118 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



equestrians, skilful and trusty sailors, quick to learn all 

 trades without needing to serve an apprenticeship, 

 they were evidently the ancestors of the typical Aus- 

 tralians of to-day. More than this : the same writer 

 boldly affirms that the characteristic Australian senti- 

 ment — self-sufficingness and independence — is an in- 

 heritance from the early convicts. This is doubtless 

 an error. The origin of moral qualities can seldom be 

 ascertained with certainty, but it is maintained in the 

 present volume that that high inheritance — the ideal 

 of the elder Humboldt — is a necessary result of the free 

 pastoral life. 



Every aspect of convictism in New South Wales and 

 Tasmania reveals its consanguinity with ancient slavery. 

 The Australian convict was a slave for life or a long 

 term. He worked in chain-gangs on the roads or in 

 ergastula at Parramatta or Port Arthur, in Tasmania, 

 and in New South Wales they were near to raising such 

 a slave-war as led in ancient Rome. The convicts 

 were, in fact, the first form of the labouring class in the 

 new colony, and to some extent, by no means wholly, 

 its real progenitor. The class they gave birth to had 

 the great career I have depicted. It became a party in 

 the State, and had for its leader the greatest among 

 early Austrahan statesmen . It grew and gre\\' — ^until it 

 vanished, when the convicts were lost in the crowd of 

 free workmen. That crowd is now the dominant 

 Labour party in the world. It manipulates, as in New 

 Zealand, ministries to govern in its interests and legis- 

 latures to make laws to its advantage, and, when its 

 time comes, it quietly takes possession of all the powers 

 of government, as happened in Western AustraHa, or 

 has thrice happened in the Commonwealth of Australia, 

 still more recently in South AustraHa, and within the 

 last few months in New South Wales. 



