ABSTRACT
In the pamphlet, which was read at the Birmingham meeting of the Social Science Association in 1868, Walter Crofton began by referring to the insecurity prevailing due to another outbreak of street robberies in London. Crofton’s pamphlet did rather let the cat out of the bag, however. He admitted that convicts released under the licencing system often rapidly disappeared from sight. During 20 years—from 1827 to 1846—no less than 64,375 male and female convicts were transported from the United Kingdom. In 1853 there was but one colony left, Western Australia, which would any longer receive our convict population, and from that period male convicts have been sent to it until within the last few weeks, since which deportation has ceased.
