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tuted a very unequal punishment, and was open also to some very objectionable abuses. In the hands of tyrannical masters it was liable to be made very oppressive; other employers, looking only to their Own

interests, endeavoured to stimulate the industry of the convicts by indul- gences far from consistent with the object of punishment for which they had been transported; and some would encourage the convicts to bad courses by allowing them entire freedom, on con- dition of their, from time to time, bringing home a share of any money they could gain. Another evil of these abuses was, that the deterring effect of transportation as a punishment was impaired or destroyed.

Hence the system was condemned by the Com- mittee of the House of Commons, presided over by Sir William Molesworth, which sat in 1837 and 1838. It was condemned as being -

Unequal;

Without terrors to the criminal class; Corrupting to both convict and colonist :

Extravagant in point of expense.

And the Committee recommended the substitution of punishment in penitentiaries both at home and abroad, some of them in Van Diemen's Land.

There can be buf little doubt that the report of this Committee struck the blow which, within fifteen years, brought the punishment of trans- portation virtually to an end. At first indeed it

Inquiry by Committee of House

of Commons in 1837 and 1838.

was received in the Colonies with dislike and with Resolutions inclosed in Sir George numerous contradictions.

The authorities, both.

Executive and Legislative, declared that the picture of the evils had been partial and overcharged, and that the system had in fact been conducive both to the prosperity of the settlers and the reform of the criminals. But by degrees the presence of convicts came to be regarded as a stigma; the pride of the free inhabitants, as they grew more and more numerous, revolted against their further reception; and when a vast influx of them into Van Diemen's Land was followed by a general spread of unnatural crime, the aversion to them of the people of this and the neighbouring Colonies rose to a height which could not be resisted.

The conclusion of the Government upon the Report of the Committee was to inflict a larger

Gippi despatch No. 199, of 28 December, 1840. Petition to the House of Commons from the inhabitants of New South Wales, presented 4 May, 1840. -Commons Paper,p-76,1839.

Consequent Changes.

:

Lord Derby's plan of Discipline,

P

1842.

Mr. Gladstone's Plan, 1846.

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portion of the punishment in this country; to send more convicts than previously to the public works at Gibraltar and Bermuda; and, finally, to try to improve the discipline in New South Wales arid Van Diemen's Land. And in 1840 it was further resolved to put an end altogether to trans- portation to New South Wales.

Measures adopted in Van Diemen's Land.

year

Various causes postponed the intended improve- ments in Van Diemen's Land. At length they were framed by the present Lord Derby in the 1842. The convicts were to go through various stages of work and control, until they should attain to tickets-of-leave, and finally "conditional pardons." The rules were elaborate, and designed to carry the prisoners through a progressive course of reform. But carefully as this scheme was digested, two causes, found to be all-powerful, prevented its suc- First, by being congregated in such large masses on the public works, the prisoners corrupted one another; and secondly, the numbers accumu- lated in Van Diemen's Land soon became so great, that no employers were to be obtained for these men, although they had been taught to look to qualified liberty as a reward. They fell back on the hands of Government for support.

cess.

Unnatural crime had become fearfully prevalent. The officers were discovered, many of them, to be of inferior qualifications. There was a want of suffi- cient buildings to separate the men properly at night and preserve good order.

Shocked at the reports which arrived, Mr. Glud- stone decided, in 1846, that at all events transporta- tion to Van Diemen's Land must be suspended for two years, to give time for recovery from the existing evils, and for deliberation on the future. It continued to be suspended throughout 1847 and part of 1848.

Mr. Gladstone also determined upon the forma- tion of an entirely new settlement, to be called North Australia." But before this measure could be carried into effect a change of Government took place, and eventually the project to found North Australia was abandoned.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :~

LTTC.O.

885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON

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