THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 75 



and Sir John Jamison agreed with them. Anything which 

 brought the convicts together in large numbers was open to 

 serious objections, and these were all the stronger if after the 

 muster there was no church within three miles for them to go 

 to. Often, too, when they were being marched to church they 

 took the opportunity of stealing all kinds of portable articles 

 from the houses they passed. At the same time the muster 

 gave undoubted assistance in securing a reliable register of the 

 prisoners' whereabouts, and was a means of tracing escaped con- 

 victs. Unfortunately the constables were for the most part too 

 illiterate to do the work properly, and the registers were very 

 badly kept. With the exception of Marsden the chaplains 

 seemed to approve of the musters, but they were naturally pre- 

 judiced in favour of any regulations which secured them a good 

 congregation. Bigge had little to say for the attention which 

 the convicts gave to the service. They had no bibles or prayer- 

 books, and though quiet on the whole they were occasionally 

 guilty of irregularities of conduct which caused the preacher to 

 interrupt his discourse for the purpose of rebuking them. 1 



The only remuneration received by the magistrates con- 

 sisted of four convict servants each, clothed and " on the store ". 

 Their appointment and dismissal was in the hands of the 

 Governor, and was not until 1820 in any way controlled by the 

 Ministers at home. 2 The whole duty of selection belonged to 

 Macquarie alone, and the task was no easy one. Marsden 

 rightly considered that " the happiness and prosperity of this 

 country depend very much upon the selection of proper men 

 as magistrates". 3 Governor Hunter had felt this so strongly 

 that he had urged the Government to obtain suitable men from 

 England.* This had not been done, and he had therefore been 

 forced to appoint the only available persons, members of the civil 

 and military staff. Bent thought " the procedure of the Bench 

 of Magistrates had been much affected by the number of military 



1 For whole of this subject see Macquarie's Despatches, passim, and letters of 

 Bayly to Marsden. See also Bigge's Report, I., and Evidence in Appendix, R.O., 

 MS., passim, 8th December, 1817, Letter to Sir Henry Bunbury. 



2 In 1820 the appointment of Dr. Redfern was objected to by the Secretary 

 of State. See Chapter IX. 



3 Marsden to Wilberforce. Correspondence of Wilberforce, published 1840, 

 vol. ii., p. 183, 27th July, 1810. 



C. on T., 1812. 



