FOOTNOTES:
[221] The petition to the Commons prayed an enquiry into the efficacy of transportation to New South Wales as a secondary punishment: whether it should be continued, and under what alterations of the present system; or, if discontinued, in what manner, &c.—Petition, 1836.
[222] It was not much better in England: the Rev. J. Clay stated, that in Preston there were 422 dwellings, inhabited by 2,400 persons, sleeping in 852 beds; that is an average of five and a fractional part as follows:—84 cases 4 in a bed; 28 cases 5, 13 cases 6, 3 cases 7, 1 case 8; one family of 8 on bed frames, covered with a little straw.—Health of Towns Commission, 1844.
| Dr. | Cr. | |
| A. 3 marks for getting drunk. | B. 1 mark for punctual attendance at church. | |
| C. 2 marks for losing part of his Sunday clothes. | D. 2 marks for general steadiness and obedience. | |
| E. 5 marks for wantonly assaulting F. | F. 3 marks for self command under grievous provocation. | |
| — | — | |
| 10 | 6 | |
| 6 | ||
| — | ||
| 4 loss; falling one-half on those who obtained the entire stock of credit. | ||
[224] Macarthur's Present State, &c. pp. 47, 49.
[225] "They should have increased the barriers between him and the convict; and in those investigations they should have leaned towards him (the master), even at the expense of legal justice: his character should have been rendered sacred in the eyes of the convict."—Henderson's Observations, p. 12.
SECTION XX
At this era, no one will question the integrity or benevolence of Captain Maconochie, and it would be disgraceful in a historical work to adopt the language of prejudice, much more the invectives of a quarrel; but it is not less important to estimate aright both his opinions and his plans. His description of the condition of the prisoners might be easily illustrated by examples. There were settlers, not a few, to whose care the prisoners were entrusted, who were unfit to govern a kennel. Low in their origin, corrupt in their principles, and detestable in their lives—themselves differing from felons in nothing but their position.
The unhappy prisoner entrusted to their charge, was insulted, coerced, and crushed. Sufficiently cunning to avoid a palpable infraction of the orders of government, they constantly violated their spirit. Physical weakness, or mental incapacity, they treated as evasion or contempt. Prone to invoke the interposition of the magistracy, they drove unfortunate beings for slight offences to a tribunal, where the presumption was always against them. In the presence of the magistrate they were smooth and supple; but the eye of the punished prisoner marked the exultation of cruelty triumphant, and his course was rapid from failings to faults, and from faults to crimes.