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the improvement of the colony, and the labour market, as Mr. Elliot has shown, was so over- stocked, that what has always been considered the great advantage of Transportation, namely, its offer- ing to convicts the easy means of maintaining them- selves by honest industry when restored to freedom, no longer existed in Van Diemen's Land, where a very large proportion of those convicts who were entitled to qualified freedom as pass or ticket-of- leave holders, were left upon the hands of the Government, from their inability to obtain employ- ment. This state of things was, I believe, far more owing to the inconsiderate manner, in which con- victs had been sent to Van Diemen's Land than to their excessive number; it would, however, occupy too much space to state the reasons for this opinion.
In Norfolk Island, as has been shown by Mr. Elliot, the state of things was still worse than in Van Diemen's Land; and these two colonies, it must be remembered, were the only two to which convicts could be transported in the strict sense of the word, since those sent to Gibraltar and Ber-
muda must be considered rather in the situation of those in the hulks at home, and require to be removed when their punishment is complete.
In these circumstances it was very difficult to know what course was to be adopted. The pre- ceding Administration had contemplated establish- ing a new convict colony in North Australia. But to this colony were to have been sent only those convicts who by good conduct or by lapse of time had regained their freedom, but who were unable to find elsewhere an effective demand for their ser- vices. To send men of this kind to a still vacant territory, where there were neither buildings nor a Government establishment yet formed, nor settlers to employ them, appeared to me to be a measure which would have been attended with enormous expense, while it would have had little or no ten- dency to meet the difficulty which was pressing If convicts who had re- upon the Government.
gained their freedom, but could not find private employment were to be settled on land. at the expense of the Government, there was every reason for rather attempting this in Van Diemen's Land
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O-885
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aggregate number of criminals sentenced to punish- ment would be largely increased.
65. Perhaps the idea may suggest itself, that the quantity of crime committed bears a certain pro- portion to the whole community, and that it would not be much influenced by ceasing to remove former offenders, because on this supposition fewer new offenders would make their appearance. This does not however appear to the compiler of the present paper likely to be a correct opinion. In regular professions or callings, where men calculate their chances ip entering upon them, it would doubtless be true. But the first commission of crime must depend far more upon casual opportunities or temptations, and upon the number of
persons
of desperate or ungovernable character who from year to year may grow up and be able to act for them, selves, than upon the prospects afforded by crime as a career; and it is hardly to be supposed, therefore, that the entire amount of criminals in the country would be materially restrained by the same, causes which prevent a regular profession from, becoming overstocked. The young villain would equally be hurried into his first crime, although the old offender might not have been transported to Australia.
66. Another consideration which is too important to be altogether passed over, is the invaluable resource which Transportation holds out in the previous main- tenance of good prison discipline. The prospect of ultimate removal to Australia must act as a most powerful engine in producing submission and orderly. conduct among the prisoners. These men, like all others, are to be governed by their hopes and fears; and when the hope is removed, or even, too, far des ferred, we know from experience in our gaols that sometimes the prisoners become totally reckless, and more like wild beasts than men. Of this there is reason to believe that the Galleys in France afford still more frequent examples. If then, the only way of allotting an adequate punishment to some of the more heinous offences, would be to sub- ject the man to a heart-sickening period of labour among other criminals on the public works, with no prospect at the end, except to be turned out upon society either to starve or commit fresh crime, is it conceivable that our gaols would not become K