of these persons to any society."[1] He had found them zealous and faithful officers and ready to assist the Government on all occasions.
In 1813 he pressed the matter once more, and made the first of his bitter attacks upon those who opposed his policy. It was, he said, his invariable opinion "that once a convict has become a Free Man … he should in all respects be considered on a footing with every other man in the Colony according to his rank in life and character[2] …; on the other hand, while a man is under the sentence of the law he is not eligible to be employed in any place of trust; he is incapable of holding a grant of land, and it would be highly indecorous to employ him as a juryman or in any other public situation of respectability. Persons may be found who … may say: 'Is not the man equally to be trusted as a convict, who can be trusted, having ceased to be one?' To this I answer that independent of the merits of the man … it is a disrespect to the Laws …. It is a necessary respect to the Laws that the sentence should be acted upon as long as it exists. No doubt many of the Free Settlers (if not all) would prefer (if they had their choice) never to admit persons who had once been convicts to any situation of equality to themselves. But … in coming to New South Wales, they should consider that they are coming to a Convict Country, and if they are too proud or too delicate in their feelings to associate with the population of the country, they should consider it in time. … No country in the world perhaps has been so advantageous to adventurers as New South Wales. The Free Settlers who have come out as adventurers have never felt their dignity injured by trading in every way with convicts … but further than it suits their interest to have intercourse with them, they would rather be excused. I must, however, in justice to the original Free Settlers, observe that … they are not all of one mind in this respect. Amongst them some few liberal-minded persons are to be found who do not wish to keep those unfortunate persons for ever in a state of degradation."[3]
