The spirit of the Commissioner's propositions was embodied by the home
government, and its offers were published in various forms; chiefly,
indeed, by the diligence of adventurers who, to freight their ships,
filled volumes, and depicted in lively colors the beauty of the
colonies. The intending settler was told, that not only would he find
cheap land and cheap labor, but a large return for his produce.
By the grants of Sir Thomas Brisbane, bonds were required to be given
for the support and employment of prisoners, until their detention
expired--calculated at the average term of ten years. For every hundred
acres, the settler engaged to provide one convict with food and
clothing, in return for his labor; and to contribute 18s. per annum
towards the expense of medicine, police, and religious instruction
(1822). Still further to encourage such contracts, the settlers were
furnished with a cow, for every convict attached to their grants, to
continue in their possession during the term of his servitude![157]
The regulation issued at Downing-street in 1824, engaged that the
purchaser of land--who within ten years might save ten times the amount
of his payment, by the employment of convicts, reckoning each at L16 per
annum--should receive back his money, though without interest; but when
the land was conditionally given, one-fifth part of that saving would
pass to account of quit-rent, and thus probably entitle the employer to
entire relief.
The Van Diemen's Land Company, by agreement with Earl Bathurst, entered
into similar covenants, and received their land subject to a quit-rent,
redeemable by the sustentation and employment of prisoners--to them a
fortunate stipulation,[158] and which has relieved their vast territory
from a heavy pressure. These various plans indicate the difficulties of
finding masters, which once prevailed.
The government having roused the spirit of emigration, were soon enabled
to grant a favor when they assigned a workman, and rapidly withdrew from
engagements no longer necessary. Hundreds of families arrived in a
succession of vessels, and speedily fixed themselves in the interior:
flocks were contracted, herds were slaughtered; fences, homesteads, and
fields of corn divided and dotted the land. The least capital admitted
was L500; and though several evaded the condition, many of the settlers
brought much larger sums. They pursued their improvements, with all the
vigour awakened by novelty, and stimulated by the prospect of
considerable gains. The competition for labor increased, until it
created in the minds of the settlers a feeling of dependance and
obligation--to refuse a supply, had been ruin. It placed before the
prisoners, once again, the examples of emancipist opulence: mechanics
earned more wages than officers of the army; again transportation was
represented as a boon; and then came other changes.
In the official newspaper of 1827, it is stated that 1,000 applications
were registered at Hobart Town. To an English reader, and to a modern
colonist, the notices of this period seem like satire. "Better," remarks
this organ of the higher classes, "better send petitions for more
prisoners--now that applications have lain dormant for twelve months:
some for four, eight, and ten men--than trouble about trial by jury and
representative government. The disappointment, we trust, will be
temporary: when the last vessel sailed, the _York_ was freighting. We
trust the home secretary will consider the deficiency"! The extremely
earnest manner in which these felonious additions were implored, is a
curious relic of a bygone era.[159]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 156: _Collins_, vol. i. p. 267.]
[Footnote 157: _Gazette_, 11th July, 1822.]
[Footnote 158: Bischcoff.]