Two Voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land

by Thomas Reid

OF THE SCHOOL ON BOARD.

It was stated at the commencement of this journal, that a school was to be formed on board for the children of the convicts, as also for those of the free passengers; and that the Committee of Ladies had provided at their own expense a school-mistress to have charge of them under my immediate direction. It now remains to give some account of the manner in which this undertaking was conducted, and to explain the motives which induced me to defer noticing its progress among the daily occurrences in my journal of the voyage.

Some weeks after the formation of the school, the Reverend Mr. Reddall with his family embarked in the vessel for a passage to New South Wales, whither he was proceeding with the very laudable intention of introducing Dr. Bell’s system of education into that colony. This gentleman recommended that system to be adopted on board, and most obligingly offered to demonstrate it himself. Availing myself of this kind proposal, I had his suggestions strictly enforced, and his assistance proved of very great benefit to every one old enough to admit of their receiving instruction, as soon became evident from the proficiency made by many of them under this admirable system, which far exceeded any expectation that could have been reasonably indulged.

It was really delightful to witness the eagerness with which the children applied, and the rapidly corresponding progress they made,—several of them having become acquainted with the rudiments of spelling and reading before they could distinctly articulate the words. In proportion as their proficiency in the principles was ascertained, their moral instruction was attended to by making them familiar with easy hymns, and also teaching them to commit to memory psalms, and chapters from the New Testament, to an extent almost surpassing credibility. Memorial lessons of this description have been recited to myself, to the number of two hundred and thirty-eight in all, during the voyage, by children every one of whom was under ten years of age, and some not quite five.

My approbation of their diligence was always accompanied by some small present, such as a hymn or tract; and some of those interesting young creatures evinced an emulation to be thus distinguished, in a degree scarcely to be expected from children more than twice their age, bred up under much greater advantages and in circumstances far more favourable. Many of them, indeed, exhibited marks of intellect, which, under proper cultivation, promised to make them distinguished in future life.

Several of the prisoners too, influenced by the example and improvement of the children, respectfully requested to be furnished with elementary books, which were immediately issued; and the use made of them may be estimated from the very gratifying fact, that nine or ten of the number thus supplied had learned to read more or less before they landed in the colony. It is to be observed, however, that they did not join the school, but were taught in the prison by their companions: nor should it pass without note, that of those who thus exerted themselves to acquire a little instruction, all but one were from Newgate.

I cannot dismiss this subject without expressing the deep sense of obligation I entertain for the zealous exertions and friendly co-operation shown by Mr. Reddall in his devoted attentions to the children, as well as on every other occasion when his ready services could be available. It is but justice also to state, that Mrs. Josephson, to whom the care of the school was intrusted, discharged that duty in a manner highly creditable, having been uniformly decent, orderly, and attentive.

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[6]. It is due to those charitable donors to state, that after the convicts had been abundantly supplied, a good many remained, which I committed to the care of the Honourable Judge Advocate Wylde, who most obligingly offered to distribute them to such persons as, from his very extensive acquaintance with the state of the population in the colony, he knew would be most likely to benefit by them.

[7]. Where any intermission of regular dates may appear in this journal, it is to be understood that nothing of importance occurred during the time of which no mention is made.

[8]. John, chap. vi. 37th verse.

[9]. Matthew, chap. xviii. 35th verse.

[10]. Isaiah, chap. i. 18th verse.

[11]. Ezekiel, chap. xxxiii. 11th verse.

[12]. Romans, chap. viii. 18th verse.

[13]. Matthew, chap. xv. 19th verse.

[14]. 1 Corinthians, chap. vi. 9th verse.

[15]. The illness alluded to was excited by excessive exertion to suppress riot and quarrels among the prisoners, occasioned by the clandestine introduction of spirits, as may be seen on reference to the journal of the 20th of the preceding month.

[16]. Hebrews, chapter ix. verse 27.

[17]. Luke, chap. xvi. 31st verse.

[18]. Mark, chap. ix. 44th verse.

[19]. Luke, chap. xiii. 6th and 7th verses.

[20]. Chapter v. 39th verse.

[21]. 1 Corinth, chap. ii. verse 9.

[22]. Psalm iv. 4th verse.

[23]. Proverbs.

[24]. Daniel, chap. v. verse 5.

[25]. Isaiah, chap. lvii. verses 20, 21.

[26]. Galat. chap. vi. verse. 9.

[27]. 2 Thess. chap. iii. verse 10.

[28]. Proverbs, chap. xiv. verse 23; ch. xiii. verse 4.

[29]. Matthew, chap. v. 34th verse, &c.

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.

CHAPTER V.
SITUATION AND DUTIES OF THE SURGEON SUPERINTENDENT.

As the welfare of the convicts, and their advancement or retrocession in moral reformation, depend materially upon the exertion, apathy, or capability of the Surgeon Superintendent, it may not be out of place, or destitute of interest, to say something regarding the duties attached to that appointment.

The transportation of convicts to the colony seems entirely a mercantile concern, in which the Government contracts, as a private individual would, with the ship-owner for the conveyance of a certain number of tons, at a fixed rate, and the tonnage is estimated according to the ship’s register. In this case, Government supplies provisions for the prisoners, besides other necessary stores, which are placed under the charge of the Master, to be afterwards issued on proper occasions.

A premium of fifty pounds is held out to the Master for a faithful discharge of his duty; and satisfactory vouchers for the correctness of his conduct, and humane treatment of the prisoners while on board, signed by the Governor of the colony, and the Surgeon Superintendent of the ship, must be produced for that purpose. This part of his duty is independent of his concerns as Commander, and the proper treatment of his sailors, with which the Government have no right to interfere, save as far as it relates to the state of discipline maintained on board, to prevent mutiny, or improper conduct of the sailors, by which the security and management of the prisoners may be endangered or interrupted.

The following extract from the printed Instructions furnished by the Navy Board to the Master, may serve to show the exactness required of him in this respect. “For your guidance in the particular line of duty allotted to the Surgeon of the Morley, we inclose a copy of our Instructions to him, in order that you may regulate yourself accordingly; and we refer you to the 24th article of those Instructions against the prostitution of the female convicts in the vessel under your command, which you are to consider as equally applying to yourself, and of which we enjoin your strictest observance, both in your own conduct, and in the exercise of your authority over all the persons under your controul; and the like certificate from the Governor of New South Wales, of your adherence to these directions, will be required before the gratuity allowed on your return will be taken into consideration.”

