88 Voyage of the Novara. 



all but entirely ijnpracticable. She must, in tlie first place, 

 have her maritime power more developed. On this subject 

 the agreement is of importance which was entered into in 

 1836 between Mr. James Colquhon, Consul-General for the 

 city of Hamburg, and the agents of the Australian Agricul- 

 tural Society on the other, as, although nothing resulted from 

 it, it nevertheless indicates how States that have no colonies 

 can set about the system of transportation. The gist of that 

 scheme was the subscription of a sum for the passage of 

 such convicts as voluntarily accepted the offer, on their en- 

 gaging to remain for a certain period at compulsory labour 

 in Australia on the same terms as those of English convicts.* 

 Once the wish and the necessity shall arise in Germany, 

 owing to the expansion of her population, for possessions 

 beyond sea, and her navy shall increase on a scale adapted to 

 their protection and defence, then, although the choice of 

 locality may be limited, the idea will no longer remain im- 

 practicable. In the Indian Ocean as well as the Pacific 

 there are numbers of island groups, which, by tlieir hypso- 

 metric conditions, geographical position, and fertility of soil, 

 are admirably suited for settlement by white labour. The 

 prejudice against the climatic adaptability of the majority of 

 these falls to the ground, when we recollect what entirely 

 altered conditions in that respect have been brought about 

 . by the industry and energy of the colonists of Singapore and 

 Pulo-Penang, on islands which, from being in the worst pos- 



• The cost of transport of each convict was to be reckoned at £18. 



