The duty of the Commissioner being discharged, it devolved on the home
government to gather, from the mass of facts he accumulated, those which
discovered abuses remediable, and to select for adoption the
recommendations of their chosen councillor. The changes he advised
amounted to a total revolution in the system, subject to his censorship;
but so obstinate are evils, fostered by local interest and lengthened
indulgence, that years elapsed before the effects of his influence were
powerfully realised. He, however, secured for the exclusionists the
recognition of their favorite principle, and not only were emancipists
pronounced ineligible for the future, but those already in the
commission found it expedient to resign. Mr. Redfern was dismissed.
This determination of the imperial authorities, by whatever reasons
supported, was a deviation from a practice which covered the entire
period of Macquarie's government; therefore sanctioned, expressly, or by
the silence of the crown. The degradation of those on the bench, could
not have been politically important, and was one of those acts of power,
which rather gratify the vengeance of caste, than vindicate the purity
of government. The mortification of the emancipists, at this triumph,
was intense: they justly felt, that the ministers, and not they, were
responsible for measures which had recognised their eligibility to the
usual honors of colonial opulence; and that, even were it expedient to
abandon the former system, a less violent process might have been
discovered.
It may not be amiss to describe the career of an emancipist, of whose
elevation Mr. Bigge remarks, "that it had been most strongly urged
against Macquarie by his enemies, and most questioned by his friends."
This case (1810) formed the precedent for appointments from persons of
his class, and, as selected by Mr. Bigge, may be considered a specimen
of the most objectionable. The facts of the Commissioner are all here
embodied; his detracting tone is abated.
Andrew Thomson was a native of Scotland: his relations of that class of
traders, in their own country called merchants; who carry their goods
from town to town. He was sixteen years of age on his arrival in the
colony, and therefore, a boy of fourteen or fifteen when he forfeited
his liberty. When free, he engaged in business as a retail shopkeeper,
and traded to Sydney in boats built by himself: the defects of his
education he partly cured by application, and acquired such knowledge as
ordinary retail shopkeepers possess. He established a salt manufactory,
a ship-building establishment, and it was _rumoured_, an illicit
distillery. He was chief constable: kept a public-house--such was the
common practice of traders. He acquired great influence among the
settlers, by his forbearance and liberal credits; his business extended,
and he became a considerable landholder. He supported the legal
authority during the rebellion, and suffered for his loyalty; a just
ground for the esteem of that Governor, who came to restore the
authority of his sovereign. When an inundation of the Hawkesbury exposed
the settlers to great suffering, he undertook their relief; supplied
them with goods, and was happily a gainer by the risk which his humanity
induced him to incur: so great was the importance of prompt exertions,
he was permitted to employ both the men and boats, which were under his
control as superintendent of convicts.
In his neighbourhood, there were but two persons suitable to the office
of magistrate, and having filled that of chief constable with great
approbation, the Governor, Macquarie, considering his youth at the time
of his offence--the merit of his loyalty when few were loyal--his
industry and opulence, and his reputation for humanity--did not think
his former condition a bar to a commission of the peace. It is said that
Lieut. Bell, who conducted the party by whom the government-house was
surprised, and a Governor made prisoner, objected to his appointment;
but his opposition was confined to murmurs, or if represented at home
met with no sympathy from the ministers.
Mr. Thomson was admitted to the company of the Governor, and the parties
of the military, who yet, it is said, were not pleased with the abrupt
suppression of the absolute ban. He died within the year of his
elevation to the bench. Governor Macquarie commanded an epitaph to be
placed on his tomb, stating that "it was in consequence of his character
and conduct, that he appointed him to the magistracy; and that, by the
same act, he restored him to the rank in society he had lost." His death
was regretted by his neighbours, who in a public address to his
Excellency described him "as their common friend and patron." It must be
added, he had participated in some of those immoralities, which, in the
time of the Prince Regent, dishonored the residence of kings; and he
escaped that just reproach which could not be expected where the
selection of mistresses was the prerogative of military command. Such is
a fair statement of Andrew Thomson's character, as given by Bigge,
without his reflections.