The article in the Surgeon’s Instructions, to which the above has reference, runs as follows: “In consequence of a communication from the Secretary of State, relative to the state of prostitution in which it is represented the female convicts, during the passage to New South Wales, have been permitted to live with the officers and seamen of the ships in which they were embarked, we desire that you will take the most particular care to prevent the prostitution of the female convicts who may be embarked, as far as possible, and, independently of showing a good example in this respect, that you will not, under any pretence whatever, suffer any officer or seaman to live with a woman on the passage; and we inform you that instructions have been given by the Secretary of State to the Governor of New South Wales, to examine whether these directions have been fully complied with; and that to enable you to receive your gratuity, it is necessary that you should procure a certificate from His Excellency, as to the measures taken by you to enforce these regulations through the ship; when it will be considered how far your conduct entitles you to such gratuity.”

In former times the owners of ships chartered for the conveyance of convicts to the colonies, and used also to contract for victualling them during the voyage, and were even at liberty to provide persons of their own choice to act as surgeons. With what qualifications, intellectual or moral, those medical gentlemen entered on the duties of this most important branch of the service, it is not my purpose here to inquire. But the ship-owner in those days contracted for a certain number to be embarked, without any stipulation being entered into for landing them safely at the place of destination;—a material distinction, as is evident when it is considered, that it was by no means uncommon for a ship of this description to have from forty to seventy deaths, and upwards, in the course of a voyage. The following statement, extracted from Collins’s History of New South Wales, is illustrative of this assertion.

“A contract,”—he says, page 102, “had been entered into by Government, with Messrs. Calvert, Cambden, and King, merchants of London, for the transporting of one thousand convicts; and Government engaged to pay 17l. 7s. 6d. per head, for every convict they embarked. This sum being as well for their provisions as for their transportation, no interest for their preservation was created in the owners, and the dead were more profitable (if profit alone was consulted by them, and the credit of their house was not at stake,) than the living. The following accounts of the numbers who died on board each ship were given in by the Masters:

	Men.	Women.	Children.
On board the Lady Juliana	0	5	2
On board the Surprise	42	0	0
On board the Scarborough	68	0	0
On board the Neptune	151	11	2

All possible expedition was used to get the sick on shore; for even while they remained on board many died.” Again, at page 436, the same author, speaking of the Hillsborough, which arrived the 26th July, 1799, says, “Ninety-five died during the voyage, and six more were added to the number in a few days after they were landed.”

Within the period since Naval Surgeons have been appointed to the superintendence of convict ships, the calamity has been considerably lessened; and now, if two or three deaths occur in a voyage, it is thought very unfortunate indeed. I may add of my own knowledge, that in 1818, when I was first in New South Wales in that service, out of 1,059 convicts embarked in England and Ireland, 1,057 were landed at Sydney in tolerably good health. This favourable result may have been influenced considerably, perhaps, by much greater attention having been given to ventilation and cleanliness, and the convicts being less crowded than they used to be for many years after the settlement of the colony.

Such, it appears, was formerly the mode in which the transportation of convicts used to be conducted; but at present, under the superintendence of men regularly educated in the profession, it has become a point of duty for the Surgeon to take cognizance of every circumstance connected with the care of the convicts. To this intent, the Instructions issued to him from the Navy Board require the strictest attention to ascertain that the convicts’ stores are economically expended, and to see that every tendency to waste, irregular distribution, and improper application of the Government property, is instantly checked and prevented. Under these circumstances, his professional respectability becomes unavoidably merged, in some degree, in the character of a spy, in which odious light he is liable to be viewed by the commander, over whose actions he is directed to exercise this disagreeable, and in many cases unnecessary, controul.

The situation, therefore, of a Surgeon in a convict ship, besides being one of great responsibility, is subject to serious inconvenience and embarrassment from many existing circumstances, which are independent of his power or choice, and which, deriving influence from long established custom, have become inveterately incorporated with the present system of the service, and render the appointment by no means a sinecure. This is more strikingly evident in a female convict ship, where delicacy of management must be combined with a firmness of discipline bordering upon severity, which is at all times disagreeable, but becomes peculiarly odious when enforced, as must generally be the case, where corporal punishment is excluded. To regulate and duly restrain minds of ordinary purity and habitude of obedience, is not unattended with difficulty: but the duty is palpably irksome, though exercised with the utmost discretion, over dispositions vitiated and turbulent, as those which are generally found among female convicts; so much so, indeed, that few, knowing the extent of this painful responsibility, will be found willing to give the trial a repetition.

If he sanction, for instance, or connive at, the prostitution of the women, he is liable not only to severe animadversion, but even to be cashiered, and otherwise punished, by the authority under which he serves. On the other hand, his embarrassments are equally pressing; for, if he “enforce” the orders of the Navy Board, which will often involve the commission of an act of violence, he may subject himself to a criminal prosecution, the consequences of which may be fatal. Strange as this may sound, it is perfectly correct. During the forty nights I kept watch in the prison of the Morley, it was my firm determination to obey the letter and spirit of the orders I received in my Instructions, persuaded then that in so doing I should have acted legally; and had any of the seamen broken in, as they frequently threatened to do, I would most assuredly have shot at the first that entered; which as I have lately learned, would have been felony. Here is Charybdis on one hand, and Scylla on the other.

In fact, the Surgeon in those ships has no means whatever but his own physical strength to carry his instructions into effect; and should the opposition he meets with in the discharge of his public duty be formidable enough to trample down his authority, he can obtain no redress, as the law has provided no remedy against the licentiousness of sailors: consequently, to prefer complaints so as to give grounds for prosecution against them, would only be a useless waste of his time. It will, perhaps, be expected that the authority and co-operation of the Master will be effective in support of the Surgeon’s intentions; such expectation can only arise from the supposition that the Master’s authority over his seamen is absolute, or at least that his orders are promptly obeyed; but this supposition has been shown, in the journal, to be unfortunately without foundation.

To act up closely to his Instructions, a Surgeon must examine every bale, cask, parcel, or article which is to enter the ship, as will appear from the subjoined extract from the Instructions.

“You are to take particular care that neither the Master nor any other person be suffered, under any pretence whatsoever, to put on board any private goods or articles of any kind, without the special permission of the Board; and as the whole of the tonnage of the stores which may be permitted to be shipped will be reported to the Governor of New South Wales, the ship will be liable to seizure, if any greater quantity should be found on board.”

Would not this duty be better performed by a Custom-house officer during the continuance of the ship at any British port? If the vessel do not depart without the stipulated quantity of water, which ought to be determined by previous inspection, there will seldom be occasion to touch at any other place during the voyage, and consequently no opportunity can occur to take in goods without permission. The time which must be given to matters of this nature, will be found to interfere with the more immediate and important claims upon his attention as Superintendent, such for instance as the following: “You are to be careful that the convicts and passengers have their due rations of provisions without any deduction whatever, and to see that the victuals are properly cooked, and regularly issued at the usual meal-times, as also that they have a sufficient proportion of water. You are also to attend the opening of every cask of provisions supplied to the vessel by Government, and to notice in your journal its mark, numbers, and contents.”

