The convicts first sent to New Holland, entered on the voyage with
dread. The letters they addressed to their friends, while the fleet lay
at anchor, were examined by the officers: they were filled with
lamentations. They deeply deplored, that the distance of their exile cut
off the hope of return; the perils of so long a voyage alone seemed
frightful: should they reach the shores of New Holland, they expected to
be destroyed by savages, or to pine away in want. The females seemed
least to fear their banishment; and while several of the men were deeply
moved, a spectator, who curiously remarked the mental influence of their
prospects, saw only one woman weep.[64]
When the ocean had often been traversed by convict ships, these vague
terrors declined; but the order, comfort, and security which now
prevail, were little known. The freight was of such importance, that the
masters were tempted to defraud the prisoners of water, and even of
food; confiding in their means to silence or compensate the sufferers,
when in sight of port, or to satisfy the government. So slightly
considered was this species of fraud, or so useful to colonial traders,
that the magistrates held the payment of a gratuity to be a bar to
further inquiry.[65] The convicts were thus exposed to severe, and even
dangerous privations. Scurvy, a malady often in those days fatal to half
a ship's crew, broke down the strength of men emaciated, dispirited, and
diseased: many perished by the way, and a much larger number arrived
unfit for labor, and a public burden.
The management of a convict ship legally vested in the captain: his duty
contemplating nothing more than a safe arrival. The personal government
of the prisoners was confided to the surgeon, subject however to the
discipline of the ship, of which the captain was exclusive judge. The
health of the company was often sacrificed to the security of the
vessel: the prisoners suspected of piratical intentions, were battened
down and forbidden exercise, lest they should rise upon the crew. From
the first, the officers in charge claimed a right to inflict corporal
punishment; but, up to 1823, without the sanction of law. By the act
then passed, power to order punishment was confided to the
surgeon-superintendent, with the concurrence of the captain; who was
intrusted with a veto, and was bound to enter his assent in the
log-book, with the nature of the offence and extent of the
infliction.[66]
Apprehensions of mutiny were much more common, when transportation to
New Holland was recent, than experience has justified. On the slightest
alarm, the prisoners were loaded with chains, fastened to ring-bolts
attached to the ship's sides. Perhaps, no vessel ever crossed the Line
without some plot, rumoured or real; but the most ordinary precautions
have been found usually sufficient to detect and explode them: their
inventors have often been their discoverers. The prisoners, commonly
distrustful of each other, shrank from the confidence required to plan
and execute a revolt. But when timid officers were in charge, they
sometimes adopted restrictions severely oppressive; and which men of
more courage and experience perceive to be needless.
During the war, the deportation of prisoners was attended with special
difficulties: no ship's company were less likely to support the flag of
their country. They were often delayed until a convoy could attend them.
These hindrances were frequent, when this colony was founded. Both male
and female prisoners were commonly forwarded together: the officers and
soldiers selected companions for the voyage, and a sentence of
transportation included prostitution. It is not incredible that modest
women rejected life on such terms, or preferred a public execution to
the ignominy of a floating brothel. These practices were first
tolerated as inevitable, and afterwards justified as politic. No
conspiracy could be concealed, while the women were paramours and spies;
and, when long detained, the population of the ship considerably
augmented before she dropped anchor. The government of the vessel was
not less severe than its aspect was licentious.[67]
Thus the abuses which, during the war, penetrated every branch of public
business, rioted in the convict ship; whilst the contractors, who
engaged to convey the prisoners at a price, snatched a profit from the
subsistence stipulated by the crown. Malignant fevers, brought from the
hulks or prisons, propagated in the stagnant atmosphere, and, when
combined with low and crude diet, more than decimated the list. These
effects of official negligence were early apparent. The second fleet
lost nearly one-fifth of the whole, either on the voyage, or shortly
after the arrival. Of the previous expedition, the loss was
trifling.[68] It was fitted out with integrity, surpassing the custom of
the times, or the pioneers of the colony might have perished on a barren
shore.
