PART IV.

VARIOUS CHANGES PROPOSED IN THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.

It being thus clear and indubitable that free representative

governments are the only foundation on which the prosperity and

happiness of communities can safely repose, it only remains to

ascertain how far the actual circumstances and situation of this

colony are compatible with the concession of so great and

important a privilege. At my very offset in this essay, after

glancing in a cursory manner at the history of the most

celebrated ancient and modern empires, and shewing that their

progress kept pace with their freedom, and that their

retrogradation is to be dated only from the epoch when they fell

under the dominion of arbitrary and ambitious despots, whose

successors gradually completed the work of destruction which they

had commenced, I was compelled in candour to admit that the

heterogeneous ingredients of which this colony was compounded,

did not at the period of its foundation, afford his Majesty's

government the power, if they had even possessed the will, to

establish a free representative system. It is therefore incumbent

on me, now that I have demonstrated the beneficial influence

which free governments have in promoting the prosperity of

communities in general, and have proved that this colony has for

many years been languishing in a state of impeded growth, and

tottering imbecillity, from the inefficiency of its

administration to adopt those measures which are necessary to its

revigoration; I say it is incumbent on me to shew that the

component parts of this body politic, have undergone such a

change since the period of its creation, as will warrant its

identification in this respect with other states, and justify the

conclusion that such institutions are essential to its welfare as

have been found conducive to theirs.

It must be almost superfluous to state, that when this colony

was formed, it was composed, with the exception of its civil and

military establishments, entirely of convicts. It was

consequently impossible that a body of men, who were all under

the sentence of the law, and had been condemned for their crimes

to suffer either a temporary suspension, or total deprivation of

the civil rights of citizens, could be admitted to exercise one

of the most important among the whole of them, the elective

franchise; and to have vested this privilege in the civil and

military authorities, both of whom then as at present were

subject to martial law, and were besides at that time without

landed property, the only standard I conceive by which the right

either of electing or being elected can in any country be

properly regulated, would have been equally improper and absurd.

A council indeed might have been appointed, but even an

institution of this kind might have clogged the wheels of the

government by its opposition, and could have been of but little

assistance with its advice; for as it has been already stated,

there was but one object to be pursued, and that was to promote

by every means the agriculture of the colony, so as to emancipate

it as soon as possible from a precarious and dangerous dependence

on other countries. Until, therefore, the free inhabitants of the

colony had increased to a sufficient number to exercise the

elective franchise, and until its productive powers had

outstripped its consumptive, and it became necessary either to

create new markets for its produce within, or to direct a portion

of its strength to the raising of articles for exportation to

other countries, the establishment of a free representative

government would not have been expedient had it even been

practicable.

The period at which the produce of this settlement fairly

exceeded the internal demand for it, may, as I have already

noticed, be dated so far back as the year 1804, being about

sixteen years after the period of its foundation. It has been

already seen that the harvests of that and the succeeding year

were so abundant, that no sale could be obtained for more than

one half of the crop;--that had it not been for a tremendous

flood which happened in 1806, the majority of the cultivators

must have abandoned their farms, and sought for other

occupation;--and that since that period there has fortunately

been a succession of floods and droughts, which with the

exception of two or three seasons of equal plenty, have kept the

productive powers of the colony nearly on a level with its

consumptive, or else the situation of the settlers, deplorable as

it now is, would have been infinitely more so. How radically

defective, then, must be the government of this colony, when what

would be calamities of the most serious and afflicting nature in

a well organized community are here blessings! Is it in the

nature of things to adduce more weighty arguments in proof of the

necessity which has existed since the above period for its

supercession? Ought not a government that would have felt the

importance, and have possessed the power of creating new channels

of consumption for agricultural produce to have been then

instituted? This great object, it has been already shewn, could

have been in no way so easily accomplished as by the erection of

distilleries. To have diverted the attention of any part of the

agriculturists from the growth of corn, would have been highly

impolitic in a country, where the greatest and most fertile

portion of the arable land is subject to such awful inundations.

On the contrary, it was and still is expedient, that the whole

agricultural energies of the colony should be confined to the

production of grain, until the surplus become so great as to

leave no chance whatever of these inundations being any longer

attended with their former baneful consequences. But this can

only be effected by creating a sure and adequate market for this

surplus; and whether such market is to be found in the colony, or

to be sought for abroad, no power either would have been, or is

so fully competent to accomplish this important purpose, as an

independent legislature chosen from the midst of the community,

whose interests are identified with its own.

With respect to the expediency or even practicability of

instituting a body of this nature so long as fourteen years back,

I am aware that there exists a great difference of opinion among

the respectable class of the colonists themselves. For my own

part, however small may have been the number of those from or by

whom a colonial legislature could at that time have been formed,

I consider of but little moment in solving this great problem.

The only question it appears to me to be ascertained, is, whether

a legislative assembly, however small the number of whom it might

have been composed, and however limited the body of electors by

whom it might have been chosen, would not have done its utmost to

promote its own interests, or what would have been the same

thing, the welfare of the community which it represented. I

cannot conceive the possibility of any one's doubting that such

would have been its conduct; and in this case what power could

have been instituted in the colony that would have been so well

calculated to foster its infant efforts, and develope its nascent

prosperity, as one that would have been invested with the

faculties of legislation; or in other words, with the authority

to enact as a matter of course those measures of which the

existing government has not had sufficient influence to procure

the authorization.

The expediency, however, of having established a house of

assembly in the colony at the period in question, is at this

moment, perhaps, rather a matter of curious speculation, than of

profitable inquiry. Extensively beneficial, as would in all

probability have been its effects, it is nevertheless useless to

deplore an omission which cannot now be remedied. Nor has the

absence, perhaps, of this important institution been altogether

without its advantages. It has at least indisputably proved the

inefficiency of the present system of government, and that the

colony could not have sunk under any other form of administration

whatever, to a lower ebb of poverty and wretchedness, nor have

become a heavier and more unproductive burthen to the mother

country. The want, therefore, of an internal legislature has

combined every consideration that could be adduced in proof of

the necessity of changing the present system, and adopting in its

stead that form of government which has been found so salutary

and efficacious in all countries where it has been established.

The only question that remains to be ascertained, is whether the

colony is _now_ in a state of maturity for the reception of

so important a privilege as the elective franchise; and this I

conceive will be best answered by a reference to the numerical

strength of its free population. At the general muster or census

concluded on the 19th of November, 1817, there were found to be

in all the various settlements and districts of the colony of New

South Wales, and its dependencies, twenty thousand three hundred

and twenty-eight souls, of whom sixteen thousand six hundred

and sixty-four were in the various towns and districts belonging

to Port Jackson. Out of these there were six hundred and ten

soldiers, and six thousand two hundred and ninety-seven convicts,

leaving a free population, independent of the military, of nine

thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven souls. At Newcastle, a

settlement about sixty miles to the northward of Port Jackson,

there were five hundred and fifty souls, about seventy of whom

were free. At the settlements of the Derwent and Port Dalrymple,

there were in all three thousand one hundred and fourteen souls,

of whom two thousand five hundred and fifty-four were at the

former place, and five hundred and sixty at the latter: out of

these there were about two hundred soldiers, but the number of

free persons I have not been able precisely to discover. As these

settlements, however, include the majority of the colonists and

their families, who were removed from Norfolk Island; and as by

far the greater proportion of the convicts who have been

transported from this country have been sent to Port Jackson, I

have no doubt that the number of free persons there, may be

safely estimated at three fourths of their entire population,

seeing that it is about two thirds of the population of Port

Jackson. According to this rate of computation, therefore, the

number of free persons in these two settlements, after previously

deducting the two hundred military, will amount to about two

thousand one hundred and eighty-six souls. It may, consequently,

be perceived, that the grand total of the free population of all

these various colonies in the latter end of November, 1817, may

be safely estimated to have been eleven thousand nine hundred and

seventy-three, being an excess of four thousand four hundred and

seventy above the number of convicts, or in the proportion of

more than three to two.

