State of Gaols, &c. (1st March 1819), gave utterance to the thought of many minds when he spoke of the
"cessation of that salutary terror with which transportation from this country was formerly accompanied." "It would be necessary to inquire, even in justice to Botany Bay, whether the period had not arrived when it might be relieved from being the resort of such characters as had hitherto been sent to it, and might be permitted without interruption to follow the general law of nature by a more rapid approximation to that state of prosperity to which it was to be hoped every part of the world was destined to arrive."
These words were the knell of Macquarie's encouragement of the convict as against the free. The petitions of the emancipists to Parliament were hardly judicious. They assumed the tone of injured men. They vied with Macquarie in exalting their order. The preliminary proceeding was the appointment of the Commissioner of Inquiry. Mr. Bigge's Reports were laid before Parliament in 1822 and 1823. He recommended the discontinuance of large gangs of convicts in the towns; that free settlers should be encouraged by grants of land; and that convicts should be assigned as servants to them in the country districts. The better to classify the convicts, the formation of out-stations on the coast, at Moreton Bay, Port Curtis, and Port Bowen, was suggested. In the main the government adopted, or tried to adopt, their Commissioner's advice, which was embodied in able and painstaking reports.
Three reports (ordered by Parliament to be printed) embraced the whole condition of the colony. Mr. Brougham, in 1819, had denounced the system under which duties had been collected. Wentworth's book had condemned it as illegal, and declared that on an appeal from the magistrates even the Civil Courts of the colony would be compelled to pronounce it so. In reply to Brougham Mr. Goulburn admitted that on a late occasion several persons had refused to pay the duty; that Lord Bathurst had referred the matter to the law officers; and that "only within the last fortnight" those functionaries had delivered their opinion that the duties were illegal.
The Act 59 Geo. III. cap. 114, was immediately passed
ment to the reformation of the people, by associating with those who have proved themselves worthy of regard. in the same manner as if they had ever been free." The misfortune was that Macquarie deemed "worthy of regard" those whom others deemed unworthy.
