A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821

Front matter

A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY

NEW SOUTH WALES UNDER GOVERNOR MACQUARIE 1810-1821

by

Front matter

STUDIES IN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

Edited by the Hon. W. PEMBER REEVES

DIRECTOR OF THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS.

Preface

PREFACE.

The selection of the period of New South Wales history covered by this book, of the years 1810 to 1821, may seem to call for explanation. The choice was not arbitrarily made, but was due to the fact that the publication of the historical records of the State commenced by the New South Wales Government in 1892 ceased in 1901 with the issue of the seventh volume of the series, containing the documents of the years 1809 to 1811. These documents consisted of official papers and a few private letters, and by their help the history of the Colony may be traced from Captain Cook's first voyage to the end of 1811. It was therefore obvious that further research should commence where this publication left off. By going back, however, to the commencement of Governor Macquarie's rule in 1810, the period is brought to a natural conclusion with his return to England in the beginning of 1822.

Very little has been written of the history of Australia apart from tales of exploration and travel. Each volume of the Historical Records of New South Wales, however, is prefaced by an introduction to some extent summarising the documents, so that an easily verifiable account of the history of the Colony may be obtained up to the end of 1811. But the documents are not well arranged, and the introductions are scanty and confused, and it is almost a matter of research, even before 1811, to gain a clear idea of the state of the country and the course of its development.

For these reasons it has seemed necessary to give an account in considerable detail of events taking place in the years immediately preceding Macquarie's arrival, and to describe fully the conditions of the Colony—social, economic and political—at that time.

From the beginning of 1812 the documentary evidence in the Public Record and Colonial Offices, the files of the Sydney Gazette (in the Public Record Office) and Parliamentary Papers have formed the basis of the following chapters in the history of New South Wales. All accessible printed books have also been examined, on the whole with very little result. The only contemporary historian of any note is W. C. Wentworth; but apart altogether from the narrow limitations of his book, no one in search of facts would find much profit from a study of his early work.

In later days G. W. Rusden is the only historian who has dealt in detail with the subject. In his History of Australia he devotes one chapter of more than a hundred pages to Macquarie's governorship, and he appears to have had before him many important official despatches and much private correspondence. Unfortunately Mr. Rusden made many errors in chronological and other facts which really vitiate the greater number of his conclusions, and this part of his history is not only too summary to be of great value, but too inaccurate to be of much consideration. Mr. Jenks' History of Australia, which is by far the best and most reliable book upon the subject, deals very lightly with early days, the years from 1801 to 1821 being passed over in two pages. Even in such a specialised treatise as that of Mr. Epps' Land Laws of Australia, the system of land distribution before Lord Ripon's Regulations in 1831 is accorded an equally unimportant position.

In spite of the fact that so little attention has been given to Macquarie's governorship, it is a time of considerable interest and importance. From a small settlement dependent even for its food-supply upon other countries, New South Wales grew during this period into an agricultural Colony providing its own food, beginning to establish manufactures and exporting wool. A few years after Macquarie's return it was even able to support a civil establishment without help from the Imperial Treasury. In these years also is seen under peculiarly simple and isolated conditions the working of "military" government—a curious and anomalous system of autocracy working through the forms of civil law. It is in the study of this system that the true significance of what at first sight seems merely a series of personal quarrels between the Governor and the judges emerges as a conflict of principles, as the outcome of the real intellectual difficulty of reconciling the due administration of the law with a judiciary dependent upon an autocratic Governor. The fact that it was a one-man government also renders very important the study of this one man's character and training, his prejudices and opinions. Macquarie, himself a man of very ordinary ability, is an intensely interesting figure in Australian history, because for twelve years the development of the country was almost wholly dependent upon his guidance. The period illustrates too the almost inevitable failure of such an autocracy, and it comes to an end with the commission of J. T. Bigge, who was sent from England in 1819 to investigate on the spot the complaints against the Governor, and to inquire generally into the Colony's affairs. Acting upon the reports of the Commissioner, the Home Government in 1823 granted to New South Wales some measure of Constitutional Government, and thus accomplished the first step in that progress which led to the great autonomous measures of 1855. The years from 1810 to 1821 form a distinct period in this transition, and behind the simple constitutional history of the time are all the complex elements which went to make up the social and economic organisation of the people. These Englishmen settled in southern seas found that they had to face old problems as well as new, and in dealing with both they reproduced with many interesting modifications the administrative methods to which they had been accustomed. Thus, for example, the magistrates had to deal with the evils of the liquor trade in a peculiarly acute form, and ways had also to be found for carrying out the easier duties of public benevolence. For the latter purpose many associations came into being, and it was largely through the sense of corporate existence gained by these means that the colonists began to demand towards the end of the period a fuller share in the work of Government. During these years also the questions of taxation, the organisation of trade, internal and external, the distribution of and above all the conditions of labour passed through important stages. Finally there was ever present the unsolved problem of the reform or restraint of the criminal. New South Wales at this period ceased to be a mere penal station and became a Colony. Although the convicts still formed the majority of the population, the free settlers and the convicts' children gained steadily upon them in numbers, wealth and influence. Macquarie deliberately adopted the principle that New South Wales was for the convict and not for the free colonist, and the story of his government is largely the story of the momentary success and final defeat of this policy, a defeat followed by some years of bitter class enmity.