As the establishment of the legislative assembly in question

could not, however, be well effected before the end of the year

1819, it may not be altogether irrelevant to ascertain what will

be the probable amount of the free population at that period. The

number of births in the colony cannot at present be computed

under two thousand annually, since the increase in these various

settlements between the month of November, 1816, and the month of

November, 1817, is found to have been three thousand two hundred

and eighty-nine souls; and the number of convicts transported

thither from the first of January, 1816, to the first of January,

1818, was only three thousand one hundred and eight. Allowing,

therefore, that one half of these, or one thousand five hundred

and fifty-four, were transported to the colony during the year

1817, the increase that took place there, from birth and

emigration will have been one thousand seven hundred and

thirty-five: to which if we add five hundred, the number of

persons that probably quit the colony annually; the actual rate

of increase in the free population in the course of the year

1817, may be fixed at two thousand two hundred and thirty-five

souls. Of these the surplus above two thousand, is perhaps

composed of emigrants, and the remainder of births. If we add to

these one thousand more, who it may be safely calculated yearly

become free, by pardon or expiration of servitude, we have an

annual augmentation to the free population of three thousand two

hundred and thirty-five souls: so that if we take the year 1817,

as a standard of computation, and it is evidently a low one, the

free population will amount by the end of the year 1819, to at

least eighteen thousand four hundred and forty-three souls. This

is an elective body much more extensive than is to be found in

several of our West India islands, where houses of assembly have

been long established. But as this free population is of a mixed

description, and composed as well of persons who have been

convicts, and have become free either by the expiration of their

respective sentences, or by pardon, as of those who have been

born in the colony, or have emigrated to it, and have never

suffered the penalties of the law, a very delicate question here

arises as to the propriety of extending to the first of these

classes the privilege of being admitted into the legislative

body. There is, I am aware, a party in the colony, by whom the

very notion of granting such a privilege to a class of men who

have been subject to the lash of the law, would be treated as a

chimera pregnant with the most fatal consequences to this infant

community. In this, as in most other societies, there is an

aristocratic body, which would monopolize all situations of

power, dignity and emolument, and put themselves in a posture to

domineer alike over the governor and the people. If you consult

one of this faction (they deserve no milder appellation) he will

tell you that it is dangerous to vest any authority beyond the

narrow circle of his own immediate friends. Until the

administration of General Macquarie, this body considered

themselves possessed of an equal right to the governor's

confidence, as if they stood in the same relation to him which

the nobility of this country bear to the king, and were _de

jure_ his hereditary counsellors. Before his government the

great body of the people. I mean such as had become free,

scarcely possessed any privilege but that of suing and being sued

in the courts of civil jurisdiction. The whole power, and nearly

the whole property and commerce of the colony, were in the hands

of this faction, who with a very few exceptions were composed of

the civil and military, and of persons who had belonged to these

bodies formerly. And even in those few solitary instances which

could be adduced, of persons originally convicts, who were

_allowed_ to acquire an independence, their prosperity was

to be traced to the patronage and protection afforded them by

some member of the aristocratic junta, to whom they either acted

as agents in the disposal of their merchandize (for it was

considered by these gentlemen derogatory to their dignity to keep

shop and sell openly) or resorted for the purchase of goods on

their own accounts. At the prosperity, however, and importance of

this faction, the present governor has levelled many a deadly

blow within these last nine years; but more particularly in

prohibiting the military to hold lands, or to be concerned in

traffic, in raising to situations of the highest trust and

dignity many deserving persons who had been convicts, and in

throwing open the ports of the colony to an unlimited importation

of all sorts of merchandize. But he has not effected these

radical and salutary changes in the colonial policy without

having encountered a long and inveterate hostility. Many have

been the attempts which this faction have made to vilify his

motives and misrepresent his actions; but to every charge of his

enemies his unshaken integrity and unwearied zeal for the

conscientious discharge of his duties have proved a sufficient

refutation. The opinion of this gentleman with respect to the

expediency of adopting a liberal system, that may prove an

effectual stimulus to reformation and good conduct in those who

have unhappily deviated from the path of rectitude, has been

expressed unequivocally both in his dispatches, and in the

prominent measures of his government, and will deservedly carry

with it more weight than the whole collected opposition which I

anticipate from those who have been his opponents and

calumniators. The covert aim of these men is to convert the

ignominy of the great body of the people into an hereditary

deformity. They would hand it down from father to son, and raise

an eternal barrier of separation between their offspring, and the

offspring of the unfortunate convict. They would establish

distinctions which may serve hereafter to divide the colonists

into _castes_; and although none among them dares publicly

avow that future generations should be punished for the crimes of

their progenitors, yet such are their private sentiments; and

they would have the present race branded with disqualifications,

not more for the sake of pampering their own vanity, than with a

view to reflect disgrace on the offspring of the disfranchised

parent, and thus cast on their own children and descendants that

future splendor and importance, which they consider to be their

present peculiar and distinguishing characteristics. Short-sighted

fools! they foresee not the consequences of their narrow

machinations! They know not that they would be sowing the seeds

of future discords and commotions, and that by exalting their

immediate descendants, they would occasion the eventual

degradation and overthrow of their posterity. Such would be the

result of their ambition; for it is the curse of injustice that

it brings with it sooner or later its own punishment. Happily for

the colony the realization of their projects depends not upon

themselves; and his Majesty's ministers will not lend their

sanction to schemes of private aggrandizement, which can only be

accomplished by the sacrifice of the public good. If these men

have not themselves the sagacity to dive into futurity, and to

foresee the dangers and contests to which unjust privileges and

distinctions must eventually give birth, shall the government be

equally blind and improvident? Shall they in the short space of

thirty years forget the benevolent designs for which this colony

was founded, and convert what was intended as an asylum for

repentant vice, not into a house merely of salutary correction,

which may moderate with reviving morality and cease entirely with

complete reformation, but into a prison of endless torture, where

though the sufferings of the body may terminate, the worst

species of torture, the endurements and mortifications of the

soul, are to end only with existence? Shall a vile faction be

allowed to inflict on the unfortunate convict a punishment

infinitely greater than that to which he has been sentenced by

the violated majesty of the law? Has not a jury of impartial

freemen solemnly investigated the case of every individual who

has been transported to this colony? And have not the measure and

duration of their punishments been apportioned to their

respective offences? Is it then for any body of men to assert

that the law has been too lenient, and that it is necessary to

inflict an ulterior punishment which shall have no termination

but in the grave? Shall the unhappy culprit, exiled from his

native shore, and severed perhaps for ever from the friends of

his youth, the objects of his first and best affections, after

years of suffering and atonement, still find no resting

place,--no spot where he may hide his shame and endeavour to

forget his errors? Shall the finger of scorn and derision be

pointed at him wherever he betake himself? And must he for ever

wander a recreant and outcast on the face of the earth, seeking

in vain some friendly shore, where he may at length be freed from

ignominious disabilities, and restored to the long lost enjoyment

of equal rights and equal protection with his fellows?

I am aware it may be here urged that these men, if they were

to return to this country, could never enjoy the privileges for

which I am contending; and that the very same laws, which have

fixed the bounds of their corporal punishment have deprived them

for ever of the most valuable rights of citizens. To this I

reply, that in this country, whither if the whole of the convicts

who have been exiled from its shores were to return, they would

form but an inconsiderable portion of the people, all such

disqualifications as the law has annexed to conviction in a court

of justice, are good policy; because they tend to promote virtue

and discountenance vice. But the very same grounds of policy

require that such disqualifications should not exist in New South

Wales. There the great mass of the people are composed of persons

who have been under the operation of the law, and who were

transported with the avowed intention of the legislature to

effect their reformation. How then is this great philanthropic

end to be best attained? Is it by holding out no inducements to

good conduct, no distinction between repentant vice and

incorrigible enormity? Those who have been convicted of the

higher order of offences, and have been in consequence

transported for life, are from the very nature of their sentences

precluded from ever enjoying the privilege in question, unless,

indeed, their very exemplary conduct subsequently induce the

governor to extend to them the benefit of the king's pardon.

This, however, is an indulgence at present so rarely accorded,

that the whole of this class may be in a manner considered as

being without the pale of citizenship; and it is therefore such

only as have been convicted of crimes to which the law has

annexed the minor penalties of seven or fourteen years

transportation, who could generally become candidates for a seat

in the legislative assembly? How many of this description have

been detected in their first offence, in their very offset in the

career of criminality? How many ever afterwards deplore their

errors in sackcloth and ashes, and conduct themselves in the most

correct and unexceptionable manner? And shall no distinction be

made between _them_ and the still persevering offender whom

no inducements can withhold, no punishments deter from the

commission of fresh enormities? Shall the _novice_ in crime

and the _veteran_ be placed on the same footing and held in

equal estimation? To what end do they profess themselves to be

Christians who can maintain such infernal doctrines? How can they

reconcile them with that universal charity and good will

inculcated in their religion? How can they themselves expect

pardon of their God, who would thus withhold oblivion from their

repentant fellow creatures? If it be then alike conformable to

the principles of Christianity and sound policy, to make a

discrimination between the reformed sinner, and the still

hardened and abandoned profligate, what incentive to good conduct

would prove so efficacious as the prospect of regaining, after

years of unimpeachable integrity, all those civil rights which

they had forfeited, of becoming once more privileged to act as

jurymen, magistrates, and legislators? Such a possibility would

quickly revive the latent sparks of virtue wherever they were not

quite extinct, and electrify the mind when all other applications

would fail to rouse it from its despondence and lethargy. And

shall not this _sole efficacious remedy_ be administered,

because a set of _interlopers_, persons in no wise connected

with the purposes for which this colony was founded, wish to

monopolize all the respectable offices of the government, all the

functions of emolument, power, and dignity to themselves? Shall

the vital interests of the whole community sink before the

ambitious projects of a few designing individuals, who have no

object in view, but their own personal aggrandizement, and the

maintenance of a self-assumed aristocratic importance? And who

would build their own and their families' prosperity on the ruins

of the social edifice, on the misery and degradation of

thousands? But it is useless to enlarge on this topic: ministers

will not allow their judgments to be warped by the subtle

representations of this faction. In organizing that new

constitution for this colony, of which every motive of humanity

and policy conspires to demonstrate the necessity, they will be

actuated solely by those principles that are best calculated to

further the philanthropic and enlightened ends which were

contemplated by the legislature at the period of its foundation.

The good of the many will not be sacrificed to the sordid views

of the few, and no disqualifications will be permitted, but such

as are confessedly necessary for the repression of vice, and the

promotion of morality and religion.

