CHAPTER IV.

MANNER OF DISPOSING OF CONVICTS.

The preceding pages exhibit a faithful account of the progress towards reformation made by the convicts under the system observed in their management during removal to New South Wales. The moment they were disembarked, my public functions regarding them terminated of course; yet the interest excited in my mind by the dawning of renovated moral feeling, which appeared general, made me still anxious to cultivate and keep alive amongst them, as much as possible, the influence of those salutary impressions which they appeared to have received during the voyage; and for this purpose I visited them frequently during their stay in the prison at Sydney.

According to the regulation at that place, convicts, on being disembarked, are placed immediately under the superintendence of a person appointed to keep them in charge until such time as they can be placed in situations. This person is always present at the mustering of the prisoners after their arrival; and keeps a book, in which are entered the name and age, and also the character, of the convicts, such as they may have merited while under the management of the Surgeon Superintendent, and also a description of the employment for which each prisoner is qualified.

The Superintendent of convicts is thus perfectly apprized of every thing requisite for directing a just and satisfactory assignment of the prisoners; and as, when once they are placed in his hands, no other authority interposes, much good or evil is to be expected from his management. Mr. Hutchinson, the person now exercising that office at Sydney, was himself formerly a convict; and from his various means of obtaining intelligence, well may he be supposed,—so far as the ample jurisdiction he exercises can extend,—to possess information universally correct regarding the circumstances of every family: he is therefore fully competent to determine what description of convict is best suited for any particular service: too often, however, does caprice, if not motives more unworthy, appear to influence him in the performance of this important duty.

It might be expected that the passions of prisoners, whether male or female, sentenced to transportation, having been long kept under by discipline, a sense of guilt, and repentant reflection during the voyage, would not easily be roused again into mischievous action; but a momentary consideration even of what is human nature, and how prone it is to evil, as also the former state of these persons, will forbid a too confident expectation that the mind long accustomed to habitudes of vice, and subdued only by a powerful sense of shame, or religious feeling, can be at once thoroughly reformed, and secure from relapse. It was doubtless with a view to prevent any thing of that unhappy tendency, that the local Government instituted the confinement of the prisoners, as already mentioned. The following circumstance will show how careful the Superintendent is to maintain this humane intention.

There were two of the females under my care, whose behaviour during the voyage was so profligate, that, besides the character with which they were handed over at the muster, I was induced to point them out to the notice of the Governor, with a request that they might be separated from the others: to this His Excellency paid immediate attention, and gave orders to that effect. I mentioned the same matter, moreover, to the Superintendent of convicts, who made a note of it in his book, in my presence; yet on that very same evening these wretched creatures were permitted to go at large in the streets of Sydney, where necessity, or their own abandoned propensities, must have driven them to infamous practices.

About one-half of the female prisoners were disposed of in Sydney and its neighbourhood, and the remainder were kept in a separate place in the gaol, until an opportunity should offer for removing them to Parramatta, whither the Governor had directed they should be sent by water, to prevent improper conversation with straggling prisoners of the other sex, who are continually infesting the roads. It is to be remarked, however, that those whose behaviour or disposition had most frequently incurred censure on the voyage, and consequently least merited favourable report, were singled out as the fittest objects for assignment, while many of those whose conduct had been uniformly deserving of approbation, whose names also were conspicuous for excellent character, were left to be transmitted to the Factory!

Another circumstance, though of itself unimportant, may be deemed worthy of notice, as throwing some further light on those proceedings. A settler, named _Cooper_, made application to have an elderly woman, whose relatives he knew formerly in England, assigned him as a servant, but was refused. He repeated the request, and was again refused on the plea that her character was very infamous. Mr. Cooper not believing this dogmatical assertion, and being unable to investigate the Superintendent’s real grounds for objection, applied to me for an account of the woman’s conduct, which during the voyage had indeed been exemplary. The poor woman herself appealed to me, and begged that I would do her justice. I assured her that her character should be fully vindicated before the Governor; but the Superintendent, not wishing the matter to be investigated, or his motives explained, before that tribunal, assigned the woman without further delay as desired.

