380 SYDNEY'S DELUSION. 1789 as to the nature of the territory were spread abroad through the public press. The nation then learned that his fleet had sailed unexpectedly into the finest harbour in the world. Impression ^ which a thousaud Sail of the line might ride in safety " ; ^mfn that the country was a fine one, with a healthy climate, and
- ^*^®^ that free settlers only were required to make it ^' the most
valuable acquisition Great Britain had ever made." When it was determined on the one hand that none but convicts and their guards should be sent out, and on the other that the colony must be made self-supporting by their labour, it is obvious enough, now, that two inconsistent propositions were laid down. But it was not obvious then. COT^t ^i tiiat was known about the merits of convicts as agri- AmerioM culturists was derived from their history on the American '^y^'^ plantations, where their labour had been readily bought up on the arrival of the transports, and utilised by the buyers on a well-developed system. The men were worked in gangs under competent overseers, and were not only made to work but were thoroughly drilled in their business. Under that system, they had done well, as a rule, many of them having ultimately passed into the ranks of respectable settlers or free labourers. It had worked so smoothly for many years that Sydney's faith in the qualifications of convicts as farm labourers may possibly have come to him as a tradi- tion of the Home Office. For either his faith in their capabilities was strong, or his action in sending out such people as he did was inconceivably reckless. There would be no exaggeration in saying that every life in the settle- ment was jeopardised by it. The conclusion to which one is naturally led on this sub- stateanuui- joct is that the statesmanship of the time was not equal to time.° * the conception of a project for the foundation of a great colony, on principles which would now-a-days be deemed worthy of England. If it was owing entirely to the blunders of Ministers that the American colonies were lost to it, the same reason will account for the ignoble choice between. Digitized by Google
