statistics. from 1784 to 1789, and President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. In a note written for the information of the author of an article on the Etats Unis in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, he stated that "the malefactors sent to America Patriotic were not sufficient in number to merit enumeration, as one class out of three which peopled America." And he added: "It was at a late period of their history that this practice began. I have no book by me which enables me to point out the date of its commencement. But I do not think the whole number sent out would amount to 2,000; and being principally men eaten up with disease, they married seldom and propagated little. I do not suppose that themselves and their descendants are at present 4,000, which is little more than one-thousandth part of the whole inhabitants."* statistics. It is not easy to reconcile this estimate-which bears no date, but was written about 1785-with that of the official official charged with the transportation of convicts to America, whose letter on the subject has been already referred to. Jefferson's calculation was not based on any statistical or official information, and is evidently at variance with the facts as they appear in the records. Later writers of American history would appear to have adopted the great President's views on this subject. Their pages may be searched in vain for any account of the transportation system, although it formed so conspicuous a chapter in the annals of American colonisation. The convict element in the composition of early American society Disappearhas long since dropped out of sight; so much so, indeed, convict that it is difficult now to find even an allusion to it in the literature of the present century. The explanation is not Jefferson, Works, vol. ix, p. 254. + Some indication of the difficulty of obtaining authentic information on this subject may be gathered from the fact that a correspondent's letter published in Notes and Queries for November 10, 1869, p. 369, asking for "trustworthy sources of information respecting the old system of transportation, as it existed prior to the American War of Independence,' met with no reply. Another letter, requesting information as to what extent ance of element. Number sent to New difficult. The convicts, scattered over the immense territory of the plantations, were so rapidly absorbed in the general population that all traces of their identity were soon lost in the crowd; a result largely owing to the means of reformation afforded them by free grants of land and assistance in the work of cultivation. Transportation to New South Wales ceased in 1841, and South Wales. the total number of convicts sent out to the colony up to that date is calculated at 83,000.* Of this portion of its population it may be said that the process of absorption which took place in the American colonies has been witnessed here-largely accelerated by the great gold discoveries which began ten years after the system was discontinued. Those discoveries may be said to have dispersed the scattered remnants of the old convict days, as effectually, if not as rapidly, as bush fires have consumed the decayed vegetation of a forest. Cessation of the system. Its sup porters and its opponents. Transportation to Van Diemen's Land and Norfolk Island ceased in 1853, and to Western Australia in 1867. For nearly eighty years, in face of all the accumulated evidence against it, this system was carried out as resolutely under one form of government as another-with the same faith in its equity under Lord John Russell in 1840 as under Lord Sydney over half a century before; and but for the determined resistance of the colonies to its continuance, it would probably have been in existence at the present day. So little do merely moral considerations avail, when weighed in the balance against political convenience. prisoners had been transported to the United States, appeared in the same periodical for December 11, 1886 (vol. ii, p. 476), to which several replies were sent; see vol. iii, pp. 58, 114, 193; vol. iv, pp. 134, 394; vol. v, p. 196. * Post, p. 463. THE EXPEDITION TO BOTANY BAY. Nova Scotia. THE colonies in British America continued to receive convicts for some years after the Declaration of Independence by the United States in 1776, followed by the Treaty of Quebec and Versailles in 1783, had put an end to the system of transportation to the States. Among the records of the Home Office are two warrants, dated 1783 and 1784, and addressed to the superintendent of the convicts on the river Thames, requiring him to deliver certain convicts then on board. the hulks to the contractor for their transportation to America.* These warrants are sufficient to show that transportation to America did not, as is often supposed, entirely cease after the War of Independence.† When the independence of the United States was recognised by England, by the Peace of Versailles, the Government found itself under the necessity of finding some other outlet for the fast-accumulating population of the gaols. The coasts of Africa were at first thought of as the most Africa. suitable place for the reception of convicts, and many were sent there; but the unhealthiness of the climate proved so fatal to them that transportation to that country was wholly abandoned in 1785. *Post, p. 466.