But, while I am thus contending against the total exclusion of

such as may have been convicts from the enjoyment of this great

privilege, I would by no means imply that the doors of the

legislative assembly should be thrown open to _all

indiscriminately_ who may _happen_ to be _free_. An

unrestricted ability to exercise a function of such great

confidence and dignity, would superinduce consequences equally

fatal with those against which I would guard: in endeavouring to

shun one extreme, it behoves us equally to avoid falling into the

other. The very principle which _forbids_ their _utter

inadmissibility_ to become legislators, demands that

_none_ should be able to arrive at that dignity, but those

whose conduct during their abode in the colony shall have been

_absolutely unimpeachable_. Retrospection should not be

pushed _beyond_ the period of their _arrival;_ but

their _subsequent_ behaviour should be subjected to the

_severest tests_, to the _most rigorous scrutiny_.

_Conviction_ either before a court or a magistrate, for any

_offence_ of a _criminal nature_, should be a

_bar_ to their pretensions _for ever_. Crimes committed

in this country should be overlooked when followed by

_adequate_ atonement and _indubitable_ reformation; but

the _interests_ as well of the _rising generation_, as

of the _great body_ of the _convicts themselves_,

require that the _re-convicted_ felon, whom neither the

_hope_ of _distinction_ can _reclaim_, nor the

_fear_ of _punishment deter_ from a recurrence to his

old iniquities, should be branded with the _lasting

impressions_ of _infamy_, and rendered for _ever

afterwards incapable_ of exercising so respectable and

important a function as the one in question.

With respect to the nature and extent of the property to be

possessed by the members of the legislative assembly, I am of

opinion, that a freehold estate of five hundred acres in any part

of the territory of New South Wales, or its dependent settlements

on Van Diemen's Land, should be considered a sufficient

qualification, and that in the case of electors twenty acres of

freehold should give the right of voting at elections for the

districts in which such freehold property may be situated; and

that either a leasehold of the value of £5 a year, or

paying a house rent of £10 a year, that of voting at

elections for towns. Excepting conviction, therefore, in this

country as a ground of exclusion both as respects the candidates

and the constituents, and making the above variation in the

standard of their respective qualifications as to property, I

think that every cause of rejection which is deemed in Canada of

sufficient efficacy to invalidate the claims of either party,

should be held of equal force in this colony, not only with

persons who may have been convicts, but with all such as may wish

either to vote for the return of members, or to become members of

the legislative body themselves. In framing, indeed, a

constitution for the colony, that of Canada would, I suspect, be

upon the whole the best model for imitation; since there is not

only a much stronger affinity between the great body of its

inhabitants, and those of New South Wales, than exists in any of

our other colonies; but every succeeding year will render the

approximation of their character and pursuits still more

complete.

There is but one topic more connected with the establishment

of a house of assembly in this colony, on which I intend to

comment; and I notice it not so much with a view to offer fresh

arguments in support of the necessity of this measure, which I

consider I have already sufficiently demonstrated, as to state

all the prominent reasons which might be adduced on the occasion.

It is a fundamental maxim of the British constitution, that no

taxes shall be levied on the subject without his consent

expressed by his representatives, and yet duties have been

exacted in this colony for the last fifteen years, by the mere

authority of the various governors. These, it has been seen, are

appropriated to various purposes of internal economy, all of

great public importance and utility, to which it is but equitable

that the colonists should contribute. This system of taxation

originated, I believe, with Governor King, but whether with the

sanction of his Majesty's ministers, or from his own suggestion I

am not able to determine. Since his time I should imagine that

not less than two hundred thousand pounds have been levied in

this unconstitutional manner; and until the administration of the

present governor, those who paid this money had not even the

satisfaction of knowing how any part of it was applied. From the

secrecy indeed which was observed in the expenditure of this

fund, and the rapacious character of his predecessor, many of the

colonists suspected that very little of it was appropriated

during his time to the purposes for which it was intended. This

misapplication of it, however, is but a matter of conjecture; and

it was probably to shelter himself from the possibility of

falling under a similar imputation, that the present governor has

caused quarterly accounts, which are first verified by a

committee consisting of the lieutenant governor and the judge

advocate, and afterwards examined and approved by himself, to be

published for the general information. This custom, however, is a

deviation, although it must be confessed a good one, from

precedent: and the colonists have no guarantee that his

successors will not revert to the same mysterious application of

this fund that has been practised by his predecessors. In this

case it may be converted into a fruitful source of peculation and

plunder, and be at last in a great measure diverted from the

public objects for which it was instituted to the satiation of

private rapacity, and the colonists become gradually burdened

with an overbearing load of taxation, merely for the purpose of

enriching their governors. Be this, however, as it may, the

illegality of levying money by the authority of any individual,

is, I should presume, quite unquestionable; and I have no doubt

that if any of the colonists had public spirit enough to resist

the payment of these duties, the court of civil jurisdiction

would not enforce it; since the decisions of this court are

solely founded on acts of parliament. The magistrates of the

colony might indeed take upon themselves to direct the execution

of the governor's orders, which authorize the levying of these

taxes, but I have doubts, since resistance to these orders would

not amount to an act of a criminal nature, and the point at issue

would be a mere matter of debt between an individual and the

government, whether they even would consent to give such an

illegal method of taxation the sanction of their support. At all

events an appeal would lie in the shape of a writ of certiorari

to the civil court, which could not avoid annulling the judgment

of the magistrates, and consequently declaring the governor's

conduct unwarranted and illegal. Such an occurrence would

evidently be attended with the most prejudicial effects; for not

to dwell on the mortification which the governor for the time

being would experience at discovering in so disagreeable a way

that by treading in the footsteps of his predecessors, he had

been exercising a power to which his situation gave him no claim,

there can be little doubt that a victory of this nature gained by

an individual over the executive would be the signal for the

institution of suits against the government for the recovery of

all the money that has been levied under such an illegal and

arbitrary authority. To prevent the probability of being forced

to refund so large a sum of money to the persons or their heirs

from whom it has been thus illegally wrested, and to legalize all

future levies of duties in the colony, the establishment of a

colonial legislature certainly offers the only judicious and

constitutional expedient.

I would not that it should be considered from the foregoing

remarks that the colonists are averse to taxation. On the

contrary, it is my belief that they would cheerfully contribute

whatever may be necessary for the promotion of objects _purely

colonial_; but they expect, and have a right to do so, that

all such objects should be submitted to the consideration and

approval of their representatives, and that their money should

not be taken out of their pockets, whether they will or not, by

the mere _ipse dixit_ of a governor. Few are discontented

with the present rate of taxation, because it is moderate; and,

with the exception of that small part of the colonial revenue

which arises from duties on articles of export, may be even

considered judicious; inasmuch as the great bulk of the duties

falls on luxuries which can be dispensed with, without

occasioning any material diminution of comfort and enjoyment. But

all are averse to the manner in which these duties are levied;

for if they once admit that a governor has the right to exact one

farthing by his single authority, what limits can be afterwards

assigned to the exercise of this power? He may on the very same

principle tax every article of consumption, and on the plea of

public contributions undermine the whole prosperity and happiness

of the community. That the different governors have been allowed

to prosecute this system without opposition for so many years,

could only have arisen from the peculiar constitution of this

colony; but its population has now attained a degree of

consequence and respectability, which will not much longer tamely

permit such an unprecedented deviation from all constitutional

authority; and the best way to obviate the unpleasant

circumstances of the contest, to which a continuance of the

present system must shortly give rise, is to create a body

legally endowed with the powers of legislation.

On the expediency of appointing a council, his Majesty's

ministers are, I believe, themselves agreed; and I will not,

therefore, enter at great length on the subject. The arbitrary

and revolting acts, which the want of a controlling body of this

nature has already occasioned, furnish the most convincing proof

of its necessity. No power, in fact, could be established, which

would at one and the same time prove so firm a defence to the

subject, and so stable a support to the executive. A council in

the colonies bears many points of resemblance to the House of

Lords in this country. It forms that just equipoise between the

democratic and supreme powers of the state, which has been found

not less necessary to repress the licentiousness of the one, than

to curb the tyranny of the other. Besides, it at all times

provides a remedy for the inexperience or ignorance of governors;

and is a sort of nucleus, round which all new bodies may easily

agglomerate. Like a handful of veterans in a newly raised

regiment, it will be capable of setting in motion the whole

machinery of the government, and establishing with the greatest

celerity that organization and discipline which are as requisite

in administration as in war. There is but one precaution to be

observed in the formation of the council: it is to give the

members of it an adequate salary, or in other words to insure the

independent and conscientious discharge of the duties of their

highly important office.

The expediency of appointing a colonial secretary rests in a

great measure on the same grounds as that of creating a council.

How can a private secretary, whom every new governor is at

present under the necessity of bringing out with him, be capable

of entering at once upon the duties of the most complicated and

laborious office in the colony? It is evident that a considerable

time must unavoidably elapse, before he can acquire, how great

soever his abilities, that fund of local information which can

alone qualify him for his situation. In the mean while it is ten

to one but he becomes the tool of one or other of his clerks, who

are for the most part convicts; and thus the principal acts of

the governor, which from the confidential nature of his office

are necessarily very materially influenced by his advice, may be

secretly dictated by persons who possess very little principle or

character, and who if they be themselves too insignificant to

profit to an extensive degree by the measures of the government,

may for a trifling consideration become the agents of richer and

more powerful individuals, and the public good be inadvertently

sacrificed at the shrine of private avarice or ambition.

The last measure which I consider necessary to the prosperity

of this colony is a radical reform in the courts of justice. It

has long since been noticed that at the principal settlement and

its dependencies, there are five courts, one of criminal and the

other four of civil judicature, viz. the criminal court, the

governor's court, the supreme court, the court of vice admiralty,

the high court of appeals, all of which are held in Sydney, and

the lieutenant governor's court, which is held in Hobart Town.

