Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/377

 convenanoe. FIBST SPEECH. 265 While the wording of these reports presents some points 1788 of difference, they nevertheless agree in substance. The Tiebniary. words of enconragement offered to indnstrj and good conduct, and the emphatic warning with respect to the Points of consequences of any further criminality — which naturally formed the essence of Phillip's remarks — appear in each account of them. The advice to marry is not mentioned by Collins or Tench ; but the former relates that, before the end of the month, '^ several couples were announced for marriage " — ^a virtuous resolution which was found to originate in a belief that " married people would meet with Manages de -^ ^ f«nn van* *«Wk various little comforts and privileges denied to those in a single state.*' Phillip had foreseen the dilemma which was sure to arise whenever the question of intercourse between the sexes should become a subject for serious consideration, and had even contemplated the expediency of expressly The social permitting prostitution, within certain limits.* But the difficulty of dealing with such a subject officially made itself felt as soon as he turned his attention to it, and the result was that he made no regulation of the kind, con- tenting himself with a strong exhortation in favour of marriage. By refraining from making any order at all, he fortable ; whereas a contrair line of conduct woald subject them to ignominy, severity, and punishment. — Journal, p. 124. Tench condensed hie account of it into a few lines : — ** When the Judge- Advocate had finished reading, his Excellency addressed himself to the convicts in a pointed and judicious speech, informins them of his future intentions, which were, invariably to cherish and render happy those who showed a disposition to amendment ; and to let the rieour of tiie law take its course against such as might dare to transgress, the bounds prescribed."— Narrative, p. 66. The ** Speech of Phillip " in Flanagan's History of New South Wales, pp. 30~«34, is clearlv fictitious. We have onl^ to compare it with the reports written by the witnesses in whose heanng it was delivered, and who afterwards wrote their independent accounts of it in their journals, to see that the speech attributed to Phillip by Flanagan is an effort of the imagination. A similar production, attributed to Captain Cook, which appears in pp. 18-19 of the same work, is equally fictitious. Apart from other evidence on the point, the use of the wora Australia in the Phillip speech is enough to show that it was not written in 1788. Some passages from it were quoted in the House of Assembly by Sir Patrick Jennings, then Premier, when moving certain resolutions for the celebration of me Centennial year of the colony. — Hansard, 23 September, 1886. • Ante, p. 39. Digitized by Google