continuing to increase, and the remonstrances of such men as Dr. Franklin and his constituents having at length produced their proper effect in the mother country, it was ultimately recommended by a committee of the House of Commons, That provision should be made for transporting criminals to the coast of Africa and to the East Indies." This recommendation became the subject of debate in parliament in the year 1770, when it was successfully opposed by Sir George Saville on the following grounds, as stated in Cobbett's 'Parliamentary History' of that year.
1st, That sending criminals to these climates was, in other words, consigning them to death.
2nd, That unless the African and East India Companies were ordered to take them, and pay for their passage, it would be impossible to get them there, as at present the expense of sending them was paid by the convicts themselves; for in case the convicts could not pay it, the masters of the ships who carried them out had a right by the laws of the plantations to sell them for the time the law condemned them: whereas it was not worth the while of the India Company to purchase them at so high a rate, unless for soldiers, for which purpose they were already permitted to take them.
3rd, If sent to Africa, it was to be "feared, that
