1836.] STATE OF THE CONVICTS. 427 



aware that the tone of society has assumed any peculiar character ; 

 but with such habits, and without intellectual pursuits, it can 

 hardly fail to deteriorate. My opinion is such, that nothing but 

 rather sharp necessity should compel me to emigrate. 



The rapid prosperity and future- prospects of this colony are to 

 me, not understanding these subjects, very puzzling. The two 

 main exports are wool and whale-oil, and to both of these produc- 

 tions there is a limit. The country is totally unfit for canals, 

 therefore there is a not very distant point, beyond which the land- 

 carriage of wool will not repay the expense of shearing and tending 

 sheep. Pasture everywhere is so thin that settlers have already 

 pushed far into the interior : moreover, the country further inland 

 becomes extremely poor. Agriculture, on account of the droughts, 

 can never succeed on an extended scale : therefore, 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 extraction, 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 oppor- 

 tunities 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 well as of 

 crime, makes him free within a certain district, is given upon good 

 conduct, after years proportional to the length of the sentence ; yet 

 with all this, and overlooking 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 



