SYDNEY AS A STATESMAN. 383 ingly confined liis attention to questions with wHcli his 1789 political reputation was identified ; but the result was that nothing of any moment was done in the shape of domestic legislation. Sydney's capacity for originating useful mea- sures never displayed itself ; and although Howard and Bentham had done so much to smooth the way for reform, no measures were taken during his time for the improve- p^nai ment of penal discipline. The old system of transportation ^^^^^p^^®- was continued without any attempt to prevent its abuses, and another continent was polluted with the scum of Eng- land's people, with as much indifference to results as if the history of American colonisation had never been written. The proposal to occupy this territory necessarily required the sanction of the Prime Minister, and to that extent it cabinet came under his official notice ; but there was nothing in it ™®^*^"'- that appealed to his imagination or stirred the current of his ambition. A proposal to occupy the Falkland Islands or Tristan Da Cunha would have made quite as much im- pression on him. Everything connected with the project, from first to last, appears to have been left entirely to Sydney ; and the many singular mistakes which were made in the execution of it can be understood if we suppose that he left everything to Nepean, while Nepean left every- thing to somebody else. That Sydney was not a statesman Sydney in of unusual capacity is apparent from the reports of his ^**'"*^*°*- speeches in Parliament. Whatever the subject he discussed, he was evidently reluctant to take any view of it that was not essentially commonplace. He held office for many years, and had abundant opportunities for distinguishing himself in Parliament; but his name is not associated with any measure of importance, except that of the settlement of New South Wales. It is a remarkable fact that one of the least notable politicians of the time should have exercised far more influence over the destinies of a young nation than any of his illustrious contemporaries.*
- In his early days Sydney was familiarly known in the social and political
circles of his time as Tommy Townshend— or sometimes Mr. Tommy Towns- Digitized by Google