Captain Parker, of H. M. S. _Gordon_, detected this peculation: he
traced the unusual mortality to the frauds of the officers, whose
subduction from the standard allowance had "starved the prisoners to
death;" but it was not till many years after, that the humanity of
ministers interposed effectual regulations. The numbers who perished on
board the _General Hewitt_, the _Surry_, and the _Three Bees_ in 1814,
forced the attention of the local government to the subject; and on the
report of Surgeon Redfern, great improvements were adopted.[69] The
dispatch of vessels without regard to the season, brought the prisoners
within the cold latitudes, and exposed them to the southern winds in the
winter; and thinly clad, and enervated by the heat of the tropics, they
were crowded below, or shivering on the deck. A supply of warm clothing,
and the choice of the proper period of sailing, greatly mitigated the
voyage; and the constant examination of the diet, samples of which were
preserved, checked the avarice which cost so many lives, and had thus
led to atrocious crimes. It is humiliating to find, at every step, the
traces of wrong: the comforts supplied the prisoners by their friends,
were often stolen by the seamen: the pledges lodged in their hands were
not restored: boxes were pillaged, and the trifles furnished by the
self-sacrifice of a broken-hearted parent, became the spoil of the
assignees of public vengeance. These evils were aggravated by the delay
of the voyage, to subserve the commercial speculations of the surgeons,
who, beyond the general gains of merchandise, were allowed a large
remission of the customs.
Dr. Bromley, who superintended the transit of prisoners on several
occasions during the first quarter of the century, availed himself
largely of these trading privileges. Thus he landed, free of duty, at
the close of one voyage, 150 gallons of spirits, one hogshead of wine,
and ten baskets of tobacco, beside a shipload of women. This profitable
form of investment excited no local complaint, and implied no disgrace.
The female convict ships continued under the same system of management,
until some flagrant instances induced the Board of Admiralty to check
the grossness of vice. Of vessels remembered for their pollution, the
_Friendship_ and _Janus_ are distinguished: the keys of the prison were
accessible during the night: the conspiracy reached from the cabin to
forecastle: the officers were libertines themselves, or, even when their
conduct was least equivocal, it was difficult to obstruct
irregularities: not even bars and bolts resisted the ingress of
forbidden guests. The wooden barriers, which covered the entrance, were
displaced by some traitress within, who left no protection to her
companions but the point of honor.
The first who improved the discipline of the convict ships, were Captain
Brown and Dr. Reed, of the _Morley_: they endeavoured, by precept and
example, to inculcate morality. Coercion had been found ineffectual, and
the women, when restricted, filled the vessel with clamour and
profaneness; but these gentlemen adopted a system of mental influence,
and their prisoners, whatever was their subsequent conduct, were far
superior to their predecessors. The result of this instance led to a
permanent amelioration, and proved what had hitherto been doubted--that
even the worst societies can be controlled, by those who unite a sense
of virtue with official authority.[70]
The safety ascribed to the system of prostitution, was but an apology
for vice, and the voyage of the _Jane Shore_ dissolved the illusion. The
persuasion of the women accomplished what the male prisoners rarely
attempted, and when on their passage to the colonies have never been
able to effect. The soldiers and sailors, seduced by their caresses,
seized the vessel, and having shot the captain and the chief officer,
steered into a South American port. Once only, did a piratical plot
assume a serious form. The prisoners by the _Chapman_ devised a capture;
but the report of the design being communicated, the guard was prepared
for resistance. A deadly fire covered the deck with carnage: several
were precipitated into the sea. The sanguinary conflict, which might
have been prevented by timely precautions, obtained for the _Chapman_
the popular prefix by which it is distinguished.[71] On one occasion, a
vessel was in imminent danger, through the foolish incaution of the
guard. It was the custom to discharge the fire-arms at sunrise, and to
load them at noon: the interval seemed to offer the fairest prospect of
success, and the prisoners extensively joined in the conspiracy; but
they were overheard in conversation by a soldier standing at the
hatchway: the ringleaders were seized, and the plot defeated.
