Chapter 31

The governor himself was adverse to the ticket system. The control exercised over the holders was limited to the most ineffectual and distant surveillance. They were free in reference to the colonists, and were subject to the same laws for the regulation of service. Restrictions were imposed on their locomotion, but without much practical restraint. Sir William Denison now recommended to the secretary of state to send all convicts to New South Wales, where wages were high and labor scarce, until the colonies being equal, the market of Van Diemen's Land might again share in absorbing them. To this plan the colony would have been disposed to assent at this stage of the struggle. By most persons it was thought reasonable, on national grounds, that the theory of dispersion should be tried, wherever it might inflict no peculiar caste or moral stain. Mr. Sharland, a strenuous abolitionist, prepared a series of resolutions against the new form of convictism. The governor promised to support them in the nominee council, and they passed unanimously (October, 1848). The first totally objected to the ticket system, as in the highest degree injurious to the convicts and the colony, and without advantage to Great Britain. The second recommended the dispersion of convicts throughout the colonies, accompanied by well-selected emigrants. The commentary of the governor explained these resolutions as a compromise between persons of adverse views. A large number of non-official magistrates--117 out of 140--signed the condemnatory clause only. They declined to countenance the revival of transportation, or, by discussing theories of secondary punishment, to weaken the moral claim held in the pledge of Earl Grey.

The increasing numbers of ticket-holders confirmed these objections. They were landed, and forwarded in considerable bodies to seek employment in the interior. Their decent apparel and quiet demeanour made them less objects of aversion than pity. Unacquainted with colonial labor, they were often unable to procure employment. Amongst men of this class many, of course, were disorderly and reckless, and when they were not readily relieved, they were insolent and threatening. They could, indeed, throw up their tickets, and claim food of the government, but only by a process which exposed them to censure and punishment. "Unfortunate men," said the London Agency Association, "unacquainted with useful labor, wander from farm to farm, asking for a night's shelter or a morsel of bread. The relief of these men by the settlers is prompted alike by their humanity and their fears."[257] These statements were disputed by the governor, but they were sustained by numerous certificates, and, in a form more qualified, by several police magistrates. In a lonely locality females could hardly refuse relief to applicants in parties, who pleaded the utmost want, and, when travelling over districts equal to an English county, depended on the charity of the settlers.

These appeals were laid before parliament; they rested their claims on the word and honor of the minister, and on the unaltered circumstances which he quoted to justify his original design of abolition. The pledge was confirmed by the long acquiescence of Earl Grey and the other ministers of the crown. Lord Mahon, a member of the late ministry, complained that Earl Grey had fettered not only himself but his successors. He confirmed the colonial interpretation of the pledge, "most imprudently given by Earl Grey, that transportation should not be resumed to Van Diemen's Land;" and he expressed an opinion "that it was most impolitic and perilous thus to make pledges to the colonists that were not fulfilled."[258]

During the same session Mr. Gladstone repeatedly referred to the purport of this abolition despatch, and urged the minister to extend as widely as possible the area of penal dispersion. He thought the policy of England less wise than in former times, when the numbers distributed in America were so small that they were lost in the mass of the population (March, '49). Lord John Russell, he observed, had given a pledge that transportation to New South Wales should be stopped. The same promise was made to Van Diemen's Land. Had these pledges been kept? Such vacillation was discreditable to the name of this great country (June, '49).

Earl Grey was still pressed by the reiterated appeals of Van Diemen's Land, and by imputations of having broken faith with its inhabitants. The complaints of eminent commoners were renewed in the lords. He was reminded that his opinions in 1846 were at variance with continued transportation. Earl Grey demanded proof, when Lord Lyttleton held up his despatch, and referred to an opinion but a few days before avowed by Lord John Russell, that the time was at hand when a substitute would be necessary for transportation. Lords Wodehouse and Ilchester followed, and predicted a fearful recoil,--a severe and well merited retribution. Lord Stanley reflected on the secretary of state for abandoning the remedial plans of his predecessor. "Expectations," he said, "had been held out to Van Diemen's Land, that transportation would cease, but that now it appeared that it was not to cease. What security had the noble lord that the colony would not resist the reception of convicts?" Lord Monteagle asked if it was possible to send them to Van Diemen's Land? To this Earl Grey replied that the colony was thriving, that the opposition to transportation had declined. Millions had been expended in preparing the country for convicts, and the free inhabitants could not expect that when they chose to call for cessation, the imperial policy was to be altered on their demand (April 12, 1850).

