"It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people, and wicked LONDON: B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET. 1840. 100.22 r. 39. PREFACE. I HAVE been led to the publication of the following pages partly by the encouragement, partly by the alarm, which the late debate occasioned. In common with the other opponents of Transportation, I was encouraged,—greatly encouraged, to find that the subject excited an interest, far short indeed, still, of what it deserves, but yet far beyond what it excited a few years back. And we were further encouraged by the abandonment on the part of the Government of one of the worst parts of the System as hitherto conducted,-the Assignment of convicts as slaves to the settlers: a measure which has, from the first, formed the principal plea on which the whole A 2 system was defended,-which has enlisted the apparent interests of so many persons in its support, and has all along had a plausible appearance in the eyes of the uninquiring and unreflecting, who constitute the great majority; but of which the pernicious effects are at length perceived and admitted. On the other hand, I felt no small apprehension lest the public mind should be lulled into a false security by the application of partial and inadequate remedies, and the adoption of half-measures, which, by the confession of those who propose them, “leave the main evil of Transportation in full vigour." Men are naturally disposed to give a cordial and unscrutinizing reception to any suggestions or any hopes which may justify them in withdrawing their attention from an unpleasant subject. There is danger therefore of their being satisfied on merely learning that something is to be done; and of their even expecting a gradual extinction of the system of criminal-colonization, from measures * Papers relative to Transportation and Assignment of Convicts. Session, 1839. No. 582. Official Note transmitted by S. M. Phillipps, Esq. to Sir G. Grey, Bart., p. 6. whose obvious tendency is to maintain and perpetuate it. It appears to me therefore more than ever necessary to use the most strenuous efforts for calling public attention to the subject. The patient who fancies himself cured by the amputation of a portion of a gangrened limb, and foregoes all further attention to his disease, may be in a worse situation than before. For more than half a century men's minds remained on this subject blinded by an extraordinary delusion against the strongest arguments, the most ample experience,the most unexceptionable testimony: if it should take another half-century to dispel a new set of delusions-to open their eyes to the futility of fresh hopes based on the lately proposed modifications of the system-hopes as fallacious, I am persuaded, as those with which the system itself was originally welcomed,-who can tell to what an enormous and irremediable extent this ever increasing mischief may have grown? That half a century of perseverance in resolute and judicious measures may suffice to eradi |