The constitution of these various courts has been already

explained, and a mere cursory glance at their several

jurisdictions, will convince us of the danger and absurdity of

their organization. To commence in the order in which I have

noticed them, what can be more improper than the constitution of

the criminal court? At the time indeed, when this court was

instituted, there was a necessity that it should wholly consist

of the officers of the colony, since they and convicts were the

only two classes of whom it was composed; but even then, what

motive existed for excluding the civil officers? Were they either

less competent to be members of a court, whose decisions ought to

be founded solely on the laws of England, or were they less

respectable than the military and naval? The bare appearance of

this tribunal has long been odious and revolting to the majority

of the colonists. It is disgusting to an Englishman to see a

culprit, however heinous may be his offence, arraigned before a

court clad in full military costume; nor can it indeed be readily

conceived that a body of men, whose principles and habits must

have been materially influenced, if not entirely formed, by a

code altogether foreign to the laws of this country, should be

able on such occasions to divest themselves of the soldier, and

to judge as the citizen. Without meaning to impugn the general

impartiality and justice of their decisions, it may be easily

imagined that _an individual might happen_ to be

_traduced_ before a court, of which _all_, or

_part_ of the members, might from various causes be

_his_ enemies. No one has mixed much in military society,

without witnessing that _esprit du corps_ which is so common

in regiments, and which, however much it may contribute to their

union and happiness, is, in a community of this nature, of the

most dangerous tendency to the individual, against whom its

collected fury may be levelled. It must be remembered that this

colony is not like a country town from whence a regiment may be

removed the moment its conduct becomes obnoxious to the

inhabitants. There the regiments necessarily remain for many

years, and from this very circumstance, disputes of a much more

serious and rancorous nature are apt to arise between the

inhabitants and the military, than are known in this country. And

this observation applies more particularly to the officers and

the superior class of the colonists: since the disputes and

contests which take place between the lower orders of the

inhabitants and the common soldiery, generally arise on the spur

of the moment, and evaporate with the immediate cause of the

provocation; while the others are more frequently the effect of

cool and deliberate insult, and consequently settle into a fixed

and inveterate hostility. Under these circumstances, therefore,

it is not to be wondered at, that no person should feel himself

in perfect security. The respectability of the higher order of

the colonists may indeed shield the generality of them from any

likelihood of their being ever arraigned before this tribunal;

but still it might happen to them to be traduced before a court

composed of their bitterest foes, not only on charges of a mixed

nature, such as assault, battery, libel, etc. but also on others

of a much weightier responsibility. The _probability_ of

such a contingency would be still further increased if the

governor should happen to have imbibed the same spirit of

hostility against the accused, which I have supposed actuating

the military. For although the present governor, in order to

render the administration of justice as unimpeachable as the

nature of this court will allow, has invariably appointed the

members of it according to the roaster furnished by the

commanding officer of the regiment, his predecessors did not, I

believe, invariably observe the same delicacy, nor is it

incumbent on his successors to imitate his example. Any person

therefore, who may unfortunately become obnoxious to the governor

and the officers of the regiment, or indeed any part of them,

should he be accused of any offence within the pale of the

criminal court, might be thus forced to take his trial before his

_selected_ and _implacable_ enemies. In this extremity

what could he do to rescue himself from their gripe? He would

have no _right_ to _challenge one_ of them; and if the

_sanctity_ of an _oath_, and the _dread_ of the

_future scorn_ and _detestation_ of mankind, did not

_deter_ them from the _commission_ of a _crying_

and _palpable injustice_, his _innocence_, were it as

_clear_ as the _noon day_, would _avail_ him

_nothing_, and he must _unavoidbly sink_, the

_devoted victim_ of _foul conspiracy and deadly

revenge_. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the history of

the proceedings of this court from the period of its institution,

to shew how far the _whole_ or any _part_ of this

supposed case may have been in any instance verified. That it

_may occur_ is sufficient to _prove_ the

_necessity_ for changing the constitution of this court, and

to _justify_ the _general anxiety_ which is felt by the

colonists for the introduction of that _right_, so dear to

the heart of every Englishman, _the trial by jury_. It is

this _inestimable privilege alone_ which can _insure_

them the _tranquil enjoyment_ of their _persons_ and

_property_, and enable them, while _possessed_ of

_conscious integrity of conduct_, to set at _defiance_

the _confederated efforts_ of their _enemies_, and to

_despise_ both the _open attacks_ of _power_ and

the _secret contrivances of malignity_.

The constitution of the governor's court and of the supreme

court, is liable to the same objection. They are both composed of

the judges, who have each a vote in their respective courts, and

of two members specially appointed by the governor: so that none

of those causes of challenge which are held sufficient in this

country to disqualify a juror, are of any validity in the courts

of this colony. In the governor's court, indeed, the two members

are to be appointed from among the respectable inhabitants; but,

although the governor himself is the only judge of the measure of

their respectability, he could not well avoid selecting them out

of that class which in case of the introduction of trial by jury,

would have a right from their property and character to be

summoned as jurymen. In this court, therefore, an individual in a

trial with the crown, would have a much greater chance of

obtaining justice than in the supreme court; because the two

members of it are to be appointed from the magistracy, and might

be selected by the governor from their known zeal and corrupt

devotedness to his service. But it is of infinitely greater

importance that the decisions of this latter court should be the

less exposed of the two to the possibility of bias; because in

the former the injury which an individual could sustain from an

unjust verdict could only amount to £50, and in the latter

it might extend to £3000, and consequently occasion his

utter ruin. I limit the injustice which might arise from the very

improper constitution of this court to the above sum; because,

although it is competent, as I have before stated, to take

cognizance of all pleas to any amount whatever, an appeal would

lie, from the high court of appeals, whose verdict I here take it

for granted, would in all crown causes be confirmatory of the

judgment of the inferior court, to the king in council, when the

matter in dispute exceeded this sum. Any unjust verdict,

therefore, for more than £3000, would of course be reversed

in this country; but this is a trifling set-off against the heavy

charges to which the court is in other respects liable; since few

of the colonists are wealthy enough to be concerned in causes

where the matter at issue could attain so great an amount: so

that this remedy is quite beyond the reach of the majority of the

inhabitants, and they are abandoned to the scourge of oppression,

wherever a capricious and overwhelming tyranny may choose to

single out its victim. It is highly necessary, therefore, that

the constitution of both these courts should undergo an immediate

revision, and be so framed as to ensure henceforth the impartial

administration of justice to _all_. They are not to be

tolerated because they cannot commit a robbery beyond this

enormous amount, and because there are some few individuals,

whose prosperity is too deeply rooted to be overturned by the

malignant fury of vengeful despots. It must be evident that the

power of the governor of this colony is sufficiently leviathan,

uncontrolled as he is by a council, and possessed as he is of an

incontrovertible right to nominate the most obsequious of his

creatures as jurymen on all trials, whether of a civil or

criminal nature, to endanger the property and life of every

individual under his government. Nor should it here be forgotten

that there has been a governor who, if the colonists had not

arrested him in his iniquitous career of vengeance and despotism,

would have hurled death and destruction from one end of the

colony to the other. Without the circle of his immediate

creatures, with the most favored of whom it is well known that he

was in a commercial partnership, every individual who either had

attained affluence, or was gradually rising to it, was the object

of his hatred or envy. The former he detested, not more because

they had no need of his protection, than from fear they should

promulgate to the world his nefarious proceedings; the latter

because they were absorbing some portion of that wealth, which he

wished should flow wholly into the coffers, the contents of which

at the division of the spoil he was to have so large a share of.

It does not follow, therefore, because his successor has not

imitated his base example, because he has surrounded himself with

respectable counsellors and a conscientious magistracy, that we

should overlook the possibility that his very successor may

undermine the whole superstructure which he has been rearing, and

become in every respect as great a monster as the wretch who

before drove the colonists to desperation and rebellion.

Experience is the beacon of past times set up for the guidance of

future; and those who shape their course by it, shall avoid

striking on the rocks to which it forbids approach. Woe to the

pilot who disregards this friendly admonition, and runs on

incredulous of the risk. Soon in the midst of surrounding reefs

he shall when too late repent his temerity, and wish, that

content with the experience of others he had not authenticated by

the shipwreck of his hopes, the folly of his incredulity, and the

reality of the danger! It is with governments as with

individuals. The institutions which have occasioned anarchy and

devastation before, will, if persisted in, produce them again.

Vile and detestable as have been the monsters of antiquity, the

world still contains their parallels; and if they languish in

obscurity, if they have not attained a celebrity equally

atrocious, it is because they possess not equal facilities for

the display of their real character and propensities. Human

nature is still the same, and wherever a field is opened for the

growth of tyranny, there that poisonous fungus, a tyrant, will

shoot up.