"I must notice," said Earl Grey, "the remarks of the noble lord at the table (Lord Lyttleton) and the noble lord opposite, (Lord Stanley) as to the effect of the earlier measures of the present administration in producing the difficulty which is now complained of. It is asserted that the language used both in despatches and in discussions in parliament by members of her Majesty's government was calculated to create an impression on the minds of the colonists, that transportation was to be entirely discontinued, and thus to raise expectation, which it is painful now to disappoint. My lords, if that impression and these expectations were created, it was rather by what other parties represented to be the views and intentions of the government, than by anything which was said by members of the administration. I defy any person to read through the despatches upon this subject as a whole (for perhaps detached passages taken without the contents might be quoted which would convey a different meaning), and not to perceive that the view entertained from first to last was, that convicts, after having undergone the most severe part of their punishment, were to be removed to the Australian colonies, and a very large portion of them to Van Diemen's Land. Undoubtedly it was the original intention of her Majesty's government that convicts should be removed as exiles; that is, under regulations by which on their arrival they would have been entirely free except as to the power of returning to this country." When his lordship was again taunted with the violation of his promise, he replied that Van Diemen's Land had no right to complain--colonies which had been founded as free colonies might do so; "but Van Diemen's Land had been originally intended as a penal settlement, and had no right to refuse to receive any number of prisoners the government choose to send, and that he (Earl Grey) was of opinion that the authority of the crown should be firmly asserted."

Thus the hope of voluntary relief from Earl Grey was totally extinguished. He had before acknowledged that the claims of the colony were unsatisfied, and had given no distinct denial of the pledge; but his tone under these rebukes was authoritative and menacing. Passing over all he had ever said in favor of dispersion, he adopted the sentiments, almost the words of Lord Stanley, delivered four years before, when that nobleman defended the policy of transportation and denied the right of the colonists of Tasmania to complain.

The people of Van Diemen's Land, on receiving this speech, met in unusual numbers, and renewed their protests and petitions. They extended the leagues, started a year before, by Mr. Young, a Launceston mechanic, to discountenance the employment of convicts. These compacts contained various conditions, but they all proceeded on the presumption that petitions must be followed by action. They were, however, difficult to observe. It was not easy to distinguish the different orders of convicts and periods of arrival. The working-classes, to whom the confederation was beneficial, taunted employers with inconsistency when they shrank from the unequal sacrifice. The governor himself described the opponents of transportation, who employed convicts, in terms of irony, and the press took up the reproach, and weekly reiterated the charge of "paltry trimming between principle and expediency." By many hundreds the pledge was signed notwithstanding, and it was generally kept. Many tradesmen exhibited an example of self-denial and voluntary sacrifice to gain a public object worthy of praise.[259]

When the _Neptune_, rejected by the Cape, arrived in the Derwent, except Mr. Mitchell, who was detained in bondage, the passengers were pardoned (1850). The painful exhibition of ministerial contempt stung more than it injured the people of Tasmania, and they declared that nothing but want of power prevented them from chasing the vessel from their waters. A solemn protest, addressed to the people of Great Britain, was signed by the chief merchants and landholders.[260] From this time the colonists continued to protest specially against the violation of public faith whenever a convict vessel anchored on their shores. Scarcely any form of remonstrance remained to be tried. For three years the colonists had repeated their petitions. The collecting of signatures in a scattered population was attended with much difficulty and expense. To stimulate and sustain hope through so long a struggle was the great task of the leaders of this movement. The parents--the women of Van Diemen's Land--the clergy, singly--all sects together and in their separate churches, kept up by petitions a constant fire. Such a topic could hardly be expected to fix the attention of the people of England, but it derived fresh importance from its complication with the fate of other colonies and the honor of Great Britain.