During the shorter voyages, from port to port, such accidents have been
much more common, although rarely successful. Knatchbull, a relative of
the eminent Kentish family, and formerly an officer in the navy, enticed
his fellow prisoners to attempt the capture of the vessel which conveyed
them: but his device, to poison all but the conspirators with arsenic,
was denounced.[72]
The prisoners sent down from Sydney to Van Diemen's Land, were conveyed
in small crafts and small numbers, and without much regard to their
health; but as an example of wretchedness, nothing could exceed the
usual passage from Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour. The unhappy men,
often destitute of clothing, were placed in the hold of a vessel,
without bedding or blankets, and were exposed, sometimes for five or six
weeks, to the chills of a wintry voyage: on one such, there were
thirty-five men, who had but four blankets among them; and one was found
without any other covering than his shirt, in which plight he had been
forwarded from the gaol.[73]
The surgeon-superintendent enters on his office at the same moment with
the guard: his duties are multiform--the magistrate, the chaplain, the
mentor, and the physician. The surgeons are usually popular with the
prisoners, and the penal administration with which they are entrusted,
is generally the most disguised. Educated men, they are not commonly
haughty and capricious: they are able to distinguish moral imbecility
from perverseness, and both from disease. The habit of scrutinising
quickens their sagacity, and fits them for a station, where the
knowledge of the heart is the great secret of control. Accustomed to
behold human nature, stript of all its external trappings, the grade of
the prisoner, in their estimation, does not wholly debase the man.
Witnesses to the wretchedness of humble life, the squalor of its garrets
and its cellars--observant that want, which sometimes forms the felon,
much oftener makes the martyr, and crowds the hospital rather than the
gaol--they are not incapable of pitying either class of victims. The
horrors which others feel for disease, whether of the body or the mind,
excite no antipathies in men who have devoted their lives to its relief:
thus their government of convicts often affords a singular contrast to
the agency which precedes or follows them. The recollection of their
conduct is mentioned by the prisoner with respect, and even with
fondness. No profession can better prepare for practical benevolence:
what it withdraws from the sensibility it adds to the understanding; and
those in charge of convict vessels have exhibited, in full average, the
virtues of their profession.[74]
When physical suffering became infrequent, and the arrangements secured
both convenience and comfort during the voyage, it was long ere moral
control, or a reformatory discipline, became objects of concern. A
surgeon,[75] employed from 1818, amused the public with the details of
his system of management--not wanting in humanity. He encouraged a
joyous indifference to the past or the future: the prisoners sang from
morning to night, and often spent the evenings in dancing. The greatest
criminals were selected on principle for offices of trust, as far the
most trusty! The discourse was licentious--the feats of thievery, the
chosen topics of amusement and conversation. A stage, decked out with
the remains of former spoil, exhibited "the forty thieves," or a comedy
of judges, officers, and felons: mock charges were enforced by
barristers, arrayed in blankets; the bench was filled with an actor
decorated with a quilt, while a swab covered his head, and descended to
his shoulders. In the female prison ships, dancing and concerts, at
which the cabin passengers were spectators, whiled away the voyage. The
gross immoralities of a former period had subsided when he wrote: he
mentioned the change with regret. A free intercourse, he thought, more
conducive to reformation, as well as to harmony: the attachment formed
by the women, softened their demeanor, and facilitated their control.
