THE EXECUTIVE AND THE JUDICIARY. 199 



of these persons to any society." l He had found them zealous 

 and faithful officers and ready to assist the Government on all 

 occasions. 



In 1813 he pressed the matter once more, and made the first 

 of his bitter attacks upon those who opposed his policy. It 

 was, he said, his invariable opinion " that once a convict has 

 become a Free Man ... he should in all respects be considered 

 on a footing with every other man in the Colony according to 

 his rank in life and character 2 . . . ; on the other hand, while 

 a man is under the sentence of the law he is not eligible to be 

 employed in any place of trust ; he is incapable of holding a 

 grant of land, and it would be highly indecorous to employ him 

 as a juryman or in any other public situation of respectability. 

 Persons may be found who . . . may say : ' Is not the man 

 equally to be trusted as a convict, who can be trusted, having 

 ceased to be one ? ' To this I answer that independent of the 

 merits of the man ... it is a disrespect to the Laws .... 

 It is a necessary respect to the Laws that the sentence should 

 be acted upon as long as it exists. No doubt many of the Free 

 Settlers (if not all) would prefer (if they had their choice) never 

 to admit persons who had once been convicts to any situation 

 of equality to themselves. But ... in coming to New South 

 Wales, they should consider that they are coming to a Convict 

 Country, and if they are too proud or too delicate in their feelings 

 to associate with the population of the country, they should 

 consider it in time. . . . No country in the world perhaps has 

 been so advantageous to adventurers as New South Wales. 

 The Free Settlers who have come out as adventurers have never 

 felt their dignity injured by trading in every way with convicts 

 . . . but further than it suits their interest to have intercourse 

 with them, they would rather be excused. I must, however, in 

 justice to the original Free Settlers, observe that . . . they are 

 not all of one mind in this respect. Amongst them some few 

 liberal-minded persons are to be found who do not wish to keep 

 those unfortunate persons for ever in a state of degradation." s 



1 D. 6, lyth November, 1812. R.O., MS. 



2 He forgot this when he asked Lord to dinner, for neither his rank nor 

 character entitled him to mix with " respectable " men. 



3 D. 2, 28th June, 1813. R.O., MS. 