The discussion of transportation for several years annoyed and distressed respectable expirees, who, unless intelligent and just, were disposed to murmur at arguments which seemed to glance at themselves. The caution and discrimination of the leaders of the movement could not always restrain the oratory of their friends, and many offensive metaphors or epithets dropped in the warmth of speaking, not in the circumstances to be justified. Stimulated by newspaper writers, certain educated emancipists of the metropolis proposed to form a "protection association" (October, 1850). In their manifesto they collected all the epithets calculated to wound the feelings of "their people," for so they called them, and drew out columns of "grievances"--in the mock sentimental style of pseudo martyrdom. "Such," said they, "is our truly melancholy condition: but the time has arrived to rescue our people." "We know the silent grandeur of our strength." They proposed to put down the abolition press, to send emancipists to the Council, and to assert the majesty of their numbers against their emigrant oppressors. But, though encouraged by some old transportationists amongst the magistrates, and by the government press, the scheme was too monstrous for success. The respectable expirees stood aloof, and even detested an organisation founded on the reminiscences of crime. A few noisy meetings and inflammatory speeches were sufficient to open the eyes of most to the gulf of caste into which their own protectors intended to fling them. The deputations to the country districts were met in some instances coldly, and in others with laughter. Mr. Gregson went to the assembly at Richmond, and crushed their project by a calm exposition of its character. From this moment the Union languished, and soon disappeared, leaving a memorable warning against penal colonization and the creation of a caste embittered by ignorance and revenge.

It was, however, felt by the colonists that no expression of the public will would recall the minister to 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 for transportation with effect, and proposed to remit the objects of their charity to the reform societies, parishes, and municipalities of England. This proposal was seriously discussed at Port Phillip, and nothing prevented its partial execution but the difficulty of preserving, with the ordinary arrangements of a vessel, the subordination of such a ship's company.]

[Footnote 260:

"_The solemn Declaration of the undersigned Colonists of Van Diemen's Land, addressed to the British nation._

"On the 5th day of April, 1850, the ship _Neptune_, the vessel freighted with convicts to the Cape of Good Hope, but rejected by its inhabitants, anchored in the port of Hobart Town, under the orders of the right honorable the secretary of state, Earl Grey.

"Our reiterated petitions presented to her Majesty's government have impressed the feelings of every class upon the subject of transportation, and exhausted every argument which could enforce its abolition.

"The ministers of religion, the parents of 20,000 children, the magistrates almost unanimously, have in every form expostulated and implored; nothing that the constitution authorises remains to be done to make known the most unhappy and oppressed condition of this country....

"We cannot resist the oppression of the British government. We are convinced that appeals to the justice and humanity of the ministry are utterly unavailing; and that the principles which have induced them to relieve armed or rebellious colonies, lead to the oppression or contemptuous disregard of those who are too feeble for effectual resistance.

"We have patiently awaited redress; we have borne illegal taxes, imposed by a council of crown nominees, and maintained by the amoval of _one_ judge and the appointment of another; and have appealed only to the provisions of the constitutional law of England--but in vain.

"And now, to fill up the measure of our wrong, ministers have publicly announced their contempt for our petitions, by ordering the _Neptune_ to our port, and discharging her passengers upon our shores.

"In such circumstances silence would be criminal. As citizens and parents we hereby solemnly protest against the cruelty and falsehood of the English government--against the wrongs which threaten and oppress ourselves and our children.

"Van Diemen's Land, April, 1850."]

SECTION V.