The disclosures of the Commissioner terminated the indulgences given to
expirees, with such "unsatisfactory results." The small portion of land
granted them, without great industry, was incapable of supplying their
wants, and they were the pests of their neighbours; or, when they
settled on allotments in town, they obtained materials from the royal
stores by the assistance of their fellows.[138] Land was still granted,
but not as the indispensable consequence of transportation.
The plan of recompense to officers in kind, he also condemned: rations
of food and rum, double and triple; and the assignment of men to earn
wages, as the salaries of their masters, were gradually substituted by
payments in money. The small sums formerly allowed, were rather the
wages of servants who live on their fees: by a casuistry, never long
wanting to those who earnestly seek it, even men beyond the rank of
overseers, persuaded themselves that the recognised stipends were never
intended to be reckoned as payment.[139] The tender of these supplies
was a source of profit to the officers; like the butlers of noblemen,
persons of the highest trust were not insensible to presents; and
merchandise was accepted only when the "regulars" were duly paid. The
waste of public property, occasioned by the system, was great. The loss
and sacrifice of clothing and tools; the spoiling of food, and the
wilful destruction of implements, proved how large may be the outlay of
the crown, without much advantage to a colony. Years were required to
reduce these evils; some of which are yet not unknown.
These were, however, small changes, compared with the total revolution
in the spirit and details of convict management, suggested by the
Commissioner. All those signs of advancement which he saw in the
material state of the colonies, in connection with the objects of
transportation, were anomalies in his eyes. He observed, that the
prisoners were always anxious to reside in the towns, where they
obtained, by casual labor, the price and opportunities of dissipation.
By a peremptory exercise of his authority, Mr. Bigge stopped some of the
public works, and promoted the dispersion of those multitudes who were
employed in the improvement of the capital.
The Commissioner, strongly impressed with the mischief incident to the
congregation of prisoners in the presence of a free community, proposed
several remedies. Among the most important was the establishment of
settlements, purely penal, at Port Curtis, Moreton Bay, and Port Bowen.
These places were explored by Mr. Oxley, the surveyor-general of the
colonies. Moreton Bay is situated 480 miles from Port Jackson: this
region, watered by the Brisbane, unequalled for climate and soil in any
part of the globe of the same latitude; adorned with trees of
magnificent growth,[140] had nothing in its natural features to repel.
Though the days are warm in summer (80 deg. to 100 deg.), the nights are cool,
and for several months fires are agreeable. Bananas, plantains, and
pines--cotton, tobacco, maize, the sugar cane, and all the ordinary
productions of a tropical climate, are cultivated with success. The
atmosphere is soft and salubrious: of 1,200 persons, afterwards
stationed there, sometimes not more than ten were sick at once; and
during seven years, one soldier only died.[141]
Such was the site chosen by Mr. Bigge; but he endeavoured to render it
suitable, by suggesting a code of regulations, in which may be
discovered the outline of several schemes, since claiming originality.
It was intended for those convicted of serious crimes, or such as
committed offences in the colonies. The prisoners, two together, were to
build their own huts; their sole implement the hatchet, and their
material wood and nails: their only furniture, stools and bedding. Their
labor graduated; from removing heavy weights, and sawing the hardest
timber, to the easy occupation of the gardener, according to their
behaviour or their crimes. They were to raise their own provisions, and
the produce of their tillage for the crown, was to be sold in the
colonies, and carried to the public account; except a sixteenth part,
the moiety of which was to be paid to the commandant, and the rest
proportionately to the overseers. No vessel, unauthorised, was to touch
at the port: every precaution was projected to prevent escape, and the
natives were expected to bring back, for rewards, such as might venture
to stray. Every crime, short of murder, was to be punished on the spot.
No spirits were to be sold; no money circulated; no private speculations
in produce permitted. The wives of prisoners, when suffered to join
them, were to sacrifice all but the necessaries of life. From the chief
settlement others were to branch off; fifteen miles distant from each
other. A church, a school, a library, were to promote the reformation of
the prisoners--an object to be considered paramount to every other. Such
were the plans for a _City of Penitence_, projected by Bigge; and by
which he expected, in several directions, to dispose of 4,000 prisoners.
