The company should contract to furnish all such supplies as the Government might require of them. They should also undertake to employ convict labour in the drainage and general improvement of their own territory, paying to government a fair rate of wages for such labour; and this would provide a considerable source of revenue, as doubtless the company would be only too glad to avail themselves of such a means of rendering their very extensive possessions really productive, in a far greater space of time than they could hope to accomplish it by importing free labour, and probably even at less cost.
Thus this colony, hitherto almost overlooked, notwithstanding its very remarkable geographical position, may become one of the most valuable possessions of the Crown: and, in times to come, or rather in the time that has come, rank in importance not second to Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Hong Kong, and such other places as are valuable in proportion to the power they confer on their possessors of maintaining friendly relations with the other nations of the earth, or protecting their own interests in the present rupture with Russia. The following national advantages would thus be secured.
First:—We should get rid of the vexed question of ‘What are we to do with our convicts?’ and that in a manner not obnoxious to any one of the objections raised against other localities.
Secondly:—Her Majesty’s Government would be relieved from the embarrassment that must always attend the attempt to retain convicts in this country. For the time must come when their terms expire, and then the real difficulty of disposing of them must be grappled with. It can hardly be supposed that the mother country will consent to receive among her highly moral people those whom the colonies have una voce agreed to reject. And it would be an injustice and impolicy, that could not be contemplated, to condemn such men to constant isolation. In the East Falkland they may settle, and thence they may insensibly migrate whither they list, without the blazonry of their former guilt preceding them, and thus have really a fair chance of resuming an honest and respectable position; which it is, to say the least, extremely difficult for men to accomplish at the spot whereon they have undergone their punishment, and consequently amongst a people where they are branded with disgrace.
Thirdly:—The philanthropist will hail with infinite satisfaction the establishment of a settlement which, whilst it provides for the proper punishment of offenders against the laws, affords the best possible opportunity of promoting and encouraging genuine reform—a reform that would eventually restore the penitent to society, and moreover without the outward symbol of past crime that would cause it, by rejecting him, to drive him back on his evil habits. The process would be accomplished without the risk of any moral stain upon the innocent, and the locality proposed is physically adapted, by a very remarkable combination of circumstances, to the promotion of morality. A juvenile Convict Agricultural School, on principles already tried elsewhere, might advantageously form part of the general system adopted in the Falklands; and, being entirely separate from the adult establishment, would prove a valuable aid in the progress of reformation.
Fourthly:—The most convenient place for re-fit for our merchantmen and foreigners, as well as for steamers, trading between Europe and the Pacific, would speedily be rendered perfectly available. The enormous port charges of the east and west coast ports of South America would be avoided. Freight would be saved to shipowners, and the comforts of passing emigrants promoted, by the facility of re-provisioning and watering half way. And all this at a port wholly unconnected with the convict settlement, where a small dockyard could be economically constructed, and would amply and speedily repay the expense incurred.
Fifthly:—Her Majesty’s ships, and those of the merchant navy also, could undergo repair here cheaper than at any port in those seas—and, if a patent slip were laid down, more speedily; for at present there is not, strange to say, one patent slip south of the line, on all the coast round to Callao. This important advantage would effect an immense saving in the cost of Her Majesty’s squadron constantly kept afloat on the east coast, and that also on the west coast of South America, one item of which would be a fortnight to three weeks’ saving of wear and tear on every voyage home from the Pacific. This consideration becomes of double importance now that Russian men-of-war are known to be in the Pacific on the look-out for our merchantmen.
Sixthly:—As lines of steamers are established round the Horn, the Falklands are the point of all others most suitable for a coaling station, (as the documents in this work from the most competent authorities have abundantly proved,) and one that in time of war could be easily rendered impregnable.
And, lastly, now that war is in reality upon us, with the certainty of being a tolerably long one, it is difficult to exaggerate the advantage which the possession of these islands would afford to Great Britain in respect to their position, provided proper works were constructed, for which there are great local advantages. In this point of view, any protracted delay in rendering the Falklands thoroughly available as a first-rate naval station, on the footing of Gibraltar and other places, would appear to be an oversight.
The whole of the above objects may be speedily accomplished with the accession of convict labour; without it, the prospect of these advantages is very remote, and their realization might, at any moment, be frustrated by the colony passing (as heretofore) into the hands of some more enterprising nation, whose rulers may entertain a shrewd notion of the vast importance attaching to a naval station that may truly be called ‘the key to the Pacific.’ One position may be advanced as indisputable; namely, that now war has involved us with at least one of the great maritime powers, the entire Pacific fishery, and the whole trade on and about the Western Coasts of America, may come under the absolute control of the possessors of the Falkland Islands, should a coup de main of our unscrupulous foe bring about the temporary transfer of the station to him.