But the day of deliverance was at hand. "_The Australias are one_" became the watch-word of the abolitionists, and they adopted decisive means to propagate the cry, and secure the co-operation of the colonies of the continent. From this idea sprang the "Australasian League"--an organization comprehending a numerical and moral force without parallel in the present colonial empire. At Launceston, on the 9th of August, 1850, the following resolution was adopted:--"That the whole of the Australasian Colonies are deeply interested in preventing the continuance of Transportation to this Island. That the Launceston Association for Promoting the cessation of Transportation to Van Diemen's Land be hereby requested to address a letter to the respective Colonial Secretaries, Speakers of Legislative bodies, Municipal authorities, and other influential parties in those Colonies, earnestly requesting the co-operation to ensure their attainment of the great object we have in view."

The feeling expressed in this resolution was instantly reciprocated in all the colonies. Speakers at their meetings referred to the condition and hopeless prostration of Van Diemen's Land as a general grievance. A letter, founded on this resolution, was drawn up by Messrs. West, Du Croz, and Douglas (dated August 26), under the instructions of the "Launceston Association," the first formed in the colonies. It was signed by the chairman, Rev. Dr. Browne, senior-chaplain of Launceston. After tracing the course of the British government, it proceeded:--"As a last resource we turn to our fellow-colonists who, united to us by the strictest ties, are liable to the same wrongs; and who will not be indifferent spectators of sufferings which they may ultimately share. If you look at the chart of Van Diemen's Land you will perceive her geographical position establishes a relation to the adjacent colonies which no laws can disown and no time dissolve. A few hours convey vessels from our shores to the ports of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia; and a few days' sail to New Zealand, and thence to the islands that crowd the Pacific Ocean. Her majesty's ministers have taught the communities established in this portion of the empire that their ultimate interests are ONE: that upon the public spirit, intelligence, and virtue of each, in no small measure, depend the happiness and prosperity of all. We remind you that, in twenty years from the present moment, should transportation continue, and the annual number remain stationary, 70,000 or 80,000 convicted persons will have passed through Van Diemen's Land into the neighbouring colonies. They will consist of men not only originally depraved: all will have gone through the demoralizing probation of public gangs: they will all have dwelt, for several years, in exclusively convict society, where every prevailing sympathy must be tainted with the habits of crime. This island will not be a filter; but the accumulation of moral wretchedness will unavoidably contaminate every mind, and stamp on every character the impression of its peculiar constitution. The sacrifice of this colony will not, therefore, exempt the neighbouring settlements from any portion of the mischief incident to direct transportation. They will receive the prisoners later in life, but deteriorated in character. Evil associations and evil men become worse and worse: such is the dictate of reason, and such is the solemn warning written in the oracles of God. If, then, your colony had cause to protest against the infliction of this evil in a limited degree, how much stronger must be your opposition to a system which will bring into your streets, your houses, your hospitals and prisons, the crime, insanity, decrepitude, and pauperism ever consequent on transportation, aggravated by transmission through a country in moral ruin. Were we to appeal to a principle of selfishness in addressing our countrymen, we might remind you that the reputation of this entire hemisphere is compromised by the condition of Van Diemen's Land. The nice geographical distinctions which colonists make are lost in the distance. As your vessels enter foreign ports, the line which divides your population from ours fails to distinguish them. We have heard with regret, and not without humiliation, that the British name, every where respectable until now, has ceased to insure to many, who have never forfeited its sanction, the common confidence of foreign nations. That a petty state, but of yesterday, has initiated laws intended to stigmatise all the inhabitants of the southern world, and attributing to the whole the character of convictism. A more serious consideration is the positive injury inflicted upon the islanders of the Southern Ocean by scattering among them desperate men who have been perfected in all the arts of wickedness, and who are placed within reach of an interesting and rising people, whom they too often shock by their vices and oppress by their crimes. We submit, sir, to your humanity as a British fellow subject, and to your discretion as a christian magistrate, the case of this country. In the mutation of human affairs, the arm of oppression, which has smitten us with desolation, may strike at your social well-being. Communities allied by blood, language, and commerce, cannot long suffer alone. We conjure you, therefore, by the unity of colonial interests--as well as by the obligations which bind all men to intercede with the strong and unjust on behalf of the feeble and oppressed--to exert your influence to the intent that transportation to Van Diemen's Land may for ever cease."