In the discharge of duties so multifarious as are those of the Surgeon Superintendent in a convict ship, any leaning to remissness justly subjects him to the displeasure of the Board from whom he has the honour of receiving his appointment and instructions; or he incurs the liability of quarrelling perpetually with the Commander, when ever the conduct of the latter may be thought to require his interference; which becomes a constant source of uneasiness and vexation. Some men might be driven by such annoyance to study their own comforts, and self-interest grow importunate for a large share of consideration: in this case, sense of public duty may perhaps become weak in proportion as self predominates, and necessity, which rarely admits of compromise, compels to an acquiescence with the Master’s views, in order to conciliate his friendship, and cultivate a disposition to reciprocal concession on his part.

Should this mutual understanding fail to be established very early in the voyage, there is likely to be continual bickering between them, and endless thwarting on every trifling occasion, until at length an open rupture takes place, and the Master takes his revenge by dispensing with the Surgeon’s future services as soon as the convicts have been disembarked, and leaves him on shore to find a passage home in the best manner he can. It is fair, however, to state, that the Navy Board so far makes the Surgeon independent of such an unpleasant casualty, as to allow him fifty pounds by way of passage money returning from the colony: but whether this liberality be an equivalent for the severe discharge of an ungracious duty, by which he is subject to that emergency, is more than questionable, as it is a well known fact, that the sum demanded for a passage from New South Wales to England is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds. To remain at the colony is productive of manifold inconvenience, as the allowance of fifty pounds will soon be expended for the necessaries of living, while the same demand and difficulty to return will still continue.

This representation, although a bare recital of facts, may be objected to as being the very worst state of the case supposed, and that the argument rests upon a contingency which has but seldom occurred: but this objection, far from weakening the position, gives an additional weight to the statement, and claims for it a greater degree of attention. For it can be said without fear of refutation, that nineteen out of twenty of the Surgeons who go out in convict ships would return involved in debts, which it would be utterly beyond their power to discharge by any other means than an apprenticeship in the King’s Bench, were they to rely solely on the fifty pounds to meet the expenses of the passage home, which it may be seen requires four times that sum.

It should be considered, moreover, that convict ships return very rarely from New South Wales directly, as they are mostly chartered to distant ports in India, or are directed by their owners to proceed in quest of cargo, after their engagement with Government is completed. In this case, a considerable time usually elapses in preparing for this fresh destination before the vessel can leave Sydney; and should the Surgeon be entered as a passenger, he must abide by the regulations existing on those occasions, by which he is bound to maintain himself on shore as long as the ship remains in any port. The heavy expenses which this must create, in addition to that of passage, must be seriously felt by the time the vessel will have arrived in England. Either, then, the Surgeon must subdue his honourable feelings by silencing scruples as to the duties of Superintendent, or he must abide by such consequences as leave him the inmate of a prison.

In order to avoid this horrible alternative, he generally enters into an engagement with the ship-owners, before the vessel sails from England, to give his professional attention to the crew during the voyage, and thus secures a passage home without much expense; but this, it should be observed, is to be effected only when no misunderstanding has taken place between himself and the Commander, as otherwise he is liable to be removed at the pleasure of that officer on the passage home. This arrangement is doubtless convenient enough for both parties: but it may be questioned whether the public service is benefited by it; for it can hardly be expected, that the same vigilance and firmness which would characterize the conduct of a Surgeon Superintendent, were he perfectly independent, will be observed when bound by interest, by private compact, and by necessity, to obey the Master’s orders, or at least give implicit attention to his suggestions, thereby compromising that dignity of character which properly belongs to his rank[^[30]].

I wish this observation not to be construed into an insinuation against the honour or honesty of the Masters of convict ships generally. If all may be judged of from those with whom I had the pleasure of being connected, they ought to stand very high indeed in public estimation; for I firmly believe, that there could not be found in Britain men possessed of more upright and honourable principles than they are; and an acquaintance moderately extensive with others in that particular service has impressed me strongly with sentiments of respect for their integrity and general character.

On the other hand, it is very remote from my intention to throw the slightest shade on the character of those professional gentlemen who have been latterly employed in this service. Many of them possess well cultivated minds, and are meritorious and valuable members of society; actuated by that high sense of honour which would detain them in obscurity for life rather than forfeit their principles; but some of them have, at the same time, wives and children looking up to them for support, to provide which, and to give them the advantages of education, the utmost exertions of industry and economy are required. The procedure, however, having been dictated, and in some degree made general, by necessity, has never been considered disreputable.

There are one or two other points regarding the situation of Surgeons on board of convict ships, which seem to me worthy of consideration: and as they concern the respectability of the service, and the efficiency which ought ever to attend that branch of duty, the mention of them, it is hoped, will not be deemed disrespectful to the authority that watches over such affairs.

According to the regulations now existing, the Surgeon is not allowed a servant, which reduces him to the alternative of applying to the Master to permit one of the ship’s company to do that duty; and this favour, if granted, necessarily places him under personal obligations to the man whose actions he is required to inspect, and often to control; or else he must perform those offices himself; which cannot be less repugnant to his feelings as a gentleman, than it must eventually prove injurious to the service.

Let the situation of a Surgeon Superintendent in a convict ship be compared with that of an officer in the army of the same rank, and it will readily be seen how widely different are their comparative comforts and respectability. A naval Surgeon ranks with a Captain of the land forces; but this equality of rank, if not an absolute inconvenience, is, under the presently existing circumstances, nothing but an empty name. For instance, while the lowest commissioned officer in the army is allowed a servant, exclusively of the attentions he can command from his guard, the Surgeon Superintendent in the same ship enjoys the proud privilege of ministering to his own wants.

Who would not sympathize with a gentleman driven to the necessity of discharging the office of a menial, and that, too, in the presence of those very persons of whom he has charge, and over whom he is commissioned constantly to exercise authority? I beg to be understood distinctly, in drawing the above comparison, not to imply any thing of an invidious nature towards officers of the army doing duty in convict ships, every one of whom, I am persuaded, justly merits whatever comfort can be enjoyed in such a situation.

It is in place here to observe, that misunderstandings are likely to occur from the first moment of sending the convicts on board. The Master of the ship having signed a bond making himself responsible for the safe custody of the prisoners, he alone is held accountable in the event of any of them escaping; which would seem to give him a strong claim to regulate them as he may think necessary during the voyage, while the instructions given to the Surgeon appear to have a different import, thus: “You are not to consider yourself as Naval Agent for Transports, nor authorized in any way to interfere with the management or navigation of the ship, your duty as Surgeon and Superintendent extending only to the care and management of the convicts, and to see that the Master fully complies with the terms of his charter party, a copy of which is inclosed for your information.”

