rs
were allowed to enter; that the abridgment of a sentence should be
determined by fixed rules; that at its close, encouragement should be
offered, to such as might merit the favor, to go to some country where
support could be more easily obtained, and character recovered; and,
finally, that no convict should be permitted to remain at the place of
his punishment after its termination.

Such were the recommendations of this famous committee, which were
carried into effect only so far as suited the convenience of the
ministers; who, however, stopped transportation to New South Wales, and
revoked the order in council by which that country was constituted a
penal settlement. "On the 1st of August, 1840," said Lord John Russell,
"transportation to New South Wales will cease for ever."

In van Diemen's Land, assignment was abolished: first in domestic
service, then in the towns; and the opinion was intimated by Lord John
Russell, that he inclined to the views of Archbishop Whately, with
limitations and exceptions.[227]

Among writers upon the subject, who most strenuously maintained the
policy of transportation, may be enumerated Bishop Broughton, Dr. Lang,
Dr. Ross, of Hobart Town, Sir George Arthur, Sir John Franklin, Messrs.
Macarthur, David Burns, and Captain Wood. They united in vindicating the
colonists from the imputation of profligacy and cruelty. Governor Bourke
was alone, among influential persons, a secret advocate of total
abolition. In writing to the secretary of state, he intimated his
conviction that, however strong the prejudice of the colonists in favor
of penal labor, they were losers by the bargain; and that the social
mischief gathering around them would soon demand a total cessation.[228]

In the voluminous productions, which for more than twenty years teemed
from the colonial press, the idea of total abolition was scarcely
suggested; except, indeed, in the year 1826, a colonist, under a
fictitious signature, hinted in modest language that free labor might
prove the cheapest in the end. The notion was tolerated, while the
country was ravaged by bushrangers, but it was only treated as a
curiosity and a dream.[229]

Towards the close of 1839, a meeting was held in the Mansion-house at
Dublin, to promote emigration to New Zealand. A resolution was passed,
on the motion of Dr. Dickenson, the chaplain of the Archbishop of
Dublin, which exhibited a frightful portraiture of the Australian
colonies.[230] D