It was his hope, that their labor would discharge the chief cost of
their control, and end the mockery, and the inequalities of punishment.
Before the arrival of the Commissioner, penal establishments existed,
and prisoners were sequestered for violations of local regulations; or
on extensive farms, where grain was grown for the royal stores. At
Newcastle, on the Hunter River, were coal mines (1818), where those
under colonial sentences, or those _guilty_ of experience in mining,
were subjected to a more rigorous servitude. By an onward progress of
the settlers, this station was less adapted for its purpose, and (1821)
a second was provided at Port Macquarie, 175 miles north of Port
Jackson. The increase of population soon rendered a further movement
requisite: it was not, however, until 1824, that Surveyor-general Oxley
completed his report of Moreton Bay: pioneers were forwarded, and at
length 1,000 prisoners were employed in that remote region. The plan
thus narrowed, only partially succeeded, and the numbers at last
dwindled to 300 men: the Commissioner's idea, therefore, was never
fairly tested. An organisation of several thousands in a city of
penitence; under a discipline, which, while excluding the worst
temptations of regular society, might preserve many of its elementary
forms; managed by permanent officers, in number and gradation,
sufficient to form and preserve the tone of a profession--is
unfortunately still a speculation: nor is it yet safe to assume, that
the failure of stations, exhibiting several features of the
Commissioner's scheme, but excluding others not less important, is a
conclusive argument against the original design.[142]
In this colony, a penal station was projected during the residence of
Bigge. While he approved the object, he did not cordially concur in the
selected locality: he remarked several of those obstacles to access,
which were not compensated by the difficulties of escape. The
punishment of colonial offences, when persons were already in bonds,
was attended with some difficulty; the law not authorising additions to
a sentence, except by a court of criminal jurisdiction, regulated by the
forms, and bounded by the limitations of English statutes. To punish a
misdemeanour, and sometimes even capital offences, the culprit was
brought before a justice of the peace, and sent to a penal settlement
for the remainder of his sentence. Thus a widely different penalty
attended the different parties to the same crime: one would scarcely
touch the place of his second exile, before the termination of his
British sentence restored him to full freedom; another, perhaps a
prisoner for life, would linger out his wretched existence in the place
of his seclusion, forgotten.[143]
The name of _Macquarie Harbour_ is associated exclusively with
remembrance of inexpressible depravity, degradation, and woe. Sacred to
the genius of torture, nature concurred with the objects of its
separation from the rest of the world; to exhibit some notion of a
perfect misery. There, man lost the aspect, and the heart of man!
Macquarie Harbour was explored by Captain Kelly, at the expense of a
merchant whose name is borne by Birch's River, and that of his wife by
Sarah Island. It is an inlet of the sea, on the western coast: by water,
about 200 miles from Hobart Town. It penetrates the country twenty miles
to its junction with Gordon River, where, diverging to the right, Sarah
Island becomes visible--once the principal station, now deserted and
desolate. This region is lashed with tempests; the sky is cloudy, and
the rain falls more frequently than elsewhere. In its chill and humid
climate animal life is preserved with difficulty: half the goats died in
one season, and sheep perish: vegetation, except in its coarsest or most
massive forms, is stunted and precarious. The torrents, which pour down
the mountains, mingle with decayed vegetable matter, and impregnated
with its acids discolour the waters of the harbour; and the fish that
approach the coast, often rise on the waves, and float poisoned to the
shores.[144]
The passage to this dreary dwelling place was tedious, and often
dangerous. The prisoners, confined in a narrow space, were tossed for
weeks on an agitated sea. As they approached, they beheld a narrow
opening choked with a bar of sand, and crossed with peril.[145] This
they called "Hell's gates,"--not less appropriate to the place, than to
the character and torment of the inhabitants: beyond, they saw
impenetrable forests, skirted with an impervious thicket; and beyond
still, enormous mountains covered with snow, which rose to the clouds
like walls of adamant: every object wore the air of rigour, ferocity,
and sadness.
