376 , THE AMERICAN LOYA.LISTS 1780 Sydney suggested to lim that New South Wales would be a very proper region for the reception of criminals, that he added a postscript to that effect. But while he thought of free settlers, the Government thought only of convicts. The grdney'8 Home Secretary was constantly troubled with the state-of- the-gaols question, which had long been the night-mare of his official slumbers. Where to send the convicts when the ports of the United States were closed, was the great prob- lem he had to solve. What to do with the loyalists was not a matter that could trouble the Government ; it could be settled by payment of compensation. If they were left to themselves, they would go to Nova Scotia or somewhere else ; and wherever they might go, they would go at their own expense and on their own responsibility. Penal settle- For the convicts, Sydney argued, some new settlement favour." must be found, which could be made self-supporting by their industry in the course of a year or two. The African coast having been explored for the purpose unsuccess- fully, there remained only the proposal for the colonisa- tion of New South Wales. The chief objection to it was the distance and consequent length of the voyage; but there was some compensation in that, because the convicts could not return to England from the other end of the Objections world. Sending out the loyalists in any number would out*" involve several objections. In the first place, there was the question of expenditure. Their transport and personal xpense. g^p^^^g^g ^ould have to be provided for, while they would require to be maintained for the first two years at least from whom t}iey chose for their president, to negociate a lottery, on the plan of our State lottery, only for dollars instead of pounds, to procure them present relief. " — Many of the loyalists in Georgia went to Jamaica ; Gentlemaii*8 Magazine for January, 1783, vol. liii, p. 84. In a series of resolutions passed at a meeting of the freeholders of the town of Worcester, in New England, held on the 19th May, 1783, the loyalists were described as a set of people who have been, by the united voice of this continent, declared outlaws, exiles, aliens, and enemies," and it was resolved that should any presume to enter the town, they should be immediately confined for the purpose of transportation according to law. These resolutions were referred to in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1783, vol. liii, p. 615, as expressing '* the general sense of the inhabitant* from one end of America to the other. " Digitized by Google
