t eligible for peopling a young country?"

In another part of his reply he remarks,--

"In confining the indignation because of their importation
to a few, and representing that the general sense of the
people is in favor of this vile importation, he is guilty of
the most shameful misrepresentation and the grossest
calumny upon the whole province. What opinion must our
mother country, and our sister colonies, entertain of our
virtue, when they see it confidently asserted in the
Maryland Gazette, that we are fond of peopling our country
with the most abandoned profligates in the universe? Is this
the way to purge ourselves from that false and bitter
reproach, so commonly thrown upon us, _that we are the
descendants of convicts?_ As far as it has lain in my way to
be acquainted with the general sentiments of the people upon
this subject, I solemnly declare, that the most discerning
and judicious amongst them esteem it the greatest grievance
imposed upon us by our mother country."

The writer felt that a young country could not be settled "without
people of some sort," and that it was better to secure "convicts than
slaves." Upon what grounds precisely this defender of buying convict
labor based his conclusion that he would rather have "convicts than
slaves" is not known. It could not have been that he believed the
convicts of England more industrious or skilful than Negro slaves? Or,
had he theoretical objections to slavery as a permanent institution?
Perhaps the writer had himself graduated from the criminal class! But
there were gentlemen who differed with him, and couched their
objections to the convict system of importation in very vigorous
English. On the 20th of August, 1767, two articles appeared in
"Greene's Gazette." Says one of these writers,--

"For who, but a man swayed with the most sordid selfishness,
would endeavor to disarm the people of all caution against
such imminent danger, lest their just apprehensions should
interfere with his little schemes of profit? And who but
such a man would appear publicly as an advocate for the
importation of felons, the scourings of jails, and the
abandoned outcasts of the British nation, as a mode in any
sort eligible for peopling a young country?"

There can be no doubt but that many of the convicts thus imported,
having served out their time, in