1 40 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



with them from England, insulted the eyes of the free with 

 their lavish ostentation, their rings and chains and their dashing 

 curricles. 1 The old distance and respect were things of the 

 past. The convict prisoner or ticket-of-leave man passed the 

 civilian without salute nay, he even took the inner side of the 

 path. Labour was fast becoming an ordinary market commodity 

 to be bought and paid for, instead of a debt due from the outcast 

 to those within the ranks of respectability. Meanwhile as the 

 economic power of the convict labourer increased, his social 

 ostracism became yet more rigorous. 2 An objection universally 

 taken by the colonists to the convict system throughout this 

 period was that large bodies of convicts were kept in Govern- 

 ment service in the towns, and that by such an arrangement 

 the object of their reform was lost. Macquarie himself felt the 

 truth of this, but could see no alternative. Bigge collected the 

 opinions of the magistrates and other leading settlers, who showed 

 a quite remarkable agreement. 3 They suggested the distribu- 

 tion of the convicts over the country and their employment in 

 agriculture. All of them, they considered, would be fit, no 

 matter what their previous lives had been, to clear the ground, 

 grub up the stumps and burn off the wood. Thus employed 

 they would have hard work for their bodies, be separated from 

 bad associates, and enjoy time for reflection on past misdeeds. 

 The difficulties of superintendence were admittedly great. 

 Convict overseers were not approved of, some considering that 

 the convicts gained great advantages simply from having 

 "gentlemen" set over them. 4 Macarthur said frankly that 

 there never had been a good system of convict management and 

 evidently thought there never would be. As he was himself a 

 strong man with a gift for organisation, he favoured a system 

 which gave more freedom to the employer. 



1 See, e.g., Sir John Jamison. Correspondence with Bigge. Also Dr. Harris, 

 same, Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. 



2 There is not the least doubt that the feeling between convict and free was 

 far more bitter at the end of 1820 than it had been at the beginning of 1810. 

 See whole of Bigge's Reports and Evidence and Documents, passim. 



3 See answers to circular sent by Bigge in Appendix to Reports. R.O., MS. 

 The worth of the answers, of course, varies very much, and the fact that they were 

 more or less all agriculturists probably gave them a bias in favour of that form of 

 labour. 



4 See, e.g., Lieutenant Bell's reply. Whether the convicts would profit by the 

 severity or by the example of the " gentleman," he does not say. 



