The views of the ministers respecting the severity of punishment,
rendered the discipline more stern.[210] The subordinate agents of
government received instructions to enforce an amount of labor from the
prisoners employed upon the roads, which was measured without much
regard to their previous habits, dexterity, or strength.
Nottman, to whose management several gangs were committed, was a person
of unflinching temper--rigorous and fearless. Once, when assailed upon
the road, he clenched the robber by the throat, until he expired. He
found a pleasure in hastening the operations entrusted to his oversight,
and neglect of work was an offence which was never pardoned. It did not
unfrequently happen, that a tailor, or other sedentary craftsman, was
sentenced to the roads; but in breaking stones, there is an art, and
while the dexterous could make every blow effective, the utmost toil of
the novice left a deficiency in the task. To admit excuse, would have
disturbed the calculations of labor, and the defaulter was delivered at
once to the flogger; often, too, the implements, injured by use,
rendered the fracture of stones more difficult: the issue of rations
weekly, tempted the improvident to consume their food, so that the last
days of the week were spent in exhaustion and hunger.[211] The slightest
symptoms of insubordination were promptly visited; and in one party,
3,300 lashes were administered in one morning.
The overseers copied the rigour of their superiors, without their
discrimination or sense of justice. It was not uncommon, though
forbidden, for these men to strike down the prisoners who displeased
them. Such violations of rule were punished when discovered: but men of
weak minds bore in silence miseries they were afraid to resent. The
government compelled to accept such agents as transportation yielded,
employed persons of the vilest character, of which the following may be
taken as a specimen: W. A----, a prisoner for life, forfeited his
ticket-of-leave for keeping a house of ill-fame, and harbouring assigned
servants. He applied for its restoration: this was opposed by the police
magistrate, who recommended that he should serve as an overseer for
three months on probation, as he had been notorious for keeping a bad
house![212] The incongruity of this employment with his character must
have suggested itself to all except those familiar with similar
appointments. Such as could command a bribe ameliorated their condition,
while those who possessed no such resources, were selected to illustrate
the vigilance and fidelity of the overseers. It requires no extensive
acquaintance with mankind to perceive, that in such hands public justice
was desecrated, and the weight of a sentence determined by causes which
had no relation to the character or the crime.
The orders of Stanley were constantly criticised by the press, and from
various motives were disliked by every section of the public. All who
had been prisoners, naturally sympathised with the sufferers: those who
were employers, reprobated a form of punishment which, without
diminishing the application of the lash, abstracted from their farms a
proportion of labour. A spirit of resistance was extensively propagated,
and during the year following many sad instances occurred, in which an
insurgent spirit was fatal. A young man, when employed on the public
works, struck at Mr. Franks with his hammer: fortunately, the blow fell
lightly; but he was tried and executed. A considerable number threw down
their tools and retired to the bush, whither they were pursued and
retaken. One instance made a powerful impression on the public mind: a
convict, named Greenwood, took from a fellow prisoner his shovel, which
was better than his own. He was sent at once by the superintendent to
the cells in charge of a fellow workman. In the spirit of reckless
daring, he told his conductor that he could run away if he thought
proper; the other replied--"no doubt of it." Thus, by a sudden impulse,
in bravado or in terror of the lash, he sprang across the boundary, and
threw up his hat as a signal of his flight. He appeared on the race
ground, and was there discovered by the constables committing some act
of petty robbery: he was pursued, drew a knife from his pocket, and
wounded his captor. Being taken before a magistrate, both his absconding
and his resistance were stated--the last a capital offence. To punish
this man was, of course, the duty of those whose authority he had
defied. As an absconder, he was sentenced to one hundred lashes, and
told--in words the import of which has not been disputed, although the
taunting tone attributed to the justice may possibly admit a
question--that after his flogging he would be hanged! Ten days after, he
was condemned to death: his execution was delayed a few more by a
respite; but he went to the scaffold with his wounds unhealed! The
treatment of this man called forth, and justified the strongest
expressions of public indignation. True, it was within the letter of the
law: either of the penalties inflicted, might have been vindicated or
excused both by necessity and custom; but to torture a fellow creature
shortly to make his defence against a charge affecting his life, and to
send him to his last account whilst suffering the pangs of laceration,
was inexpressibly revolting. Those who desired to disgrace the
government, embraced the opportunity--perhaps with the eagerness of
faction: pictures were exhibited of the unfortunate man, illustrative of
his melancholy fate. Surely no argument can be found, in the calmest
exercise of the understanding to extenuate an administration of the law,
which distorted justice into cruelty.
