d
the parent country to send the first convict vessel, will impel the
colony to send back the last.

The late expedient of Earl Grey, is the trial of a scheme long present
before his imagination.[280] Its rejection by the Australian continent
has limited the experiment to Van Diemen's Land, where resistance is
unavailing. It is the last achievement of penal philosophy, and will
ascertain how long one small portion of the earth can receive the
liberated masses, gathered by the penal laws of a mighty empire!

The ticket man lands; the colony is crowded with his predecessors; the
colonists consider his arrival a grievance; the government, ignorant or
careless of his fate, cast him into new temptations. Under such a plan
the emigrant is gradually superseded by the exile population: the
emancipated laborer is expelled by a fresh ticket holder. The
country-born youth finds himself unable to live in his native land. The
tone of public morals follows the prevailing spirit: crime is currently
spoken of merely as a fault or a misfortune; the press teams with
vicious sentimentalism; the administration of justice becomes more
uncertain, perjury more common; the reputation of the colony is formed
from the census, and the land becomes a by-word and a hissing.

Such, then, is the scheme which originated in philanthropy; such the
practical result of years of laborious inquiry and official debate!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 276: Despatch of Colonel Arthur to Right. Hon. E. G. Stanley,
March 10, 1834.]

[Footnote 277: "On the left bank of the Ohio the population is rare.
From time to time one descries a troop of slaves loitering in the
half-deserted fields, the primaeval forest recurs at every turn: society
seems to be asleep. From the right bank, on the contrary, a confused hum
is heard, which proclaims the presence of industry. The elegance of the
dwellings announces the taste and activity of the laborer: in the end,
the slave has cost more than the free man."--_Tocqueville_, vol. ii. p.
222.]

[Footnote 278: Murdoch's evidence, 1837.]

[Footnote 279: It is a curious fact that, generally, the most severe
government officials were reckoned the most indulgent of masters.]

[Footnote 280: The following question, put by Earl Grey (then Lord
Howick), and answer, given by James Macarthur, Esq., appears in the
evidence taken before a committee of the House of Commons, 1837:--

"Q. Suppose, instead of the present system of transportati