Yet the idea which fired Macquarie's enthusiasm was worthy of attention, and to turn the criminal into a useful, self-respecting citizen populating the empty lands of a new country, and alone building up a new state, was a fine and generous plan.

The introduction of free settlers privileged to employ convict labour, the faults and weakness of an autocratic government, and above all the mental atmosphere of the beginning of the nineteenth century with its narrow religious outlook and severe class rigidity, made its complete realisation impossible. Nevertheless the experiment of colonising-transportation was not altogether a failure. If for the most part the convict remained unreformed, his children, even those of the first generation, were creditable to the British stock from which they were descended. Between 1810 to 1821 this first generation of Australians reached the age of men and women. They bore no sign of a convict taint, no heritage of vice or weakness, and this strange method of colonisation which gave to the country a fast-increasing population, brought with it no penalty of physical or moral degeneration.

One other aspect of New South Wales history may be indicated here—the relation of the Home Government and the Imperial Parliament towards this infant Colony. By a study of Parliamentary Papers and Debates, as well as periodical literature and newspapers, an attempt has been made to set forth the attitude of English politicians towards New South Wales, and the result of that attitude as embodied in the work of inquiry and legislation.

The author cannot let this opportunity pass of recording her grateful thanks to Mr. Graham Wallas and Mr. Sidney Webb. Mr. Graham Wallas supervised her work in his official capacity, but he took a very generous view of his duties, and the author can scarcely measure the extent to which she benefited by his advice, admonition and criticism. To Mr. Sidney Webb her debt is also great, for he read this thesis in manuscript and made invaluable suggestions. She owes much too to the School of Economics, for no seat of learning could with finer generosity have welcomed the stranger within the gates.

MARION PHILLIPS.

London, July, 1909.

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

PRINTED BOOKS, PERIODICALS AND NEWSPAPERS.

Barton (G. B.). History of New South Wales from the Records, vol. i., 1783-1789. Sydney, 1889.

Becke (L.) and Jeffery (W.). The Naval Pioneers of Australia. London, 1899.

Bennet (H. G.). A letter to Earl Bathurst … on the condition of the Colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land as set forth in the evidence taken before the Prison Committee in 1819. London, 1820.

Bentham (J.). Letters to Lord Pelham. London, 1802. A Plea for the Constitution. London, 1803.

Castlereagh, Viscount, Second Marquis of Londonderry, Memoirs and Correspondence of, edited by his brother (C. W. Vane, Marquis of Londonderry). London, 1848-1853.

Collins (David). An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, etc. London, 1798. Second Edition, 1802 (1788-1801). Second Volume, 1804 (1801-1804).

Colonial Office List, 1905.

Eden (Sir F.). The State of the Poor. London, 1797.

Eden (W.), first Lord Auckland. History of New Holland from its Discovery in 1816 … and Discourse on Banishment. London, 1787. Second Edition in same year. Third Edition, 1790.

