Volume II Part 30 (1/2)
These opinions were afterwards modified.[271]
Notwithstanding the habitual acquiescence of the colonists in the measures of the crown, the development of Lord Stanley's system occasioned considerable sensation. The rapid increase of prisoners early excited alarm. The ma.s.ses acc.u.mulated from all parts of the empire presented a new and fearful aspect: crimes reached a height beyond example in any civilised country. The settlers, environed by parties, were subject to frequent irruptions, and were compelled to guard their dwellings, as if exposed to a foreign enemy. The men wandered miles from the stations, alone: at the hiring depots they were left almost to their discretion. According to the evidence of a magistrate, neither the comptroller-general, nor any confidential subordinate, visited the station of Cleveland from its establishment to its dissolution. At another, ninety men, near the towns.h.i.+p of Oatlands, under the charge of one free overseer, were worked in a line of seven miles extent. A settler, whose flocks had been pillaged, brought back twice in one month the same party; and again they escaped, threatening vengeance on the authors of their arrest. At Jerusalem station, 800 convicts were permitted to roam on their parole; to carry bundles in and out of barracks unsearched; to disguise their persons, and to change their dress. Their daring highway robberies ended in the proof of these facts before the supreme court at Hobart Town. At Deloraine, nearly one thousand prisoners were in charge of twenty persons, including the military: on one occasion, eighteen started for the bush, and filled the neighbourhood with terror. The local authorities could offer nothing but condolence; and even this poor relief was presented in a peculiar form.
It was alleged that the amount of depredation and violence had not risen more rapidly than the number of convicts. This was scarcely correct; but it was little consolatory to the sufferers, a.s.sailed so much the more frequently, though by different hands.[272] Their honors the judges, with repeated and pointed condemnation, reprehended the utter want of proper surveillance and restraint, as cruel alike to the settlers and the convicts. Nor were the towns exempt from extraordinary inundations: many hundreds of men were turned out from the penitentiary on Sat.u.r.day afternoon, and were thus exposed to the temptations of a populous city.
The officers of the department were charged with the trial of a system professing to breathe the most exalted charity. Had they, however, designed to expose theoretical benevolence to endless execration, no course could have been chosen more obvious. The liberty and indulgence given to the unfortunate prisoners seemed to bring them purposely within the circle of their old temptations. Many were led into scenes which act with fascinating power on men of criminal tendencies: they were often seen lingering for hours around the doors of houses for the sale of liquor. Amus.e.m.e.nts, which are always attended with some peril, were rendered more public and accessible. Dancing houses of the lowest kind were licensed, until their noise and confusion compelled their suppression. The regulation of night-pa.s.ses became much less practically stringent. Everything facilitated the allurements and the commerce of crime. Receivers were always at hand, and robbers were tolerably insured when the first danger was over, by the rapid s.h.i.+pment of their spoil.
Offenders, practised in the fraud of cities, were admitted into the towns, and placed in situations precisely calculated to recall their former habits, and excite their habitual pa.s.sions. The puisne judge, in pa.s.sing sentence on prisoners of this cla.s.s, for new crimes, and holding up their police character in his hands, exclaimed--”Now, Mr.
Attorney-general, I ask you what we may expect if such men as these are a.s.signed in towns. Is it not surprising that I have to try such cases?
It is shameful! It is shameful!” And such will be the opinion of mankind.
The chief expedients of Lord Stanley to relieve the colony from the redundancy of labor, and pressure on the treasury, were never applied.
At the suggestion of Mr. Bishton, a clergyman of Westbury, Sir Eardley Wilmot recommended the leasing portions of land to well conducted ticket-holders. This was however strongly opposed on the spot, as tending to depreciate property, and inconsistent with the social circ.u.mstances of the country. The English allotment system was inapplicable: at home, it is a subsidiary to the general resources of the laborer, who can commonly find employment with the farmers, and easily dispose of the produce of his supplementary toil.
But a project of greater moment was contemplated by Lord Stanley, and adopted by Mr. Gladstone, and advanced far towards completion. This was the formation of a new colony, called North Australia. The civil list, composed of officers of modest designations--as superintendent, chairman of sessions, and clerk of the peace--was framed with the strictest economy, and the expense was to be defrayed by the English treasury. The colonists for the most part were to consist of exiles landed with pardons, either from England or Van Diemen's Land, and thither female prisoners were intended to be sent. During the first three years only new settlers were to be furnished with food for one year; with clothing, tents, tools, bedding, and seed. 10,000 in all, were to be expended in public buildings. To the office of superintendent, Colonel Barney was appointed, under the governor of New South Wales. A party set out for their destination: they were discouraged by the appearance of the country, but before an experiment could be made they were recalled.
