These disastrous, if not ahamefiil, results without doubt influenced a committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1777, in resolving — *' That the plan of establishinpf a colon^^^ or colonies in some distant part of the globe, and in new discovered countries, where the climate is healthy, and where the means of support are attainable, is equally agree* able to the dictates of humiuiity and sound polic^^ and might prove in the result advantageous to navigation and commerce/' A second resolution was to the effect that it might be useful so to alter the laws relating to transportation to colonies and plantations in America, as to authorize the 8ame to any part of the globe that may be found expedient." Sir Joseph Banks, moreover (Cook's fellow -voyager), testified before a committee of the House of Commons in 177i)^^ tbat in his opinion '* the place best adapted" for a settlement wbither convicts might be transported was Botany Bay. lie furnished particulars as to the needs of such a settlement with regard to food, implements, seeds, tools, A:c,; and ** being aslced whether he conceived the mother country was likely to reap any beneiit from a colony established in Botany Bay, he replied — * If the people formed among themselves a civil government, they would neces- saril}' increase, and find occasion for many European com- modities J and it was not to be doubted that a tract of land such as New Holland, which was larger than the whole of Europe, would furnish matter of advantageous return.' Lord North's administration was not to see his Western crimes redeemed by any successes in the East, and it may well be conceived that while war was ragmg in 1779, neither he nor his colleagues cared for colonization at Botany Bay. Neither did liis short-lived coalition with Fox after the fall of the Shelburne ministry yield any results from the report of the committee before which Sh' Joseph Banks had given evidence. It was reserved for Pitt and bis hiends who took ulJice with him in Dec. 1783 to confront the problem.
- 1L of ConmioUB Journal," vol. xxxTiii p. 311.