A military officer is ordered on board in command of a guard, without any instructions whatever, it appears, as to his particular line of duty; and he naturally enough imagines that the prisoners and every other person in the ship are under his charge. Each of these, desirous of securing respect for his authority, regards any interference of the others with a jealous eye; which has given rise to many unpleasant incidents, that have ultimately led to investigations in the colony, where it was decided that the Surgeon Superintendent has the sole charge over the prisoners. It would prevent much inconvenience, were the respective duties of these officers clearly defined before the commencement of the voyage; for at the end of it information must always be too late for any useful purpose.

In consequence of a late regulation, Surgeons in this branch of the service, before they can receive their pay, are obliged to produce a certificate from the principal Surgeon of the Colony, “stating, that no unnecessary expenditure was made of the medicines and necessaries supplied for the voyage.” There is something excessively derogatory of that respect which is due to professional character, in compelling a Surgeon to apply for such a certificate as that here required. The very application, moreover, involves an unbecoming insinuation, that neither the word nor the oath of the individual is to be believed; for every Surgeon, before he obtains his pay, is obliged to make affidavit that the medicines and necessaries have been faithfully expended: but it is evident that even this solemn testimony, although squaring with every cautionary purpose for which it was originally designed, is questioned as to its truth, the recent regulation making it requisite to produce another stronger voucher to the same purport. With the profoundest deference to superior wisdom and official prudence, an additional document of this nature appears superfluous; and no absolute necessity therefore existing to demand its production, such a requisition, it is presumed, might be omitted without injury to His Majesty’s service.

It would seem trifling and ridiculous to dwell longer on a subject of such apparent insignificance; but let it not be forgotten, that of such trifles is the greater part of human happiness or affliction composed: neither ought it to be looked upon as an unreasonable wish, that those professional men who have devoted the prime of life to their country’s service, should, at least in some degree, be screened from unnecessary humiliation.

---

[30]. The Commissioners of His Majesty’s Navy, finding that the allowance of fifty pounds is wholly inadequate to satisfy the demand for a passage home, have lately increased it to one hundred and ten pounds, and also granted ten shillings a day during the time a Surgeon is obliged to remain in the colony. Since these sheets were put to press, I have ascertained, that the subject of convict management, generally, has received considerable attention, and undergone some improvements. The structural weakness, and consequent insecurity, so severely felt in the Morley, have in some degree been remedied in fitting up the last female convict ship, Mary Anne. Some of the locks supplied to that ship were fitted in a more efficient manner, and appeared of a better quality than those which were formerly furnished. Those useful and highly necessary arrangements reflect credit on their authors, and cannot fail to benefit the service. It is earnestly to be hoped that they will be followed up with others which are still very requisite.

CHAPTER VI.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

In the account given of the transmission of convicts to New South Wales, I have endeavoured, “nothing extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice,” to describe the true state of morality in that country. A wish to avoid prolixity prevented the mention of some few particulars, which from the weight that attaches to their consideration, as affecting the security and reformation of the prisoners, seem to be not destitute of interest, and may without impropriety, it is hoped, be briefly mentioned here. In these remarks I shall simply state circumstances as they came under my notice in their practical effects, leaving the question of remedy exclusively in the hands of those who best can obviate the existing inconveniences, and remedy the mischievous results arising from the present mode of transportation.

In the first instance, then, I would respectfully direct attention, immediate and effective, to the present plan of fitting up prisons on board of convict ships. The manner in which those places are erected for the detention of male prisoners is less objectionable in regard to security than those for females. In the one case, the protection of the persons in authority over the confined appears principally designed, as opposed to any violence meditated on the part of the male prisoners, as also for the security of the ship. But in the other, these circumstances, if they are at all allowed to occupy consideration, appear of but little moment, because it seems to be an opinion commonly received, that improper intercourse between the female convicts and the sailors must continue as a matter of course, and that all endeavours to prevent it will be fruitless, and therefore any precaution in fitting up a prison for females, with that view, is superfluous. As far as it regards the safety of the ship and stores, that may perhaps be the case, as from women, merely, no such danger need be apprehended; and this notion has probably led to the present specious manner of construction, in which the semblance of confinement only appears to be consulted.

The present alarming increase of crime renders every precaution for the safe lodgement of male convicts both wise and salutary, particularly so long as no pains are taken to subdue their predilection for plunder and profligacy, by informing their minds with moral truths, and showing them the just and happier resources of honest life. With regard to this class of prisoners, however, there is little to recommend by way of strengthening the rigour of the system of confinement, as sufficient care is taken in that respect, that as little chance as possible is allowed of their resorting to violence with any hope of success, even were they so disposed: when in addition to the fetters and the strong prevention of their prison, the military guard placed over them is a balance more than sufficiently countervailing to any such design.

The situation of a female convict prison claims attention in a peculiar degree, if the main purpose of reformation, the object originally in the contemplation of their sentence, be kept in view. Revolting in the extreme to every feeling of propriety, is the idea of abandoning these miserable women to indiscriminate intercourse, among the crews of those ships in which they are ordered to be conveyed to their place of banishment. They are humanely removed from their former mischievous connexions; but who would say that this is a mode in which they can be reclaimed? Prostitution has been the bane of many of them; will they thus become less impure?

By the very unaccountable neglect of moral instruction heretofore prevailing, independently of other causes, every sailor, nay the officers on board, could take advantage of the defenceless state of the female convicts; and so grossly did these excesses increase by indulgence, that the commonness of the practice flung a familiarity over the evil, concealing its disgusting odiousness, and making it looked upon as an affair of course, of ordinary, of necessary occurrence! The Government, being made acquainted with its existence, have interfered and forbidden the abuse. Has that been sufficient to root it out, or even put a stop to its abominable recurrence? It is seriously to be feared that it exists in full vigour, and that, generally speaking, so far from being circumscribed, it is unlimited.

Under a system of organized depravity and abandonment, which is too disgusting to be depicted, can any one be surprised,—can anyone expect otherwise,—than that the female convicts should arrive in the colony contaminated and hardened in turpitude and profligacy to the last degree,—so absolutely vitiated as scarcely to retain the consciousness of a single virtuous thought? Suppose a simple country girl were one of these, convicted of her first offence; it surely is not unreasonable to imagine, that, if sheltered from such iniquitous association, decently treated, and rather encouraged by mild remonstrance, and timely humane counsel, aided too by good example, she might be reclaimed from error, and again become a useful member of society. But, in a school so destructive of moral feeling, as that which a convict ship has hitherto been permitted to present, will any such salutary result in her favour be expected? Can any thing less than miracle save her from hopeless ruin? The hope of moral reformation is quite idle, so long as such detestable doings exist; nor will it ever be made a consideration in the necessity of their removal, whether they owe existence to connivance or laxity of discipline. If, then, the reformation of female convicts be still made a portion of the public concern, some arrangements different from those hitherto employed, or some more efficient application of such as at present so miserably obtain, are indispensably necessary: if otherwise, too much has already been done, and useless restraints have been imposed.

