ter the
completion of their original sentences?" To all such remonstrances Lord
Stanley's answer was that Tasmania had always been a convict colony; and
that the free settlers had no right to expect that their interests would
be specially consulted in the management of its affairs. Sir Eardley
Wilmot found it impossible to obtain the large sums required for the
maintenance of the necessary police and gaols, and he proposed to the
Legislative Council to borrow money for this purpose. Those of the
Council who were Government officials were afraid to vote in opposition
to the wishes of the Governor, who, therefore, had a majority at his
command. But the other members, six in number, denounced the proposed
scheme as injurious to the colony; and when they found that the Governor
was determined to carry it out, they all resigned their seats. For this
action they were honoured with the title of the "Patriotic Six".

About this time Mr. Gladstone succeeded Lord Stanley in England as the
Secretary of State for the Colonies; and as he had shortly afterwards to
complain that, in reporting on these and other important matters, Sir
Eardley had sent home vague statements for the purpose of deceiving the
Imperial authorities, the Governor was recalled. But he was destined
never to leave the scene of his troubles; for, two or three months after
his recall, he became ill and died in the colony.

#5. Denison and the Transportation Question.#--On the arrival of the
next Governor, Sir William Denison, in 1847, the Queen reinstated the
"Patriotic Six"; and the colonists, encouraged by this concession,
vigorously set to work to obtain their two great desires--namely,
government by elective parliaments, and the abolition of transportation.
It was found that, between the years 1846 and 1850, more than 25,000
convicts had been brought into Tasmania; free immigration had ceased,
and the number of convicts in the colony was nearly double the number of
free men. In all parts of the world, if it became known that a man had
come from Tasmania, he was looked upon with the utmost distrust and
suspicion, and was shunned as contaminated. On behalf of the colonists,
a gentleman named M'Lachlan went to London for the purpose of laying
before Mr. Gladstone the grievances under which they suffered; at the
same time, within the colony, Mr. Pitcairn strenuously exerted himself
to prepare petitions against transportation, and to forward them to the
Imperial