A voyage of four months, for instance, is to be taken by a number of convicts; its effects will vary undoubtedly in age, sex, and moral character. During that period, what are one hundred and seventy, or two hundred persons to do? The authority which dismisses to exile, takes certainly a generous concern for their bodily health, and no pains are spared to prevent them from feeling any want. Yet the most essential part of economical polity, employment, belongs not to the system, and is without consideration. Without that simple adjunct, one which most obviously should suggest itself to the present regulations in the transmission of convicts to New South Wales, the prisoners must during the voyage become subject to sickness, or sink a degree deeper in depravity.
That this result is uniformly anticipated I have very little reason to doubt; rather I might say I have very good proofs to establish my belief that such an opinion prevails amongst many who derive their information from the highest intelligence existing on the subject. It is not therefore matter of surprise, that such persons should deride, or rather disbelieve, the possibility of those degraded beings ever being saved from the evils of their lot, and becoming better than before.
It would doubtless be gratifying to those to direct at once the removal of the evil of idleness, in devising and devoting the vacant hours of the convicts to useful employment during the period of the voyage. I say useful, for if the employment be of a nugatory character, the prisoners will feel no desire to proceed with it: indeed the object might be considerably promoted, were the work of such a nature as to give them a personal concern in the execution by allowing them a small interest in the profits.
It must be confessed that the difficulty of finding proper employment during a voyage of about four or five months may in some degree occasion embarrassment. The greater number of those who are subjected to transportation are of the working class, and many of them have at one time or other of their lives exercised some mechanical art, which may perhaps be resumed with ease. All then who are acquainted with sedentary trades, might, one would think, be properly so employed, and also instruct others at the work, or such parts of it in which their assistance might be rendered useful.
When a man finds himself restored to the exercise of accustomed employment, his cheerfulness, we find, returns, and his captivity sits more lightly. Such a man will become of himself orderly in his conduct, and exert himself to keep others so. The alarm about prisoners rising upon their guards will be as problematical in theory, as it is now in reality; making persons of weak mind and hobgoblin imagination miserable at the bare mention of its possibility. In fact, convicts so circumstanced can never be guilty of an action so truly foolish in its intent, and fruitless and absurd in its proposed advantages. They will have time for reflection, thus best excited and promoted in such characters, on the futility of their former designs, and on the just value of blessings enjoyed in the good effects arising from obedience and implicit observance of the regulations by which they are governed.
Feeling themselves treated with moderation and humanity, and that their lives are preserved to them for rational and useful purposes, they will maintain a respect for themselves, and take care to avoid reproof, which to men enduring disgrace, and therefore ever testy and impatient, ought to be applied as seldom as possible. Let them be made sensible that their own welfare is solely in view, and they will listen cheerfully to the voice of authority, and knowing that in the moral and religious truths inculcated their peace of mind and future happiness are intended, they will turn an attentive ear to instruction.
They will evince their gratitude for such care by submission and deference to every command, and the transition from that state of mind to attachment is more easy, and its results more permanent, than may be supposed. Let not this be considered illusory, or the offspring merely of imagination; for I have proved it, and refer in affirmation of the above result confidently to the narrative of the voyage in the Neptune as extracted from the journal of daily occurrences. Of this termination of well applied measures in the management of convicts during their transmission to the colonies, am I so fully assured, that I would not hesitate to commit myself in a ship manned by convicts only, and, provided they understood the management of the vessel, with confidence trust to their conducting her safely without other assistance to Port Jackson.
A good deal has been advanced against intrusting mechanics with the implements of their trades for the purpose of employment. Establish but once the orderly conduct which is so easy of accomplishment; attach the people by the ties of gratitude, of their susceptibility of which satisfactory proofs will be given; take a prudent care that your confidence in them will be felt, and the most timorous need not hesitate, I affirm, to allow them the free use of their tools, and permit the full exercise of their trades.
The aptitude which boys usually display may also be usefully turned to account, and by instructing and having them to work in the interval between the hours of school, they can be made industrious, and harmless at least on the voyage outwards, and may afterwards follow on shore the trades they may have learned on board the ship. At all events, what can be objected to the experiment being fairly tried of employing the convicts during their voyage to New South Wales, as to the success of which I entertain no doubt?
The remarks which suit the condition of male convicts may apply with equal, if not with greater force to that of females. The happy effects of the memorable results produced by the Ladies’ Committee in Newgate, are so fully corroborative of this advantage of employment over idleness, that it must appear superfluous to detail the proceedings of that benevolent association, of which satisfactory evidence has already been made known.