Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/530

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state of Gaols, &c. (1st March 1819), gave ufcterance to the thought of mari}^ minds when he spoke of the ■* cessation of that salutary terror with which transportation fromi tMs country was forrnerly 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 charaetera 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 waB destined to arriv^e.'* These words were the knell of Macf|iiane*s encourage- ment of the convict as agaiest the fiee. The petitions of the emaiicipistB to Parliament were hardly judicious* They assumed the tone of injured men. They vied with ][acqua- rie in exalting their order. The prelimmary proceeding was the appointment of the Commissioner of Inquiry. Mr* Bigge's Eeports were laid before Parliament in 1822 and 1828. Pie recommended the discontinuance of large gangs of convicts in the towns ; that free settlers should be en- couraged 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, lii the main the government adopted, or tried to adopt, their Commissioner's advice, which was em- bodied in able and painstaking reports. Three reports (ordered by Parliament to be printed) em- braced the whole condition of the colony. Mr. Brougham, in 1819, had denounced the system under which duties hadj been collected. Went worth's book had condemned it asi illegal, and declared that on an appeal from the magistrates! even the Civil Courts of the colony would he compelled to ' pronounce it so. In reply to Brougham Mr. Goiilburn ad- mitted 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 i>9 Geo. III. cai>. 114, was immediately passed ment to the reformation of the people, by associating with those who huve pro Fed themseh'ea worthy of regard, in the same manner as if they had <5i^er been fvee.^^ The misfortune was that Mace^uarie deemed ** worthy of regard" those whom otliera deemed mviovti>i *