A more practical measure was the extension of conditional pardons to the neighbouring countries, the operation of which had been limited to Van Diemen's Land. The dearth of labor in New Holland induced the settlers to send vessels to this colony, and many hundreds, liberated by the new form of pardon, were conveyed to pastoral districts on the opposite sh.o.r.e.
During the short official relation of Mr. Secretary Gladstone, who in 1846 succeeded Lord Stanley, Sir Eardley Wilmot was recalled, and Mr. La Trobe and Sir William Denison were placed in succession at the head of our colonial affairs. Like his predecessor, Mr. Gladstone complained that the information conveyed by Wilmot and the comptroller-general, amidst abundant statistics, left the main moral questions obscure. Mr.
Forster had pa.s.sed beyond the reach of censure; and Sir Eardley Wilmot maintained that the actual evils imputed had formed the topic of incessant communications. He derived his impressions from others; and seeing but the surface, was persuaded to the last that the probation system had not failed.
The despatch of Mr. La Trobe fully corroborated the common report. His honest discrimination was worthy his high reputation for integrity.
Nothing the reader has perused will be unsustained by his more elaborate a.n.a.lysis--which may be expressed in one sentence--as ill.u.s.trating both the high-wrought theory and the mischievous practice of the probation department:--”In spite of all the superior arrangements of the system, vice of every description is to be met with on every hand: not as an isolated spot, but as a pervading stain.”[273]
Dr. Hampton, whose representations had largely contributed to these official changes, which were however fortified by a ma.s.s of concurrent testimony, received the appointment of comptroller-general. Meanwhile the office of secretary of state for the colonies devolved on Earl Grey, and at his a.s.sumption of office he abandoned at once all the schemes of his predecessors. The practice of transportation he resolved to discontinue, and in its stead to inflict punishment at home; and to send out the prisoners, when ent.i.tled to liberation, to the various colonies of the British empire. His expectation that their labor would be highly prized, was fortified by the ”a.s.sociations” at Port Phillip to obtain laborers from Van Diemen's Land, and the resolutions of the committee of the New South Wales Council, where a strong disposition was exhibited, on the part of employers, to renew transportation. Several s.h.i.+p-loads had been sent from Pentonville, and the nominal lists of their employment and wages, appeared to a.s.sure an unbounded field for their successors. To shut out the possibility of complaint, however, Earl Grey sent circulars to all the colonies on this side the Cape of Good Hope.
The reply was universally adverse; and this plan, which a few years before would have been gladly accepted, was rendered impracticable perhaps for ever.
The total abandonment of North Australia was a subject of deep regret to its projectors, and was too hastily done; but as a subst.i.tute, Earl Grey proposed the creation of villages in the more remote districts of Van Diemen's Land. The erection of houses and a limited cultivation of forest land, was expected by his lords.h.i.+p to afford employment for the ticket holders, and to yield a fund for an equal amount of free emigration. It was intended these dwellings, built on quarter acre allotments, should be sold to prisoners, or subject to a rental of 5 per annum; and a clergyman and schoolmaster provided in each. It would be useless even to examine the plan, which was based on a valuation of crown lands at that time entirely erroneous, and a fallacious estimate of mere labor, in any form whatever.
Late changes, effected by a more intelligent superintendence, and the vigilant censors.h.i.+p of the public, may be readily confessed. The decrease of numbers in the gangs, and the greatly improved resources of the convict department, have ameliorated several evils which formerly elicited great complaint. The male establishments at Hobart Town are patterns of neatness--the female, of disorder.
It merely remains to be stated, that the present system is to send out prisoners when ent.i.tled to tickets-of-leave; to disperse them through various districts in search of labor. In the colony they enjoy all the privileges of free laborers, except responsibility to a police magistrate. They will be ent.i.tled to release at a term prefixed, but on condition that they pay a sum for their pa.s.sage. Few have either the ability or self-restraint required by this regulation, and unless it is relaxed they must remain prisoners during the term of their sentence--often for life.
A great variety of details might be added; but the total revolution in the system will now lead the enquirer into the state of society rather than the management of gangs and penitentiaries. The despatches, which fill volumes of blue books, are rather transactions of penal philosophers than trustworthy guides to the historian of transportation; and the writer has not relied exclusively on these authorities, even when he has quoted them--a discretion amply justified by their endless contradictions.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 253: Address to Council, June, 1841.]
[Footnote 254: Sir James Graham, December, 1842.]
[Footnote 255: _Report of Emigration Commissioners._]
[Footnote 256: ”It is but just for me to observe, that the state of various convict establishments, inquiring into the conduct of the various officers engaged, was not so generally unfavorable as I had been led to antic.i.p.ate. The negligence and irregularity of subordinate officers cannot be denied.”--_La Trobe's Despatch, November_, 1847.]
[Footnote 257: _Forster's Report_, 1845.]
[Footnote 258: Despatches: Sir Eardley Wilmot, acting Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe, and Governor Denison.]