Such were his views, and they had many partisans: but in connection we
learn, without astonishment, that he thought contemptuously of
saintship, considered reformation utopian, and honesty rather the result
of habit than of principle; the convicts, more unfortunate in their
detection than peculiar in their crimes: capable of the devotion of
hypocrites; hardly of repentance. The dash of libertinism which sparkles
in the pages of this writer, fell in with the humour of the day, and the
work was popular. It greatly tended, notwithstanding its levity, to
change the character of penal discipline in the colonies.[76]
The discipline of a convict vessel, as administered by
Surgeon-superintendent Browning, exhibited a different scene, and was
carried out in another spirit. The devout character of his mind, his
confiding disposition, and boundless good-will, are well known in these
colonies; and his management has been regarded with great admiration,
or great contempt. His high valuation of human nature contrasted with
the common official estimate: he not only saw fellow men in the worst
prisoners, but practicable materials, which knowledge and judgment might
form into comparative moral excellence. The plan of his government
recognised a wide distribution of oversight and responsibility: the
names by which he distinguished those whom he employed were flattering:
they were not gaolers and turnkeys, but captains of divisions and
delegates. He delivered lectures upon geography and astronomy: those who
could play instruments, such as clarionet, fife, and violin, were
stationed on the deck, while the rest marched in ranks. He instituted a
court of enquiry, consisting of five persons, of which his clerk was the
recorder, who examined witnesses, and disposed of trivial offences, by
exhortation, warning, and reproof; and in more flagrant cases, these
preliminary inquiries formed the basis of his own adjudication. He
treated the prisoners as persons sequestered from society for their own
good. He has shewn, by tables, that those who acquired a knowledge of
reading under his instruction, often indeed imperfect, formed a large
proportion of the whole.[77] His addresses exhibit the ardour of his
character: most critics would discern a tinge of enthusiasm; which,
however, is common to all, who successfully attempt the reformation of
mankind. Under such a guardian, it may be imagined, that the physical
welfare of the prisoners was carefully superintended. Medical comforts
were distributed with great liberality: flogging was wholly disused.
Moral influence, assisted by occasional deprivation of food or liberty,
comprehended the agency he employed. The systems of Browning and
Cunningham, though contemplating the same general objects, were
singularly adverse; and in nothing did they differ more pointedly than
their estimate of the substrata of convict character, the influence of
religious instruction, and the usefulness of the _cat_. Dr. Browning was
subject to much imposition--a liability which meets every aspect of
practical benevolence; but that he preserved order and health,
discouraged blasphemy, provided for the occupation of time, and
prevented gambling and peculation--that he sheltered the well-disposed
from the violence and contamination of the worst--and that he parted
with his charge, with their ideas increased and their moral sensibility
awakened--is, with all deductions, a claim to no trifling praise.
Colonel Arthur, a keen observer, mentioned the general emotion which
separation occasioned: the prisoners heard his valedictory address with
tenderness and reverence, and melted into tears.[78] To reproach his
labors would be a sin against mankind; but an over-estimate of their
effect, diminished the moral weight of their example. "Dr. Browning's
pets" became marked men; their conduct was watched with curiosity, often
with ill-will, and their lapses were reckoned up with exultation.
The ample provision for the accommodation, exercise, and food of the
prisoners, has been of late years a topic of complaint. They require
more care, and a diet more nicely chosen, than laborers in health and
mental tranquillity. Efforts to reduce these comforts have been followed
by fever and physical prostration; and whatever aspect their treatment
may wear, those who deprive them of liberty are bound to provide for
their safety. The law sentences to transportation: no question of public
policy could justify a minister, when converting that penalty into a
sentence of death.[79]
Notwithstanding the length of the voyage, the navigation of convict
vessels has been fortunate: for thirty years no vessel had been lost.
The merchant ships met with the average of accidents; but the transports
were supposed, by the curious, to be under a peculiar destiny. They
attributed their safe passage to the force of the proverb, which implies
that the trident of Neptune is powerless against the heritage of the
executioner.
A succession of calamities, in the navigation of convict vessels,
changed the aspect of their fortune, and filled all classes with
commiseration: such was the wreck of the _Amphitrite_, in 1833, which
struck on the coast of Bologne. That vessel was in a position of great
danger, and the French pilot, Heuret, endeavoured to warn, in time to
save; but the risk of the usual reward, it is said, the surgeon was
unwilling to incur; and the captain, not less indisposed to forfeit his
bond, which included a penalty for every prisoner who might escape.
