Some Men who had
been Convicts have been appointed Magistrates by me; Some of the same
Description of Men have been honoured with His Majesty's Commission,
which in my Mind is alone a sufficient proof of the eligibility of these
persons for any Society. On all occasions I have found and experienced
very great assistance from those Persons in the Habitual and Zealous
discharge of the Several Duties attached to their respective Situations;
and they act at all times as if they conceived it to be their
indispensable and first Duty to assist the Government of the Country.
Altho' the principal Leaders, who headed the Faction which occasioned
so much mischief and Anarchy in this Country (previous to my arrival),
have left it, Yet the Seeds of it were so deeply sown that a
considerable part of that factious spirit still exists among some
discontented and disaffected Persons in this Colony, whose restless and
Vicious Minds cannot endure any Control or legitimate form of
Government. The only measure of mine which to my knowledge they have
dared to attempt to counteract, is this extension of just and humane
Indulgence to those Persons (who had formerly been Convicts), whom I
have brought forward and patronised by admitting them to my Society, but
whom the factious Persons herein alluded to found it advantageous to
their Interests and illiberal Prejudices to consider as Outcasts,
beneath their notice and for ever doomed to oblivion and Neglect.
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