Under circumstances far more consonant with reason, but scarcely less
affecting when considered at large, was the execution of Samuel, a black
man: he was transported for theft, from the Cape of Good Hope, and was
remarkable for the quiet easiness of his disposition. For some violation
of penal discipline he was ordered to be flogged: when approaching the
triangle, he attacked one of the officers in attendance, who was
slightly wounded; for this he forfeited his life--justly, had England
been just; but what was his story? With his mother and sister he was
stolen from Mozambique, and thus became a slave: he robbed his masters,
and thus became a criminal. His fate turns justice into mockery, and
might make the Briton blush for his country. His execution, however, was
not without utility: Dr. Ross, who for years had attended such scenes,
then adopted the conviction that no resources of language, or varieties
of incident, could invest them with interest, and he resolved to attend
them no more. Here, too, the reader will be willing to abandon them.
Since, they have often been repeated; but happily society has adopted
from reflection, what that gentle-hearted man, so powerful is habit,
required years to learn--that the executioner is an officer far less
useful, and the agent of a spirit far less just, than past ages have
deemed.[213]
At parting, it is proper to pay the tribute of history to the memory
of Dogherty, the hangman--a functionary who surpassed greatly the
common character of his order; and who, while he lived, contrived to
evade the detestation of his calling. There was no amateur gaiety in his
manner--no harshness in his speech. He accepted office when a prisoner,
to enjoy the quiet quarters of the gaol and liberation from ordinary
toil: he intended to resign it with his bondage, but the number of
candidates for his place, it is said, reconciled his mind to its
retention. Not in the spirit of menace, but defensive retort, he would
promise those by whom he was jeered, his most delicate attentions in
their last emergency. He was always willing to part with his provisions:
to divide his sugar and tea with the necessitous, and to perform errands
of kindness in their favor. No one could wield the lash with more mercy;
and it is said that once, an offender, sentenced to a public flogging,
received one stroke at starting, and the cart being driven by an
associate, a second at stopping. His predecessor was a different
character; and overcome with the misery of his condition, he committed
murder, that he might escape from life! Dogherty passed through the town
without fear of vengeance; although once, certain soldiers, his
countrymen, injured him, and left scars which he carried to the grave.
But what character is perfect? He was addicted to intemperance, and
commonly spent the day succeeding an execution in drunkenness. The
incredulous are assured, that this is not the language of fiction, but
the character commonly ascribed in sober earnest to this unfortunate
being.
The day will come, when the sacrifice of life, made with more
hesitation, will cease to be a public spectacle; when, if it is deemed
requisite to cut off from the earth the shedder of blood, the dreadful
doom will cease to amuse the brutal, or to offer a momentary excitement
to the unreflecting. Women will be no longer seen raising their children
above the crowd, to enjoy the most humiliating sight that can meet the
eyes of mortals. Let no one imagine, that men are effectually
intimidated by attending public executions: as the fatal moment draws
nigh, crowds are indeed seen rushing towards the spot; but they wear the
lineaments of insensibility, intemperance, or habitual crime. It is not
the guilt of the sufferer which extinguishes their pity: they would run
to witness the murder of a saint. The utility of executions is left to
the judgment of statesmen, but it cannot be wrong to detest them.
Thus far having delineated the broad features of the system known as
the "certain and severe," it will be proper to explain the changes which
it ultimately produced in the practical working of transportation.
