Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/434

 320 THE FIfiST FliSET. Small pro- portion of aeriouB offences. 1788 appendix to Phillip's Voyage ; and if such a list had been 9 July, placed in his hands before he sailed^ no difficulty could have arisen in the matter. According to the list of names published in that work^ out of a total of seven hundred and seventy-five persons trans- ported^ there were only twenty sentenced to fourteen years and thirty-six to life. The rest were sentenced to seven years, or less. The number of persons convicted of serioos offences did not, therefore, exceed fifty-six ; a very small proportion to the whole number. Under the penal legisla- tion of the time, a sentence of five or seven years' trans- portation was passed only in cases of minor offences ; so that the great majority of the persons sent out in the First Fleet did not by any means represent the worst sections of the criminal class. As a matter of fact, there was no difference, so far as the sentence was concerned, between one for five years and one for life; seeing that there was no chance of escape from the settlement in either case. Jeremy Bentham argued that the convict whose sentence had expired was entitled to a return passage to England, and that detention in the colony after expiration of the term was false imprison- ment : — " Was it [the intention] that they should be left fixed for life on the spot to which they were consigned with such nicety of discrimination for fourteen, seven, and five years? If so, what is the sentence, or the pretended execution of it, but a mockery of justice ? '^* A convict who fled to the woods after committing a robbery re- turned after being absent eighteen days, forced in by hunger. He had got some small support from the people and the few fish left by accident on the beach, after hauling the seine, and had en- deavoured to live amongst the natives, but they could give him but little assistance. He says that they are now greatly distressed for food, and that he saw several dying with hunger. It is pos- sible that some of the natives at this time of the year might find Jeremy Bentham's opinion. Soaroitvof food inland. Digitized by Google
 * Panopticon, pp. 225-6 ; post, p. 683.