But the encouragement which these courts in general hold out

for the indulgence of private animosities, and their consequently

imperfect adaptation to the administration of justice, are not

the only reasons which may be urged for a change in their present

organization. The whole of the inhabitants of the various

settlements in Van Diemen's Land, are in a great measure placed

without the pale of the law. They have, indeed, what is termed

the lieutenant governor's court, but as I have already observed,

it can only take cognizance of pleas to the amount of fifty

pounds, and possesses no criminal jurisdiction whatever. They are

consequently left without any internal protection from the

spoliations of lawless ruffians, and in a great measure from the

scarcelyless pernicious depredations of dishonest creditors. For

although they may obtain redress in both instances in the courts

established at Port Jackson, nothing but an invincible necessity

will propel them to seek so distant and expensive a remedy. The

consequence is, that scarcely any but delinquents of the very

worst cast, as murderers and housebreakers, are ever brought to

trial; for notwithstanding all criminal prosecutions are

conducted at the cost of the government, and the witnesses are

paid their indispensable expenses from the police fund, still,

what with the period that elapses in the voyage to Port Jackson,

the delays incident to the courts themselves, and the time that

the witnesses must generally wait before they can obtain a

passage back again, very few of the persons who are constrained

to give evidence on such occasions can possibly manage to resume

their domestic occupations under three months. This to a set of

men, who are for the most part agriculturists, is too serious a

sacrifice of private advantage to public duty; and it is not,

therefore, to be wondered at that a general disposition should be

manifested by the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land to suffer

quietly the depredations that may be committed on their property,

rather than incur perhaps the much greater loss attached to the

prosecution of the offender. The remedy, which they possess for

civil injuries is, indeed, somewhat more palatable, but still far

too remote and expensive. The principal reason, indeed, why so

many debts and obligations contracted in these settlements,

become matter of action before the supreme court at Port Jackson,

is to be traced to the satisfaction which results from compelling

one who considers himself a privileged plunderer, and at liberty

to fatten with impunity on the industrious, to disgorge the

wealth of others, which he may have thus sucked. The expence,

however, of supporting witnesses at so great a distance from

their homes, and the precarious issue of suits in general, induce

many creditors to run the risk of voluntary payment at some

future period, who would not hesitate to institute actions

against their debtors, if there were a competent tribunal within

their reach. The want, therefore, of a court possessing an

unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, is of the most baneful

consequence to these infant settlements. It encourages all

species of crimes and dishonesty, strikes at the very root of

virtue and religion, and cannot but have a most pernicious effect

on the morals of the rising generation.

Such are the leading defects in the actual system of

jurisprudence established in this colony; and I think it will not

be disputed that a more crude and undigested organization of the

colonial courts could hardly have been devised. Whether the

judges of these courts have made any representations on the

subject to his Majesty's government I am not aware; but I should

apprehend not, or surely they would have been remodelled ere this

after a more perfect design. To effect this highly important

object would be a matter of very great ease: it appears to me

that the following measures would amply suffice. 1st, The entire

abolition of the actual courts of civil and criminal

jurisdiction; 2dly, The creation in their stead of one supreme

court, consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges;

3dly. The establishment of trial by jury; and lastly, the

creation of a high court of appeals to consist of the governor in

council. The sittings of the supreme court should only be held at

Sydney, the seat of government; but circuits should be

established through-out the different districts of the colony,

and of its dependent settlements in Van Diemen's Land, and

commissions of assize, of oyer and terminer, and of general gaol

delivery should be issued by the governor to the judges at stated

periods, and they should determine among themselves their

respective circuits. These courts of assize should possess the

same power as belongs to similar courts in this country, and in

some respects it might be advisable that they should be vested

with a still more extensive authority. In the settlements in Van

Diemen's Land I am of opinion that no appeal should be allowed

from the decisions of the court of assize to the supreme court at

Sydney, unless the verdict should exceed three hundred pounds;

but it would of course be proper that the judges of this court

should possess the power of granting new trials, on the same

grounds on _which_ such are accorded in this country. In

judgments, however, for more than the above sum an appeal to the

supreme court should be admitted.

With respect to the civil jurisdiction of the courts of assize

in the various districts belonging to Port Jackson, I think it

ought to be considerably curtailed, and that their decision

should not be final in any instance whatever; because the removal

of causes to the supreme court would be attended with a

comparatively trifling expense and inconvenience to the parties.

From the judgment of this latter court itself, I am of opinion

that an appeal should lie in all causes where the damages might

be estimated at more than one thousand pounds to the high court

of appeals, and that its decisions should be conclusive in all

pleas under the amount of three thousand pounds; but where the

matter in dispute exceeded this sum, that an appeal should lie

_en dernier resort_ to the king in council. If to these

courts were added a court of admiralty, possessing both a civil

and criminal jurisdiction, the system of jurisprudence would be

quite adequate to all the present necessities of the colony;

justice would be brought home to the doors of all his Majesty's

subjects in these remote and extended settlements; the delay and

expence now attendant on civil and criminal prosecutions, would

be in a great measure obviated; and the loyal and industrious

would be effectually protected, both from the secret depredations

of the midnight plunderer, and from the open dishonesty of the

unprincipled debtor: hundreds of indolent and profligate persons

who now prey in one way or the other on the hard earned savings

of thrift and frugality, would be compelled to resort to the

pursuits of industry for a subsistence; vice and immorality would

be checked, and the wealth, happiness, and virtue of the

community at large rapidly flourish and expand.

Of all the changes or modifications which I have thus ventured

to recommend in the polity of this colony, the creation of a

council, the appointment of a colonial secretary, and these

alterations in the system of its jurisprudence, are the only

measures which would be attended with an increase of expence. The

establishment of a house of assembly, might of course be effected

without any cost whatever, and even the remodelling of the courts

of justice would be productive of but a very trifling addition to

the scale of the civil establishment. The three judges who at

present preside in the various courts, might be transferred to

the supreme court, which I have recommended to be substituted in

their stead; so that the appointment of one new judge is the

principal additional expense of which this reorganization of the

courts would be productive. It is true that it would be necessary

to place all the puisne judges on the same footing in point of

salary, and likewise to appoint an attorney general to act in

behalf of the crown, but all this might be liberally accomplished

for about six thousand pounds per annum. As to the court of

admiralty, the chief justice might be appointed to preside in it,

whenever circumstances might require it to be held; but this

necessity would occur so seldom that no additional salary need be

allowed him on this account. A few barristers would be necessary

besides the attorney general, to support the respectability of

these courts; but I consider that the practice arising out of

them, would be sufficiently extensive to repay a few gentlemen of

the bar very liberally for the sacrifices they would make in

emigrating to this colony, and that the government need not hold

out any pecuniary inducements to effect this object; although it

is only four or five years since two attornies were each allowed

£300 per annum by way of encouragement for them to go out

and practise in the courts at present established there. Since

that time, however, two more have voluntarily gone out to the

colony without any salary whatever, and have found that there is

sufficient litigation without the assisting liberality of the

government. An addition therefore of £6000 per annum to the

civil establishment of this colony, would effect the great

radical reformation in its polity, of which it has been the main

object of this essay to prove the wisdom and necessity; while on

the other hand, the savings which this country would derive from

the adoption of the various alterations proposed, would be found

not only in the almost immediate check which would be imposed on

the rapidly increasing expenditure of this colony, but also in

the great permanent reduction in it, which would be the eventual

consequence. The best means of accomplishing these highly

important ends shall be the subject of the following section.

On the Means of reducing the Expences of this Colony.

The establishment of a free constitution in the place of the

arbitrary authority of an individual, would superinduce so many

privileges of which the colonists have hitherto been debarred,

that they would not at first be fully sensible of the nature and

extent of their new acquisitions. The great facilities which

would be presented to agricultural and commercial enterprize,

would not at once be generally perceived, or extensively

embraced. Industry, though one of the most active principles of

human nature, settles when long restrained into a habit of

inertion, which cannot be instantly overcome. When the mounds

within which this principle has been long confined, are suddenly

removed, it will not of itself rush at once into every new

channel in its way, and stop only when it has found its own

level. It is not like fluids possessed of an inherent elasticity

and tendency to motion, but requires a directing impulse to set

and continue it in activity, and its activity will then only be

in proportion to the power and energy applied. It is not,

therefore, to be expected, because the great fundamental changes

which I have recommended in the polity of this colony would if

adopted, immediately create new sources of profitable occupation,

and completely unfetter the long restrained industry and

enterprize of its inhabitants, that they are at once to take full

advantage of their situation. There is a timidity in man, which

though not sufficient to curb the adventurous spirit of his

nature, tends materially to check and repress it. This principle

alone, therefore, would suffice to prevent the sober and discreet

part of the colonists from rushing headlong into the various new

avenues of profitable occupation that would be open to them; but

there is also in their poverty a still more effectual impediment.

Though labour is itself the origin and measure of all wealth, it

contributes but little to public or private advantage when left

to its own isolated and unconnected efforts. It is only when in a

state of union, and when subjected to the controul of a directing

intelligence, which can combine its energies, and render them

subservient to the attainment of some single end, that it becomes

capable of effecting great beneficial results. But this necessary

combination of labour can only be maintained by the help of

capital; and where such capital does not exist, these great

united efforts, the effect of the gradual accumulation of wealth,

and the main cause of the prosperity of all ancient and populous

communities, cannot be immediately organized and established.