Connexions too spring up unexpectedly between the female convicts and pretended relatives by whom they are recognised, as it were, on their landing. This practice had grown to such mischievous extent in former years, that it was found necessary to order that no person from the shore should be allowed to visit the ship, or hold communication with the prisoners, without permission signified in writing: and now a guard boat is commonly stationed in the Cove, to prevent any unauthorized persons from approaching a convict ship after her arrival, until the prisoners are disembarked. Previously to this order, it was usual for persons from the shore to go alongside those ships, and even on board, and choose from among the female prisoners, wives, sisters, or other relatives, as circumstances would suit, for themselves and others; and these claims they used afterwards to substantiate _on oath_; on which the prisoners were accordingly assigned them.

In most of these cases, it is well known, no relationship whatever exists, the parties having never before, perhaps, known or heard of each other. It must of necessity follow, that connexions thus formed cannot be in unison with truth or justice, and that the obligations of marriage can hardly escape violation. In fact, the language which female convicts on landing in the colony are accustomed to hear from every tongue, must have a predisposing effect upon minds ordinarily weak as theirs must be, anxious for protection in a strange country. It is usual to tell them, that they must now consider themselves in a new world,—that whatever may have been their offences, their former conduct would not now be considered for a moment;—that they should look upon every thing past as quite forgotten;—that they should begin life anew;—that if they behaved themselves prudently _they should soon get husbands_, and no doubt do well.

From representations such as these, it is not surprising that they should feel themselves encouraged to indulge in notions of fresh happiness: new hopes are kindled, and associations easily entered into without much regard to the propriety of the action. The Superintendent of convicts, and the fellows to whom he confides the secondary concerns of his office, are never at a loss to cultivate the opportunities to which such lessons tend; and as they all are or have been convicts, they dexterously keep up an intercourse ramifying through all that vast fraternity; and a _marriage_ is contracted without difficulty or delay, doubtlessly very much to the happiness of the female, as well as the edification of the community!

One of the greatest evils, in my opinion, attending imprisonment, is when the character of the turnkeys and the other persons in authority about a gaol is corrupt or villainous. In the best constituted prisons in England, this is a subject of painful note, which even the utmost vigilance of the most upright and excellent Governor cannot always rectify. Persons formerly of infamous character are often selected for that situation, from a mistaken notion of prudential policy,—“Set a thief to watch a thief;” for, while their official care is directed to secure the person of the prisoner, his mind too often is sunk more deeply, and confirmed in depravity by their wicked agency or connivance. This is best illustrated by fact.

On visiting the gaol in Sydney, the morning after the prisoners had been landed, I found that many of them spent the night in noise and indecent revelry, occasioned by beer and spirits which had been introduced, and that could not have been done without the knowledge of the keepers. Here then is a lamentable source of mischief to the convict on the very threshold of her exile. In the population of such a town as Sydney, the mass of which is formed of persons transported for their crimes, much moral turpitude may be supposed to prevail, which not all the existing regulations, however excellent they be, even were they maintained with exactness, are sufficient to repress. The number of houses licensed for the sale of beer and spirits, besides those where the like are vended clandestinely, by feeding the bad passions with dangerous incentive retard the growth of moral reserve, and that rectitude of principle necessary to the existence of a well-ordered community.

Hence, therefore, derives a constant flow of licentiousness; and the consequences will, it is feared, long continue to characterize the infant colony. Females banished to a place of this description must be formed of materials exceedingly pure, to withstand temptations such as are every moment spread before them. Can it be reasonably hoped, that one the whole tenour of whose life has been corrupt, debased, and almost remorseless, will be influenced by the salutary care of transient benevolence, and the precepts of religious instruction recently imbibed, to shut her eyes and ears against what is still grateful to slumbering passion, and as yet pleasurably tingles on every sense? How odious, then, and afflictive must be corrupt example and temptation at such a time, which in the absence of discipline proceed a step further than inclination, warping the firmest purpose, and fomenting every bad propensity! Wretched indeed, and greatly to be pitied, is the female in such a situation, whose heart still cherishes a spark of virtue which reflection and pious resolution were again fanning into life, but through a direful necessity, from which there is no escaping, is dragged down again into the turpid mire, and smoulders in pollution!