-It may be mentioned that when New South Wales became the scene of operations, the warrants for the delivery of convicts from the hulks to the contractors followed the American form. "The Recorder of London had a long conference with Lord Sidney on the subject of the present state of the prisons of the metropolis, and the number of convicts that are increasing to an alarming degree, owing to the delay of sending abroad those under sentence of transportation. The season is over for sending them to Quebec and Nova Scotia; but assurances have been given that two ships, properly fitted up, shall be ready by the latter end of March next, to carry convicts to America."-Annual Register, 1788, vol. xxx, Chron., p. 223, under date 8th Deceniber, 1788. 1787 The final determination of the Government was made The Govern- known in a letter from Lord Sydney to the Lords of the Treasury, dated 18th August, 1786 ment policy. Overcrowded gaols. The several gaols and places for the confinement of felons in this kingdom being in so crowded a state that the greatest danger is to be apprehended, not only from their escape but from infectious distempers which may hourly be expected to break out amongst them, his Majesty, desirous of preventing by every possible means the ill consequences which might happen from either of these causes, has been pleased to signify to me his royal commands that measures should immediately be pursued for sending out of his kingdom such of the convicts as are under sentence or order of transportation. The Nautilus, sloop, which, upon the recommendation of a Committee of the House of Commons, had been sent to explore the southern coast of Africa, in order to find out an eligible exploration. situation for the reception of the said convicts, where, from their African industry, they might soon be likely to obtain means of subsistence, having lately returned, and it appearing by the report of her officers that the several parts of the coast which they examined between the latitudes 15° 50′ south and the latitude of 33° are sandy and barren, and from other causes unfit for a settlement of that description, his Majesty has thought it advisable to fix Botany Bay. upon Botany Bay, situated on the coast of New South Wales, in the latitude of about 33° south, which, according to the accounts given by the late Captain Cook, as well as the representations of persons* who accompanied him during his last voyage, and who have been consulted upon the subject, is looked upon as a place likely to answer the above purposes. I am therefore commanded to signify to your lordships his Majesty's pleasure that you do forthwith take such measures as Ships to be may be necessary for providing a proper number of vessels for the conveyance of seven hundred and fifty convicts to Botany Bay, together with such provisions, necessaries, and implements for agriculture as may be necessary for their use after their arrival.† provided. It would appear from this letter that the sole motive of the expedition to Botany Bay was to relieve the gaols. Sir Joseph Banks was the confidential adviser of the Government on matters relating to Botany Bay. + The rest of this letter will be found post, p. 435. pre 1786 the expedi But there is abundant evidence to show that other and higher considerations had been at work for some time Reasons for viously; and that although the relief of the prisons was tion. the immediate object in view, the real motives which led to the expedition were of a much larger and more statesmanlike character. and convict The work of colonisation had so long been associated Colonisation in the minds of colonising nations with the employment of labour." convict labour that, when a new colony was projected, the despatch of convicts to its shores was usually accepted as an indispensable part of the programme. This fact in the history of colonisation has so far been lost sight of by many writers in the present century, that transportation to Botany Bay has generally been treated as the central idea of the whole movement; and its history has too often been written as if "the new intended settlement" was from the first intended to be nothing more than a strictly penal one-a mere substitute for hulks and penitentiaries. Government. Undoubtedly there is some colour for this view of the matter. When the Government had determined to form a proposals. settlement on the coast of New South Wales, they did not announce that they were about to do so, but contented themselves with an intimation that they proposed to transport a number of felons in order to relieve the gaols. In the speech with which George the Third opened Parliament on the 23rd January, 1787, the only reference to the subject was the following: A plan has been formed, by my direction, for transporting a The King's number of convicts in order to remove the inconvenience which Speech.. arose from the crowded state of the gaols in different parts of the kingdom; and you will, I doubt not, take such further measures as may be necessary for this purpose. * Nor was anything said about the matter in the debate on No debate. the address in reply, beyond a remark from the mover to the effect that transportation was a measure of absolute Parliamentary History, vol. xxvi, p. 211. |