This observation in its reference to this colony, it will be

seen, bears more particularly on the commercial privileges of

which its inhabitants would thus become possessed. These

undoubtedly would not be extensively embraced, until a very

considerable accumulation of capital should have arisen from the

progress and perfection of agriculture. This and manufactures are

therefore the only two immediate channels that remain for the

absorption of labour and the development of industry. The latter,

I have long since endeavoured to prove would never have occupied

any share of the attention of the colonists, had those

encouragements which the government had at their disposal, been

bestowed on the former. The manufacturing system, now so rapidly

gaining ground, has been one of the retributive consequences of

the short-sighted and illiberal policy of which this unfortunate

colony has been so long the victim, and will cease of itself,

whenever the existing impediments to the extension of agriculture

shall be removed, for the best of all reasons, because no person

will select a less profitable undertaking when a more profitable

one, and one requiring less skill, capital, and assiduity, lies

open to him. Agriculture, therefore, as soon as it shall be freed

from its present restraints, will afford the readiest and most

accessible channel for carrying off the large accumulation of

stagnant labour which at present infests this colony. It is this

mass of superfluous labourers, for whom there exists only a

fictitious demand, and with whom the government are at present

obliged to give a bounty in the shape of clothing and provisions,

to induce the settlers to accept their services, that constitutes

the main source of the great and increasing expenditure of this

colony; and it is to this point alone that all radical and

comprehensive schemes of retrenchment must be directed. The

impoverished condition of the colonists, to which circumstance

alone the expences of the government are mainly attributable,

arises from the means of employment not keeping pace with the

rapid increase in the population, and yet perhaps there is no

community in which equal encouragements to industry are to be

found. It has already been stated that within the last six years

the population of this colony has actually doubled itself, in

other words, it has advanced in this respect with a celerity

nearly four times as great as the United States of America,--a

country whose rapid numerical increase has been a subject of

astonishment to the whole world. It may therefore be perceived

that this unparalleled augmentation in the population of this

colony, must of itself afford an unprecedented stimulus to

agriculture;--a stimulus, perhaps, with which the agricultural

progress of any other country could not keep pace. It is well

known that Poland, which is the greatest corn country in Europe,

and whose whole strength is directed to the pursuits of

agriculture, does not export more than one month's consumption of

grain for its population. America exports somewhat less, but

would be able, without doubt, to export somewhat more, if the

collected force of its inhabitants were applied to the raising of

corn; yet still neither the one nor the other of these countries

would be enabled to support such a rapid increase of population

as is taking place in this colony. Such, however, is its

fertility that the vast encouragement afforded by this

unprecedented augmentation in its numbers (who, it must be

recollected, are for the most part adults, and not, as in the

case of old established societies, infants, and in consequence

not gifted with the full powers of consumption,) so prodigious, I

say, is its fertility, that there is far from a sufficient demand

for labour. The settlements in Van Diemen's Land alone, on the

occasion of the flood which took place in the month of March,

1817, at the Hawkesbury river, the principal agricultural

establishment, and where, for the causes I have already

explained, the colonists, in most instances, allow their stacks

to remain within the influence of these destructive inundations,

were able to supply Port Jackson with about twenty thousand

bushels of wheat, the whole of which was raised without any

probability of a market, and would have perished in the hands of

the growers, or at best, have become the food of hogs, had it not

been for the great loss of grain occasioned by the overflowing of

the above river. It may, therefore, be perceived, that the

colonists in Van Diemen's Land raise on the strength of the bare

possibility of a flood happening at the principal settlement,

very nearly as much corn as is required for their own

consumption; and there can be no doubt if their industry was

stretched to the utmost point of extension, that they would be

enabled to export at least three times as much as they thus

casually furnished in the year 1817. The settlements, however, at

Port Jackson, cannot pretend to equal fertility of soil, yet even

their productive powers are considerably cramped by the want of

an adequate market. How this most important object might be

effected, and profitable occupation created for all the labour

that is now, or may be hereafter disposable in the colony, I have

already explained at considerable length; and it is under the

presumption that my recommendations on this head will be deemed

worthy of adoption, that I shall hereafter submit a plan for

gradually diminishing the colonial expenditure.

The readiest way of accomplishing this object would be to

abolish at once the system of victualling and clothing the

convicts from the king's stores; but this is impracticable and

must be done judiciously, and in proportion only to the gradually

increasing demand for labour. This mode of retrenchment, indeed,

has already been pushed further than circumstances have

warranted. The ticket of leave system, by which convicts are

permitted to go on their own hands, and administer in any way

that they can to their own wants, though first intended as a

reward to the really reformed and meritorious convict, has of

late years been resorted to as the most efficacious means of

lessening the expences of the government. And hence the very end

and aim of this colony, the reformation of the lawless gang who

are transported to its shores, have been postponed to a paltry

saving, unworthy the character of the nation, and subversive in a

great measure of the philanthropic intentions with which the

legislature were originally actuated. The alarming increase of

crime that has taken place within the last few years, is the

re-action of this pernicious and mercenary system, which has

already been carried to such an extent as to endanger the lives

and property of every honest and well disposed inhabitant of the

colony. This system, so injurious of itself, has been powerfully

seconded by the lax and indiscriminate manner in which convict

servants have been assigned to the various settlers. Being in

most instances freed or emancipated convicts themselves, many of

them possess but little character, and in fact only accept the

different indulgences that are held out to colonization, with a

view to the immediate profit which they can derive from them, and

without any intention of performing the remote conditions which

they tacitly or expressly enter into with the government. So long

as their servants are victualled and clothed at the cost of the

crown, they in general avail themselves fully of their services,

but the moment this great indulgence ceases, they generally

compound with them, and in consideration of the performance of a

stipulated quantity of labour free of expence, grant them an

exemption from their employment for the remainder of the year,

and consequently, a licence to prowl about the country, and

plunder at every convenient opportunity, the honest and deserving

part of the community. And although the present governor has

taken every step that could be devised for the suppression of

this pernicious practice, yet in consequence of the thinly

inhabited state of the colony, and the remoteness of the various

agricultural settlements from one another, circumstances which

prevent the appointment of proper persons to detect and punish

such violations of public orders, his efforts have been in a

great degree unavailing. He is well aware of the nature of the

disease under which the colony is languishing, but he has not the

power to administer the only effectual remedy. Create but a

sufficient market for the colonial produce, and labour will then

become too valuable to be suffered thus to remain in inactivity.

It will then and not before be the interest of the settlers to

push their servants' exertions to the utmost. The competition

that will then exist for the products of labour, will be the best

guarantee for its proper application. The method which I am about

to submit for the suppression of this alarming state of anarchy

and danger, will, it must be confessed, occasion a very

considerable immediate addition of expence; but this is necessary

to rectify the great and increasing evils of the ticket of leave

system, and to insure the honest and laborious colonist that

security of person and property which the injudicious extension,

within these few years, of this narrow-minded system has so

greatly endangered. Without the enjoyment of a full and

sufficient protection, the colonists, however enlightened may be

the future conduct of their government in other respects, will

make but a timid and feeble advance in the various departments of

internal industry. A certainty of reaping the fruits of their

exertions, is indeed an indispensable preliminary to the

resumption of those active habits which have been so long

paralyzed, and a recurrence to which is the main stock whereon

all _shoots_ of future retrenchment must be engrafted. Under

a hope, therefore, that an internal legislature, which I again

insist can alone fully provide for the present and future

necessities of this colony will be established, I venture to

propose the following plan for eventually diminishing the scale

of its expenditure:

First, That the ticket of leave system, except in as far as

its continuance may be really essential to the promotion of good

conduct in the convicts, should be abolished.

Secondly, That the ticket of leave men, and all the convicts

now in the service of individuals, whether victualled and clothed

at the expence of the crown or not, should be called in and

re-assigned, either to their present masters or to others, and

that these should be allowed with them the premium hereafter to

be named; but that they should be previously in every instance

required to give security to the government, that such convict

servants should not on any account be permitted to be absent from

their respective employments.

Thirdly, That instead of the present mode of victualling and

clothing the convicts from the king's stores, the settlers should

be allowed a stipulated premium with them, one fifth less than

the actual cost of maintaining them, and that this premium should

diminish one fifth yearly from the date of the changes in the

colonial polity, which have been recommended.

Fourthly, That the price now directed to be paid convict

servants for their extra time, should be reduced from £10

in the men, to £5; and from £7 to £3

10s. in the women: and that this reduction should be

subtracted from the amount of the above premium, and carried to

the credit of the government.

Fifthly, That all such convicts as may arrive in the colony

within the five years next ensuing the above period, other than

those who may be required for the government works, should be in

like manner assigned to deserving applicants, with the decreased

premium of the year in which they may arrive.

Sixthly, That at the expiration of the above period of five

years, the whole of the government works which are now for the

most part carried on by convicts, victualled and clothed from the

king's stores, should be performed by contract.

Seventhly, That the utmost encouragement should be held out by

the government to the emigration of wealthy individuals to the

colony; and that with a view to effect this object, not only a

passage should be furnished them free of expence in the various

transports, which are annually sent thither, but that also the

quantity of land to be hereafter granted them, should be

increased in proportion to their capital, from eight hundred

acres (the present customary grant) up to five thousand.

Lastly, That the unappropriated lands most eligibly situated

for the purposes of colonization, should be surveyed and marked

out into sections, each containing one square mile, or six

hundred and forty acres; that each of these sections should be

again subdivided into four parts; that thirty-six of these

sections should as in America form a township; that at stated

periods the lands so surveyed should be set up to auction, and

sold to the best bidder, provided the price offered for them

should exceed one dollar per acre; if not, that they should be

retained until they could be sold for such price at some

subsequent period; that the same credit should be given for the

purchase of these lands as is given in America, and the same

discount on ready money; and that the amount of such sales should

go to the Police Fund, and be employed in defraying the expences

of the colony.

