year, and it is added, that the expenditure of the year 1811 promised to be still greater. We eutirely concur in the opinion of the Commitee, that a removal of part of the military force would considerably reduce the expense, and that in a population of 11,000 persons, eleven hundred of them are not required to be soldiers. These sums, however, are voted generally without inquiry.

It is now time, we think, to decide-whether this new colony is ever likely to answer the original ideas of those who recommended it-first, as the means of converting convicted felons into good citizens; and secondly, as a colony which, from its productions and trade, holds out any hope, however remote, of becoming advantageous to the mother country. The Committee think it is in a train entirely to answer the ends proposed by its establishment.' We cannot say that we entirely concur in this opinion. From all the inquiries that we have been able to make, and from all the accounts that have been published, it does not appear that any considerable number of the convicts sent thither have been reclaimed from their vicious habits of life. Great numbers perish in consequence of their irregular lives, and many of those who return to Europe re-appear at the bar of the Old Bailey. Of those who escape to America we hear nothing more; they become there subjects worthy of the most virtuous and enlightened government upon earth.' It is scarcely time yet to form a correct estimate of the line of life which their children are likely to take. They are represented as a handsome well made race, on whose education considerable pains have been bestowed at the public expense. It has been observed, that many of the females who had never borne children in England, become prolific in New South Wales, and some of them at an age deemed generally past child-bearing. We do not imagine that the climate contributes to this effect, so much as the regular life they are there obliged to lead-regular, at least, in comparison with their former habits. Some of those who have married and settled have reformed their lives, but it is to be feared that the majority both of men and women are become more depraved in proportion to their numbers.

The most sanguine supporter of the New South Wales system of colonization will hardly, we think, promise to himself any advan tage of importance to the mother country from the products which it may be able to supply. We entertain not the least doubt, that in a few years there will be a vast superabundance, both of live stock and grain; the one, it is almost needless to observe, will contribute to the other; and both are at all times marketable commodities in Europe; but the distance is so great, that until they can afford cattle to be slaughtered for the sake of the hides and tallow, they cannot become an article of trade; and grain can never be raised at

a price

a price sufficiently low to find a market in any part of Europe. The same objection will apply to the wool of their sheep, and the flax, which great pains were taken to cultivate and manufacture after the manner of the New Zealanders, two of whom were brought over to instruct the convicts. Naval timber and hemp are still less likely to find a market in Europe, or in India; and the whale fishery, after repeated trials, has been given up.

In one sense, however, the success of the colony may be attended with results highly advantageous to British interests. It is almost certain that should the prosperity of Great Britain continue to increase in its present ratio, the redundancy of its population must, at no very distant period, either produce an extension of pauperism too enormous to be supported, or an emigration from that class of society which is not only the most valuable, but the most numerous, the manufacturer, the small farmer and cottager. Many of these, we apprehend, will leave the country; and to persons of this description, the colony undoubtedly holds out strong encouragement: on the other hand, those who may be induced to go thither under the hope of realizing a fortune for themselves or their posterity, will certainly be deceived; for it does not appear that, by any exertion, they will ever be able to transfer their produce to any other country. But were it otherwise, we are not sure that the colonization of New South Wales, extensive as it is, would not find its ultimate limits in no great length of time. The Blue Mountains are an impenetrable barrier, beyond which all is nearly terra incognita. The Hawkesbury, the only river worth mentioning on the whole coast, has its rise on this side of that formidable obstacle, and is not navigable above half way to it. Whatever, therefore, the nature of the country may be beyond these mountains, a difficult communication by land and none by water carriage could be had with the sea coast. The want of harbours and rivers on the coasts, and the barren appearance of the greater part of them, are unfavourable to extensive colonization; and the remarkable scarcity of human beings, and of other animals, confirms the supposition that the country does not afford the means of subsistence for many more.

In stating our opinion of the little value of the new colony to the mother country, we are not actuated by the spirit of finding fault, which is always an easier task than that of pointing out a remedy. Two suggestions however occur to us, either of which, in our opinion, would be preferable to the system of sending criminals to this great penitentiary-house at the distance of more than 5000 leagues at an enormous cost-and for no good purpose. Our first project is that of making a present of them, in the first instance, to the Americans, who now eagerly steal them away

from

from the colony, in every vessel that touches there. This would be beneficial to the convicts, and not disadvantageous to the United States. In the first place, it would be a prodigious saving of human life: it is lamentable to reflect on the numbers who have perished in our new colony by the hand of the executioner, merely for stealing. Now all such would be saved to the state of Kentucky, where there is no law, or to that of Pensylvania, where there is no gallows.' It is no harm there, to step over a man's snake-fence into his orchard, to taste if his peaches be ripe,' or into his cellar, 'to try if his beer be fit for tapping;' these are but neighbourly freedoms which are exceedingly agreeable and endearing, and which would suit the convicts to a miracle. There too the Irish redemption-men might at all times indulge the propensity of taking a walk through the woods to China, and, instead of becoming skeletons themselves, procure a comfortable livelihood by making skeletons of others; for the humane and pious people of Pittsburgh' have a stock purse which is open to all who shall bring them the 'scalps of Indians, provided they have both ears on,' and provided they are caught before the 15th of June.**