Simultaneously, a new theory of colonisation was promulgated. Land
ceased to be granted: the funds accumulated by its sale were available
for emigration,--and thus to decrease the rate of wages, and to enable
the government to dispense with the services of convicts as writers,
overseers, and mechanics. To assist this project, it had been determined
to levy a tax on prison labor; but the protest of the colonists and the
remonstrance of Arthur, led to its abandonment. The despatch which
explained his views, dwelt on the inconvenience, vexation, and loss, to
which the settlers were subject. He informed the Secretary of State,
that his lordship could not understand, except by experience, how much
and how often the colonists were fretted by the misconduct of their
servants, and despoiled by their peculation: however perfect the
discipline established; although the roads were safe, and violence
infrequent; though many prisoners were reformed and useful, still the
existing social state was charged with every form of domestic annoyance
and mortification. Trivial thefts were constantly passed over, because
punishment was attended with greater loss. Thus, two hundred men
arrive--they are distributed: their masters pay down money for their
clothing; but before they reach their home, their clothes are destroyed
or sold--or, perhaps, they are committed for felony to gaol. At first
the settler repines, but his difficulties are inevitable: he is silent,
because his trials have long lost the interest of novelty, and all
around him are fellow-sufferers. The settlers who submitted to the
impertinence and unwillingness of pickpockets, he thought certainly
entitled to the benefit of their services without any other tax than
might be levied by their fingers. This earnest protest was not without
success; but it became, afterwards, a potent weapon in the hands of
those who pronounced transportation a failure.[214]
The arrival of many hundreds, whose previous habits were far from
respectable, increased the difficulties of penal government. The former
marked division of classes was confounded: the emigrant laborer was the
companion of the prisoner of the crown; but, in law, the equal of the
prisoner's master. This addition was greatly deplored, both by the
Governor and the press. It was perceived that great organic changes must
follow the influx of free men, whose interest would run in a direction
entirely opposite to penal institutions. Thus, almost instantly, a
change became perceptible: the high value of prison labor was reduced,
and employers hostile to the government could afford to defy its power.
The emigrant laborers formed an intermediate class, which detested the
espionage and insolence of a convict constabulary, and was disposed to
resent the haughty spirit which slavery has ever generated in the ruling
classes.
In 1835, the feeling in opposition to transportation was strongly
expressed by certain portions of the people. A meeting was called, under
the auspices of Messrs. Kemp, Gellibrand, Hackett, Thomas Horne, and
others, which complained that the hope entertained, that the colony
might ultimately be freed from its penal character, had been
disappointed, and that the colonists "were made materials for the
punishment of British offenders;" were considered only as the "occupants
of a large prison;"--phrases of Arthur--and that "this penal character
had recently increased; thus violating the feelings of the adult, and
barbarising the habits and demoralising the principles of the rising
generation." This meeting, at which the sheriff presided, called by
public advertisement, was perhaps _de jure_ a meeting of the colony; but
the sheriff refused to attach his signature, lest the petition should be
taken as that of the settlers in general, whose opinions it certainly
did not then represent.
Arthur, in his despatch, endeavoured to neutralise its possible
influence, at the same time intimating that he had "long foreseen that
abolition would become a popular question." He, however, maintained that
the emigrant, knowing the object of the settlement, had no right to
complain; and that for the quarter of a century succeeding it would
become increasingly adapted for the enforcement of penal discipline. He
advised the ministers to stop the current of emigration, which, if
continued, would render "convicts less valuable to the settlers," or to
confine it to female emigrants, or such artificers as carpenters and
masons.[215] Two hundred and sixty persons, in the Launceston district,
repudiated the following passage of the petition:--"Your Majesty's
humble petitioners most respectfully pray your Majesty to be pleased in
your paternal goodness to remove from the colony of Van Diemen's Land
the degradation and unspeakable evils to which it is subject on account
of its penal character."
It would be amusing to contrast the sentiments expressed by various
persons during the first formal agitation of this subject, with
those that have latterly prevailed. It must, however, be remembered,
that there were two political parties. Some opposed transportation
as the last indignity which could be offered to Arthur, its zealous
patron; while others desired its continuance only because no other
labor was at hand. The paupers sent from the parishes did not create
a strong feeling of preference for free servants, many of whom
were profligate, intemperate, and otherwise worthless. Nor is it honest
to conceal the disastrous influence of power on the moral perceptions of
the mind. It is justly observed by Franklin, the philosopher, that "it
is one of the worst features of human nature, yet one with which it is
too generally impressed--the love of power; whereby all men prefer to be
served by slaves, over whom they have absolute dominion, than by free
men, who have rights as well as their masters." These motives, mingled
and corroborated by the practice of many years, contributed to
strengthen the views of the local government, and to reduce to a small
minority the advocates of abolition. Yet such are the singular
conjunctions of affairs: though derided and rejected on the spot, they
were afterwards quoted with respect by a committee of British
legislators, when the subject of transportation again engaged the
attention of parliament.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 210:
"_Colonial Secretary's Office, 14th February_, 1833.
