THE NEW SOUTH WALES COEPS. 99 destruction, it will be rather an unpleasant and disgraceful ^^^ tiling to the Corps/'* In this matter, as well as in others, Grose displayed not only kindness of heart, but a regard for the honour of the force. In his opinion, the New South Wales Corps had a reputation to lose. An example of the practice that prevailed of drawing soldiers from the criminal classes may be found in a proposal made to Governor Hunter by the Military Depart- ment of Bengal, in a letter dated the 11th January, 1796, in which it was pointed out that, owing to the war with France, there was little probability of obtaining from England much-needed recruits for the Indian army, and it ^^^ was suggested that ^^ a number of stout young men" might 'o'lod'*- be obtained from the convicts whose time of servitude had expired. It was not anticipated by the Indian authorities that any objection would be raised to the scheme, and it was carried so far that an agreement was made with Captain Eaven, of oj'^J^ the storeship Britannia, then at Calcutta, to return with two ^{^'JSim, hundred recruits, for whom he was to receive £12 for each man landed at Bengal ; and two officers, a lieutenant and a surgeon, were sent over to superintend the recruiting. Hunter refused to incur the responsibility of sanctioning the scheme. Although the expiree was regarded as a free man, it was the established policy of the Government to raise every obstacle which would prevent him leaving the colony; and Hunter, recognising that many of them would eagerly seize this opportunity, referred the matter to the Secretary Hunter an- of State, and, in doing so, pointed out that, while it might ^^^ be desirable — ^when the number of expirees increased — to dispose in this way of the most turbulent of them, under the then existing circumstances it would be unwise to deprive the colony of any considerable number of labourers. His action was approved, and he was directed to signify to the
- The correspondence is given in the Historical Becords, vol. i, part 2, pp.
404,406.
