Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/100

 Lord PLANS FOR COLONISING 1783 1784, it appears that his proposal had been formally laid before the Government. He said : — You will therefore do me a particular pleasure if, to the great trouble you have already taken in pushing forward this business for me, you would be so obliging as to tell me if the Ministry have come to a decided resolution to reject the plan ; or if there be any chance of its being entered on in the spring season. It also appears from a note appended to his paper that Matra had been in personal communication on the sub- ject with Lord Sydney,* who expressed an opinion to the sydnej-'s efEoct that the new territory would be a suitable place for opinion. , ^ * convicts. '^ When I conversed with Lord Sydney on this subject, it was observed that New South Wales would be a very proper region for the reception of criminals condemned to transportation/' This intimation of his lordship's views led Matra to add some suggestions on that point ; but he had not made any reference to it in his original sketch. Prom another letter written by Matra to Nepean, it ap- pears that Pitt's Attorney-General, Pepper Arden, had also been consulted in the matter, and that he had been supplied with some further information about the sailing route of the Third Bummarily diamiflsed Fox and Lord North from office, on the ISth December, 1783, and was sent by the Kins with a verbal message to Lord North, requiring him to send the seals oi office to the Palace by the hands of the iTnder Secretary. "It was one o'clock in the morning, and Lord North had retired to rest with Lad^ North, when Sir Evan I^pean knocked at his bed-chamber door, and desired to see him on most important business. * Then,' said the discarded Minister, 'you must see Lady North too ' ; at the same time intimating his determination not to get out of bed. Sir Evan Nepean having accordingly been admitted and declared his errand, Lord North delivered to him the key of the closet in which the seais of office were kept, and then (quietly turned round to sleep a^ain." — Jesse, Memoirs of George the Third, vol. ii, p. 448 ; Massey, Reign of Geor^ the Third, vol iii, p. 209, note. Ue was created a baronet in 1802 ; sat m the House of Commons, was sworn of the Privy Council, and held the offices of Secretary to the Admiralty and Chief Secretary for Ireland ; being sub- sequently appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty and also Governor of Bombay. He died in 1822. • Post, pp. 423-8 — Thomas Townshend, Viscount Sydney, filled the office of Secretary of State for the Home Department in Lord Shelbume's short- lived administration of 1782-3, and subsequently filled the same office in Pitt's, which lasted from 1783 to 1801. He was raised to the Peerage in March, 1783, as Baron Sydney of Chislehurst, and in June, 1789, be^une Viscount Sydney of St. Leonards, county Gloucester. He held office until that year, and died in 1800. Digitized by Google