CO885-(1-2) — Page 684

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

LLC.O.

885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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.