Four days elapsed before the wind became favourable for conveying the remaining women to Parramatta, a water passage of about twenty miles, where I took occasion to visit them at the Factory on the morning after their arrival. It would indeed be a difficult task to give an adequate notion of the miserable state in which I found them. They all collected around me, and for several minutes not one of them could utter a word; but their streaming eyes and deep sobs sufficiently expressed the state of their feelings. Some of them gave a shocking account of the manner in which the last night had been spent. On their arrival the preceding evening, they had not got within the Factory before they were surrounded by hordes of idle fellows, convicts, who came provided with bottles of spirits some, and others with provisions, for the purpose of forming a banquet according to custom, which they assured themselves of enjoying without interruption, as a prelude to excesses which decency forbids to mention. They calculated, it seems, on this security, in consequence of a guilty understanding between themselves and the constables, whom they found little difficulty of reconciling to remissness on such an occasion.

Those guardians of public morals are selected from the convict ranks, and, as in this instance, rarely possess qualities superior to those over whom they are placed in authority. The best institutions must fail in their design when supported by materials of this description; and although it is probable that a better system could not be devised than that adopted by the present Governor, yet, for want of men of probity and firmness to carry his views into effect, the worst abuses, it is apprehended, must ensue. This is indeed so manifest, that the Sydney Gazette frequently announces the dismissal of those officers for misconduct.

At first I was unwilling to credit the account which these women gave of this strange and disorderly visit of the convicts; but they soon convinced me by pointing out several of these half-naked, half-starved, miserable-looking wretches, who were still lurking around this receptible of misery,—the well-known theatre of infamous excesses. Several of the women, whose dispositions had been particularly improved on the voyage, and who still retained a strong sense of propriety, exclaimed with tears of anguish, “O God! Sir, we are all sent here to be destroyed.” They declared it to be quite impossible to remain virtuous amidst the concentrated immorality, and the various forms in which temptation was presented to them. I endeavoured to support their resolution with every argument against despair, which was evidently seizing on their minds, and tried to recall to their recollection the lessons they had heard so often during the voyage; but they again burst into tears, and with one voice declared, “Were angels from heaven placed here as we are, they would in three nights be corrupted.”

The _Factory_ is a square stone building of inconsiderable dimension, having an upper story: here are crowded all the workshops for converting the wool of the colony into cloth; one side being appropriated to picking, carding, and spinning; the other to weaving;—the males employed in this service mixing, in the hours of work, indiscriminately with the females. It is locked at night, and the key intrusted to a porter, who has a lodging-place at the entrance. In this building the female convicts, whose behaviour after coming into the colony may have brought them under the notice of the police, and is deemed deserving of particular punishment, are _ordered_ to be confined and kept to hard labour: they are to sleep within it at night, and are _supposed_ to have no communication with any one outside the walls. How well these orders and expectations are fulfilled, may be seen hereafter.

Detached from the Factory is a wooden building, in a state of decay, open almost at every point; “all the elements of nature may enter in:” unfortunately, too, it is permeable to the unhallowed step of drunken licentiousness in its vilest garb. In this crazy mansion the women from the Morley were placed on their arrival; and during the day-time were not allowed to stray far from it, at least not before they had done a certain quantity of work; but this being performed, they were at liberty to go whither they pleased, do what they pleased, and entertain whom they pleased. This information does not rest on hearsay, or on authority which could excite my distrust: I visited the place at all hours, to ascertain the fact, and have the evidence of my own senses in proof of the assertion, that the women had free egress and ingress at all times.

