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new system, which was to supersede both Captain Maconochie's and Sir John Franklin's experiments, had been already decided on by Her Majes ty's Government, and was in the progress of being reduced into official form. It will be seen, from the following abstract, that this new system was rather a revision and methodizing of the several alterations introduced from time to time by Sir John Franklin, than an untried or original scheme.
The fundamental principle adopted by Lord Stanley was a fixed and gradually diminishing scale of severity in punishment and restraint, pro- portioned to the original offence of the prisoner, and his conduct under punishment, so that each stage should merge in the one immediately above it, until the convict should be conducted by progressive steps to a state of freedom. With a view to this object it was decided to divide the stages through which a convict would have to pass into five, viz.:—
1. Detention at Norfolk Island, which was to be the invariable fate of those sentenced for life, and of the more aggravated offenders sentenced for fifteen years.
Detention at Norfolk Island was not to exceed four, and not to be less than two years, except in case of misconduct while there, to be ascertained by a daily record of the convict's behaviour.
2. The Probation Gangs in Van 'iemen's Land to be composed of convicts who had worked out their time in Norfolk Island, or whỏ, having been sentenced for less than life, should be sent from this country to be placed in them. These gangs, comprising from 250 to 300 men cach, were to be employed on hard labour, in the service of the Government, in the unsettled districts, and to be further subdivided into classes distin- guished from each other by mitigations of discipline. To each gang was to be attached a superintendent and three assistants. To every two gangs a religious instructor, and to every five gangs a visiting magistrate. Detention in these gangs was not to exceed two years, nor to be less than one year, except for misconduct in it, to be ascertained in the same way as at Norfolk Island.
3. The Probation Passes.-These were to be divided into three classes. The holders of the 1st or lowest class were not to engage in service without the previous consent of the Government. Those in the 2nd and 3rd might enter into service without such previous consent, provided they immediately reported the circumstance and obtained that con- sent. The 1st class likewise were to receive only half their wages;
the 2nd class two-thirds; the 3rd class the whole. The deductions from the 1st and 2nd classes were to be paid into the Savings Bank; and all pro- bation pass-holders were to be liable to account for the expenditure of their wages.
Probation pass-holders, unable to obtain employment in private service, were to return to the service of the Government, to be employed, either in road-making or in jobbing parties hired out to indi- viduals, receiving the ordinary rations of food and clothing, but without money wages or any other remuneration.
1. Tickets of Leare. The passage into this stage from the probation pass was to be a matter of grace, not of right; and was not to be allowed until the convict should have passed a fixed proportion of his original sentence as a pass-holder. The ticket of leave was to be, in fact. a revocable pardon, valid in the colony where it was given.
5. Pardons.-Either conditional or absolute.
To carry out this scheme, it was necessary to remove the convicts in Norfolk Island under Captain Maconochie to Van Diemen's Land; to be there distributed in the several gangs and classes, according as Captain Maconochie should report of their respective conduct and claims. Norfolk Island was to be separated from New South Wales, and annexed to Van Diemen's Land; and an officer was to be appointed as its superintendent from home, in the place of Captain Maconochie, who, it was thought, could
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not properly be entrusted with the superintendence of a system so different from his own. An alteration was to be made in the Act 2 and 3 William IV, cap. 62, to vest in the Crown the power of regulating the length of service and the acquisition of property by convicts. An alteration was likewise to be made in the Royal Commission and Instructions in regard to the grant of pardons; and an officer was to be appointed to super- intend the whole system, and to be called the "Comptroller-General of Convicts."
These instructions were dated the 25th November, 1842, and appear to have arrived in Van Diemen's Land in the month of May 1843. But early in 1843, Sir E. Wilmot had been appointed to succeed Sir J. Franklin as Lieutenant-Governor, and he sailed for the colony in April 1843. The task of carrying these instructions into effect devolved therefore upon him. Before, however, proceeding to state the result, in will be necessary to advert very briefly to some circumstances which exercised an essential influence over the working of the system.
A very slight consideration will show, that one essential element of the success or failure of this system must be the abundance or scarcity of capital, whether public or private, applicable to the employment of labour, and that the amount of capital required to take off the supply of labour under it must be much larger, even in proportion to the numbers, than had sufficed under the Assignment system. For, as it had been laid down under the new system, that the first object in the employment of the probation gangs must be the relief of the convict funds; and that, consequently, whenever those gangs were employed, either for the benefit of the colony or for that of private individuals, their labour was to be paid for, it followed that a considerable sum would in future be required for their employment, independently of the amount which would be absorbed in the payment of wages by private employers, to pass-holders and ticket-of-leave then, who were to supply the places of the old assigned servants. This was an essential change of principle, since formerly the colony had had gratuitously the benefit of the labour of the men in the hard-labour gangs, who, with the exception of those assigned to public departments, constituted the bulk of convicts in the hands of the Govern ment.
hend
When the scheme was first proposed there was no reason to appe- any scarcity of capital in the colony. For several years before 1842, an active land speculation had been going on in all the Australian colonies, and among them in Van Diemen's Land; so that the land fund in Van Diemen's Land had risen
from £7,754 in 1839,
to £52,905 in 1840, and to 64,070 in 1841.
At the same time, the Revenue and Expenditure Accounts for the three years ending with 1841, showed the following results:—
1839
1840
1841
Surplus.
Revenue, £119,960 2 11 180,243 10 3 170,893 13 4
Expenditure. £136,109 10 11 151,573 3 5 146,065 19 1
£16,043 6 6 44,713 13 4 69,513 7 7
At
But in 1842 a reaction commenced. banks to private individuals to buy and stock land, began to be called in,
The money lent out by the- and borrowers were accordingly pressed to meet their engagements. The price of land and stock immediately fell, and private embarrassment began to prevail very extensively throughout the colony. The public revenue felt the shock, and the Land Fund decreased to 21,981/. the same time the expenditure had increased, so that in 1842 the revenue fell short of the expenditure by no less a sum than 41,3597. Thus, at the very moment when it was most essential that private and public resources should be abundant, those resources were reduced below their average in ordinary years,
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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