"I deem it necessary to premise," observes his Lordship, "that in any opinion you may be led to form with respect to any change in the existing regulation of the colony, you must always bear in mind the possibility of an abandonmnt of the present system of transportation, so far as regards the existing settlement; and must, therefore, in recommending any measures for adoption, carefully distinguish how far you consider them applicable to the settlements in their actual state, or only to that in which they would be placed in the event of the convict part of the population being henceforth diverted to other stations.
"Should it appear to you, as I have too much reason to apprehend will be the result, that the present settlements are not capable of undergoing any efficient change, the next object for your consideration will be the expediency of gradually abandoning them altogether as receptacles for convicts; and forming on other parts of the coast, or in the interior of the country, district establishments, exclusively for the reception and proper employment of the convicts who may hereafter be sent out. From such a measure it is obvious that many advantages must result. It would effectually separate the convict from the free population: the labour of forming a new settlement would afford constant means of employment, and that of a severe descrip-