It has just been stated, that females confined in the inclosed Factory, by way of punishment, are not permitted to pass the gate without the knowledge of the Superintendent. Whether this permission be easily obtained, or otherwise, I pretend not to know; but that women so confined are frequently seen outside the walls,—as it is expressed, “beating the rounds,”—is undeniably certain. This I have myself had the mortification to witness in the case of one of the women who had been under my care, but whose bad conduct subsequently had subjected her to “confinement in the Factory.”

Undoubtedly, where the disposition of the individual placed under punishment of that kind is very dissolute, restraint must have a salutary tendency. It may then be supposed, of course, that some means, besides that of confinement and the labours of the place, would be employed to repress their licentiousness, and recall their minds to serious reflection: moreover, the present Superintendent, Mr. Oakes, did formerly belong to the Missionary Society, who have pushed their zealous labours among the unenlightened savages of the southern hemisphere. Upon most strict inquiry, however, regarding this point, I have not been able to ascertain that any extraordinary or efficacious means had been used, or in fact any care whatever taken, to recover these daughters of vice and error from their depraved condition, and give them back in an amended state to the situations they had recently forfeited by their misconduct; or render them profitable examples for the others.

That this observation is lamentably true, may be proved by reference to a recent instance, wherein two women, both then free, who had become so infamously wicked, and outrageously reprobate, as to be thought irreclaimable, and utterly unfit for the colony, or rather subjects too hard for the superintendency, were actually re-shipped, and sent home to England for reformation, on board the ship Shipley, in 1818. One of these incorrigibles is wife to Mr. Hutchinson, the principal Superintendent of convicts.

A visitor on entering this penitentiary, this prison house, let his familiarity with gaol scenes be what it may, would be shocked at the noise, depravity of speech, disgusting freedoms, obsceneness, filthiness of person, and general degradation of character, which in every direction strike upon his senses. Indeed, so clamorous and importunate are they in their rude requests to strangers, for “something to drink,” that the benevolent few who would give salutary instruction are deterred from going among them. A friend whom I asked to accompany me to the place, refused on that very account, stating, that he had visited them some time before, and could not get away without extreme difficulty, although he had distributed twenty shillings to rid himself of the annoyance.

It was to this worse than London Newgate, even in all its former wickedness, the penitent exiles from the Morley were transmitted! It is true, the detached building mentioned was assigned them as a sleeping-place; but here they were surrounded by ruffians more destructive to females in their circumstances, than a pack of wolves would have been. Spirits obtained by iniquitous means, brought as an incentive to the worst purposes, enabled those ragged wretches to drag down into the same level of licentiousness and vice as themselves, poor, unprotected, weak, defenceless women, whose minds were just recovering from the worst effects of sin, and had but just tasted of the sweets of virtue. Driven again into a state of ungovernable passion, maddened by intoxication, it is easy to perceive,—although the thought is painful in extreme,—that a dereliction of duty must have been the certain consequence, and that even if any had firmness to resist such temptation, their preservation must be attributed to some cause more powerful than the protection afforded them in such an asylum.

The sleeping-place assigned in this detached building was not, for very obvious reasons, much liked, it appears, by many of them; and they sought to procure lodgings in the neighbouring cottages with such means as they had still preserved in their misfortunes. Those confined and humble habitations are generally constructed of wood, not having more than two rooms, one of which, as on occasions such as the present, is reserved as a kitchen, and usually contains a bed, the other serves as bed-chamber and store-room: such is the common abode of the convict during the time of sojourning in a state of banishment!

Rations, as usual, were delivered to them from the stores; and if they were destitute of money wherewith to pay for the comfort of lodging, either this supply of food must be curtailed, or infamous means resorted to in order to make up the deficiency. In this situation, surrounded by men of the most profligate and hardened habits, what woman can be supposed capable of resisting vice, when impelled to that horrible extremity by a necessity absolute beyond the possibility of controul? Is it to be expected that minds like theirs, which had in many instances formerly been accustomed to wickedness, will now be able to guard against those seductive arts, that first launched them into crime, and of which, it is feared, some of them still cherish a familiar remembrance?

