The religious instructors selected by the government, though chiefly of the episcopal or catholic professions, were of miscellaneous origin. The clergy of all persuasions were formerly admitted to the road parties; their discourses were welcome, for they gave an interval from toil: some performed service on the sabbath at their own charge. The new instructors were strictly official: some, indeed, highly educated men, of long standing in their respective churches; others were the off-shoots of various sects, without education or personal dignity. Of their qualifications, several high officers have spoken with contempt.[258] These opinions were, however, partly the indirect result of disputes, in which the instructors were very generally involved. Several were known to convey accounts of evils within the stockades, which it was the desire of the department both to conceal and to suppress: notwithstanding, many were deficient in zeal and ability. Their labors were strictly formal, and were soon considered hopeless. Several exceptions must be understood; but to select them would be invidious. The exclusive occupation of clergymen as teachers of convicts, is generally unfavorable to their usefulness: the recognised pastor of a congregation brings to the prison the reputation and sanctity of his character among the free; the instructor of a gang is soon considered but as the agent of penal government.
The basis of Lord Stanley's system was an imaginary demand for labor in Van Diemen's Land. The home government was so confident in this resource, that placards were suspended on the English prisons, holding forth the prospect of high wages as the final stage of transportation. The execution of public works in the colonies, except at an equivalent price, was strictly prohibited. By improving the settled parts of the colony, the crown might have increased its attraction to capitalists, and by diverting an excess of laborers excited the competition of masters. The governor was desirous of allaying colonial irritation by some substantial boon: the orders of Lord Stanley were, however, rigid. The comptroller-general was forbidden to adopt any detailed regulation at variance with the scheme prescribed by the crown, or to alter or depart from its provisions, without express authority.[259]
The demands of the settlers for laborers soon fell far short of the supply. The written contracts for the passholders in the first stages of service bound the master to pay over a portion of their wages to the crown: this course was troublesome. Thus few, except in the last stage of their service, were able to obtain employment at all; and the graduated scale of payment fell to the ground. The accumulation at the hiring depôts, sometimes to the number of 4,000, who could obtain no engagement, induced the governor to urge their useful employment in public works. He stated that neither private individuals nor the colonial treasury could afford to employ them in improvements of prospective utility, and recommended that a fixed moderate payment should be accepted, in return for the service they might perform. The reply of his lordship was decided:—"If," he observed, "the free inhabitants cannot purchase the labor we have to sell, at a price which it is worth our while to accept, it remains for us to consider whether other advantageous employment cannot be found." "The necessaries of life may be produced to such an extent, as to render the convicts independent of the free colonists, who are not entitled to claim any compensation for the inconvenience with which their presence may be attended." His lordship proposed that new lands should be surveyed, cultivated, and sold for the advantage of the imperial treasury; and thus the government might assert "its independence of the settlers," and teach them to "appreciate correctly the value of convict labor."[260]
The defiant tone of this despatch, and its contemptuous reference to the settlers, determined the question of transportation.[261] The partizans of abolition could assail the system at its foundation. Thenceforth the interests of the colonists, moral and material, were obviously one. The crown was to compete in the market with the farmer and the landowner; and the labor market to be overruled by official contrivance, for the benefit of the imperial treasury.
The colonial newspapers were filled with notices of robberies, and the complaints of employers. A rapid emigration took place: free laborers and mechanics sold their properties, acquired by years of toil, often for a trifling sum; and the immigrants, brought to the colony at great public and private cost, almost universally passed over to the adjacent communities.
The comptroller-general attempted to carry out the supplementary plan ordered by Lord Stanley. Agricultural establishments were formed; but this only provided for the probationers. The passholders were entitled to enter the service of the settlers. To detain them twenty miles from the nearest farm-house, was to extend indefinitely the first stage of punishment; but when drafted to the settled districts, they could not be employed,[262] except for the benefit of the colony, and against this resource the decision of Lord Stanley was imperative.[263]
The hiring depôts were placed in settled districts or chief towns. The stage of rigid discipline being past, the convicts were not required to labour with diligence, or suffer much restraint. They were now deemed fit for society, and it was merely the fault of their numbers that many were unemployed. They were permitted to roam about in search of casual employment—to spread themselves over the country. They were allowed to expend the money they acquired in temporary service, and while any remained they were unwilling to accept an engagement. Thus they were fed and clothed, and lightly worked: they were free from care, their time was running out, and they were objects rather of envy than commiseration.
The official reports of the probation system forwarded to Downing-street, were not unfavorable. Lord Stanley asserted in his place, "that from all he could judge the system had been productive of the most beneficial results, and that the general conduct of the convicts had been most satisfactory;"[264] but in his despatch to the governor, he complained that, amidst an abundance of statistics, the notices of moral success were "slight, unimportant, and few."[265]