The moment the prisoner landed, if the hours of labor had not expired,
he joined his gang. The chief employment was felling the forest, and
dragging timber to the shore: these gigantic trees, formed into rafts,
were floated to the depot. In this service, life was sometimes lost; and
the miserable workmen, diseased and weakened by hunger, while performing
their tasks, often passed hours in the water. They were long denied
vegetables and fresh food: they were exposed to those maladies which
result from poverty of blood, and many remained victims long after their
release. On a breakfast of flour and water, they started from their
island prison to the main land, and pursued their toil, without food,
till the hour of return: they then received their chief meal, and went
to rest. Those who were separated to punishment still more severe,
lodged on a rock: the surf dashed with perpetual violence on its base,
and the men were compelled to pass through, wet to the waist, and even
to the neck. They were destitute of bedding, sometimes in chains; their
fires were extinguished, and they laid down in their clothes, in a cold
and miserable resting place.[146]
They were subject to a single will; moved often by perjury, and
sometimes by passion. One man, Alexander Anderson, a convict
overseer,[147] delighted in human suffering--this was his qualification
for office; yet seventeen persons have been flogged in one day, at his
single report. The instrument of torture was special; double twisted and
knotted cords: 100 lashes were given, and repeated at short intervals.
Even to repine was criminal: an expression of _anger from the sufferer_,
was a punishable offence: a second infliction has been known to follow,
by a sentence on the spot.[148]
The alleviations of religious instruction were unknown. The commandant
was found, by the earliest clerical visitor, living in profligacy, and
he returned at once, despairing.[149] Women were, at first, sent there,
and four were dispatched to gather shells, under the charge of one man,
in whose hut they lodged. The forms of devotion depended on the surgeon,
and were detested by the prisoners. They were, mostly, desperate men,
and required a strong restraint; some were there, however, for offences
of no deep die, who, while the least spark of humanity remained, felt
the association more horrible than the place. To escape this dread
abode, they gambled for life; and, with the deliberation of actors,
divided the parts of a meditated murder, and sinister testimony. They
loathed existence, and were willing to shorten its duration, if the
excitement of a voyage and a trial might precede the execution. It was
their proverb, that all who entered there, gave up for ever the hope of
Heaven.[150] Death lost its terrors, and when some unhappy victims were
brought down to terrify the rest, they saw them die as many see friends
depart on a desirable but distant journey.[151] Some were detained for
years by a succession of punishments; perhaps, for the possession of a
fish-hook, of a potato, or an inch of tobacco. Some were flogged; until
this species of punishment lost, not only its terror, but its power: the
remnant of the understanding settled down into one single faculty--the
ability to endure. It will be our painful task to turn to the results of
this experiment, since elsewhere repeated, of what nations can inflict,
and man can suffer: excusable, had the Rhadamanthus of those regions
been always just, and those subject to his lash always the worst of
criminals.[152]
The improvement of the assigned service, by raising the qualifications
of the masters, and increasing the dependance of the men, was another
great project of the Commissioner. There were, indeed, no employers,
except those who had been convicts, or officers of government; and the
first and larger class, possessed neither capital nor discretion. They
were rather patrons than masters. There were but two changes
practicable: the vast establishments projected at Moreton Bay, and
introduction of a class of settlers, who might exercise the authority
requisite to restrain the vagrant indolence of the men; and whose
capital might give them constant employment and proper sustenance.
Several military settlers, such as Macarthur, had large establishments,
chiefly for cattle and sheep; and their management exemplified the
superior facilities of control, where the men were both dispersed and
guarded--divided in their occupations, but subject to a vigilant
supervision.
It was the opinion of the Commissioner that none, having small estates
and trivial resources, should be placed in the responsible position of
masters; but that the inducements offered in former times should be
renewed and extended. He calculated, that the employers of convict
laborers, for each, relieved the treasury of England to the extent of
L24 10s. per annum. Thus every consideration commended the system of
assignment beyond any other. To attract the attention of settlers, he
advised that the emigrant should be entitled to a grant, to purchase an
addition at a low price, and to receive a bonus in land, for the stock
he might rear, or according to the industry and skill he might otherwise
exhibit.