Many and praiseworthy were the contrivances by which some of those women strove to disentangle themselves from this odious spot, replete with mischief, subversive of those principles of virtue and propriety which they yet felt an inclination to cultivate. To these, marriage held out the best and surest hope. Accordingly, several were on the eve of being married at the time I last visited Parramatta. On the propriety of this step I was consulted by not less than eleven of those who had been under my care, who evinced their grateful feeling towards me by soliciting a continuance of that cautionary counsel, which they had so often heard during the voyage. The particulars of one of these, having produced at the time emotions too strong to be easily forgotten, render the case peculiarly affecting, and are given here simply as they occurred.

A woman about thirty years of age, whose repentant manner and excellent conduct during the voyage had merited particular notice, and being accompanied by four young children, excited more than a common degree of interest: she was married, and left her husband living in England at the time she was sent away. At the Factory she had not sufficient means of supporting her children, the ration for them being only one third in proportion to those of adults. Having disposed of several articles of wearing apparel to supply their cravings, she formed the desperate resolution of uniting herself to one of those fellows who had offered to maintain them on that condition.

This wretched woman described the painful embarrassments in which she was involved; but the state of her mind, and the genuine features of her case, will best appear from her own words. “I know,” she said, “that to embrace the mode of life to which I am now driven, is a great crime in the eyes of my Maker: but to see my children starving”—at this moment two of them were crying bitterly for something to eat—“is more than I can bear. I know that _I_ have done wrong, but they, poor unhappy things, are innocent.” Here a gush of tears deprived her of utterance: when she regained composure, she continued: “I have no means of providing for them, and to keep them alive I must either steal, or do what my soul abhors.” This heart-rending narrative was again broken by a flood of tears. I was about to go away; but she implored me for God’s sake not to depart without giving her some advice, by which she declared her conduct should be governed, let her fate be what it might.

It can scarcely be imagined that there is a being in human form, how hardened soever his heart may be, that could contemplate a scene like this, and be unmoved. It was well observed by an ancient writer, “that a virtuous man struggling against adversity was an object worthy of the admiration of the Gods”; what then shall we think of a woman, a frail woman, driven from the society of every friend, and the endearments of her native land, in whom the principles of virtue are as it were resuscitated, making a noble stand against the most powerful inducements that can influence the mind, but at last forced to yield to a necessity that would have relaxed the most rigid nerve, that would have subdued the most vigorous resolution?

Is it fair to thrust weak women into such a state, and afterwards expect their lives to be pure? Who would rationally look for uncontaminated minds among females who were driven, in some measure, to an indiscriminate association with thieves of the worst description, men whose unlawful gains enable many of them to live in a manner as dissolute and far more luxurious than they had ever done at home?

It may at first view appear strange, but the fact is indisputable, that the public-houses in Sydney, although fortunately reduced recently from sixty-seven to twenty-five, still evidently too numerous in proportion to the population, are as much frequented as almost any of those in the British metropolis. A notion of the customary run of those houses may be formed from the gains of the persons who keep them being sometimes so enormous as to enable them to accumulate in about three years’ time what they consider a fortune. How the persons frequenting those houses obtain money to purchase beer and spirits, both of the worst kind, at a price vastly beyond the London rates, is matter of astonishment; yet so constant among the convicts is the habit of drinking, that one can scarcely pass through the streets of Sydney without meeting some of them in a state of intoxication. They are, it is true, under the watchfulness of a police said to be extremely active,—and in many respects this representation is correct; but the fact is as above stated; I have seen women in a state of inebriety too shocking to describe, and this occurring at almost every hour of the day.