Edinburgh Review vol. ii., April, 1803. Vol. xxxii., July, 1819.

Encyclopædia Britannica Supplement. Article "Colony" by James Mill. London, 1824.

Essays, Geographical, Philosophical and Political. London, 1812.

Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxxix., February, 1819.

Jenks (E.). A History of the Australasian Colonies, Cambridge Historical Series. Cambridge, 1895.

Jenkyns (Sir H.). English Rule beyond the Seas. London, 1902.

Johnston (Lieut.-Colonel G.). Proceedings of a General Court-Martial for the trial of, on a charge of mutiny exhibited against him by the Crown, for deposing W. Bligh, etc. London, 1811.

Macquarie (L.). A letter to the Right Hon. Viscount Sidmouth in Refutation of Statements made by the Hon. Henry Grey Bennet, M.P., in a Pamphlet On the Transportation Laws, the State of the Hulks and of the Colonies in New South Wales. London, 1821.

Marsden (J. B.). Memoir of the Life and Labours of Samuel Marsden. London, 1858. Marsden (S.). An answer to certain calumnies in the late Governor Macquarie's pamphlet, etc., London, 1826. Statement including correspondence, etc. London, 1828.

New South Wales. Governor's Court. Rules and Orders. Sydney, 1815.

New South Wales. Historical Records, 1783-1811, vols, i.-vii. Sydney, 1892-1901.

New South Wales. Standing Orders. 1802-1806.

O'Hara (—). History of New South Wales, 1788-1812. London, 1817. Second Edition, 1818.

Romilly (Sir S.). Memoirs of the Life of. London, 1840.

Rusden (G. W.). History of Australia. London, 1883.

The Times, 1818-1824. Proceedings of Parliament, etc.

Wallas (Graham). Life of Francis Place. London, 1898.

Webb (B. and S.). History of Liquor Licensing in England, principally from 1700-1830. London, 1903.

Wentworth (W. C). A statistical, historical and political description of the Colony of New South Wales and its dependent settlements in Van Diemen's Land, etc. London, 1819. Second Edition, enlarged, London, 1820. Third Edition with an Appendix, etc., London, 1824.

Wilberforce (A. M.). Private Papers of William Wilberforce. London, 1897.

Wilberforce (R. I. and S.). Life of William Wilberforce. London, 1838. Correspondence of W. Wilberforce. London, 1840.

Yonge (C. D.). Life of Lord Liverpool. London, 1868.

Documents

DOCUMENTS

I. COLONIAL OFFICE.

Manuscript.

Despatches from Secretary of State and Under-Secretary to Governor Macquarie.

Letters from Colonial Office to persons in New South Wales.

Letters to persons in United Kingdom (Domestic Correspondence).

Commissions of Government Officers in Colony.

Circular letters to Colonies, etc.

II. RECORD OFFICE.

Printed.

The Sydney Gazette. The only newspaper in the Colony and the official organ of the Government. Contains General and Government Orders, Proclamations, and all official notices and advertisements, as well as general news.

Manuscript.

Despatches from Governor of New South Wales to Secretary of State of Under-Secretary, with Enclosures.

Despatches from Secretary of State and Under-Secretary to Governor Macquarie.

Letters from Colonists to Secretary of State or Under-Secretary.

Letters from other Government Departments to Colonial Office.

Letters from private persons in United Kingdom to Colonial Office.

Correspondence between Bigge (Commissioner to New South Wales) and persons in the Colony.

Despatches of Bigge to Secretary of State or Under-Secretary.

Documents and Minutes of Evidence collected by Commissioner Bigge.

Reports of Commissioner Bigge.

III. PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

The following abbreviations are used in this list; H.C., 1812, II., signifying House of Commons' Papers, 1812, Volume II.

1798. Report respecting Convicts Transported to New South Wales and Norfolk Island. Select Committee on Finance. (H.C., 1798.)

