Letter to the Editor, 1786

Mr. Editor,

I can scarcely think it possible, though our newspapers have repeatedly announced it as a fact, that the King's Minister can have it seriously in their intention, to transport so large a body as six or seven hundred convicts to New Holland, in the South Seas. I observe your correspondent Sylvanues takes the point so much granted, that he has amused himself, and the readers of your paper, with no pleasantry, by proposing by way of impovement to this most sagacious plan, to augment the new colony by an accompanyment up0on the expedtion, of all the poachers throughout the kingdom.

Sportively as this gentleman has treated the subject, I am inclined to consider it as a matter well intitled to a very grave and solemn discussion. For it appears to me an affair in which the national honour and character are deeply involved. According to the accounts we have received of the distant country, in which it is proposed to establish so extraordinary a colony, it is but thinly peopled. A circumstance os some consolation with respect ot the few saveages who may approach the confines of a society of English banditti. For that the manners and morals of even the natives of New Holland, could escape being rendered worse than they now are, by the contagion of such a neighbourhood, is next to imposible. I am afraid it would be altogether superflous, to take religion into the consideration: for if its interests are to be as little regarded upon this occasion, as I understand it unformly to have been on board the ballast-lighters, it is no unreasonable presumption to suppose, that this formidable emigration is to be unattended by a chaplain of any denomination whatsoever.

I am at a loss to conceive the degree of horror, which a plan of this kind must excite in the minds of the foreign societes, pro propaganda fide: - will they not most naturally, with uplifted hands, exclaim against it, and bestow upon it, the appellation of a plan formed by some English society, pro proagandis vitiis Anglicanis? And, howver, in excuse, it may be alleged, that the propogation of vice upon the coast of New Holland, or, as it is generally called Botany Bay, is not likely to be very extensive amongst the New Hollanders, on account of the scantiness of their numbers: yet I am afraid such will be the zeal of these English Missionerists?, that this excuse will not be of any very long duration. Many of the islands in the South Seas, as we are assured by our late circum navigators, are exceedingly populous; - but they are not only populous, they are also extremely fertile; and they are inhabited by the some of the handsomest women in the known world. Can any thing therefore be more probable than that parties of these abandoned wretches, will, after a while, be formed for a fresh transportation of themselves to better climates and more cultivated regions? The inevitable consequence of which will be, that the contagion of English vice, and English Villainy, will be diseeminated in the space of a few years, throughout every country, situated within the South Seas.

For the honour of the Christian religion, for the honour of humanity, and for the honour of my country, I very anxiously hope that a scheme so injurious to the interests of mankind in general, will not go forward; or if it does, that all imaginable care will be taken to prevent, as much as possible, the national disgrace, which will follow so probably wide a diffusion of national iniquity, without some means to counteract its effects to this salutary end; it ought surely to be held indispensibly necessary, that every gentle method be employed of reclaiming, at least, in some degree, the intended exiles before they embark for the place of their destination. And in order to bring them to some sense of moral and relious duties, surely Government will take care that they be attended on their voyage by a clergyman of irreproachble character; for whom should be made a very ample provision, upon express condition, that he make New Holland his residence, as chaplain to this convict colony for the remainder of his days.

A Plain Englishman
English Chronicle (London, England), Saturday, October 7, 1786; Issue 1107