This account has reference to the respectable parts of the town of Sydney; but there are other divisions of that place which would be difficult of description. In those portions designated the _Rocks_, scenes of drunkenness, shameless debauchery, and open profligacy are so frequent and disgusting, that they cannot be seen without abhorrence; and such is the absolute want of common decency, that even in the day time a person of respectable appearance is there liable to be abused and maltreated; but at night it would be extremely imprudent to attempt passing through even the extreme parts of this fortress of iniquity, as there is a hazard, or rather a certainty, of being stripped and plundered. The ruffians treat one another in the same manner; hence broils and boxing-matches are perpetually occurring in that quarter. The low public-houses, many of which are permitted in those purlieus, present a ready way of converting the plunder into means of intemperate jollity; whilst the occasion is commonly heightened by the presence of one or more of those degraded females, who minister to the mischief of the moment, and are thereabouts constantly resident in great numbers.

The condition and conduct of those last-mentioned graceless wretches are a constant theme of animadversion to those inclined to draw comparisons unfavourable to female convicts generally, an inclination which unfortunately prevails very much at Sydney, even among persons who should at least have learned charity from a sense of misfortune. Is it then matter of surprise, that the unhappy women transported to the colony under those disadvantages of comparison, should continue so depreciated and despised as they are at present? A recollection of similar circumstances such as must ever have attended the same state of degradation, though still fresh in the memory even of many of themselves, produces hardness of heart towards these children of affliction; and, strange to say, some even of their own sex who have become wives out of the same situation, and now are further advanced in life, and live in circumstances of comfort and opulence, are among the first to vilify and asperse their convict servants for the slightest deviation from rectitude, exacting from them more than would be expected from female circumstances in more respectable stations, whose characters had never been tainted by judicial sentence.

When, therefore, a woman of this miserable class, torn from former connexions by the severity of her lot, yet cherishing a hope that amendment of life may obtain for her friends and protectors in her new country, arrives in the colony, she finds a disheartening reverse: thrown into a common estimation with such abandoned wretches. The settlers have to supply themselves with servants from the convict ships arriving every year; but if circumstances, such as those mentioned, intervene before they make a choice, it is not very consistent with probability that they will find their morals improved after arrival.

Whatever religious or honest principles they may have recovered or imbibed, either under a humane and reforming system in the prisons at home, or in the course of the voyage outwards, all are likely to be obliterated, leaving a dismal blank to be filled with repetition of crime, a certain consequence of the discredit in which they are held, even before they can have been known, and the vile contamination into which they are turned as they arrive. No matter how repentant soever they may have become, nor how sincere soever may be their resolutions of amendment, they are nevertheless looked on with contempt; and being received into families with this feeling, the slightest deviation from the severe rules of rectitude is scrutinized, and seized upon with an avidity implying studied intention. Rarely is allowance made for the infirmity of human nature; the good resolves of the convict are shaken for want of confidence; despair of doing good so as to be approved, and disregard of well doing from want of due encouragement, fasten too frequently on the mind, and criminality again brings punishment, disgrace, and inevitable ruin of character.

It is not too much to say, that the immorality or dishonesty which appear among convicts, especially females, subsequently to their arrival in the colony, may often be traced, among the many other causes, to this harshness and want of confidence in the situations to which they are at first assigned. There will, however, be a great number of those annually transported, who will retain traces of their old habits in defiance of all the influence of moral instruction,—who are, it may be said, incapable of reformation; but it is impossible that individuals of such a disposition can pass unnoticed through all the stages of ordeal, from their first apprehension to trial and final judgement, and be unknown as to genuine character. They must of course be marked and recorded in their progress, and, if found incorrigible, can very easily be distinguished from the penitent and well conducted, and a separation be effected accordingly. Some badge of distinction should in all fairness be set upon them; and it would be highly honourable to the wisdom of that authority whose will is to be their guide, to hold out this segregation of the penitent from the profligate, were it only as a reward for good conduct, and an encouragement to the deserving.

The foregoing statements have reference more particularly to the manner in which female convicts are treated in the colony: the condition of males is less severe. The mode of disposing of them in the first instance, does not differ in any considerable degree from that of the females. Like those, the men are marched into the prison yard for the Governor’s inspection, when His Excellency inquires minutely how they have been treated on the voyage, and whether they have any complaints against the Surgeon Superintendent, or the Captain and his officers, and had their full rations of provisions. Should any one fancy himself aggrieved in those points, or in any other respect, he is desired to come forward, and prefer his charge; to which the Governor gives a patient hearing, and decides as he thinks proper.

