Transportation

(trănz-port-a'shǎn.) (Eng. Law.) The act of sending a convicted criminal to another country, as a punishment. By statutes 4 and 6 of Geo. I. (1717-1719), the courts were allowed a discretionary power to order felons to be transported to America. The system of T. to the American colonies lasted till the commencement of the War of Independence, in 1775. Australia was afterwards determined upon as a place for T. At length, the reception of convicts becoming distasteful to the colonists, 7. was abolished in 1853, and penal servitude substituted in its place. [s. 904]