The state of the prison in female convict ships should be such that no ingenuity, or any effort short of open violence, could be sufficient to command a communication with the prisoners. In this case, the construction of the prison ought to be as firm at least as that for males; nor should the minuteness of accommodation in the interior, concerning personal comfort, cleanliness, and decent reserve, be overlooked. It is essentially necessary that a small apartment be fitted up securely, for the seclusion of any female whose profligate or refractory disposition may render solitary confinement necessary. This place should be thoroughly ventilated, and kept clean, but every thing carefully excluded except the absolute necessaries of life; which, during confinement, ought to consist of bread and water only. There may be some few in every ship, too hardened in iniquity, to be influenced by kind treatment and moral admonition, who would be intimidated by the fear of punishment like this. The want of such a place in every female convict ship is felt and acknowledged by all persons conversant in such affairs. The only objection to the general adoption of this measure is, that it would deprive the prisoners of part of that space which is at present sufficiently limited. But room may be allowed for it without inconvenience, by making the number to be transmitted less by six or eight than the usual complement: the advantages would then be found greatly to outweigh the difference in expense, which at most could be but a trifle. The locks, moreover, should be of a durable and well contrived description; neither liable to be picked, like the common clumsy things now in use, nor spoiled by the effects of moisture; and two or three spare sets, at least, should be supplied, to replace such as may be injured on the voyage.

It will be seen, on reference to the journal, that the system of moral restraint and instruction adopted, and the vigilance with which it was enforced, prevented the sailors from making any aggression until the voyage was more than half over; and that they were invited then only by the weak state of the prison; presenting scarcely any opposition to those who might wish to gain admission. It will also appear that some of the sailors were removed from the ship at Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land, for disorderly behaviour towards the prisoners: these men were afterwards sent up to Sydney, as prisoners, in another ship, but on their arrival there were set at liberty, without a single question being asked them, or the slightest investigation instituted. I confess I was desirous that the affair should have been inquired into at the time, when the allegations might have been confirmed or disproved by the testimony of those who had been eye witnesses of the transactions for which those men had been arrested; and satisfactory evidence of the circumstances of the whole voyage would then have been obtained, those who were most competent to give information being on the spot. This is the more to be regretted, because the practicability of moral reformation in those ships would have been proved beyond the possibility of cavil, if the prisons be properly secured, and the Surgeon Superintendent supported in the discharge of his duty, and in his endeavours to accomplish an object of such desirable and paramount importance.

It is not from the impregnable structure of the prison in a convict ship, that the great object of transportation is alone to be sought. The arm of the law, which deprives the convict of the power of committing mischief by sanctioning the coercive bolt or massy bar, can be as effectual in restraining the licentious seaman from transgressing the bounds of duty, and committing acts of violence towards the persons confined; such are powers of ordinary and every day efficacy. Will they, in the silent hour of night, in the lowering retreat of meditated guilt, reach the mind in its secret recesses, and confine its aberrations from rectitude? No: recourse must be had to means much more potent,—boundless as created space, which will embrace all the deviations of the soul, and, with a shepherd’s care, prevent its dangerous wanderings. Religious influence, the enlivening, all-pervading force of conscience must be called up to aid in checking criminal intention, to recall grave recollections of the past, and turn the soul to chastening, penitent reflection. Vain are all endeavours to amend, unless error be struck at by a fundamental, unshowy energy, to clear away effectually the noisome weeds that choke the paths of virtue.

Impressed with this conviction, I endeavoured to establish a moral and religious system of management on board the ships intrusted to my care; and as nothing of the kind was before in use[^[31]], I feel ambitious to witness the general adoption of that, or any improvement upon it which will have the same humane purpose in view. Many well disposed and charitable persons, I know, have expressed their apprehension that permanent good from such a system cannot be established within the short period in which a voyage is performed from England to the colony: and that even could it be effected, the impression would be speedily effaced by the corrupting association with those less under the influence of reformation there. It must be allowed that the objection may have some weight, but I hope not so as to discourage the laudable attempt; for, were the good resulting even partial, operating to the reformation of a few only, yet how gratifying must it be in such a case! When, however, a better supported, more extensive trial is given to the system, I trust it will appear that the harvest will be bountiful, and will well repay the toil of cultivation.

The following facts may aid in giving incitement to future exertions of the same kind. In my recent visit to New South Wales, I availed myself of every means to ascertain how the prisoners who went out with me in the Neptune had behaved since their arrival, and I could hear of nine only, out of one hundred and seventy, who had been called before the magistrates to answer for ill conduct, during a period of two years and a half. Several of the number were recommended to situations of service immediately on their landing, and I did not learn that any of them had merited turning away. One individual came upwards of forty miles to see me, and brought a very satisfactory testimonial from his master, which I laid before the Governor, and requested that some indulgence might be given him; with which His Excellency most obligingly and readily complied. So far it is gratifying to know that the attempt at reformation, however feeble, has not been entirely without success.

On the subject of employment for prisoners during the voyage, much might be said; but its necessity and advantages are too numerous, and would render observation tedious, however appropriate. If employment be found useful in the Hulks, why should not its benefits be also tried on board of convict ships? Convicts will certainly be better fitted for industrious occupations in the colony, having been so employed upon their passage thither; and as they are sent to that country not to be maintained in idleness, why not inure them to habits of application previously? In the colony they have inducements to work,—food and an annual stipend; let them on board ship be so employed, as that a portion of what they earn may revert to themselves, and they will work cheerfully. Prisoners engaged at work are as much under the power of restraint as ever; they will, it is presumed, be much more orderly; nor can any reasonable fear be entertained of their contemplating mischief, when steadily occupied with what they must be convinced is intended to benefit themselves, especially if, at the same time, the effects of a moral and religious system operate upon their minds.

Of the same nature is the establishment of a school, not alone for children belonging to convicts, but for the instruction of junior offenders; for it will be found in almost every case of this description, that early depravity and ignorance are concomitants. The generality of young culprits derive their hardening career in crime, almost entirely from the want of religious instruction: it must therefore be not only wise and humane, but also a pleasure demanded by prudence and sound policy, to furnish them with the means of gaining moral instruction from its source, by teaching them to read that best of books, the Bible. Neither should those children be left without regular employment: they also will long enjoy the blessings thus arising from habits of industry.