It has been stated, that the ministers who founded these colonies,
intended that free emigration should accompany transportation with equal
steps. The despatches of Governor Phillip, addressed to the secretary of
state[153] in 1790, proved that he felt the want, and perceived the
value, of such auxiliaries; but the early determination to raise
expirees to the condition of landholders, seems to imply the form the
settlement at Port Jackson was expected to assume. It is obvious that
the immediate design of the Governor, was to provide such free settlers,
as might act in different official capacities, at little or no
expense.[154] The reply to these communications was favorable, and the
prospect of emigration cheering; but the result was insignificant. It is
stated by Collins, that several families, members of the Society of
Friends, proposed to accept the offers of government, but were deterred
by the reputation of the colony, and the disorders which prevailed.[155]
The _Bellona_ at length arrived, with free settlers and their families,
including a millwright and blacksmith; one of whom had been already in
the colony, under other auspices! An authority to the Governor was now
conveyed, to establish such persons as were eligible on terms highly
advantageous. They chose a fertile spot, and to mark their civil
condition, called their locations "Liberty Plains" (February, 1793). The
British government provided their passage, an assortment of tools and
implements, provisions for two years; their lands free of expense; and
the service of convicts, with two years' rations and one year's
clothing. It is difficult to imagine a more alluring offer; yet, except
a Dorsetshire farmer, the rest were not _bona fide_ settlers: two
formerly belonged to the _Sirius_, and a third to the _Lady Juliana_
transport; in short, they were sailors. Concluding, then, the secretary
of state had sought settlers in earnest, the presumption is strong that
no considerable number of persons could be found to engage in such an
enterprise: one which seemed to comprehend all the perils of distance,
of official tyranny, and of social corruption.[156]
The additions, thus made to the free population, were generally of
persons connected with the merchant service or the military profession;
and who, by a residence intended only to be temporary and official,
contracted a preference for the climate; where they found great respect
and deference, by the paucity of their numbers. It was their example
which finally overcame the reluctance to settle, which no mere offers of
the crown were sufficient to conquer.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 138: _Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 139: Colonial Fund (1820): Quarter's salary, A. P. Humphrey,
superintendent, L25; government printer, L7 10s.; Mr. Fitzgerald,
schoolmaster, L6 5s.; G. Northam, chaplain's clerk, L3 5s.; James
Charlton, executioner, L6 5s.!]
[Footnote 140: "Report of Oxley."--_Barrow Field's Collection._]
[Footnote 141: _Breton's New South Wales._]
[Footnote 142: The following "Instructions" were laid before parliament:
being a return to an address to his Majesty, dated 2nd February, 1832;
they were, however, only partially acted upon:--
"_Copy of Instructions issued by the Governor of New South Wales and Van
Diemen's Land, for the Regulation of Penal Settlements._
"As an aversion to honest industry and labor has been the chief cause of
most of the convicts incurring the penalties of the law, they shall be
employed at some species of labor, of an uniform kind, which they cannot
evade, and by which they will have an opportunity of becoming habituated
to regular employment.
"With this view, all labor of a complex nature, the quantity of which
cannot be easily determined, is to be studiously avoided: and the
convicts are to be employed exclusively in agricultural operations, when
the public buildings or other works of the settlement do not absolutely
require their labor.
"In these operations the use of the hoe and spade shall be as much as
possible adopted; and where the number of men who can be employed in
agriculture is sufficient to raise food for the settlement with these
implements, the use of the plough shall be given up; and no working
cattle are to be employed in operations which can be effected by men and
hand carts.
"The principle of dividing the workmen at regular distances from each
other, as established for field labor, is also to be adopted whenever it
is found applicable; and with the view of affording a more complete and
effective superintendence, the different gangs are, as much as possible,
to be employed in one place.
"When it becomes necessary to employ mechanics or tradesmen in their
respective callings, such arrangements shall be made (by appointing as
many as possible to the work) as will insure their strict
superintendence, and a speedy return to the employment of common
laborers.
"In order that the convicts may be deprived of all opportunities of
procuring spirits, or any luxury or article beyond the government
allowance, and with the view the more effectually to prevent their
escape, it becomes necessary to establish the strictest regulations with
regard to shipping.
"The commandant is vested with the control of every department on the
settlement; every person, whether free or bond, being subject to his
orders.