"His Majesty's government having been pleased to enjoin the strictest
fulfilment of the law upon all convicts sent to this colony, and that
their punishment should be _certain and severe_, the Lieutenant-Governor
directs the renewed attention of all public officers connected with the
convict department, to the instructions which have from time to time
been issued on the subject.
"His Excellency is desirous especially to impress upon them the
necessity of invariably exacting the due portion of daily labor from
each convict, and of not permitting any remission or indulgence but such
as have been previously and especially authorised.
"The orders prohibiting convicts employed on the roads and in the public
works (including clerks, messengers, and persons of that description)
from laboring, under any pretence, for private individuals, or to the
advantage of those in charge of them, are at all times to be most
perseveringly and carefully enforced, and to avoid any misconception in
a matter deemed so important by his Majesty's government, the
instructions are to be understood most peremptorily to forbid every
species of indulgence beyond the food, clothing, bedding, and lodging
authorised by regulations to every convict.
"A proportionate degree of restraint and watchfulness over all assigned
convicts is equally essential. The object of their reform, as well as
punishment, must never be lost sight of.
"His Excellency is sensible that this end could never have been so
successfully attained as it has been, without the zealous co-operation
of the colonists at large, who in conjunction with a due exaction of
labor, have very generally insisted upon the observance of orderly and
regular conduct.
"As it is through this good feeling on the part of the colonists
generally, that the police has proved so efficient an auxiliary in the
general control of the convict population, and as it would be unjust to
allow the exceptions which may yet exist to affect the reputation of the
colony at large, the government will still more firmly pursue the course
of withdrawing assigned servants from all masters who neglect to regard
cleanly, decent, and sober habits in and out of their huts, and a
seasonable attention to moral and religious duties, as part of the
compact under which the labor is placed at their disposal.
"The Lieutenant-Governor on this occasion feels it due to the general
body of the settlers, to acknowledge his obligation to them for the
cordial support he has received at their hands in the control and
management of the convict population, with which no political
differences have been permitted to interfere, and his Excellency does so
with the more satisfaction, at this particular time, when the attention
of the Imperial Parliament is so especially drawn to the consideration
of the important subject of prison discipline, and when the state of
things in the colony has placed the local government in a situation to
contradict the unjust imputations which have been raised against
transportation as a punishment.
"By his Excellency's command,
"J. BURNETT."]
[Footnote 211: Backhouse and Walker's observations. This evil was
corrected on their representation.]
[Footnote 212: _Par. Papers._]
[Footnote 213: "The Rev. Dr. Bedford, in the course of his remarks,
stated that his duty had imposed upon him the painful task of attending
between three and four hundred executions, and that more than
nineteen-twentieths of the unhappy men who had thus miserably perished,
had been brought to this end by the effects of drunkenness."--_Courier_;
Speech at a meeting of the first Temperance Society at Hobart Town,
1832.
"It has fallen to our lot to be present at the executions of a large
proportion of the malefactors who have suffered the extremity of the law
in Hobart Town, and the apparent apathy with which the unhappy men met
their fate, was always to us the most humiliating part of the spectacle.
Their lips would utter with apparent sincerity the invocations prompted
by the clergyman, but the heart, that should have given them expression,
was too plainly wanting. They were empty sounds--the soul was gone. The
main part of the executioner's duty was performed to his hand; the
kernel was already consumed.... They sung psalms, ate a hearty meal:
they heard the summons of the sheriff; their arms were pinioned; the
halter was put about their neck; the cap was brought over their eyes,
and they dropped into eternity with more indifference than the ox goes
to the slaughter."--_V. D. Land Annual_; edited by Dr. Ross, 1833.]
[Footnote 214: 28th June, 1832.]
[Footnote 215: Despatch to Spring Rice.]