If it appear that the Surgeon and the Commander have been careful, and have humanely discharged their respective duties, His Excellency fails not to pay a compliment to their assiduity: but should any neglect or harshness appear justly alleged, they are publicly reprimanded at the instant; and if further inquiry be deemed necessary, a bench of magistrates is ordered to investigate the case, and report their proceedings in writing to His Excellency, who sometimes transmits it to England for the consideration of the Government, the parties being sent home under arrest, should he think the affair deserving of such serious notice, to answer for their conduct.

Having inspected the condition of the prisoners, and redressed their complaints, if any, His Excellency gives them all a salutary and solemn admonition. He assures them, that no application in their favour from home or elsewhere will be attended to, unless their own behaviour in the colony be correct; that they must now consider themselves in a new world, where their lives are, as it were, beginning; and that their future prosperity, or misery, will depend upon themselves.

It occasionally happens that ill-fated individuals arrive in the colony, as convicts, who have been brought up as gentlemen, and in whose cases there may appear, perhaps, more of misfortune than moral delinquency: such persons are generally indulged by His Excellency with tickets of leave, and opportunities allowed them to do well. The number of persons, however, to whom tickets of leave are granted on their arrival, is by no means so great as has been represented.

The convicts are now transferred to the care of the principal Superintendent, to whom all persons who want servants must apply. Some demur regarding the assignment of the individual for whom the application is made, not unfrequently occurs in this quarter. Persons of the first respectability, well informed regarding matters of this kind, have assured me, that the settlers have frequently complained of the difficulty they experienced in obtaining the acquiescence of the Superintendent of convicts to allow them servants of their own particular choice, and that there was, under such circumstances, only one way of procuring what they desired. Having no personal knowledge of the manner in which this extraordinary agency is effected, I do not pledge myself for the correctness of the statement; but I am well aware that the difficulty complained of does exist. Every settler to whom a convict servant is assigned, is required, by authority of the local Government, to pay as wages ten pounds sterling per annum to a male, and seven pounds to a female, besides board and lodging.

The male convicts not disposed of as servants, or by tickets of leave, are formed into gangs, which are stationed in different parts of the country in Government employ, such as making and repairing roads, and various other public works, and are maintained from the stores. Those employed at Sydney and its vicinity are lodged in a barrack, which has lately been erected, and is fitted for the accommodation of about eight hundred persons. There is another building of the same kind, at Emu Plains, but on a smaller scale, which want of time prevented me from visiting. The barrack at Sydney is spacious and lofty, erected in a healthy and appropriate situation; it is thoroughly ventilated, is kept exceedingly clean, and has many other advantages.

I visited this building several times, and could not avoid remarking the cleanliness of the different wards, and the respectful attention of the persons who showed me over them: the great objection I observed in the management was the entire want of classification, an obvious evil in every such establishment, and that nothing appeared of the nature of an organized system of morality. It was truly shocking and disgusting to hear the oaths, execrations, and language the most indecent, which issued from every side; nor did any of them appear to be intimidated by the presence of those in authority over them: indeed quite the contrary was observable; they seemed to me rather to be encouraged by those persons in practices so utterly repugnant to order and decency. Mr. Hutchinson, principal Superintendent of convicts, was with me on one of those occasions; but so far was he from checking with rebuke what, to say the least of it, was want of respect to one in his situation, that his own expressions outstripped and completely eclipsed theirs in wickedness and revolting filthiness.

Endless would be the task of commenting on the deterioration, if not total ruin, of moral principle, that must result from this want of classification and religious care among a community so constituted as this just noticed. How futile then must be every undertaking to reclaim men of this description under circumstances so inauspicious! I fear the hope of their reformation, therefore, is extremely distant, unless some means of an efficient nature like that alluded to be soon adopted. Sanguine indeed must be the mind that can expect improvement in a mass so heterogeneous, composed of delinquents of every age; a commixture of guiltiness of every shade and degree,—without any controlling influence over depravity however extravagant,—without any humane friend to warn against error, or direct to the paths which alone lead to peace and happiness.