"No officer, or other free person, employed at the penal settlement,
shall be permitted to derive any advantage from his situation, either
directly or indirectly, beyond the amount of his salary and fixed
allowances. Each individual will be _required to furnish quarterly, a
declaration upon honor to this effect_, to the commandant, who will
certify that the whole of the officers borne upon the salary abstract,
have furnished the same.
"No officer, or other free person, shall be allowed to cultivate any
ground on his own account, excepting for the purpose of a garden, for
the exclusive supply of his own family.
"No officer shall be allowed to raise stock of any description for sale,
or for any other purpose than the immediate use of his own family; such
stock to consist exclusively of pigs and poultry, which shall be secured
within the premises of the proprietor.
"No officer, or other person, shall be allowed to employ any convict at
any time whatever for his personal advantage, or otherwise than on the
public account, excepting always such men as may be appropriated to his
service.
"No officer, or other free person, is on any account to leave the
settlement, without the written sanction of the commandant.
"The commandant is vested with full authority to remove, at his
discretion, any free person from the settlement, whose conduct shall
appear to him to render this proceeding necessary for the due
maintenance of discipline.
"The officers, and other free persons, shall be allowed to purchase
grain from the public stores, to maintain the livestock they are
permitted to keep, according to the following scale:--
"Commandant, not to exceed five bushels per month; civil and military
officers, three bushels per month; inferior free persons, one bushel per
month.
"To enable the officers of the settlement to cultivate their gardens,
they shall be allowed to have convicts appropriated to their service in
the following proportion:--
"Commandant, three men; military and civil officers, two ditto.
"These men are not to be mechanics or tradesmen, and are to be allowed
in addition to any servants they may have been permitted to take with
them to the settlement.
"When work is required to be done by the mechanics for the absolute
comfort and convenience of any of the officers on the settlement, the
following regulations shall be observed:--
"The officer to make a written requisition, which will, if approved by
the commandant, be given to the overseer of the mechanics, who will
receive the whole of the materials from the officer. The work to be
performed in the lumber-yard during government hours.
"No remuneration of any kind is to be given the mechanic for his
services. This indulgence is not to extend to any article of furniture,
or any thing else that can be dispensed with, or procured in any other
manner. A separate book is to be kept, and entries made of the work so
done, and quarterly returns sent to the colonial secretary. It must be
understood that no government materials, even of the most trifling
nature, will be allowed for any such purpose.
"All trafficking and trading between the free and bond on the
settlement, shall be strictly prohibited, and severely punished.
"The convicts under colonial sentence, shall be steadily and constantly
employed at hard labor from sunrise till sunset, one hour being allowed
for breakfast, and one hour for dinner, during the winter six months;
but two hours will be allotted for dinner during the summer.
"The convicts shall be worked in field labor, with the hoe and spade, in
gangs, not fewer than fifteen or more than twenty. No task work shall be
allowed.
"There shall be an overseer attached to each gang, and to every five
gangs a constable, who shall assist the overseers in the superintendence
of the men.
"The constables and overseers, are not to push or strike the convicts,
and no punishment is to be inflicted but by the express orders of the
commandant.
"If a convict should have any thing to represent or complain of to the
commandant, it shall be the duty of the constable to bring him before
him.
"No prisoner is to be permitted to receive, or to procure, any article
of luxury, or any addition to the established ration of the settlement.
"As a reward of and encouragement to good conduct, the prisoners shall
be divided into two classes, to be called the first and second classes
respectively.
"No prisoner is to be admitted into the first class, who shall not have
served on the settlement for two years, if a prisoner for seven years;
for four years, if for fourteen years; and for six years, if for life.
But convicts, who have been respited from a capital sentence, shall in
no case be admitted into this class until, upon the representation of
the commandant, their sentence shall have been mitigated by the
governor.
"The commandant will make a monthly return to the colonial secretary of
the prisoners, whose conduct has induced him to admit them to the first
class, and he will inform the officer of the commissariat officially.
"The prisoners in the first class will receive, in addition to the usual
ration, one ounce of tobacco weekly.
