1836.] STATE OF THE CONVICTS. 445 



fore, so far as I can see, Australia must ultimately depend upon 

 being- the centre of commerce for the southern hemisphere, 

 and perhaps on her future manufactories. Possessing coal, she 

 always has the moving power at hand. From the habitable 

 country extending along the coast, and from her English extrac- 

 tion, she is sure to be a maritime nation. I formerly imagined 

 that Australia would rise to be as grand and powerful a country 

 as North America, but now it appears to me that such future 

 grandeur is rather problematical. 



With respect to the state of the convicts, I had still fewer 

 opportunities of judging than on the other points. The first 

 question is, whether their condition is at all one of punishment : 

 no one will maintain that it is a very severe one. This, however, 

 I suppose, is of little consequence as long as it continues to be 

 an object of dread to criminals at home. The corporeal wants 

 of the convicts are tolerably well supplied : their prospect of 

 future liberty and comfort is not distant, and after good conduct 

 certain. A " ticket of leave," which, as long as a man keeps 

 clear of suspicion as w r ell as of crime, makes him free within a 

 certain district, is given upon good conduct, after years propor- 

 tional to the length of the sentence ; yet with all this, and over- 

 looking the previous imprisonment and wretched passage out, I 

 believe the years of assignment are passed away with discontent 

 and unhappiness. As an intelligent man remarked to me, the 

 convicts know no pleasure beyond sensuality, and in this they are 

 not gratified. The enormous bribe which Government possesses 

 in offering free pardons, together with the deep horror of the 

 secluded penal settlements, destroys confidence between the con- 

 victs, and so prevents crime. As to a sense of shame, such a 

 feeling does not appear to be known, and of this I witnessed 

 some very singular proofs. Though it is a curious fact, I was 

 universally told that the character of the convict population is 

 one of arrant cowardice : not unfrequently some become despe- 

 rate, and quite indifferent as to life, yet a plan requiring cool or 

 continued courage is seldom put into execution. The worst 

 feature in the whole case is, that although there exists what may 

 be called a legal reform, and comparatively little is committed 

 which the law can touch, yet that any moral reform should take 

 place appears to be quite out of the question. I was assured by 