Until the erection of this barrack, the convicts had to provide their own lodging, for which purpose they were allowed half of each day to work for themselves, or employ that time otherwise as they thought fit; but this was attended with manifest inconvenience both to themselves and their neighbours. The advantages of having them locked up at night, which is done regularly at eight o’clock, are incalculable, and it is as highly applauded by the sober part of the community as regretted by themselves, the public-house keepers, thieves, and receivers of stolen goods. Their labour must now be much more productive to Government than formerly, as they are obliged to work from six in the morning till six in the evening, Saturday excepted, when they are allowed half a day to receive their weekly rations of provisions.

Regarding the issues from the stores a salutary ordinance exists, making it criminal to purchase any part of a convict’s rations; which is a means of preventing many bad consequences: it cannot be denied, however, that circumstances often occur which render a breach of this order unavoidable. When fresh meat, for instance, is served out in hot weather, which embraces two thirds of the year, it will become putrid in a time inconceivably short: consequently the convict would want or starve during the greater part of the week, were he not to make some such arrangement privately, as must by its abuse have occasioned the present regulation. In general the male prisoners live well, if they conduct themselves properly, and observe sobriety; the regulations adopted for the maintenance of good order among them being efficient in a remarkable degree, when their great numbers, and also their former and present modes of life, are considered.

The convict Superintendents, and their numerous followers, as well as most of the constables, and many of the settlers of the inferior class, have adopted a practice of compounding with convicts assigned them as servants, by which they derive a certain income from those convicts for allowing them respectively the free disposal of their own time. This compromise is usually productive of a revenue amounting weekly to a sum varying from five to twenty shillings per head, or even more, as the circumstances may allow; as, for instance, when the convict is a mechanic, who, by being apparently on his own hands, can easily earn more than double the sum he pays in consideration to his master, who, from a necessary connexion with the Superintendent, generally knows the surest way to have those of any trade he chooses assigned him.

In such cases, it is always understood that the person to whom the convict is assigned, is responsible for the conduct of his servant; but, generally speaking, this responsibility is worse than nominal. Hence great inconvenience to society is the almost certain result; for many of those so assigned are known to levy contributions on the industrious inhabitants; and in this respect some of them exercise their wonted arts with surprising and successful dexterity. There can be little doubt that many support themselves wholly in this manner, as idle fellows are to be met with constantly prowling about, under various pretences, but notoriously intent on plunder, or mischief of some kind, which is still dear to their hearts. Of this description chiefly were the wretches whom I noticed skulking around the Factory at Parramatta, corrupting some of the women there, and persecuting others.

Various means have been adopted to restrain the irregularities of convicts thus at large, and punishments of a summary kind are frequently inflicted. Of these, the most severe next to that of death is _transportation to the Coal River_, which is ordered usually by His Honour the Judge Advocate, or a Bench of Magistrates, for a term of years, or for life, as the enormity of the offence may require. Convicts dread this mode of punishment very much, because they are there compelled to work in chains from sun-rise till sun-set, and are subject also to other restrictions of a highly penal description. The rigour of this sentence is, however, frequently relaxed in degree, as the criminal shows signs of amendment; and in very few cases is it found necessary to subject any of the convicts to a repetition of that sentence. Punishment by _flogging_ is sometimes resorted to, and the infliction, which may be ordered by any Magistrate on conviction, seldom exceeds twenty-five lashes.

For females, it is considered sufficiently severe to confine them for a limited time to constant labour in the _Factory_ at Parramatta; but enough has been said on that subject to satisfy that they can benefit but very little from such a discipline. The restraint produced by those punishments generally has some effect in preventing crime; but that of sending offenders to the _Coal River_, to which punishment females as well as males are liable, appears the most dreaded, and crimes are evidently less frequent than might be expected in a population composed of such mischievous materials.