"The prisoners of the first class are to be employed in the lighter and
least laborious operations; and it is from this class exclusively that
men are eligible to be selected for constables and overseers, to be
employed as clerks, to be assigned as servants to the officers of the
settlement, and to be entrusted with the charge of the live stock or
working cattle, or with any other light employment.
"No convict shall be employed as a clerk in the commandant's office, or
have access to any of the records kept there.
"No prisoner transported for life, or for any heinous or atrocious
offence, shall be employed in any other way than as a common laborer,
except, being a mechanic, his services may be urgently required. In this
case the commandant will permit his being temporarily employed in his
trade, or on any of the public works.
"Prisoners of the first class, who shall be selected by the commandant
for constables or overseers, will be allowed the usual distinction of
dress, and shall receive in addition to their rations, two pounds of
flour per week, and one ounce of tobacco; but in no case shall any
convict at a penal settlement be allowed to receive a pecuniary reward.
"As a further encouragement to constables and overseers to be faithful
and diligent in the discharge of their duty, two years' service as a
constable or overseer, shall be considered equivalent to three years'
servitude on the settlement; but in case of misconduct, they shall
forfeit all such benefit arising from their services as constables or
overseers.
"As there may be found some individuals whose conduct may be deserving
of reward, but who nevertheless may not be qualified to fill the
situation of overseers, the commandant will transmit annually to the
colonial secretary, a return of the names of such convicts who, having
served two-thirds of the period of their sentence, may by a long
continuance of good conduct, be considered to merit indulgence. To this
return there shall be annexed a detailed statement of the circumstances
which have induced the commandant to recommend the individuals
respectively.
"A return will in like manner be transmitted by the commandant, of any
prisoners under sentence for life, who shall have conducted themselves
to his entire satisfaction for six years (or of capital respites for ten
years) after their arrival in the settlement, annexing, as before, a
detailed statement of the circumstances which have induced him to
recommend the individuals respectively; and should the governor be
satisfied that they are deserving of reward, his excellency will
mitigate their sentence to that of seven or fourteen years, from the
date of such mitigation; after which the individuals will, of course, be
eligible to all the privileges of prisoners of the first class.
"The wife of a convict shall, in no case, be allowed to join her
husband, until he shall have been placed in the first class, and the
commandant shall have recommended him for this indulgence.
"The wives and children of convicts shall be allowed rations and slop
clothing from the public stores.
"The wives and children of convicts are not to be allowed to convey
money or property of any kind to the settlement, nor to possess any live
stock or poultry, and they are strictly to be prohibited from carrying
on any trade or traffic in the settlement; but they will be furnished
with employment in spinning flax, making straw hats or bonnets, making
up slops, and such other work as they may be capable of performing, the
materials for which will be supplied from the government store. They
will receive credit in the books of the settlement, at the market or
factory prices, on such work being returned to the stores; and the
amount of their earnings will be annually placed in the savings bank, to
be received by them on their return from the settlement, as a means of
support on their arrival.
"Married convicts, whose families have been permitted to join them,
shall be allowed to live in separate huts.
"A portion of ground shall be allotted as a prisoners' garden, the
extent of which shall be determined by the commandant.
"If any money or property shall be found in possession of a convict, or
the family of a convict, it shall be seized and forfeited to the
Benevolent Asylum.
"The labor of all convicts, excepting only those assigned to the
officers, shall be wholly and exclusively applied to the service of the
settlement generally, and the indulgence of working on their own
account, after the usual hours of public labor, shall be strictly
prohibited.
"No convict shall be allowed to wear any other clothing than that which
is issued to him by the government; and the number of each convict on
the settlement is to be painted on each article of his dress, before and
behind.
"The commandant will see that due attention is paid to the cleanliness
of the convicts, and that those whose state of health admit of it, bathe
regularly.
"A separate barrack is to be provided for the female convicts; and if
employed in field labor, they are to be kept separate from the men.
"A washing gang from among the female convicts shall be appointed, to
wash and mend the clothes, and air the blankets and palliasses of the
prisoners.
