ABSTRACT
The point was driven home by Molesworth in the House of Commons. The exiles must perforce go either to colonies that were too weak to complain with success or to colonies that would be willing to receive them. And what colonies would be willing to receive banished offenders? If any, then only the penal colonies; and those were the places least adapted for their permanent reformation. The exiles would, in fact, still form a criminal caste. Far better, said Molesworth, make expatriation voluntary, as suggested by Archbishop Whately and by the Transportation Report of 1838. The most likely voluntary emigrants were those who had been reformed by their punishment, who wished to lead a life of honest industry but were afraid of not finding employment in this country. The others, who would in all probability lead a life of crime whether in Great Britain or in the colonies, it was most unjust to' send abroad. I In fine, from the colonial point of view, the reform, though it might aim at the abolition of transportation, in reality fell far short of the mark.
