636 Reid's -New South Wales. 
prison, all are not vicious; that owing to 
the fallibility of human nature, the best 
dispositions are seduced, and that discri¬ 
mination and constant remission of punish¬ 
ment are necessary. She must, ere this, 
know that more sincere repentance does 
not exist in any congregation of sinners, 
than within the walls of a prison, and that 
pity and forgiveness are more called for 
than canting, reproof, or severity. In ano¬ 
ther place we have developed our views of a 
scale of punishments, but however well 
graduated, no punishments ought to be in¬ 
discriminately applied. Expatriation should 
be the extreme resort of society—punish¬ 
ment of death, except for murder, is as use¬ 
less as it is barbarous—and of course expa¬ 
triation ought, as the last resort, to be im¬ 
posed only on incorrigibles. On this prin¬ 
ciple, therefore, we consider the chief part 
of the observations of Mr. Reid as misap¬ 
plied, indiscriminate, aDd uncharitable; 
and though we are glad to observe that the 
victims are well-treated during the middle- 
passage ;, and that he so kindly did his duty, 
yet that palliative never reconciled us to 
the system of African slavery, more than it 
does to the system of indiscriminate depor¬ 
tation to New South Wales.] 
ORIGIN OP TRANSPORTATION. 
Parliament authorized this species 
of punishment in 1718, when the general 
plan of sending convicts to the Ameri¬ 
can plantations was first adopted. This 
system continued for 56 years, during 
which period, and until the commence¬ 
ment of the American war, in 1775, 
great numbers of felons were sent 
chiefly to the province of Maryland. 
The rigid discipline which the colonial 
laws authorized the masters to exercise 
over servants, joined to the prospects 
which agricultural pursuits, after some 
experience was acquired, afforded to 
those outcasts , tended to reform the 
chief part; and after the expiration of 
their servitude, they mingled in the so¬ 
ciety of the country, under circum¬ 
stances highly beneficial to themselves, 
and even to the colony. Possessed in 
general (as every adroit thief must he) 
of good natural abilities, they availed 
themselves of the habits of industry 
they acquired in the years of their ser¬ 
vitude; became farmers and planters 
on their own account; and many of 
them succeeding in those pursuits, not 
only acquired that degree of respecta¬ 
bility which is attached to property and 
industry, but also in their turn became 
masters, and purchased the servitude 
of future transports sent out for sale. 
When the American revolution pre¬ 
vented the further transmission of con¬ 
victs to that country, the system of the 
Hulks and Houses of Correction was 
sulst'tuted. However, from the in¬ 
creasing number of delinquents, aris¬ 
ing not only from the increase of vice, 
but that of population, that mode soon 
became inadequate to the augmented 
demands for disposing of the prisoners, 
as of course to the enforcement of that 
labour to which for their offences they 
had been sentenced. Plans were then 
acted upon for building extensive pri¬ 
sons, penitentiaries, and asylums for 
their reception ; but the enormous ex¬ 
pense and comparative inefficacy of 
those establishments, which it appears 
were mostly conducted in the old miser¬ 
able mode of gaol discipline, the evils 
of which became now universally ac¬ 
knowledged, soon raised loud com¬ 
plaints against the system. 
The attention of government, still 
directed to this necessary and impor¬ 
tant relief of the community from those 
who would subvert its comforts and 
security, caused the coast of Africa to 
be explored for a fit situation for a co¬ 
lony; but that research proved fruit¬ 
less, on account of the unhealthiness of 
the climate, or hostility of the natives 
of those situations which remained un¬ 
occupied by other European nations, 
rendering it imprudent to risk an es¬ 
tablishment in that country. The dis¬ 
covery of the vast territory of New 
South Wales by Captain Cook, in 1770 
and 1777 , opened a new field for dis¬ 
posing of those refractory characters. 
The following is recorded by Collins as 
the commencement of the present co¬ 
lony there:— 
u The Commissioners of His Ma¬ 
jesty’s Navy, toward the end of the 
year 1786, advertised for a certain 
number of vessels to be taken up for the 
purpose of conveying between seven 
and eight hundred male and female 
felons to Botany Bay, in New South 
Wales, on the eastern coast of New 
Holland, whither it had been deter¬ 
mined by Government to transport 
them, after having sought in vain upon 
the African coast for a situation pos¬ 
sessing the requisites for the establish¬ 
ment of a colony.” 
MODE AND RESULT OP TRANS¬ 
PORTATION. 
The original mode of transportation 
was, that merchants, or agriculturists 
of property, might contract for the con¬ 
veyance of the convicts to their desti¬ 
nation, under an act of parliament, re¬ 
moving them to their estates in the co¬ 
lony ; 
