a sense of justice, or command the
effectual protection of parliament. The measures adopted by the Cape
were impracticable in Van Diemen's Land: if, indeed, consistent with
loyalty, they were not proper in a country where the support of the law
was necessary to restrain the convict population. Such a course was
predicted and recommended by the English press, but the ministers,
better informed, felt no danger of active or passive resistance.

Whatever compassion might be felt for Van Diemen's Land in the adjacent
colonies, hitherto its treatment by the minister had produced no
demonstration in its favor. It had been held up as a warning to
stimulate resistance to any participation in its fate. The continental
press pointed to its prostration with epithets of reproach, and it was
described as the dust-hole of the empire. The sympathy of its neighbors
was overpowered by the stronger feeling of self-preservation. It seemed
like a mill-stone strung to the neck of the Australian world, and
destined to drag it down to perdition. Under this impression they sought
to impose restrictions on the migration of expirees and the holders of
conditional pardons. The legislature of New South Wales passed a vagrant
act, which required such persons to register their names at the nearest
police-office, within a given time after their arrival. Earl Grey
disallowed this ordinance, at the recommendation of Sir William Denison,
as not only in itself oppressive, but calculated to retard dispersion,
and counteract the royal prerogative. The great argument of the
advocates for transportation in New South Wales was, however, founded on
the impossibility of checking indirect transportation through Van
Diemen's Land. Men landed in Tasmania, crossed over to Port Phillip, and
were often traced by their depredations.

The sense of impotence is not the least painful element of unjust
suffering. This weakness was the topic of exulting scorn with the few
enemies of the popular cause. The people were without allies or
protectors, and completely subject to a despotic will.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 257: London Agency Letter, November, 1848.]

[Footnote 258: Debate, March 8, 1849. (Hansard.)]

[Footnote 259: Among the many devices to awaken attention to ministerial
injustice was an association to obtain for liberated convicts, of the
incorrigible class, a passage to England. The prospectus, signed by Drs.
Browne and Gaunt, turned back the British arguments