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.