Their hesitation was fatal to themselves: the women were not permitted
to come on deck, or to avail themselves of the opportunity to save their
lives. These unfortunate females, to the number of 103, with their
children, were drowned; and their naked corpses, floating to the coast
of France, exhibited an appalling spectacle. The French and English
mingled their tears, as they beheld the bodies strewed along the
beach--some models of feminine beauty, others disfigured by the recent
concussions; among the rest, a young mother, with her child clasped in
her arms. Nor does it appear that the instructions of the government had
ever foreseen or provided for such dangers, or authorised the temporary
release of prisoners, when the situation of the ship might require their
liberation.
The wreck of the _George the Third_, in April, 1835, excited the most
painful sensations. Having fifty-three persons on the sick list,
occasioned by a deficiency of proper food, Captain Moxley endeavoured to
reach Hobart Town through D'Entrecasteaux's Channel: while running at an
easy rate, and in smooth water, the leadsman cried out, "a quarter less
four:" that instant the vessel struck; at first gently, then heavily,
and in less than ten minutes she was a perfect wreck. The prisoners were
below, imploring release: they rushed to the hatchway, where a
corporal's guard was armed to repress them: they forced through the
bars, and a few were seen to escape; the soldiers, ordered to resist
their egress, then fired. The waters rushing into the hold of the vessel
drowned the sick, and reached the knees of the convicts, who were
ascending the hatchway; and Major Ryan, and the surgeon-superintendent,
expected instant death. They succeeded in sending the long-boat on
shore, amidst the cheers of the prisoners. Assistance was afforded by
the _Louisa_ schooner; and a party dispatched in the cutter, obtained
help from Hobart Town: but of two hundred and twenty, one hundred and
thirty-three perished. The fate of the convicts who fell at the
hatchway, excited great commiseration and some complaint: the officers
disclaimed the order to fire--an act which could only be excused by the
danger to the whole company in a rush to the boat. A board of inquiry
acquitted all parties of blame.
One man, only, was found on the wreck; an aged prisoner, on his passage
to the colony under his third sentence of transportation: unable to face
the surf, he lashed himself to a ring attached to the hull, and there
closed his career of crime.
A disaster, not less appalling, occurred off King's Island, by the wreck
of the _Neva_, in May, 1835, at 4 o'clock in the morning: she struck
upon the rocks, swung on the reef, and admitted the sea. The pinnace was
lowered, and the prison being broken by the shock, the unfortunate women
rushed on the deck; they filled the boat, which was instantly swamped,
and all, except three seamen, perished. The long-boat was then carefully
laden; but being upset by the surf, all sunk, except the master and
chief officer: these having regained the ship, she parted; and the
women, aroused from their beds in the twilight of a wintry morning,
clung shivering to the fragments. Their cries of suffering and anguish
were soon hushed, and of two hundred and forty, a few moments before
slumbering in tranquillity, twenty-two only were borne on broken pieces
of the ship to land; of these, seven died from exhaustion, and the
remainder must have perished, but for the intrepid exertions of Mr.
Charles Friend, who caught sight of their signals when passing the
coast.
Two women disputed about the position of the vessel: exasperated by
contradiction, they were tearing each other by the hair, when a wave
swept them from the deck into eternity.
The wreck of the _Governor Phillip_, in 1848, was the last instance of
such disasters. The vessel struck on a sand bank off Cape Barren Island;
but, except four, all the prisoners were saved: six soldiers and five
seamen perished, with Lieutenant Griffiths, the officer in command--a
young gentleman of amiable disposition and great promise. He exhibited a
brilliant example of humanity, calmness, and self devotion. The
prisoners broke from their quarters, rushed on the deck, and obstructed
the exertions of the seamen: entreating them to return, he gave them
_his hand_ and his word, that he would not desert the vessel until they
were clear of the wreck. While some were conveyed to the shore, he
remained knocking off the irons of the rest; and then finding the boat
could not regain the ship, he plunged into the sea, and was last seen
struggling with the current. The risk of life is common to the military
profession; but a sacrifice so nobly made, was surely not less glorious
than when on the field of battle.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 63: Sidney Smith: _Edinburgh Review_, 1803.]
