236 ON BOTANY BAT. Otft. 5, 



the total expence, up to this date, at fix hundred tliou- 

 fand pounds. Each of thefe unhappy perfons has, there- 

 fore, coft this country three hundred pounds Sttrhng : 

 and fuppofing, that on an average, they furvive tranf- 

 portation for twenty years, the total expence of each 

 convidl will, at this rate, amount to perhaps about fif- 

 teen hundred pounds Sterling. It may indeed be al- 

 ledged, that before that time the country will be redu- 

 ced to a ftate of cultivation. But a circumflance men- 

 tioned by the governor fufficiently (hows the great dil- 

 tance and uncertainty of fuch a profpetl. It coft hun, 

 and a party five days to penetrate thirty miles into the 

 defart ; and the fatigues they underwent during this 

 journey were exceffive. In the fame paper you tell us, 

 that eighteen hundred and thirty additional convifts 

 were then under orders for {hipping. It is impoflible 

 to eftimate, with any degree of certainty, what may be 

 the annual expence of this colony before the end 

 of the eighteenth century. By a very moderate 

 computation we may fuppofe, that before ten years 

 clapfe, the colony will receive at leaft ten thoufand ad- 

 ditional convicts; and it is but fair to compute, that of 

 the whole number by that time tranfported, ten thou- 

 fand will then be nlive, and maintained at the expence 

 of Government. Now, if each of thefe gentry ftiall 

 coft us only thirty pounds a year, the whole annual ex- 

 pence will amount to three hundred thoufand pounds. 

 At the fnd of twenty years it may rife to double that 

 fum. Will the BritiQi nation, with its eyes open, walk 

 into iuch a gulf ? Had each of thefe criminals been 

 difcharged from the bar, it is very unlikely that he 

 would liave committed one tenth part of the mifchief 

 by abufing his liberty at home, which he entails on us 

 by enduring flavcr y abroad. 



Thefe premifcs, or at leaft by far the greater part of 

 them, are unanf-A erable, and we muft infer that the 

 Botmy-b^iy fchemc is the moft abfurdj prodigal, and 

 imprafticablc vifion that ever intoxicated the mind of 