Every one who has an interest in the welfare of the colony, as well as the friends of humanity, must feel some degree of anxiety on the subject of convict management, previously to their entering on those duties which are prescribed by their sentence. With regard to males, less concern is usually entertained, from their capability of sustaining severity of punishment, if necessary, in a higher degree; but as to females, corrective applications of that nature cannot be resorted to, to produce reformation of life. In proportion, then, as the difficulty of applying penal treatment exists, the more is prevention requisite to preclude its necessity: but unfortunately this is too little regarded; and to this circumstance may be, in a great measure, attributed that deplorable state of habitual dissoluteness, aggravated by heinous indulgence in open violation of decency, which prevails in the voyage to New South Wales.

The evil consequences to the colony, from this abuse, are innumerable. The continual disturbance of social connexions, and disregard of moral obligation, are not its only bad effects; the great hope of colonization is defeated: population is undoubtedly checked in its advance by such pernicious practices. This fact is proved by the concurrent testimony of all nations, and various arguments have been urged in illustration: but the correctness of the opinion needs very little to maintain its accuracy; the position may indeed be pronounced incontrovertible. In reply to this it may be said, that population in New South Wales has increased in a ratio greatly beyond that of any other country. The extraordinary salubrity of the climate, and other circumstances, may have contributed in a great degree to that remarkable increase, which appears unquestionably without parallel even in the periods of American colonization; but, were female virtue better protected, and cherished with becoming care, there can be not a shadow of doubt, that the population would be much greater than it is even now.

But the state of morals in the colony is not such as to encourage a hope that this respect for the sex is likely to be a prevailing sentiment, at least for some time to come; and, until that change shall have arrived, it is feared that few of the corrupt females who are transported thither will become reformed there: indeed it is hardly to be expected that they should, unless their minds have been fortified by salutary management previously to their arrival, as afterwards there is not a moment allowed them for reflection. The same violent passions which raged uncontrolled before and during the voyage, so far from subsiding, are worked up to excess by wretches of the very worst description, many unhappily of their own sex, who beset them with temptation to their utter ruin.

From the best information I was able to obtain, it appears that the proportion of males to that of females is somewhat above six to one. It will be asked, perhaps, Why is not marriage encouraged, and how happens it that any woman can remain single for any time, the proportion being so small? Marriages certainly do take place to the utmost extent of propriety; and investigation of the circumstances in many cases, if deemed necessary, would, it is apprehended, painfully prove that those limits are frequently exceeded. Marriages are continually taking place between men and women whose wives and husbands are living in England; some, it is asserted on good authority, in the colony under fictitious names. But although this breach of law is punishable at home by transportation, little inquiry or complaint is made concerning it in the colony, and punishment is seldom inflicted for its commission, owing probably to its being rarely brought under judicial cognizance by those concerned.

Marriage occurs also very often for the purpose of getting a woman out of the Factory; that is, letting her loose on society, without the least intention of the parties living together, save for a few days to cover appearances. It is known to happen sometimes, that such connexions are formed by making a contract beforehand, that the woman, wife so called, should appropriate a certain quantum of the wages of sin for the support of the man who thus espouses her! In this state the degraded victim of sensuality is often transferred from one master to another, bandied about in this shocking and unnatural way, until the mere figure is all that remains of the human being. Should intemperance, which is always observable in such cases, and excessive extravagance, impair or totally destroy the scanty means of the protector for the time being, the female so engaged looks without concern on the misfortune of which she, perhaps, has been the principal cause, and if another paramour offer, she attaches herself to him with indifference, and so the career of guilt meets with but little interruption.

In several conversations on this disgraceful subject with some well informed men, whose judgement in other matters is deserving of respect, I was assured that no remedy of immediate efficacy could be applied to these evils; that time alone could weaken their malignancy, and that they would wear out of themselves! This shocking conclusion, almost amounting to despair of their eradication, was made by men who daily witnessed these vile practices, and lamented their enormity and prevalence, fully sensible of their miserable consequences.—But the performance of these odious tragedies is not left entirely to the convicts. Others, whose stations ought to claim some degree of respect, seem to vie with those degraded captives for the pre-eminence in guilt, many of them proudly wearing the laurels thus honourably acquired: for these enormities, which depravity has made familiar, even palliation is insolently attempted, and that too on grounds sometimes unpardonably offensive to decency.

I have heard men of reputed good sense and discrimination, both here and in New South Wales, argue with much earnestness, and a feeling of exultation which I would willingly consider not real, that the females who have been under the management of the Ladies’ Committee generally behave worse during the voyage, and after their arrival in the colony, than those from any other prison whatever; inferring that all the disinterested and zealous exertions of that amiable association have been unproductive of any the least good.—Among those in the colony holding, or at least professing to hold, this opinion, a general feeling seemed to prevail, that all efforts made to form those unfortunate females to habits of virtue, propriety, and industry, were nugatory, and calculated rather to injure than promote the interests of the colony. The very endeavours to prevent illicit intercourse upon the voyage were treated as if they had a tendency to render the women unfit for their proper situations in the places to which they were going! They maintained that the character of these females is utterly reprobate, beyond the possibility of being reclaimed, and that it is therefore useless to think of reforming them,—that they should be abandoned to their wretched lot.

So long as persons holding such sentiments, and acting upon them, would render the subjects of their obloquy incapable of improvement by rekindling their profligacy and contributing to their misfortune, and that such conduct can be followed as an example, so long indeed it is vain to hope that any instruction in prisons can effect permanent reformation. It would not be doing violence to probability, nor, I think, exceeding the bounds of charity, to assert that the principles by which such abettors of vice are actuated are referable to licentious propensities, which the most liberal of them would, perhaps, be unwilling to acknowledge as belonging to himself. Why then would they,—for the evidence is strong against them,—desire to continue those wretched women in a state of debasement? Is it that themselves may be allowed to pass unnoticed amidst the general depravity which must be the certain consequence of such a state of things? These men would be stout advocates for the baneful principle of utility described by Hume, or the still more pernicious one of general good so strenuously recommended by Godwin.

While such principles are deemed the basis of moral law, it is impossible to calculate on any other than the most destructive results, as no other can be reasonably expected from a demoralized population, amongst whom honesty and decency are in perpetual violation. Can any reprobation, then, be thought too severe, of that unmanly, ungenerous conduct, which, by fostering vice in the advocacy of self-example, would render a future generation more immoral than the past, and lead to complete anarchy of all the rational powers of the mind? It has been well observed by a late anonymous writer, that “whoever weakens in society the veneration for morality, is a traitor to his country; and whoever diminishes the influence of religion in the world, as a rule of daily conduct, is a traitor to his God.”—The language is as forcible as the truth is incontrovertible.