The object of the foregoing propositions must be too evident

from the preliminary remarks which I have made, to need any

extended illustration; nevertheless, it may not be altogether

inexpedient to say a few words in further explanation of them to

such persons as have bestowed no portion of their attention on

the circumstances and situation of this colony. The first,

second, and third articles speak for themselves. The remedy here

proposed for the alarming evils, which I have so copiously traced

to the causes of their origin and continuance, will certainly

occasion the government for the next five years a very great

additional expence; but after the most mature reflection on the

present impoverished state of this colony, and the deeply rooted

habits of idleness and vice, which a fifteen years' deprivation

of the most important civil and political rights has occasioned,

I can devise none besides that could be applied with any

probability of effecting a radical and permanent cure. The

arrangement recommended in the third article, I mean the

substitution of a premium for the present mode of clothing and

victualling the convicts, would be highly favourable to the

agricultural interests, both by limiting to the cultivators of

the soil, the supply of the food consumed by their servants, and

by sparing them the trouble and expence of sending their carts

for it to the king's stores, an exemption which would be attended

with a considerable saving to such of them as inhabit districts

remote from the towns: it would also be a source of economy to

the government, by enabling them to make a great reduction in the

commissariat department. The only objection I can anticipate to

this article, is, that it fixes an arbitrary rate of reduction on

the premium to be allowed the settlers with the convicts; and

that this rate may prove greater than the advance which the

colony may make in the various avenues of internal industry. This

may possibly be the case, although I consider the period I have

named sufficiently protracted to allow the colonists due time to

ascertain the nature and extent of their newly acquired

privileges, and to profit by them. If, however, it were

practicable, it would certainly be more eligible that they

themselves should become the arbiters of the abatement which

should annually take place in the premium to be given with the

convicts. I do not, however, well know how this desideratum could

be effected, unless the grand juries during the circuit of the

courts in the different districts, could be empowered to inquire

into and determine the increase that may take place in the demand

for labour, and regulate the price of it, or in other words the

premium to be given with it accordingly. To detract as far as

possible from the increased expence which would follow the

adoption of the measures recommended in the first, second, and

third articles, is the object of the fourth. By making the

abatement here proposed in the amount of the wages now directed

to be paid by the settlers to their convict servants, and

carrying it to the credit of the government, an immediate saving

of £5 per man, and £3 10s. per woman would be

effected. And if the calculation be accurate that each male

convict victualled and clothed at the expence of the crown costs

£18, and each female £12 10s. it will be seen

that above one fourth more might be supported by the government

in the manner here recommended, and that likewise a fifth might

be annually added to the number, without occasioning any increase

whatever in the colonial expenditure. The weight too of this mode

of retrenchment would not fall on the settler, and by operating

as a check to agriculture perhaps prolong the period when the

various departments of industry will be enabled to absorb the

large mass of labour which is annually regurgitated on the shores

of this colony, but on the convicts themselves, to whose

reformation indeed, (the primary object of its foundation) it is

essential that every incentive to the renewal of their ancient

disorderly and profligate habits should be withdrawn. Even with

this diminished scale of wages, the situation of the convicts

would be far preferable to that of the labouring class in this

country. £2 10s. to the men, and £1

10s. to the women, would then remain, independently of

their food and clothing, which is surely quite sufficient for the

"_menus plaisirs_" of a set of persons who are supposed to

be smarting under the lash of the law. Article fifth needs no

explanation. Article sixth, contemplates the saving that might be

effected in the public works of the government, by exchanging at

the expiration of the period, when the bounty to be allowed to

settlers with convicts shall cease, the present mode of carrying

them on by a body of men, victualled and clothed at the expence

of the crown, for the more economical plan of contracting for

them with the lowest bidder. I limit the commencement of this

method of retrenchment to the above period, because so long as a

necessity exists for giving a bounty with convicts, there can be

no doubt that it would be judicious for the government to profit

as far as possible by the labour of persons whom even in the

employment of individuals, they would be in a great measure

obliged to support. But the moment this necessity shall cease, it

is equally indubitable that a considerable saving might be

effected by carrying on the public works by contract. Where a

body of fourteen or fifteen hundred convicts are employed under

the superintendence of the most active and upright man, there

will always be a system of idleness and plunder, which his

assiduity will never be able entirely to baffle. Out of the

immense number of minor agents on whose intelligence and

integrity he would be obliged to place a considerable degree of

dependence, it is not readily to be believed, however great may

be his activity and discrimination, that he would not be

frequently deceived, and that those very men on whom he most

relied to suppress the dishonest inclinations of others, would

not themselves occasionally profit by the facilities to plunder

and peculation, which the confidence they enjoyed might throw in

their way. That such is, and always has been the case in this

colony, no person at all conversant with its real state, can have

any hesitation in asserting; and consequently that the

substitution of contracts in the place of the present mode of

conducting the public works, would become a very important source

of economy at the period in question. Article the seventh, is

intended to encourage emigration to the colony, and to turn to

its shores some portion of the immense numbers who are annually

withdrawing from this country to the United States of America. It

appears almost inexplicable how the government can look on, and

behold the thousands who are propelled by various causes to quit

their native land, and not make some vigorous efforts, if not to

check this strong tide of emigration, at least to divert it to

our colonies, where in general it is so much required, and might

become of such immense and permanent utility to the empire. It is

true that of those who thus abandon the land of their

forefathers, many are actuated by political animosities, and

could not by any means be induced to settle in any of our

colonies. But it is not less certain that there are others, and

that the majority are of this class, whom mere distress and

inability to provide for the growing wants of their families,

unalloyed with any political feelings whatever, most reluctantly

drive to seek an asylum in America, and who deeply lament the

necessity of betaking themselves to a country where they and

their children may one day be compelled to draw their paricidal

swords against the mother that gave them birth. It cannot indeed

be denied that the government to prevent this horrible

alternative, have for a long time held out considerable

encouragements to persons emigrating to Canada; but besides that

the policy of thus peopling at so considerable an expence a

country which in the natural course of events must become an

integral member of the American union, is at least questionable,

it is well known that three-fourths of those who are thus induced

to settle in Canada, end by removing to the United States. The

intense severity of the winters, and the unavoidable suspension

of the pursuits of agriculture during six months in the year,

with the habits and language of the Canadians, so repulsive and

annoying to the generality of Englishmen, sufficiently account

for this circumstance, without taking into computation the

superior advantages of climate and soil which the greater part of

the United States is represented as possessing. If the impolicy,

therefore, of encouraging emigration to Canada be disputed, still

the inefficiency of the means employed to attain the end

contemplated by the government ought to decide them to try some

other expedient to prevent so large a stock of British industry

and capital from thus adding to the resources of a nation, who is

already the most formidable, as she is the most rancorous on the

list of our enemies. No measure, perhaps, that could be adopted

would tend so effectually to the accomplishment of this object,

as holding out the great encouragement specified in this article

to all such as may settle in this colony. Possessed as it is of a

most salubrious and diversified climate, fertile soil, and

unbounded extent of territory, it evidently contains every

requisite for the formation of a great and flourishing community;

and whenever it shall be blessed with a free government will

offer much greater facilities for the development of industry and

the acquisition of wealth, than are to be found in the United

States. Until the colony, however, shall possess this fundamental

privilege, every attempt of the government to divert the current

of emigration thither from America must prove in a great measure

unavailing. A free constitution is the first want of those who

have known the blessings of one; and no prospects of profit to an

honourable and independent mind can compensate for its loss.

There can be little doubt, therefore, that as soon as this

indispensable preliminary to general emigration shall be granted,

thousands of persons will embark for this colony, and continue to

contribute to the wealth and power of their native country, who

would otherwise become citizens of her most formidable and

inveterate rival.

The adoption also of the measures here recommended, would have

a sensible effect in diminishing the expenditure of this colony;

and would amply compensate for any loss which the government

might sustain by affording settlers a passage thither, free of

expence, in the transports. I commenced this section by an

attempt to prove that the great immediate hindrance to the

employment of the large mass of unoccupied labour in the various

new departmeuts of internal industry that will be created by the

establishment of a free government, will arise from the want of

capital; and the premium I have recommended to be granted with

convicts for the first five years ensuing the proposed change in

the colonial polity, is intended to impart an _artificial_

vigour into the community, and to allow of that accumulation of

wealth, which may afterwards suffice of itself to keep in

solution all the disposable labour of the colony. Every

accession, therefore, of capital that may take place, will

contribute to swell the colonial stock to that extent which is

necessary for the complete occupation of the convicts, and thus

become the means of accelerating the period when the government

will be entirely emancipated from the necessity of allowing the

settlers a bounty with them.

The last article scarcely needs any explanation. Whenever that

extensive emigration of capitalists which I confidently

anticipate would follow the establishment of a free government

shall take place, the sale of the crown lands would evidently

become a source of considerable profit, and would go a long way

towards defraying the expences of the colony. It would also be

the means of bringing numbers of rich speculators thither, who

wonld not think of emigrating even for the increased indulgences

which I have recommended in the foregoing article. A man of

fortune would then be enabled to vest his money in land to the

exact extent that he might desire; whereas at present, he must

either be content with the portion assigned him, or else purchase

by _dribblets_ the _farms_ that may become vacant in

the vicinity of his estate, and after all perhaps, be annoyed by

having the possessions of others in the midst of his own. It is

true that individuals, who do not possess sufficient land for the

support of their flocks and herds, are allowed to feed them on

the unappropriated lands, and can therefore increase their stock

to any extent they may please. But the rapid progress of

colonization places the crown lands every day at a greater

distance from the original settlements, and occasions a constant

necessity for receding, so that at last that part of his stock

which the farmer cannot feed at home is gradually removed to an

inconvenient distance, and no longer can have the benefit of his

personal superintendence. With men of capital, therefore, the

class of whom it has been seen that the colony is most in need,

this sale of the crown lands at half the price which is demanded

for land in America, would prove a very powerful stimulus to

emigration, and would consequently have a twofold operation in

diminishing the expenditure of this colony; viz. by filling the

coffers of the Police Fund, and by occasioning that accession of

capital, which I have before shewn to be essential before the

government can be freed from the burden of supporting the

convicts.

