Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III / (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the / Austrian Navy.

by Ritter von Karl Scherzer

1. The abandonment of the convict to the employer, i. e. the "assignment system," must be entirely given up, as the prisoner by such an arrangement degenerates into an article for speculation, out of which it must be the task-master's interest to get as much as he can, so as to be able to return him upon the hands of the State so soon as his capacity for labour begins to fail. The convicts who were thus "assigned" in New South Wales, stood to their employers in the same position as negro slaves in the Southern States of

North America, or the island of Cuba. They were fed like beasts of burden, without the slightest remuneration for the heaviest work. The State had, it is true, a right to punish the criminal, but it seems to us unjust in the extreme to make him the slave of his fellow-man. Accordingly this practice was the source of unutterable mischief, and was followed by most deplorable results as regards the moral development of the colony.

2. The case is very different when the labour of the criminal, instead of being devoted to the aggrandizement of a private individual, finds its expansion in forwarding parochial or national public works, in clearing and cultivating tracts of land, and preparing them for the future labour of free colonists, in the laying out of roads, in the erection of churches, schools, hospitals, and barracks, in the construction of docks, quays, &c. &c. So soon as private interest disappears,—so soon as the energies of the criminal are no longer made available to put money in the pockets of private speculators, but are utilized for the general good, by far the greater number of those minor drawbacks will disappear, which press with all the more force on the compulsory labourer, in proportion as he feels conscious that he is regarded by him who has purchased his labour not as a FELLOW-MAN, but as a CHATTEL, to be employed while he is of any value, and then to be cast aside, as one might throw a dried twig into the fire. What may be accomplished in this direction, even in colonies of comparatively recent foundation, is evidenced

by the splendid roads of Cape Colony, traversing mountain passes 6000 to 8000 feet high, the numerous public buildings in Singapore, Hong-kong, Sydney, &c. Edifices, which in consequence of the high price of free labour, might not have been erected under the lapse of many years, actually at present rear their imposing forms like so many ornamental memorials, now of the worship of the loving Saviour, now of our charitable duties to the sick and afflicted, but all serving to instruct and civilize the rising generation!

3. As to the subsistence of the criminals, we do not believe that the principle of giving them the same descriptions of rations, no matter whether they worked much or little, would be found conducive to the attainment of the great object of making them feel an interest in their labour. We would rather see the present system departed from in this particular, and a marked difference made in the food provided for the industrious, as compared with their more indolent companions.

4. Of great importance in penal colonies, as tending to produce a lasting and decided improvement of the individual, is the FAMILY TIE. What is independence or even affluence to the exile, if he has no one to care for, or think of, but himself? His slow and laborious earnings would greatly tend to plunge him once more into excesses, till he quickly sank back into his former state of war with civilization.

5. It seems to us imperatively necessary in the interests of this great design of a penal colony, that provision should be

made for a certain proportion of female population, which might consist partly of female criminals, and partly of the wives of such of the male criminals as should, after a sufficient probation, be permitted to have their wives and children conveyed at the cost of Government to their place of exile. Lastly, the nucleus of a female population thus already formed might be added to from time to time, by sending out such discharged female criminals as had no visible means of making an honest livelihood in the mother country. It were a noble object for Christian activity and religious harmony to provide the means for sending these wretched outcasts to the new home that was thus being formed.

6. The importation of spirituous liquors, that fruitful cause of so much crime, must be confined within the narrowest limits. One cannot believe that even in unhealthy places, where the water frequently is very impure and unhealthy, owing to vegetable matters held in solution, the use of strong spirituous liquors must needs be unavoidable. Tea and coffee will in such places, as I experienced myself during several years' residence in unhealthy climates, be found excellent substitutes.

7. No official of the colony, civil or military, should be permitted to trade in any article except the natural products of the soil. On the other hand, it would be advisable that each employé should have assigned him by Government, a tract of land for cultivation corresponding to his rank.