1812. Report of Committee on Transportation with Minutes of Evidence and other Documents. (H.C., 1812, II.)

1816. Expenses (Annual) of New South Wales, 1812-1816. H.C., 1816, XVIII. Letters and Enclosures of Lord Bathurst to Governor Macquarie and of Governor Macquarie to Lord Bathurst concerning Report on Transportation. (H.C., 1816, XVIII.)

1819. Report of and Minutes of Evidence taken before Committee on Gaols and Prisons. (H.C., 1819, VII.)

1822. Report of Commissioner of Inquiry (J. T. Bigge) on the state of New South Wales and its Government, Management of Convicts, their Character and Habits. (H.C., 1822, XX.)

1823. Reports of the same on the Judicial Establishments of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. (H.C., 1823, X.)

1823. Instructions to J. T. Bigge, Esq., January, 1819. (H.C., 1823, XIV.)

1828. Letter from late Governor Macquarie to Lord Bathurst, 27th July, 1822. (H.C., 1828, XXI.)

IV. STATUTES.

The following short notes have been made in order to show the relative importance of different statutes and to facilitate reference.

A full account has been given of 4 Geo. IV., cap. 96, because of its great importance in Australian History.

1784. 24 Geo. III., cap. 56.

Gives permission to His Majesty in Council to transport convicts to some place beyond the seas.

1787. 27 Geo. III., cap. 2.

Establishes Criminal Court for New South Wales.

1790. 30 Geo. III., cap. 47.

Enables His Majesty to authorise his Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of places beyond the seas, to which felons or other offenders may be transported, to remit the sentences of such offenders.

1799. 39 Greo. III., cap. 51.

Continues various Acts referring to transportation of offenders.

1802-1803. 43 Geo. III., cap. 15.

Facilitates some details in carrying out the transportation of convicts.

1806. 46 Geo. III., cap. 28.

Continues the Transportation of Offenders' Act until 1813.

1813. 53 Geo. III., cap. 39.

Continues Transportation of Offenders' Act for one year.

1813. 54 Geo. III., cap. 15.

For the more easy recovery of debts in New South Wales.

1813. 54 Geo. III., cap. 30.

Continues Transportation Acts for two years.

1815. 55 Geo. III., cap. 156.

Continues Transportation Acts for one year and makes certain minor alterations therein.

1816. 56 Geo. III., cap. 27. Continues Transportation Acts until 1821.

1817. 57 Geo. III., cap. 53. For more effectual Punishments of Murders and Manslaughter committed in Places not within His Majesty's Dominions.

1819. 59 Geo. III., cap. 101. Amends some minor points in 56 Geo. III., cap. 27.

1819. 59 Geo. III., cap. 114. Stays proceedings for one year against any Governor or other persons concerned in imposing and levying duties in New South Wales; continues for one year certain duties; empowers Governor to lay duty on spirits made in New South Wales.

1819. 59 Geo. III., cap. 122. Permits vessels under 350 tons to trade with New South Wales.

1820. 1 Geo. IV., cap. 62. Continues 59 Geo. III., cap. 114 until 1822.

1821. 1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 6. Continues for two years the Transportation Acts.

1822. 1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 8. Continues 59 Geo. III., cap. 114 until 1823.

1822. 3 Geo. IV., cap. 96. "An Act to continue until the First Day of January, 1824. An Act passed in 59 Geo. III. … to authorise the imposing and levying other duties on goods imported into the said Colony; and to suspend, for ten years, the payment of duty on the importation of certain goods, the produce of New South Wales."

By this Act, Governor may impose by Proclamation or Orders rates and duties on importation of rum or spirits from United Kingdom or British West Indies not exceeding 10s., and on others not exceeding 15s. per gallon on tobacco 4s. a lb.; on all other goods not the produce or manufacture of United Kingdom, imported direct from United Kingdom—duty not exceeding 15 per cent. ad valorem.

He may also reduce and revive such duties.

He may make regulations for levying the duties.

He may impose fines and penalties for breach of the regulations, provided true copies of such regulations be transmitted to Secretary of State by Governor for His Majesty's Approbation.

The account of application of duties so collected to be transmitted to Treasury.

1823. 4 Geo. IV., cap. 47. Continues Transportation Acts.