Our second remedy, which, to be quite serious, is perhaps the better of the two, is to keep our transportable convicts employed at home; to set them upon the cultivation of our wastes; and to give them an immediate interest in the produce of their labour, and a remote and permanent interest in a part of the soil which they improve. On the wide and desolate waste of Dartmoor, for example, where a magnificent building which has cost the nation one hundred thousand pounds is already erected, and which, together with the new town that it has created around it, must fall to ruin when the American war ceases, unless appropriated to some such use-we can discover no violent objection to making an effort, at least, to convert an unprofitable tract, (in which there is no want of soil or water,) into corn fields and meadows. Two thousand convicts thus employed would add to the national stock by their productive labour-two thousand, sent to New South Wales, would cost the public, for their passage, two hundred thousand pounds, and eighty thousand pounds a-year during the term of their transportation, without adding one farthing to the national wealth, or becoming a whit more industrious or moral than they were the day they left the hulks. Yet in the establishment of this colony, from which so little good has arisen or is likely to arise, we have already expended 2,500,000l. sterling; one tenth part of which would have subsisted at home the whole number of convicts that

* See No. XX, p. 532.

have been transported to New South Wales, while something might have been gained to the nation by their labour. The same sum would have inclosed and brought under cultivation 200,000 acres of waste lands, and raised subsistence for 60,000 people here; in New South Wales it has been wasted on 6000 worthless beings.

Ought we then to abandon the settlement to whatever nation may chuse to take it?-By no means. We think it an advantage to the world at large, that Englishmen and the English language should spread themselves over every quarter of the globe, with the exception of America; but we would have them to be Englishmen of good character, of decent and industrious habits, not convicted felons. Of such, we would by all means encourage the emigration to New South Wales. Inducements are not wanting there for respectable settlers, who can command a little property, and who would be satisfied with securing the mere comforts of life. With few deductions, the climate may be considered as good; its new inhabitants are subject to no particular diseases, but such as proceed from drunkenness and debauchery. The sky is, in general, clear and bright, the spring and autumn like the finest summer days in England. In winter the temperature never descends to the freezing point, though the snow lies on the Blue Mountains. The native quadrupeds are all innocent, and few noxious animals of any description are found in the country. Vegetation is rapid, and the foliage of the native plants beautiful. Timber, though not perhaps of the best description, abounds for mechanical and domestic purposes. There is plenty of coal, of iron, and of copper; plenty of good clay and earths for pottery. The hop-plant thrives well, and barley yields abundantly. In short, we believe there are few of the necessaries of life that may not be procured in New South Wales, few that may not be brought within the reach of an industrious family.

If however it be the intention of government to encourage the settling of New South Wales, either with persons of respectability, or convicts, or both, some permanent system should be adopted, which does not appear yet to have been the case. One governor kept the convicts constantly employed on the public buildings, and in cultivating land on government account; another lent them out to work for the settlers; one made them work by task and job, another by daywork; one governor laid it down as a principle, that long-tried good conduct should lead a man back to that rank in society which he had forfeited, and do away, in as far as the case would admit, all retrospect of former bad conduct;' whilst another would in no instance permit convicts, whatever their conduct might be, to hold places of trust and confidence, or even to come to the government-house.' We had naval governors and military lieutenant-governors squabbling

with each other, and setting the example of insubordination among those who were in want of no incitement to mutiny and insurrection. The convicts by one were allowed to turn traffickers, and another permitted the settlers to desert their farms to set up shops, or retail spirituous liquors; whilst the governors themselves entered into farming speculations. One instance is given in the report of the committee, of a grant of land of 1000 acres being made by a governor to the person appointed to succeed him, who, on assuming the government, returned the compliment by making a similar grant to his predecessor. (Report of Com. p. 8.) One allowed soldiers of good character to become settlers; another refused altogether this indulgence. In justice, however, to those who have exercised the functions of government in the new colony, it must be admitted that they appear to have been actuated generally by a zealous desire to promote its welfare and improvement, though all were not equally fortunate in the issue.

The very formation of a committee to inquire will be productive of good; and it is so far satisfactory to find by its report, that the whole system with regard to the convicts, has gradually been amelioratad, and particularly of late years since the colony appears to have attracted a greater share of the attention of government than it did for many years after its foundation. Their mode of transportation is so much improved that the committee state it. to be unobjectionable: and they further state, as a proof of the improvement in the mode of conveyance, that from the year 1795 to 1801, of 3833 convicts embarked, 385 died on board the transports, being nearly 1 in 10; but that since 1801, of 2398 embarked, 52 only have died on the passage, being 1 in 46. The Transport Board takes up the vessels, the Victualling Board supplies clothing and provisions for the voyage and nine months afterwards, and medicines are sent from Apothecaries' Hall. owner of the vessel provides a surgeon, who undergoes an examination at Surgeons' Hall, and who, over and above his salary, is paid a gratuity of 10s. 6d. for every convict landed in New South Wales. The instructions to the master are very particular; if he disobeys them he is liable to be mulcted, or to a prosecution; if his conduct appears to be satisfactory, he receives a gratuity of 50l. These are regulations dictated by a spirit of true humanity.

The

On the arrival of a transport with convicts, a general return is called for from the free settlers of the quantity of land each has in cultivation, and the number of men wanted. The artificers are generally reserved for the government; those who have been in a higher situation in life, have tickets of leave given to them, which allow them to provide for themselves, and exempt them from all compulsory labour; similar tickets are given to men unused to