NEW SOUTH WALES AND PARLIAMENT. 315 



junior (a son of the more famous colonist), a young barrister, 

 described the wool trade, and several officers of the Transport,' 

 or, as it was then called, the Navy Board, explained the arrange- 

 ments of the voyage. 



Anxious to present this important body of information be- 

 fore the end of the session, the Committee made practically no 

 report, simply laying the minutes of evidence before the House 

 on the nth July, 1819. 



Partly no doubt from this fact, and partly because the more 

 important work of Bigge would soon be completed, the work of 

 the Committee was neglected; and in 1820 Bennet published 

 in the form of a letter to Lord Bathurst, a short resume of the 

 evidence. 1 



" I have," he wrote, " no cause to complain of the Prison 

 Committee ; on the contrary, I found in it a great willingness 

 to hear all the evidence I had to offer, written as well as oral ; 

 and though, in some few instances, I think, evidence was ex- 

 cluded which before a House of Commons' Committee might 

 have been reasonably admitted, yet the general object of 

 all concerned seemed to be a fair, candid and impartial in- 

 quiry. . . ." 2 



Bennet admitted that to wait the return of Bigge was natural, 

 but he thought some steps should be taken by the Government 

 at once. These were the restriction of the number of convicts 

 transported, the provision of civil and criminal courts, the pledge 

 of granting jury trial in the near future, and the establishment 

 at once of a council for the Governor. 



" What is to become of the settlement ? Is it to be a gaol or 

 a Colony ? if a gaol you must bring back again to Europe all 

 the free settlers if a Colony, in order to maintain those who 

 are already there in a flourishing condition, as well as to induce 

 persons of character and property to settle within its territories, 

 a rational, limited, legal Government must be established. 

 Martial law 3 may be a fit mode of Government for felon con- 



1 See Report, etc., of C. on G., 1819. 



2 The written evidence was in some cases very wrongly admitted. See, e#., 

 some letters by J. H. Bent. Those, however, came from the Colonial Office. 



s It is perhaps worth while to point out that the term " martial " is quite in- 

 accurate. It was military not " martial ". 



