A VOYAGE TO 
The benefits of this regulation were various. The 
colonies received by it, at an eafy rate, an affiftance 
very neceffary ; and the mother country was relieved from 
the burthen of fubjeds, who at home were not only ufe- 
lefs but pernicious : befides whic h, the mercantile returns, 
on this account alone, are reported to have arifen, in latter 
times, to a very confiderable amount.-^'- The individuals 
themfelves, doubtlefs, in fome inftances, proved incorrigi- 
ble ; but it happened alfo, not very unfrequently, that, 
during the period of their legal fervitude, they became 
reconciled to a life of honeft induftry, were altogether 
reformed in their manners, and rifing gradually by 
laudable efforts, to fituations of advantage, independence, 
and eftimation, contributed honourably to the population 
and profperity of their new country.! 
By the contefl in America, and the fubfequent repara- 
tion of the thirteen Colonies, this traffic was of courfe 
deftroyed. Other expedients, well known to the public, 
have fince been tried ; fome of which proved highly 
obje6lionable ;§ and all have been found to want fome of 
* It is faicl, forty thoufand pountls per annum, about two thoufand convicts being 
fold for twenty pounds each. 
t The Abbe Raynal has given his full tcftimony to the policy of this fpecies of 
banifhment, in the fourteenth Book, of his Hiftory, near the beginning. 
§ Particularly, the tranfporting of criminals to the coaft of Africa, where what was 
meant as an alleviation of punifhment too frequently ended in death. 
the 
