date

12 June 1802 37 N. S. Wales 2 is taken
12 June 1802 37 N. S. Wales 2

is taken of him by the Governor. By what means does this happen? Conjecture,

grounded on the apparent nature of the case, is all

the ground authority I can pretend to for the answer which

I hear I give. The Merchant, by the terms

of the Act, and therefore I conclude, by the terms of the Contract grounded

on it, having power to assign the Convict assigns him

accordingly to the Governor: to the Governor in his quality of

agent to the crown and trustee for the public in that

behalf. But suppose the Contracting Merchant instead of

assigning over the Convict to the Governor who gives him nothing but a

receipt (payment under the Contract coming from the Treasury here at

home) suppose he tries to assign assigns the Convict

to some friend of the Convict's own, who as such

will give a price for him: to the end that, when arrived at this place

of banishment, he may be free. Is there any thing to prevent any such

bargain? At any rate there is nothing in the Act: [so that should there be

any thing

to that effect in a Contract of that sort entered into today, there

may be nothing to that effect in another Contract entered into tomorrow.

By the Act — by law — a Convict [+] can

[+] except in a particular case that will be

mentioned presently

not be transported otherwise than by the intervention of a Contract

for that purpose: nor without such a Contract as puts the fate of the

Convict in respect of as to the question difference

between freedom and bondage altogether in the

power of the Contractor who thereby, if for

money or favour he thinks fit to remit to the

Convict so much of the punishment as turns upon that difference,

has it compleatly

in his power.

The carried out on Government account Then there must have

been some fiction, if the letter of the Act has been

observed.
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    Description: 12 June 1802 (+r) N. S. Wales 1 2V. No care taken to plan the

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    Another point and that a fundamental an essential one.

    I have already touched, though but incidentally, +

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    convict has all along rested and still rests, in respect of

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  • Title: [28 June 1802 42 N. S. Wales 7 Whether]
    Description: 28 June 1802 42 N. S. Wales 7

    Whether the Ministers, whose system from beginning to end was

    directed by a spirit principle of equal

    contempt for the laws of the land and those of natural justice —

    whether these Ministers at any period subsequent to the commencement of it

    have thought fit so far to preserve the forms of respect for the

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    In point of fact what is print and is notorious to

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  • Title: [25 June 1802 N. S. Wales time. This]
    Description: 25 June 1802 N. S. Wales

    time. This defect in itself is something, but in comparison it

    is as nothing. For what power has he any than a Convict, from the

    instant his legal term of transportation is at an end. So that

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    live without any laws: to live without any laws, in the face if

    they please, of a Governor who by his commission in virtue of

    his hopes with the

    and fears grounded in it is himself most strictly

    bound by laws.

    Hard enough so much as to conceive in theory a disorder like this is by much

    too hard endured

    in practice. One of two things: either the

    these

    outcasts of mankind most disorderly of men must be left to do

    what they please, or a that chosen Servant of the

    British Crown must be left to order them and every body else to do as

    he pleases. The option was not a difficult one. He carried with him

    the name of Governor: and this name, with or

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    to every body instead of an Act of Parliament.

    A few lines But a line or two ago we were at Liberty —

    where Anarchy Hall; now already we are in the din of Despotism. They

    are on opposite sides of the way: but the distance is not great. Out of the

    strong cometh forth sweet, said the strong man when he

    found the honey in the carcase of the strong beast. Out

    of that state of things which is revolting to the sense of every real lover

    of the British constitution, came forth the looked for treasure

    dainty which was sweet to the sense of M r Pitt, the then

    youthful Minister.

    Your Lordship will see ere long what it was

    recommended rendered it to his palate.

    which relishing [a] that made it to his taste.