[Footnote 64: _Tench's Narrative_, 1789.]
[Footnote 65: _Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 66: This act (4 Geo. iv.) of 1823, made the punishments
legally inflicted by the overseers on board the hulks, the rule on board
the transports; but 5 Will. iv. allows such punishments as may be
_authorised by the secretary of state_, without specifying their nature.
The penalty of L20 (previously L50), for not entering the punishment in
the log-book, is in itself a feeble protection against the abuses which
such powers might produce. The instructions of the secretary of state to
the surgeon-superintendent direct--to confine in a dark cell; to lessen
the ration, even to bread and water; and whipping: first "using mild and
persuasive means." It is proper to observe, that these powers are very
rarely abused: punishments are not to be inflicted, except in the
presence of at least twelve prisoners.]
[Footnote 67: "The captain and each officer enjoy the right of
selection. Thus they continue the habit of concubinage until the
convicts arrive at Sydney Town, and some are now educating five or six
children. Each sailor or soldier is permitted to attach himself to one
of the females: the permission and the caresses of the artful wanton
have often lured the temporary parties to marry at Plymouth, more
frequently to consummate the nuptials at Sydney: such a marriage
manumits the convict."
"The unhappy male convicts are denied, save occasionally, these
profligate liberties. Occasionally, however, they range into the quarter
assigned to the women. The males, accustomed in London to indiscriminate
license, discover the greatest regret at the restraint of their passions
in the grossest oaths, and in the grossest language. The females, who
rather resemble the brutes than rational creatures in their excesses,
answer their reproaches, and rage with equal effrontery, and unbounded
impudence. It is a scene like Pandemonium--a second hell, but upon the
ocean. Sitting in groups, they sing, they shout, they converse in the
grossest terms, corrupting, and corrupted. The concubine knits, or sews
for her sailor, near his berth: the rest wash the clothes of the male
convicts; exercise and cleanliness, conducive to their health and to the
comforts of the ship. Many are remarkably neat: all are clad in
different dresses--some have been enabled to purchase caps, more have
not. The males are clothed in simple uniformity, in blue trousers and a
jacket. All the convicts are compelled to wash once in the day their
heads, their feet, and their faces; the men under the superintendence of
a soldier, the women apart under the eye of a matron. The males are
marched in a body of six across the deck to the pump: the sailors draw
up the water, and they are artfully compelled to labor for health at the
pump, and to rinse away the dirt. By this prudent precaution, in every
variety of weather, they obtain fresh air and avoid the scurvy, or
cutaneous diseases. A surgeon daily inspects this _human cargo_, and
reports its _state_. They are paid per head, a sum for those who survive
the voyage; hence it is the surgeon's interest to preserve these
diseased wretches. To inure this assembly, disgorged from brothels, and
cellars, and gaols, to the _appearance_, or to the idea of decorum, the
men wash their bodies above decks, and the women between them. The sexes
are forbid to mingle, even at their meals. So rigorous a discipline is
only supported by severity of punishments. Chains, tied round the body
and fettered round the ankles, confine and distress each male convict,
by the clanking sound, and by annoying the feet. This image of slavery
is copied from the irons used in the slave-ships in Guinea: as in these,
bolts and locks are at hand, in the sides and ribs of each _transport_
(for the vessels _on this service_, with _peculiar_ propriety are so
named), to prevent the escape, or preclude the movements of a convict.