1823. 4 Geo. IV., cap. 96. "An Act to provide until the First Day of July, 1827 … for better administration of justice in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, and for more effectual Government thereof and for other purposes relating thereto."

The important sections of this Act provide as follows:—

1. Supreme Court for New South Wales, and one for Van Diemen's Land. Each to have one Judge called a Chief Justice paid by salary and not fees.

2. Courts to be Courts of Record. All pleas, Civil, Criminal or mixed, and Jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever.

3. Courts to have jurisdiction over Piracies and Offences committed at sea or in islands in India or Pacific Ocean.

4. Trial for crimes, misdemeanours and other offences cognisable by Court to be prosecuted by information and tried by Judge and seven Officers of Army or Navy. If there are not seven Commissioned Officers, Magistrates to be appointed who may be challenged.

5. Actions at Law to be tried by Chief Justice and two Magistrates. Right of challenge given.

If parties desire a Jury of twelve such Jury may be empanelled. Chief Justice is to be the Judge of the Law in all cases.

6. Qualification of Jurors is to be freehold of fifty acres or freehold dwelling of £300 value.

7. His Majesty by Order in Council may extend Jury Trial.

8. Supreme Court to have Equitable and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.

9. If amount of suit is above £500, appeal to be allowed to Court of Appeals.

10. Court of Appeal in New South Wales to consist of Governor assisted by Chief Justice of Van Diemen's Land. Similar Court for Van Diemen's Land.

11. Appeal from this Court to Privy Council under regulation by Charter or Letters Patent from His Majesty.

12. Courts of Session to be established with Summary Procedure and carefully defined Powers. To have jurisdiction in Criminal cases short of capital.

13. Courts of Request to be established for hearing Civil Suits under £10. Commissioner to preside. Paid by salary not fees.

14. Council to be established called a Legislative Assembly with power to make laws. To be appointed by Warrant by His Majesty.

15. His Majesty in Council may establish any Law dissented from by the Council.

16. No tax to be imposed by Governor and Council except for local purposes.

17. 59 Geo. III., cap. 114 made perpetual.

18. All laws to be laid before Chief Justice for his certificate that they do not contravene the Law of England.

19. All laws to be transmitted to His Majesty within six months.

20. Laws and Orders in Council to be laid before Parliament.

21. Pardons already given to convicts by Governors to have same effect as pardons under Great Seal.

22. In future pardons must be transmitted to His Majesty for approbation or allowance. Afterwards may have effect within New South Wales as if under Great Seal.

23. Any convict unduly returning to be punished by death.

24. Persons assisting convicts to escape to be guilty of misdemeanour. Penalty £500, or imprisonment for two years.

25. 2 Geo. II., cap. 36, extended to New South Wales.

26. Artificers, etc., may enter into indentures to serve any persons in or about to go to New South Wales.

27. Persons to whom they have contracted may maintain actions against any other persons employing them.

1824. 5 Geo. IV., cap. 84. More strictly defines powers of Superintendents of Convicts on transports.

Convict whose sentence has been remitted by Governor, and who is free so long as he remains in Colony, may have right of owning property and being sued in the Courts.

Consolidates all the Transportation Acts.

DEBATES IN PARLIAMENTS CONCERNING NEW SOUTH WALES. Important Debates are indicated thus *

1810. | 4th May. (Hansard.)

9th May. Sir S. Romilly moved address to King to put in force 19 and 34 Geo. III. re Penitentiary Houses. Withdrawn. (Hansard.)

5th June. See above. Lost. 52-69. (Hansard.)

1811. | 13th February. (Hansard.)

4th March. Committee on Penitentiary Houses appointed. (Hansard.)

1812. | 4th February. Sir Samuel Romilly gave notice of motion to repeal Geo. III. relative to transportation of convicts. (Hansard.)

12th February. Committee on Transportation appointed. (Hansard.)

1813. | 8th January. (Hansard.)

1815. | 22nd June. Bill to extend duration of Transportation Acts introduced (Hansard.)

1816. | *20th February. Offenders' Transportation Bill First Reading. (Hansard.) Same. Second Reading. (Hansard.)

