_ of those plantations
for servants after their time expired.[44] A needless delay of
departure, or a return within the period appointed, made the instrument
of pardon void.

In the reign of Charles II. an act passed (Car. ii. 13, 14. cap. 2. s.
1), "for preventing dangers that may arise from certain persons called
quakers," which authorised their transportation beyond the seas. Thus,
the practice was not new: after the battle of Worcester, the parliament
transported the royalists, and in the mutations of power all parties in
their turn transported each other.

It had not been unusual for persons to sell themselves for a term of
years. After the dissolution of the army of the commonwealth, many, to
escape danger and poverty, sold their liberty to others, who carried
them to the plantations.[45]

After the defeat of Monmouth, a letter was addressed by James II. to the
governor of Virginia, which after reciting that the royal clemency had
been extended to many rebellious subjects by ordering their
transportation, required the governor to propose a bill to the assembly
to prevent their redemption, by money or otherwise, until the expiration
of ten years. The assembly declined to carry out the royal vengeance,
and received the exiles with kindness.[46]

In 1717, transportation assumed a prominent place in English
jurisprudence. An act of parliament (4 Geo. i.) recited that the
customary punishments were inefficient, and that the "labor of criminals
in the colonies would benefit the nation;" and mentioned the "frequent
failure of those who undertook to transport themselves." Under this law,
they were committed to the charge of ship-masters, who gave bonds for
their transit; and who were obliged to produce certificates that they
had disposed of their cargo according to law. It is said that L40,000
per annum were raised by the contractors, carrying annually two thousand
prisoners, whom they sold for L20 each.[47] For a long time these
importations were highly acceptable; the demand for labor reconciling
the colonists to the attendant evils. The object of the law was to exile
offenders from the mother country, and bondage in America was simply
intended to indemnify its cost. It was in the power of the captains to
set them free, or a friendly agent by appearing as a purchaser might
release them.[48] When landed, they were sold by auction to the
colonists, for the term of their sentence; and even the royal pardon did
not can