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 the people of New York: and, at a still later period, when the celebrated Dr. Franklin, remonstrating with the British ministry, as a delegate from the colonists of Pennsylvania, against the practice of forcing convicts upon the people of that colony, was told that it was absolutely necessary to remove them from England, and that they must therefore continue to be transported to America; he replied, by asking the ministers, If the same reason would justify the Americans in sending their rattle-snakes to England.

So early as the year 1697, or during the reign of king William III., the remonstrances of the American colonists, and the difficulty of disposing of the transported convicts, appear to have directed the attention of the British government to the subject of transportation; for, in a letter ad* dressed to the chairman of the committee of the House of Commons on secondary punishments, and appended to their printed report for the year 1831, the following memorandum appears:—

"At the Court at Kensington, the 25th of November, 1697.

"Present, the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. Upon reading this day, at the Board, a representation from the Council of