ABSTRACT
A careful classification of the convicts, and a vigilant public opinion, would remove most of the moral dangers; and the economic benefits were plain to see. Convict servants would be better than 'dirty, lazy, and thievish Hottentots'; and 'they would do more to make and repair roads, to dig reservoirs, to construct harbours, to dress wool, or, in certain cases, to tend sheep, than all the labour that has dribbled into the colony for the last 33 years has been able to effect'.S The only effect of these arguments on the Cape colonists was however to exasperate them further. They believed that the present proposal was merely the thin
