THE EVOLUTION OF COLONIES. 297 



to influential persons who hired them to others (herein repeating Eng- 

 lish serfdom) or permitted them to work for themselves, receiving a 

 portion of their earnings (herein repeating Greek slavery). Me- 

 chanics were employed on public works, and hundreds of buildings 

 were erected by convict masons, bricklayers, and carpenters. Day 

 laborers were employed on roads, and hundreds of miles of solid 

 highway are a durable monument to the memory of the convict. 

 They were the true pioneers of the country, braving the dangers of 

 the " bush," resisting the aborigines, clearing and cultivating the 

 land, and developing the resources of the colonies. For themselves 

 they did well and ill. Many reformed, and after manumission, 

 which was at first special and at length general, became respectable 

 citizens, dealers, and traders. Some grew to be prosperous mer- 

 chants, wealthy squatters, editors, legislators, and all but ministers. 

 Their sons are judges, legislators, solicitors, Government officials, 

 newspaper proprietors. After lasting for sixty years the system of 

 transportation was at length abolished in consequence of the opposi- 

 tion of the working class, who objected to competition, and of the 

 respectable classes generally. The legislative body and the large 

 landowners were rather in favor of its perpetuity, and there are still 

 members of the old " slave-driving party " in Tasmania who regret 

 its discontinuance. 



The bond servants, who were common in New England and at first 

 more numerous than slaves in the Southern States, repeated the status 

 of the English serfs. Their origin was various. Crime, debt, sale by 

 parents, voluntary surrender, and kidnapping all contributed their 

 quota. The period of indentured service was at first from seven to 

 ten years, and was ultimately reduced to a fixed term of four years. 

 They were exchanged and sold like any other commodity. Their 

 treatment seems to have been often harsh. Like the Australian con- 

 victs, many of them prospered. Leading families in the United States 

 trace their origin to bondmen. ISTot a few of the Southern overseers, 

 free laborers, and small farmers are believed to be descended from 

 them. The vagabond element in all the States, the " white trash ' 

 of the South, and the criminal and pauper inhabitants of certain 

 regions in the North are also affiliated on the more degraded sections 

 of the class.* 



The worst of modern inventions, it has been said, is the inven- 

 tion of the workingman. The workingman, however, has a pedigree; 

 he is the son of the bondman or the serf, and the grandson of the 

 slave, who would have been still more discreditable " inventions " if 

 they had not been the outgrowth of their time and place. The servile 

 character of the workman long survived in European countries; it 



* Eggleston, op. ctt., p. 858. 

 vol. liv. — 22 



