ciples of constitutional freedom; and
if they did not hasten its possession, reiterated its lessons and
prepared for its enjoyment. Whatever temporary turmoil the meetings
created, they were conservative of great interests, and deserve a
grateful remembrance. These appeals to the British legislature were
commonly accepted in silence: by the crown they were graciously received
and forgotten. They had no perceptible influence on colonial policy, and
only acquitted the settlers of indifference to rights, which can never
be valued at too high a price.

The surplus revenue, accruing from year to year, suggested to the
secretary of state the imposition of police, and gaol expenses on the
colony. The non-official members of the council, except one, voted
against the appropriation. They denied that the supposed advantages
conferred by prisoner labor, justified a claim on the colonial funds for
the support of a great national object; and they added this remarkable
passage:--"The influx of moral pollution has been perpetuated, and the
colony doomed for ever to be the gaol of Great Britain, and destined
never to rise to any rank among the British colonies."[190] A dim
fore-shadowing of that universal sentiment to which the constant
attempts to lessen the profits of prisoner labor gave rise. The revenue
was largely dependent on the consumption of liquors, and upon habits
which generate crime and impose expenses on the public. It received an
appropriate destination: funds contributed chiefly by drunkards for the
repression of criminals. Such was the apology for exactions enormous,
when compared with the population; a view not easily impugned, except
that in such cases the interest of the government ceases to be hostile
to vices which increase its wealth.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 185: Letter to Darling, 1830.

Major Mudie says--"Being scarcely ever sober, he left his business to be
done by a convict clerk, who had been a lawyer of some sort previous to
his transportation from England."--p. 245.]

[Footnote 186: 9th Geo. iv. sec. 22.]

[Footnote 187: August 13, 1832.]

[Footnote 188: Captain Glover stated, that the events of the 23rd of May
had been dramatised in the following strain:--The ambassador of that
meeting was admitted to the king: "Ho, ho, Mr. Ambassador," said the
king, "the people of Van Diemen's Land want an assembly, do they; what
do they want it for?" The posed ambassador replies, "Because they do,
your Majesty.