3rd April. Tierney moved address to Prince Regent praying for abolition of Third Secretary of State. (Hansard.)

1817. | *10th March. Bennet presented petition from settlers in New South Wales. (Hansard.)

29th April. Tierney moved for Committee to inquire into advisability of abolishing Third Secretary of State. (Hansard.)

1819. | *18th February. Bennet moved the appointment of Committee to inquire into system of Transportation and State of New South Wales. Lost 93 to 139. (Hansard.)

1st. March. Lord Castlereagh moved appointment of Committee on Gaols and Prisons, which would also inquire into State of New South Wales. Carried. (Hansard.)

23rd March, Brougham presented petition of Blake and Williams. (Hansard.)

7th April. Bennet moved address to stay departure of female convict ship to New South Wales. Lost. (Hansard.)

1819. | 29th June. First Reading of New South Wales Duties Bill. (Times, 30th June, 1819.)

2nd July. Committee stage of New South Wales Duties Bill. (Times, 3rd July, 1819.)

1823. | 2nd July. Sir J. Mackintosh presented petition from Eager against New South Wales Jurisdiction Bill. (Hansard.)

7th July. Mr. Wilmot Horton introduced further consideration of New South Wales Jurisdiction Bill. Went into Committee. (Times, 8th July, 1823.)

8th July. Sir James Mackintosh presented petition of the emancipists (Times, 9th July, 1823.)

9th July. New South Wales Jurisdiction Bill in Committee. (Times 10th July, 1823.)

10th July, 1823. New South Wales Jurisdiction Bill read a third time and passed. (Times, 11th July, 1823.)

Chronology

CHRONOLOGY

(Events taking place in England are in italics.)

1808, | |January. Bligh deposed.

1809, | May. Macquarie appointed Governor; Ellis Bent appointed Judge-Advocate.

1810, | April, October. Lord Liverpool becomes Secretary of State; Bligh leaves Sydney.

1811, | May, June, July. Johnston's Trial.

1812, | June. Lord Bathurst becomes Secretary of State; Committee of House of Commons on Transportation.

1813, | New Charter of Justice issued for New South Wales; appointment of Jeffery Hart Bent as Judge of Supreme Court.

1814, | July. J. H. Bent arrives at Sydney.

1815, | November. Death of Ellis Bent.

1816, | January. Recall of the Bents.

January. Appointment of Wylde and Field.

1817, | May. J. H. Bent leaves Sydney.

1819, | January, March. J. T. Bigge appointed Commissioner; appointment of Committee on Gaols.

1820, | July. Macquarie's Resignation accepted.

November. Sir Thomas Brisbane appointed Governor.

1821, | February. Bigge leaves Sydney.

November. Brisbane arrives at Sydney.

1822, | February. Macquarie leaves Sydney; Bigge presents Report I.

1823. | Bigge presents Reports II. and III.; 4 Geo. IV., cap. 96.

1824. | Death of Macquarie.

Abbreviations

ABBREVIATIONS

R.O. = Record Office.

C.O. = Colonial Office.

MS. = Documents in Manuscript.

D. = Despatch.

Encl. = Enclosure to D., etc.

H.R. = Historical Records of New South Wales, 1788-1811 (published by New South Wales Government).

P.P. = Parliamentary Papers.

H.C. = House of Commons.

C. on T. = Report of Committee on Transportation, together with minutes of Evidence and Appendices, P.P., 1812.

C. on G. = Report of Committee on Gaols, etc., P.P., 1819.

Bigge's Report, I. = Bigge's Report on Convict System, P.P., 1822.

Bigge's Report, II. = Bigge's Report on Judiciary and Police, P.P., 1823.

Bigge's Report, III. = Bigge's Report on Agriculture and Trade, etc., P.P., 1823.

Appendix Bigge's Reports. = Appendices to Reports in R.O. consisting of minutes of evidence, documents, etc.

S.G. = Sydney Gazette.

G.G.O. = Government and General Orders.

Chapter 1

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.

