OF TRANSPORTATION. 449 unless some immediate provision be made for removing such 1783-4 offenders to some other place of confinement." The Act then empowered any three Justices of the Peace, duly authorised for the purpose, to order the removal of male prisoners, under sentence of Removal death or transportation, from any gaol to any ship or vessel in the hulk, pend- Thames until they could be transported. During their confine- ^rtiSon. ment in that manner, prisoners were to be allowed to labour and to have half their earnings, but they were not to be forced to work, Treatnient and the time of their imprisonment was to be deemed part of the term of transportation. Security was to be taken by bond from the contractors who undertook to transport the prisoners beyond the seas ; and any prisoners who should return to England before their time had expired, would be liable to suffer death. This Act was followed by another* passed in the following year piace of for " the effectual transportation of felons and other offenders, atfon'Srbo and to authorise the removal of prisoners in certain cases." It JJ^^i^ot^u. provided that any person convicted of a crime punishable by Council, transportation might be ordered to be transpoiled accordingly, and that his Majesty in Council might appoint to what place beyond the seas he might be sent. By the Act of 1718, transportation was confined to the colonies and plantations in America ; but as thBy ceased to be available for that purpose after their independ- ence had been recognised in 1783, it became necessary to make other provisions. That was effected by the Act of 1784, which why the enabled the Government to appoint any place it might think ^^^ proper by an Order-in-CounciL No place had been determined upon at the time the Act was passed ; but the measure shows that the Government were then contemplating the foundation of a new colony in the shape of a penal settlement Among the various classes of offenders for whom transportation classes was considered an appropriate punishment during the seventeenth t'^nsport^i- and eighteenth centuries were — 1. Quakers denying any oath to be lawful, or assembling them- Quakers, selves together under pretence of joining in religious worship — third offence. 13 and 14 Car. II, c. 1. 2. Notorious thieves and spoil-takers — commonly called moss- Border troopers — in Northumberland and Cumberland. 18 Car. II, c 3. ®^**^ ♦ 24 Geo. m, c. 56 (1784). Digitized by Google
