The loss of a great portion of our North American colonies, to which we had been accustomed to ship our convicts, caused the British Government to look about for some other unoccupied land, which might serve the same benevolent and statesmanlike purposes of clearing away the disturbing element at home, and transporting it to a new sphere, in which, whilst rehumanizing itself, it might lay the foundation of a new empire. The American war, closing in the year 1782, closed with it our Maryland, Jersey, and Virginia plantations; and in 1788, we opened the convict-reform and colonizing account on the south-east corner of the continent of Australia. Of the wisdom of the measure, the British empire of the antipodes now stands a brilliant proof.

It is worth while to pause here a moment, and notice a few curious facts.

The settlement of New Holland was proposed by Colonel Purry in 1723. He contended that, in 33° south, a fertile region would be found, favourable to European colonization. He offered his theory to the British Government, then to the Dutch, and afterwards to the French. His views were submitted to the Academy of Sciences at Paris; and the same Academy which afterwards declared mesmerism a humbug, and laughed heartily at the idea of Fulton's steamboat, which he had proposed to Napoleon I., replied to Purry that they could not judge of countries they had not seen.