Authorities.—Historical Records of New South Wales (especially Volume VII.). Report on Transportation, P.P., 1812, II. Report on Gaols, P.P., 1819, VII. Bigg's Reports, P.P., 1822 and 1823, Vols. XX and X. Report of Trial of Lieut.-Colonel Johnston. Eden's History of New Holland. Memoir of Samuel Marsden.

When Colonel Macquarie landed at Sydney at the close of 1809 the population of the settlement he was to govern was already over 10,000. In the twenty-two years which had passed since the foundation of the Colony of New South Wales in 1788, the numbers had increased at a rate of nearly 500 a year—an increase in population then without parallel in the course of modern colonisation. The cause was not far to seek; what would under a system of voluntary emigration have been remarkable, was but the natural result of forced emigration, of the system of "Colonising-Transportation" of which New South Wales was the first example. The custom of sending convicted criminals to the plantations was indeed an old one, and one not peculiar to England, but the system put into practice in 1788 differed in important features from any which had been practised before.

The final triumph of the North American Colonies in 1783, by closing that channel, had left a fast increasing number of prisoners on the hands of the Government. The previous course had been to send a large proportion of the convicts to serve as bond-servants to colonial planters and farmers. Once they were consigned to the masters of the merchant vessels who offered for this service, the direct responsibility of the Government was at an end, and the convicted criminal served out his sentence under a form of mild restraint. Indeed the mildness of the punishment was condemned in the House of Commons so late as 1776 by Mr. William Eden, who a few years afterwards suggested hard labour at home or slavery in Mohammedan lands in exchange for Christian captives as more efficacious punishments.

Again, the bond-servants formed a minority and an unimportant minority of the whole colonial population.

When this system was interrupted by the revolt of the Colonies in 1776, and brought altogether to an end by the peace of 1782, the Government decided to recommence the transportation of convicts, apparently unconscious of the extent to which they were creating a new policy. Under the new scheme not only were the majority of the colonists convicts, but they were almost entirely, for the first few years wholly, under the direct control of the Government. By an Act of 1783, the King in Council was empowered to declare any territory in the foreign possessions of Great Britain to be a place to which convicts might be transported. At the same time an expedition examined the West Coast of Africa in the search for territory, but reported that it was too unhealthy even for the social outcast. Yet to find some suitable country for the purpose became daily more urgent. With the growing humanity of the times the commutation of the death penalty grew increasingly frequent. England offered no places of confinement for the men whose sentences were thus commuted save the pestilent, over-crowded prisons or equally horrible river hulks.

Meanwhile the immediate settlement of New Holland was being pressed upon the Government. The opportunity of achieving both objects was too good to be lost, and in 1784 the scheme received the serious attention of Lord Sydney, the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. In 1786 a further step was taken, and Orders in Council issued which declared the East Coast of New Holland to be a place within the meaning of the Act of 1783. In the following year the project was put into execution and a small fleet dispatched under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip of the King's Navy, who was to establish the settlement and be its first Governor. His command consisted of 1,100 all told, including a military garrison, 500 male and 250 female convicts and a sprinkling of free emigrants. In January, 1788, he landed his people at Port Jackson, and founded on its shores the town of Sydney.

The expedition created scarcely a ripple of excitement in England, full of interest though it was to a few students of criminal law. One of these, William Eden (afterwards the first Lord Auckland), wrote a History of New Holland, in the preface to which he discussed the new experiment. The suggestions made by him in 1776 in the speech referred to above had apparently fallen on barren ground, and he took it as an accepted fact that so far no means of keeping convicts at home had answered "the end of their exemplary correction," and that some way must be found of "exonerating this country of its obnoxious members". New Holland seemed a suitable location, and the annexation of that island was on other counts desirable. He spoke with careful vagueness of the considerable changes which had taken place since England first turned over troublesome subjects "to the use and benefit of its infant colonies"—changes "in the interests and political situation of many leading states of Europe". Whatever the actual facts here alluded to, it seems at least worthy of note that two days after Phillip landed at Port Jackson a French fleet was sighted in the offing, and that for the next forty years each impulse towards extended exploration and settlement in Australia, which was fostered by Government, was almost without exception coincident with a similar enterprise rumoured or in course of execution by France.