If he attempt to pass the sentry, he is liable to be stabbed: for the
attempt, a convict was lately shot, and his executioner was applauded by
his officer for a faithful, though severe, discharge of duty. If a felon
kill his companion, a case very frequent in the quarrels of these
highwaymen and robbers, the murderer is hung at the yard-arm, and his
body is slowly carried through the ship, and launched into the deep. For
the theft of provisions, or of clothes from his neighbour, a case yet
more common, and more natural to footpads, the convict depredator is
shot. For inferior crimes, as riot or quarrels, a soldier is commanded
to whip the offender with martial severity: the first stroke leaves a
deep impression of the wire, the second causes the blood to trickle, the
third draws a stream of gore: under several faintings, the debilitated
and disordered convict receives two dozen of lashes. On the slightest
appearance of a mutiny, the ring-leader is cast headlong into the sea,
in his irons and his clothes. We commit this body to the deep, the
chaplain repeals, but the words of Shakespeare, perhaps, would be more
applicable:--
'O mutineer! if thou hast any hope of heaven's bliss,
Lift up thy hand; make signal of that hope.
He sinks! and makes no sign.'"
--_Account, by Captain Bertram_, in 1800: Longman.]
[Footnote 68: New South Wales first fleet, 987 convicts; of which 25
died, or 1 in 35. Second fleet, 1763 convicts: died 327, or 1 in every
5-1/2.
"I beg leave, however, to say, that the provisions were much superior to
those usually supplied by contract: they were furnished by Messrs.
Richards and Thorn, of Tower-street, London."--_Tench's Narrative._
These honest contractors deserve immortal renown.]
[Footnote 69: _Table of Voyages, from_ 1810 _to_ 1820:
--------+---------------------------+----------+---------+-------+-----+
Voyages.| Course pursued. | Average. |Convicts.|Deaths.|Sick.|
--------+---------------------------+----------+---------+-------+-----+
44 | Direct | 127 days | 7,657 | 71 | 94 |
38 | Touched at Rio de Janeiro | 156 days | 6,470 | 132 | 123 |
11 | Touched Cape of G. Hope | 146 days | 1,912 | 9 | 57 |
--------+---------------------------+----------+---------+-------+-----+]
[Footnote 70: _Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 71: The bloody _Chapman_.]
[Footnote 72: This man, after an extraordinary career, closed his
miserable life on the scaffold, for the murder of a female, to whom he
was engaged. His relative conferred upon her surviving children a sum of
money to ensure their education--an act of uncommon generosity which
must obliterate the discredit of a relationship to one, who, however,
perhaps blended insanity and deliberate crime.]
[Footnote 73: Parliamentary Papers.]
[Footnote 74: "What chaplets are woven for men of slaughter! What
statues to men slaying conquerers! What notes of glory sounded, what
blaspheming praises to the genius of blood shedding! I have seen much of
the ceremonies dedicated to these things, and contrasting my late
feelings with my present, with what new homage do I venerate the race of
Lintleys; the men who, like minor deities, walk the earth: and in the
homes of poverty, where sickness falls with doubly heavy hand, fight the
disease beside the poor man's bed--their only fee, the blessing of the
poor! Mars may have his planet, but give me--what, in the spirit of the
old mythology might be made a star in heaven--the night lamp of
Apothecary Lintley."--_Story of a Feather, by Douglas Jerrold._]
[Footnote 75: Cunningham.]
[Footnote 76: _Two Years in New South Wales_, vol. ii, pp. 260-282.]
[Footnote 77: _Compiled from Dr. Browning's Tables._
+-----------------------------------------------+------------------------+
| At embarkation. | On debarkation. |
+--------+-------------+------------------------+------------------------+
| Year. | Ship. | Neither read nor write.|Unable to read or write.|
+--------+-------------+------------------------+------------------------+
| 1831 | Surry | 118 | 1 |
| 1834 | Arab | 194 | 1 |
| 1836 | Elphinstone | 158 | None |
| 1840 | Margaret | 102 | 6 |
+--------+-------------+------------------------+------------------------+]
[Footnote 78: "After he had examined them, and almost every prisoner had
repeated a portion of scripture, he addressed them in a most affecting
manner, and entreated them not to forget the lessons he had imparted;
and on his withdrawing, I think there was not a dry eye amongst the
whole of the prisoners."--_Col. Arthur_, 1837. _Par. Papers._]
[Footnote 79: _Browning's England's Exiles_, 1842.]