shift for himself. and where yet there would be no want of temptations to escape? A party of prisoners crossing a portage would be a curious sight.

But perhaps when these obstacles are pointed out, we shall be told that the approach by sea is contemplated. On this point it is enough to refer to the evidence of Colonel Caldwell, before the Committee of the House of Lords. One annual ship of the Company makes a passage to York Factory, in Hudson's Bay. The sea is not open for more than from six weeks to two months; the passage appears to be very long; and if so tedious and difficult for a single vessel, how could this access, open only for a few weeks, be made available for the introduction of the whole annual number of convicts from Great Britain, and the whole amount of their supplies, in each successive year? Even after being landed at York Factory there remains a long passage by boat up to the inhabited part of the Company's territory. Moreover, unless kept at still a very long distance from the frontier, there is the discontent of Cañada and of the United States to be apprehended.

The next objection is that of climate. It is scarcely necessary to say, that the expense of a convict settlement must be immensely increased by having it in so inhospitable a region that food is very difficult to grow, and also that for many long months the prisoners must subsist on accumulated stores; their lodging and clothing must be more substantial, and the latter more abundant, than elsewhere. And what is to be their employment during the period of much more than half-a-year that the ground is covered with many feet of snow?

Again, it may really be doubted whether a very intemperate climate is suited to the penal objects of transportation. We may hear persons inveighing against undue leniency to prisoners, and asserting that we ought to have no scruple in shipping them off to Labrador or to Sierra Leone, as the case may be. The answer is, that the question is not one of humanity, but of justice. In this sort of argument it is assumed that, besides those worst offences which are visited with certain death at the gallows, there may be others which it would be allowable to punish with probable death, by being sent to be worked at Sierra Leone; he so. but still, surely, it will not be denied that those offences should be distinctly specified in some new provision of the Criminal Code. English transportation has hitherto been an exceedingly elastic and comprehensive punishment. From common theft, to some of the worst cases of burglary or manslaughter, it has included all secondary offences; for whilst the penalty of banishment was common to the whole, the requisite distinctions could be made in the severity and duration of the imprisonment and hard labour, But the common sense of mankind would revolt at the idea that, because some youth had fallen within the grasp of the law for picking a pocket, he might, equally with the worst malefactor, be sent to be burnt or frozen to death within the torrid or frigid zone.

We must not be misled by the supposed example of Siberia. That vast region includes large towns and fertile plains. The mines and the worst districts do, indeed, form a fearful punishment; but the Russian offenders are carefully classified, and many of the exiles acquire prosperity and live in civilized places. This view may be confirmed by reference to Haxfhausen, to the work of Sir George Simpson, the latest English traveller in Siberia, and to the summary included in the abstract of foreign codes delivered by Mr. Elliot to the Committee of the Commons on transportation.

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