"The convicts are not to be allowed to possess knives or any sharp
instruments; the knives, forks, and spoons, are to be under the charge
of the barrack overseer, and he will be held responsible that they are
duly collected from each convict before he is allowed to quit his seat
at the mess table. This, however, is not to apply to those married
convicts or overseers, who shall have been allowed to live in separate
huts.
"The whole of the convicts will be mustered on Sunday morning, arranged
in their several gangs, and attended by their respective overseers and
constables, when they will be inspected by the commandant. The wives and
families of the convicts will also be required to attend the Sunday
morning musters.
"The prisoners will be mustered daily by the superintendent of convicts,
at sunrise, before they proceed to labor, when they return to meals, and
again when the work for the day is closed.
"No convict shall be allowed to receive or transmit any letter,
excepting through the commandant, who is to exercise his discretion in
opening such letters, and perusing their contents.
"The section regulating the discipline and employment of the convicts,
is to be read once in every month to the troops and convicts on the
settlement.
"These regulations shall be entered in the public order books of the
settlement, and they are to be strictly and literally adhered to
throughout; no deviation being permitted, except in cases of very great
emergency, which are to be determined alone by the commandant, who will
immediately report in detail his reasons for such deviation to the
governor, in order that his excellency's sanction to the measure may be
obtained."]
[Footnote 143: "The crimes for which they were sent down, were
originally trifling: five or six for a robbery, petty theft, or
disobedience to orders. One remained for a month, another for the term
of his natural life,--for the same offence, and by the same
sentence."--_Barnes: Par. Pap._
"Bryan Taylor, a convict holding a ticket-of-leave, having taken the
Lord's name in vain, was ordered to be confined in his majesty's gaol
for one week.
"Thomas Higgins, a constable, was found guilty of a rape, and was
sentenced to be dismissed from his office, and transported for the
remainder of his original term.
"Ralph Jacobs, found guilty of stealing one sheep; sentenced to receive
fifty lashes, and to be returned to government.
"William Blunt, and another, for burglary and violence; sentenced one
hundred lashes, and transported for their original term."--_Gazette_,
Dec. 1821.]
[Footnote 144: _Ross's Almanack_, 1831.]
[Footnote 145: "The sight was awfully grand. The pilot commanded all
below, but I said I should like to see the end of it: they counted off
eleven feet; we drew seven and a half: there were but seven in the
hollow of the sea! At this moment a large billow carried us forward on
its raging head. The pilot's countenance relaxed: he looked like a man
reprieved under the gallows."--_Backhouse's Narrative._]
[Footnote 146: Barnes: _Par. Pap._, 1837.]
[Footnote 147: Ibid.]
[Footnote 148: _Tasmanian Journal_, vol. ii. p. 205.]
[Footnote 149: _Backhouse's Narrative._]
[Footnote 150: Ibid.]
[Footnote 151: They called to the men, as they ascended the
scaffold--"Good-by, Bob; good-by, Jack."--_Par. Pap._]
[Footnote 152: To describe this region, requires the awful coloring of
Milton:--
"Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death,
Where all life dies; death lives; and nature breeds
Perverse; all monstrous, all prodigious things;
_Abominable_; UNUTTERABLE!"
_Paradise Lost_, book ii.]
[Footnote 153: _Sydney Cove, 17th July_, 1790.
"The consequence of a failure of a crop, when we no longer depend upon
any supplies from Great Britain, will be obvious; and to guard against
which is one reason for my being so desirous of having a few settlers,
to whom, as the first, I think every possible encouragement should be
given. In them I should have some resource, and amongst them proper
people might be found to act in different capacities, at little or no
expense to government; for, as the number of convicts and others
increase, civil magistrates, &c. will be necessary."]
[Footnote 154: _Par. Papers_, 1792; quoted by Saxe Bannister, Esq.]
[Footnote 155: Besides the reference in Collins, several modern writers
have alluded to this fact; but in conversation with Mr. G. W. Walker,
the author has been given to understand, that neither he nor his
colleague, Mr. Backhouse, ever heard of this projected emigration. The
correspondence upon the subject would probably disclose more clearly the
ultimate views of the imperial government. Dr. Laing assigns, for the
relinquishment of the project, a refusal to extend the laws of England
to the settlement,--but gives no authority.]