NEW SOUTH WALES, 6 subject of colonisation. His plan was introduced to Lord 1786 Sydney's notice in a letter from Pepper Arden, dated 13tli January, 1785, in the course of which he said, — '^ Lord Lord Mansfield mentioned the subject to me, and desured Sir George Young would call upon me to explain his ideas/' Although there is no express allusion in Sir George's paper to Matra's proposals, no one can compare the two tho two documents without seeing that the one formed the basis of Sou! *^' the other — the only essential difference between them being that Sir George Young's sketch presented a condensed, and in some respects a more practical view, of the subject. The identity of the two schemes may be shown by analysing the arguments used by the two writers, and comparing them one with another. Briefly stated, those relied upon by Matra were as follows : — - 1. The proposed colony of New South Wales might 'in i/woc time atone for the loss of the American colonies/ 2. The new territory offered almost every conceivable inducement to colonisation. " The climate and soil are so cumate and happily adapted to produce every various and valuable production of Europe and of both the Indies that, with good management and a few settlers, in twenty or thirty years they might cause a revolution in the whole system of European commerce, and secure to England a monopoly of some part of it, and a very large share in the whole." 3. The colony might afford an asylum for the American The colonists who had remained loyal and had suffered for their loyaUsts. loyalty to the Crown during the war. These settlers might be expected to form the basis of the future population of New South Wales. The proposal for its settlement had met with the approval of many Americans of that class, who had been consulted on the subject with a view to their taking part in it. 4. The expense of founding a settlement as proposed Expento. need not exceed £8,000. It would be sufficient, in the first instance, to despatch two ships of the peace establishment Digitized by Google
