The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-20 00:00:00

Ti
S IT N.

WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH

OL'it CONVIUTS ?

LEI' 1 Eit I.

TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR GEORGE GREY, DART., M.P.
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR TEE HOME DEPARTMENT.

Sir,—Last year I had the honour of addressing to
you a letter, containing an answer to this most im-
portant of social questions--What shall be done with
our convicts?—suggesting a plan which appeared,
and still appears to me, to offer the best practical
solution of a difficult political problem, and therefore
anxiouily looked for those Parliamentary discussions
which were considered inevitable upon a subject so
de: ply affecting the vital interests of this country.
But the session has passed away, and the Colonial-
office ha-, with the exception of a memorable declara-
tion of Earl Grey's, which I will presently examine,
not only studiously avoided giving to this country
and to the colonies any intimation of its intentions
respecting the future disposal of convicts, but has
upon two several occasions wantonly insulted the
feelings of those colonists, who believe that the con-
tinued transmission of convicts into the country they
inhabit inflicts upon them an enormous social evil.
Those insults were of too marked and public a cha-
racter not to rankle in the minds of the colonists ;
adding another item to those which stud the records
of the Colonial-office, and to which Earl Grey appears
resolved to contribute his fair quota, although he
could not have adopted more injudicious conduct—
the only motive for which could have been to screen
him from a confession that he was unable to give a
satisfactory reply to the question—What he proposed
should be done with our convicts ? _

it was most injudicious, as well as most insulting,
to have the House counted out upon the two several
occasions when the subject was brought forward by
independent Members, because discussion must have
elicited some plan of which the House might have
approved, and at any rate would have assured the
colonist that, if his wishes were not immediately com-
plied with, the subject was one which was receiving
the anxious attention of the Legislature.
But Lord Grey, by having the House counted
out, and preventing all discussion, has in effect said—
I want none of Sour advice, none of your
opinior,s, fur I have a plan of my own, which I have
already stated in the House of Lords, which I consider
sufficient to meet the views of all parties, and which
is redolent of the mind of a sagacious statesman, as
fully meeting the present evil, and avoiding future
calamity.
As, however, I entertain a very different opinion of
his Lordship's plan, I will carefully examine it in re-
lation, let, to its intrinsic properties, 2dly, to the pub-
lished opinion of one of acknowledged wisdom, and,
3dly, to the facts we have derived from practical ex-
perience ; and if such plan will not stand either of
these tests, then the conclusion is inevitable—that it
was most injudicious, as well as most insulting, to
prevent discussion upon a subject which so deeply
affects the social condition of this country, which
cannot possibly adjust itself, but which must sooner
or later receive the attention of Parliament.
Earl Grey's plan is simply this :—" The colonists
are in great want of shepherds, and therefore 1 propose
that the convicts shall be sent into the interior of the
country to serve as shepherds."
But, I must submit that the intrinsic properties of
such plan are bad ; Ist, because from two to three
thousand convicts are annually sentenced to trans-
portation, and about as many hundreds would be a
sufficient supply of shepherds ; and, 2dly, on account
of the nature of the employment.
The proverb says—" The devil tempts all, but the
idle man tempts the devil," and the most idle occupa-
non in the world is that of a shepherd, yet Lord
Grey seriously proposes such a life for the convict,
who, you, as Home Secretary, have, at considerable
care and expense, inured to constant work, at Mill-
bank, or Portland, or Dartmoor, and to whom such
work has almost ceased t) he irksome.
That man under a judicious system would pro-
b Ably have become a valuable member of society in
the colony. Does it require a prophet to fortel his
too-certain career under Lord Grey's plan, living
the idle life of a shepherd, in a remote district,
without the benefit of good example, beyond the con-
trol either of a master ..r a magistrate, and with no
other associates except those who have been equally
criminal with himself. Am I wrong, then, in de-
scribing his plan to be a bad one on account of its
intrinsic properties ? We shall see that it is even
worse when subject to the test of the opinion of wise
men, or the experience we have acquired.
I have the honour to remain, &c.,
RIGBY WASON.
Corwar, Aug. 18 1851.