HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



it was to advise the Government what to do with the surplus convicts of the land, since 



the trans-Atlantic plantations were no longer available for their reception. The recent 



publication of selections from the " Brabourne Papers " throws an entirely new light on 



this and many other incidents connected with the early days of the colony, which have 



hitherto been more or less incorrectly stated. The principal witness examined before the 



Committee was Sir Joseph 



Banks, then President of the 



Royal Society, who was 



accepted, on account of his 



past experience, as the most 



trustworthy authority on the 



subject of Australia. Banks 



expressed himself in very 



favourable terms about Botany 



Bay as a field for a penal 



settlement, and by the variety 



and value of his knowledge, 



as well as by his earnestness, 



succeeded in the not very 



difficult task of convincing the 



Committee, whose report in 



favour of the scheme was 



agreed to by the House. 



Nevertheless nearly four 

 years elapsed before any active 

 steps were taken to carry the 

 scheme into effect ; years 



during which Howard, Bentham, and other philanthropists constantly interested themselves 

 in the endeavour to improve the condition of the wretched prisoners ; and it was not 

 until peace had been declared with the United States that the Government attempted to 

 consider seriously the advice given by Banks with regard to the criminal colonization 

 of Australia. It was about this time that a proposition was made to the Government by 

 a gentleman named James Maria Matra, on behalf of the American colonists who had 

 lost their property, and whose homes had been ruined by the war. Matra's proposition 

 was to create of New South Wales " a colony that might in time atone for the loss 

 of the American colonies ; and to people it with such American colonists as had 

 remained loyal, and had suffered for their loyalty to the Crown during the war." This 

 he considered could be done at a cost of ^3000, and with very great advantages to 

 England, but the proposal was not favourably received. 



Two years later a similar proposition was made by Sir George Young, a naval officer 

 who had served with distinction against the French in Canada, and who was in this sup- 

 ported by Sir Joseph Banks. One of the suggestions of the latter was, that "any number of 

 useful inhabitants might be drawn from China," to assist in forming the new colony, "agree- 

 ably to an invariable custom of the Dutch in forming or recruiting their eastern settlements." 



VISCOUNT SYDNEY. 



