at least twenty parishes in different parts of the territory, having each a nucleus of from twenty to thirty free emigrant families. But the moral and political effects that would have resulted from the adoption of such a course are of incalculably greater importance than the mere diminution of expenditure, to which it would undoubtedly have led. It would have afforded the governor, agreeably to the reasonable anticipations of Captain Phillip, powerful and effectual support in the administration of penal discipline; supplying him with fit persons for situations of trust or authority. It would have established, from the very first, something like public opinion in the colony; which would very soon have gathered strength enough to put down injustice and oppression on the one hand, and outrageous immorality on the other. It would have placed the trading concerns of the colony, whether on the large or on the small scale, in the hands of reputable persons; and prevented that system of legalized chicanery, extortion, oppression, and robbery, into which they actually degenerated in the hands of liberated convicts, or of free persons deeply imbued with their dishonest principles, and living in willing conformity to their disreputable practice. It would have rendered it necessary for the ticket-of-leave holder, or emanci-