The assertion, however, on which so much stress is laid,—that the women from Newgate behave worse than those from other prisons,—is deserving of some examination. If we reflect on the state of society in London, and how infinitely more numerous are the opportunities to crime and its consequences than elsewhere; the dissoluteness which always exists in a crowded metropolis; and the daring depravity that there marks the gradations of offence; if we carefully survey the life of “a regular London female thief who has passed through every stage of guilt, who has spent her youth in prostitution, and her maturer age in theft and knavery; whose every friend and connexion are accomplices;” one of those who are “the refuse of the capital; that is, the very worst description of criminals, committed for the very worst excesses of crime; women who had been frequent inmates of a prison, and with whom thieving was ‘their daily bread:’” if these circumstances, I say, are duly considered, they must be admitted, by every unprejudiced individual, to form grounds of difficulty in the endeavours to reclaim offenders from their wickedness in such a society, beyond, greatly beyond the less hardened habits of provincial iniquity; and should it even appear that the former behave much worse than the latter on board a ship, it can afford very little cause for ill-judging malignity to triumph. Could aught else, even then, be shown, but that the time those unfortunate women were under the guidance of the Ladies’ Committee was too short for the completion of their benevolent purpose? Is it reasonable to expect that long-rooted habits of idleness and vice, impressed on the mind from the first dawning of perception, can be broken through, and the salutary work of reformation perfected in the few weeks or months they may have been favoured with those pious attentions? But should it be proved that the conduct of the women from Newgate is at least as good, if not better than what is exhibited by those from the country prisons, to what cause shall be ascribed an alteration so rapid, and so little to be expected;—an alteration amounting to almost an entire change of natural disposition? It is impossible for scepticism, or prejudice itself, to assign any other cause than the influence of moral precept so kindly and unceasingly inculcated by the Committee.

The women from Newgate formed one third of the entire number sent out in the Morley; and I can declare conscientiously that their conduct was not worse than that of an equal number of the others: on the contrary, the effects of exhortation were more observable in their manner, in a very remarkable degree; and during the voyage, whenever it was found necessary to rebuke any of them, the mere mention of any of the Ladies of the Committee had the effect of bringing them to a sense of their error, which in almost every instance was attended with profound sorrow, a circumstance certainly not always observable in their companions. I can further assert that there was infinitely more riot, wickedness, and abandonment, amongst seven women who were permitted to accompany the soldiers that formed the guard in the Neptune in 1817, than amongst all the female convicts in the Morley put together: nay, in stating this fact, I feel that the latter are injured by being brought into such a comparison.

In a conversation on this subject at Van Diemen’s Land with Doctor Bromley, who was Surgeon Superintendent in the Lord Wellington, he assured me that he had less trouble in that ship with the women who came from Newgate than all the rest. Three of these very women on their arrival were received into the service of Mrs. Governor Macquarie, where their conduct was so uniformly correct as to merit that lady’s approbation; a circumstance so uncommon, that she felt it a duty to acquaint Mrs. Fry of the happy change. Mrs. Macquarie was prevented from writing by ill health at the time I left the colony, but desired me to communicate the fact as she had herself intended. That several of those who went out in the Lord Wellington behaved very ill after their arrival, does not militate against the system of reform adopted by the Ladies’ Committee; nor would my opinion of its invaluable efficacy be altered in the least, were I told that every one of those who were under my care has been ruined in the colony, because I know what a state of depravity prevails there. Minds much stronger than theirs have yielded to temptation; and in no country is that evil more concentrated and destructive than in New South Wales.

With respect to the rising generation in the colony, I have not sufficient data to enable me to speak with certainty; but it may be stated that, notwithstanding the boundless depravity of the parents, the children, generally speaking, are well disposed, given to industry, and of religious habits. They are represented as being passionately fond of instruction; and many of them, who are not blessed with the means of obtaining information from more direct and legitimate sources, known to make successful efforts to learn to read and write, without any assistance.

This statement so much resembles that of a bitter fountain producing sweet water, that credence to its accuracy can hardly be expected; yet I had opportunities of satisfying myself of its truth in four or five instances; and I was told of a great many others on testimony which I have no reason to disbelieve, but I would not be pledged for their authenticity. An anecdote related by the Reverend Mr. Cartwright, when he and I accompanied the Governor in his late excursion to the newly discovered country, may be relied on. This gentleman is the resident clergyman at Liverpool, where on Sunday evening he usually gives instruction to all the children who choose to come to his house. It happened on one of those occasions, that heavy rains had caused an overflow of the river, so as to render it impossible for any one to wade across, consequently he did not expect any of those children whose parents lived on the opposite side: to his astonishment, however, some of them came. On inquiring how they got over, it appeared that they had tied their clothes upon their heads, and swam across, intending to return also in the same manner when the instructions they came to receive were finished.

In more advanced age, these principles are further developed, and a great many of the young men show themselves desirous of avoiding the errors of their parents: but the impression on my mind, from the best information I could collect, is not so favourable with regard to the grown-up females, who, probably from want of that instruction which is more accessible to the other sex,—I speak of the lower classes,—are corrupted by baneful association and bad example. In this particular, indeed, the statements of some respectable persons, desirous rather of extenuating than magnifying, are strongly corroborative of the fact. It was not extraordinary, they assured me, to see a young woman of this description living a few months, first with one man, then with another, and so on with five or six, fixing on one at last, whom she thought proper to marry.

In this state of midnight gloom, which envelops this new and interesting portion of the world, who will not delight to find that the light of the Gospel is about to shed its refulgence, to dispel the dark clouds of ignorance and irreligion which blind the understanding, and, withering in their deadly shade the energies of the mind, pervert the noblest impulses of the heart? Bible Societies, benevolent associations, and schools both public and private, are springing up in the midst of this unhallowed chaos, by means of which the pure principles of Christianity will be disseminated, and their benign ascendency over corrupt temptations diffused through many hardened and profligate minds.

The British public generally, and the colonists individually, are under the most heavy obligations to those persons whose active benevolence and liberal contributions have laid the foundation of establishments on which general prosperity and happiness will eminently rise. It would be as unjust as difficult to conceal the distinguished leading exertions of the Honourable Judge-Advocate Wylde, in forming these excellent institutions: to his transcendent talents and unwearied zeal every lover of social happiness must hold himself indebted. For it is impossible that any man possessing the faculty of reason, be his rank and fortune ever so great, can feel indifferent as to the state of the great body politic: it is, indeed, those of large property who should feel the strongest interest in the propagation of those principles which alone can render possession even for an hour perfectly secure. What would be the consequence in that respect, were a whole community to shake off all the restraints imposed by the consciousness of moral obligation?

