young man in want of some occupation, and unwilling to live in idleness. I told him all employments, all occupations, are here overstocked; in every branch of industry, in every description of trade, in all the professions competition is excessive. "Go then," I said; "imitate the example of your ancestors, and make for yourself a career in a new world of your own creation, and be assured that in seeking in this manner to advance your own interests, you will confer a great and lasting benefit upon your native country." And this advice which I have given him I give to all persons who are suffering from a want of employment, and who find this island too thickly peopled for them. As long as vast and fertile regions, as long as great portions of this globe are either uninhabited, or uncultivated, it is our own fault if we suffer from an excess of population. The only objection

which I have ever heard to emigration is on the score of expense. It has been asked, how can poor men, who can scarcely support themselves from day to day, pay for a passage to Australia or Canada? And what enormous sums would be required out of the public purse to defray the expense of an extensive system of emigration? This was a valid objection to emigration, but it is no longer so, as all persons who have examined the subject must acknowledge. The means of carrying on the most extensive emigration without any expense to this country have been discovered by one of the greatest and most original thinkers. of the present day, and whom I am proud to be able to call my friend—I mean Mr. Wakefield. His principles have been established by the careful

examination of a Committee of Parliament. They have been recognised by Lord Durham in his Report. The flourishing colony of South Australia has been founded upon them. They have been partly applied to New South Wales, and the inhabitants of that colony are unanimous in the wish of having them strictly adhered to. They were brought last year under the consideration of the House in one of the most able speeches I ever heard in it, by my friend Mr. Ward, the member for Sheffield, in a motion which I had the honour to second, and which no person dared to oppose. The principles of Mr. Wakefield's plan are simply these. Instead of giving away or jobbing the lands in the Colonies, he proposes to sell them, and to apply the money so obtained to the purpose of carrying out emigrants from this country. By carrying out labourers the lands of the colonies can be cultivated, become valuable, and will fetch a price in the market; and in this manner, in proportion to the extent of the emigration, the sales of land would increase, and the whole system would work more easily. It is impossible to enter into any further details upon so extensive a subject as this. I will only say one word more with regard to emigration. Its benefits are not confined only to the colonies or to the emigrants. For every new emigrant becomes a customer of this country for the productions of our industry, and purchases them by the fruits of his labour in his new country. Thus New South Wales sends us wool, New Zealand will send us flax and timber, Canada furnishes us likewise with timber, the United States sell us their cotton, and would willingly sell

us corn, were it not for our unwise laws. The West Indies produce for us sugar and coffee, and the other produce of intertropical climates. All

of them receive in return the woollens of Yorkshire, the cottons of Lancashire, the cutlery of Sheffield and Birmingham. Thus every emigrant from this country not only finds employment for himself, but furnishes employment for numbers at home; and enables a greater quantity of persons to live in comfort upon the British soil. Gentlemen, we possess incalculable and inexhaustible means of production and purchase; all we require is markets and customers. For this purpose, I repeat, we must repeal our corn laws, extend our commerce in every portion of the globe, and promote colonisation and emigration.

ON TRANSPORTATION.

MAY 5, 1840.

[To this motion Lord John Russell moved the previous question. It is significant of the temper of the time when colonial questions were concerned that Sir W. Molesworth's great speech and Lord John's defence were addressed to almost empty benches. Sir W. Molesworth, in reply, said that "as the noble lord had not decidedly said that a time might not come when transportation should be abolished, he trusted the time was not far off. He would not divide the House, but would be contented with having his motion recorded on the votes."]

SIR,-In submitting to the consideration of the House the motion of which I have given notice, the task which I have to perform is both difficult and painful; difficult on account of the extent of the subject; painful on account of the nature of many of the facts to which it will be my duty to refer. I assure the House, however, that I do not approach this subject without having long and carefully studied it, or without having carefully examined and weighed every opinion and every fact connected with it. I therefore presume to solicit a patient and attentive hearing.

The report of the Committee to which this motion relates was laid on the table at the end of the Session of 1838. Two reasons prevented me last year from bringing the topics contained in that report before Parliament. First I entertained the

hope that the executive Government would have come forward with some general measure founded upon that report, which would have rendered any motion unnecessary. I was unwilling, therefore, to embarrass the Government, in a matter which is one of great difficulty, by any premature steps. Secondly, as that report contained many facts reflecting on the moral character of the penal colonies, I was earnestly entreated, by several persons connected with those colonies, not to call upon Parliament for an opinion, before an opportunity could be afforded to the colonists to peruse those statements, and to contradict them if incorrect. Now that full time has been given both to the Government to mature their plans, and to the colonists to reply to any mis-statements, there can be no objection to asking Parliament to consider the subject of this motion.

The Committee in question, and of which I had the honour to be chairman, was appointed for the threefold purpose, first, of inquiring into the efficacy of transportation as a punishment; secondly, of ascertaining its moral effect on the penal colonies; and lastly, the Committee were directed to consider of what improvements the existing system. was susceptible. A very few words would be sufficient to state the result of those inquiries if I could suppose that honourable members had read any considerable portion of that report; but as it cannot be supposed that such has been the case, I must endeavour, as briefly as I can, to state the grounds upon which the Committee came to their conclusions.

The materials from which the Committee formed