298 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



complete obscurity, from which it gradually emerged through the 

 agency of Sir Samuel Romilly. His work in the reform of 

 Criminal Law naturally led him to inquire into the concerns 

 of New South Wales, and the little he could learn left him 

 extremely dissatisfied as to its condition and the probable effect 

 of transportation upon the convicts. 



On the 9th of May, 1810, he moved in the House of Com- 

 mons that an address be presented to the King praying that 

 the Penitentiary Acts of 19 Geo. III. and 34 Geo. III. should 

 be put into force. 1 



The motion was withdrawn at the request of Ryder, the 

 Under-Secretary for Home Affairs, who stated his sympathy 

 but asked for delay. On the 5th of June Romilly renewed the 

 motion, but found Ryder " as little prepared now as he had been 

 before" 2 and he again asked for delay and suggested a com- 

 mittee. The matter, however, was pressed to a division, and 

 Romilly made a long speech during the debate, basing his re- 

 marks chiefly on Collins. 3 



" In whatever light we consider it," he said ... "we shall 

 find it extremely inefficacious. As an example the effect of 

 the punishment is removed to a distance from those on whom 

 it is to operate. It is involved in the greatest uncertainty, and 

 is considered very differently according to the sanguine or de- 

 sponding disposition of those who reflect on it, or according to 

 the more accurate or erroneous accounts of the Colony which 

 may happen to have reached then." 



He spoke of Collins as " the panegyrist of the Colony," and 

 yet, he said, " his history is little more than a disgusting narrative 

 of atrocious crimes and most severe and cruel punishments. 4 It 

 is indeed a subject of very melancholy, and to this House of very 

 reproachful reflection, that such an experiment in criminal juris- 

 prudence and colonial policy as that of transportation to New 

 South Wales should have been tried, and we should have suffered 

 now twenty-four years to elapse without examining or even in- 

 quiring into its success or its failure." 



1 See Romilly's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 319. 

 1 Romilly's Memoirs, vol. ii. 



3 See Hansard, vol. xvii., pp. 322-329, sth June, 1810. 



4 This statement is a great exaggeration. There is much information of a 

 hopeful and cheerful nature in Collins' book. 