A retrospect of the revolution in France will furnish an answer to this question,—one which ought to fill the most insensible with awful reflection. The baneful writings of Bayle, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, and others of that stamp, prepared the minds of the French people for the reception of infidelity and irreligion; and their impious labours were further aided by those of Helvetius, D’Alembert, Condorcet, Raynal, Diderot, Paine, &c. These enemies of God and man achieved their hellish work under the specious pretext of LIBERTY, or “perfecting the new philosophy.”—Accordingly, Christianity was abolished; the existence of the Deity denied, and even the mention of His Name, except in blasphemy and execration, proscribed and punished with death, by a law which the rage of impiety kept in force nearly four years. At that dreadful period, marriage was declared an unsocial monopoly, whilst by another law, as if such enactments could decide the truth of the case, death was declared nothing but an eternal sleep. What an admirable salvo to the guilt of the catastrophe!—And what has been that catastrophe? They murdered their legitimate King,—butchered the nobility and clergy,—and sluiced the scaffold with the blood of thousands of every age, sex, and denomination. Property of every kind abandoned, became the spoil of those assassins, who without regard to “general good” divided the whole among themselves.

With those scenes of blood fresh in his recollection, who in this country could rest in security, or feel assured that either his life or property was out of danger, if every wretch or ruffian deaf to religion and moral duty were allowed to follow the impulse of guilty passion, without alarm, or dread of the Divine vengeance? Farewell the influence of law and justice when such is the state of immorality in a populous community, that impiety is the order of the day, and no regard is paid to the dictates of conscience and its obligations. Even Voltaire, when among his associates, used to prevent them from uttering impious and blasphemous expressions before servants, “lest,” said he, “they should cut all our throats.”

No person, surely, will pretend to say that physical power and daring intrepidity do not exist in as great a degree in England as they ever were known in France; or that an infuriated mob here would be less dangerous than in that country. This narrowed view of the question extends so far only as regards worldly prudence: if examined more broadly, the duty will be found paramount and imperative on all, to guard with jealous care the principles on which our social edifice is raised, and which under the British Constitution deservedly excites the admiration of the world. But if the bases of this glorious structure be shaken or impaired, that which is the production of the aggregate wisdom of ages must crumble into dust. Society could no longer then exist, there being no bond to link together the disunited members; there would in fact be nothing for which existence could be desirable. Odious anarchy would stifle in blood every feeling that could render our labours useful, and life a blessing: the affections between parents, children, and brethren, would be deadened, and the treasures of friendship devastated by selfish rapacity.

“Crimes of every description,” says Dr. Colquhoun, “have their origin in the vicious and immoral habits of the people; in the little attention paid to the education of the inferior orders; and in the want of some plan for regulating the morals of this useful class of the community.” No one, it is presumed, will controvert the truth of this sentiment; but while the necessity of educating the inferior orders is generally admitted, very few come forward willingly to engage in that important task, nay, I will call it positive duty. Should it be attributed to the lower class as a crime, that their parents were too poor or too profligate to procure for them the benefits of education, sufficient at least to enable them to peruse the Scriptures, and thereby be impressed with the obligations of Christianity,—their duty to God and their neighbour?

It will be said, perhaps, that the inculcation of those duties belongs exclusively to the Clergy. Persons maintaining this opinion are, I fear, but little influenced by the true spirit of charity, although the letter or external signs of it may be familiar to them. It is, in truth, the duty of every one who is qualified for the task, whether clergyman, or layman, whether Protestant or Catholic, Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Methodist or Independent, or be his Christian creed what it may, to instruct his fellow creature “in the way he should go,” and, if found ignorant or erring, to put him right if he can: no sect or denomination of Christians can, without manifest injustice, be excluded from the labour of philanthropy.

Having described the condition of the females sent to the Factory at Parramatta, it would be as unnecessary as painful to comment further on the inaptitude of that establishment, in its present circumstances, to produce any reformatory effects; particularly as a hope is confidently indulged that the existing evils will soon be lessened, if not wholly obviated, by the erection of another Factory in the same neighbourhood. This building, which was expected to be ready for the reception of the female convicts about last February, has given rise to expectations of its utility very sanguine indeed, but in no respect exceeding what I would look for, were it in the power of the local Government to ensure its success commensurately with the design. The very liberal manner in which His Excellency Governor Macquarie has invariably come forward with his purse, as well as patronage, on all occasions to advance any measure conducive to public good, must convince every one of his devotedness to the welfare of the colony over which he presides, and which has undoubtedly acquired, under his administration, innumerable benefits highly important and imperishable. But when the character of those persons is considered, to whom of necessity, for want of better, the execution of what by them are thought trifling concerns is intrusted, an apprehension will strongly intrude, that many of the evils now complained of in the old Factory will be transferred to the new, under the care of the present overseers.

As matters now stand, to indulge a hope of reformation, if the present management be persisted in, would be only to court disappointment: the necessity of substituting some other more efficacious must be evident. With a view of contributing some little assistance to accomplish this most desirable end, I beg leave to offer a few suggestions, which it is hoped will be considered as given disinterestedly.

I would therefore venture to recommend that choice be made of some elderly man and woman of respectability, in England, whose moral and religious character can be steadily relied on, to be sent out and have charge of the new Factory. Two such persons might readily be found, who for a moderate remuneration would discharge the duties of that important trust with fidelity; and being independent of local connexions, prejudices and interests, their appointment would at once put an end to those iniquitous collusions by which the vile projects in speculation, and the whole tissue of existing abuses are maintained.

Strongly convinced by experience of the necessity and advantages of classification, I would advise its adoption as a preliminary and indispensable step to success, distinguishing thereby the inmates in reference to the degrees of reformation they evince. A code of rules should also be prepared, of which undeviating observance ought to be enforced. Those recommended by the Committee for the improvement of prison discipline, &c., are admirably calculated to ensure all the benefits that can reasonably be hoped for from imprisonment, and with some modification, which local circumstances will require, may be generally adopted.

Some enlightened and well disposed persons whom I had frequent opportunities of consulting on this and other such subjects, approved much of the above suggestions, knowing how greatly their application was demanded by necessity; and their approbation was gratifying, particularly that of one gentleman, who is decidedly the first authority in the colony for legal information and personal experience. This gentleman, whose name has been already mentioned, strongly advised a Factory to be established remote from every town, in the Cow-pastures, as being on every account most eligible; where there could be no opportunities for the persons confined to procure spirits, or be deteriorated by the seductive influence of temptation, or vicious example. In that establishment, which should be altogether probationary, the prisoners, sent from the ships as they arrive, might be detained, each individual being obliged to wear an uniform dress distinguishing her class, which ought not to be laid aside during the time of continuing at that place.

It is also recommended that none of the inmates of the probationary establishment should be assigned as servants directly therefrom; but as their advancement to reformation is proved, and they become distinguished for good conduct, they should meet with encouragement. This may be shown by removing them to the Factory at Parramatta, which ought to be made a depôt for the well behaved only, whence the settler might have servants supplied them on making proper application. These arrangements being in perfect accordance with the sentiments of persons best acquainted with the true state of affairs, and the wants of society in the colony, are respectfully submitted for consideration. The measures are few and simple; but if they be adopted in time, and duly enforced, little doubt is entertained of their producing a change beneficial to the whole community.