one branch of the legislature where there were
two chambers. They were often members of parliament. Edmund Burke filled
this office for the assembly of New York, with a salary of L500. The
people of Van Diemen's Land formed "The London Agency Association," and
appointed Mr. J. A. Jackson to represent them. Their proceedings were
adopted by the colony, at a meeting called by the sheriff of Hobart
Town; they did not however pretend to public authority, and they
confined their attention to secular questions. The subscribers were
called together at this crisis. By a vote, almost unanimous, they
adopted a letter of instructions which directed Mr. Jackson to support
the cause of total abolition. The London Agency Association expressed
the opinions of the country gentlemen. There were several other
organisations composed chiefly of tradesmen. In reference, however, to
representation and abolition, all classes agreed.

The British Government seemed to anticipate the wishes of the colonists.
A despatch (February 5, 1847,) from Earl Grey, printed in the blue book,
informed the people that transportation to Van Diemen's Land, except,
indeed, as a part of the colonial empire, was finally terminated. There
was nothing to prevent the arrival of exiles, when the state of the
colony could admit of their dispersion amidst a free people,--a
condition explicitly required by the primary object of cessation. This
despatch Sir William Denison laid on the table of the council, and while
he noticed its harmony with the wishes of a large proportion of the free
inhabitants, he exhorted them to beware of undue exultation or
despondency whatever the issue of the measure, and in this crisis of
their fate to confide in the goodness of God (July, 1847).

The views of the government were expounded in official letters and
speeches in the British legislature. Stated with brevity they expressed
a purpose to punish crime in England, and to assist the emigration to
every British colony, individually rather than collectively, of men with
conditional pardons. Sir George Grey asserted that the idea of resuming
transportation to Van Diemen's Land was illusory. He recommended that
the governor should be instantly informed of its termination. He
condemned the practice of sending many exiles to one place as likely to
create a feeling of caste, and in time produce the evils of penal
colonisation. With these views Earl Grey concurred (February 5, 1847).
He stated