On the Advantages which the Colony offers for

Emigration.

After the gloomy picture which I have drawn of the actual

condition of the colony; after having represented both its

agricultural and commercial interests as being already not only

in a state of impair, but also of increasing dilapidation and

ruin, it may appear somewhat paradoxical that I should attempt to

wind up the account with an enumeration of the advantages which

it holds out to emigration. If due consideration, however, be

given to the nature of the ingredients of which the agricultural

body is composed; if it be recollected that it consists

principally of persons, who have been since their earliest years

habituated to every sort of vice and debauchery; of persons bred

up in cities, and unacquainted with the arts of husbandry, who

had, therefore, to contend against the combined force of an

inveterate propensity to the profligate indulgences of their

_ancient_ mode of life, and of utter ignorance of the

laborious occupations and thrifty arts of their _new_: I say

if all these serious impediments to success be impartially

weighed, it will be seen that the _anomaly_ is rather

_apparent_ than _real_. Nevertheless I do not mean to

imply that this colony or its dependencies, present at this

moment any very flattering prospects for the _mere

agriculturist_. That the _skilful farmer_ would be

enabled to obtain an _independent_ and _comfortable

subsistence_ is, however, _indubitable_; and the larger

his family, provided they were of sufficient age to afford him an

effectual co-operation, the greater would be his chance of a

successful establishment. Hundreds of this laborious class of

people, who in spite of unremitting toil and frugality, find

themselves every day getting behind-hand with the world, would

undoubtedly better their condition by emigrating to this colony,

if there were only a probability that they would be enabled to go

on from day to day as they are doing here. In this country they

are at best but _tenants_ of the soil they cultivate;

whereas there they would be _proprietors_, and the _mere

advance_ which would be taking place in the value of their

farms, would before many years not only render them

_independent_ but even _wealthy_. Of the truth of this

assertion, we shall be fully convinced by referring to the price

of land on the banks of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, the

only parts which can be said to be even tolerably colonized. It

has already been stated that as far as the river Hawkesbury is

navigable, the unimproved land is worth five pounds per acre, and

improved land double this amount. This land was at first of no

value whatever; because in the infancy of societies, so long as

there is an unlimited scope of land of the first quality, which

any one may occupy as far as his occasions require, it is evident

that there would be no purchasers; since it is absurd to imagine

that any one would buy that which he could obtain for nothing. It

is only, as Mr. Ricardo has demonstrated, when land of an

inferior quality is brought into cultivation, and when the

difference in the produce of the two sorts gives the occupier of

the one a superiority over the occupier of the other, and renders

it as eligible for a person to cultivate land of the first

description as a tenant, and to pay the proprietor the difference

of produce by way of rent, as to be himself the proprietor of

land of the second description; or when the situation of the

different appropriated tracts of land does not admit of the

conveyance of their produce to market at an equal cost; and thus

again gives the owners of those farms which are more contiguous,

an advantage over the owners of those which are more remote: I

say it is only when societies have made that progress, which

begets one or other of these contingencies, or both, that land is

of any value whatever. In the course, therefore, of thirty-one

years, the tract of land in question, taking the unimproved part

as our criterion, since the improvements made in that portion of

it, which is in a state of cultivation, may be considered

tantamount to the difference in value between the one and the

other, has evidently risen to this enormous price, from having

been of no worth whatever: or in other words, each acre of land

has increased in value during the interval that has elapsed since

the foundation of the colony at the rate of 3s. 2

1/2d. per annum; and this too under the most impolitic and

oppressive system, to which any colony, perhaps, was ever

subjected. How much greater then, will be the future rise in the

value of landed property, if, as there is now every reason to

hope from the attention which the government are at this moment

paying to the state of this colony, the whole of the disabilities

under which its inhabitants have been so long groaning, should at

length be abandoned? Without taking at all into the estimate the

immediate amelioration which a radical change in the polity of

this colony, would occasion in the condition of the agricultural

body; without depending on the probability that it will soon be

in the power of the laborious and frugal settler to rise rapidly

to wealth and independence; it must be evident that the mere

increase which is yearly taking place in the value of landed

property, affords of itself the strongest inducement to

emigration; since if it does not hold out to the industrious man

the prospect of acquiring immediate wealth, it relieves him from

all apprehensions for his family, should a premature destiny

overtake himself. He at least knows that every succeeding year

will be augmenting in a rapid manner the value of his farm, and

that the same spot which administers to his and their present

wants, cannot fail to suffice for their future. This is of itself

a most consolatory prospect; it at all events prevents the

present good from being embittered with any dread of future evil;

it permits the industrious man the tranquil enjoyment of the

fruits of his labours, and rescues him from the necessity of

hoarding up against the approach of gathering calamity, against

the stormy season of impending poverty.

The amelioration, that would take place in the condition of

the mere labourer, who should emigrate to this colony, without

funds adequate to the formation of an agricultural establishment,

would not be so considerable. Still there can be no doubt that

the honest and industrious man would always be able to provide

for himself and his family a sufficiency of food and clothing;

comforts which with his utmost endeavours he can hardly obtain in

this country without having recourse to parochial relief. He

would, therefore, at all events emancipate himself from this

humiliating,--this demoralizing necessity; for although there is

confessedly a greater portion of labour in the colony than can at

present be maintained in activity, any person who might emigrate

thither voluntarily would easily find employment, when those who

are, or have been under the operation of the law would seek for

it in vain. A good character is a jewel of greater value there

than in this country, because it is more difficult to be met

with; and consequently all the advantages which it procures its

possessor in the one place, it will insure him at least in a

two-fold measure in the other.

The colony offers very little encouragement to the

manufacturer. The manufacturing interests are not at present in

the most prosperous situation; and if the government should, as

there is every probability, at length adopt those measures which

are called for by every consideration of justice and expediency,

a few years will annihilate them entirely. To this class

therefore, with reference both to the proprietor and workman, a

removal to this colony would undoubtedly be prejudicial.

For the artisan and mechanic, who are skilled in the works of

utility, rather than of luxury, there is, as it has been already

remarked, no part of the world, perhaps, which affords an equal

chance of success. To any, therefore, who have the means of

transporting themselves and families to this colony, the removal

would be in the highest degree advantageous. They could not fail

to find immediate employment, and receive a more liberal return

for their labour, than they would be able to procure elsewhere.

The blacksmith, carpenter, cooper, stone-mason, brick-layer,

brick-maker, wheel and plough-wright, harness-maker, tanner,

shoe-maker, taylor, cabinet-maker, ship-wright, sawyer, etc. etc.

would very soon become independent, if they possessed sufficient

prudence to save the money which they would earn. For the master

artisan and mechanic, the prospect of course is still more

cheering; since the labour they would be enabled to command would

be proportioned to the extent of their capital.

The advantages, however, which the colony offers to this class

of emigrants, _great_ as they undoubtedly are, when

considered in an isolated point of view, are absolutely of _no

weight_ when placed in the balance of comparison against those

which it offers to the capitalist, who has the means to embark

largely in the breeding of fine woolled sheep. It may be safely

asserted that of _all_ the _various openings_ which the

world at this moment affords for the _profitable investment_

of money, there is not _one equally inviting_ as this

_single channel_ of _enterprize_ offered by the colony.

The proof of this assertion I shall rest on a calculation so

plain and intelligible, as I hope to be within the scope of the

comprehension of all. Before we proceed, however, it is necessary

to settle a few points, as the data on which this calculation is

to be founded; viz. the value of wool, the weight of the fleece,

and the number of sheep to be kept in a flock. With regard to the

value of the wool grown in this colony, the last importations of

the best quality averaged five shillings and sixpence per pound

in the fleece. This was sold last month; [March, 1819] and as the

market was at that time overcharged, and as moreover the best

description of wool yet produced in this colony, is far from

having attained the perfection of which it is capable, and which

a few more crosses with the pure breed will undoubtedly effect in

it, it may be safely concluded, that this is the lowest price at

which this sort of wool will ever be sold. This will be more

evident, if we contemplate the gradual rise in value, which the

wool from the same gentleman's flocks has been experiencing

during the last four years. In 1816, it was sold for 2s.

6d. per pound in the fleece; in March, 1818, for

3s. 6d. per pound; in July, 1818, for 4s.

4d. per pound; and in March, 1819, for 5s.

6d. per pound in the fleece. For some of this last

quantity of wool, properly sorted and washed, Mr. Hurst of Leeds

was offered 9s. per pound, and refused it. To take the

future average price of wool at 5s. 6d. per pound,

is, therefore, forming an estimate, which in all probability will

fall far short of the truth. However, let this be one of our

data; and let us allow three pounds, which is also an estimate

equally moderate, as the average weight of each fleece. The

weight of a yearling's fleece may be taken at three quarters of a

pound, and the value of the wool at 2s. 9d. per

pound. The number of ewes generally kept in a flock by the best

breeders are about 330, and we will suppose that the emigrant has

the means of purchasing a flock of this size of the most improved

breed: this with a sufficient number of tups may be had for

£1000. These points being determined, let us now proceed to

our calculation.

[Table not included in this text version--see html version. Ed.]