102 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



ment and disorganised in staff and morale. Prior to the date of the 

 Governor's arrival the insufficiency of prison accommodation had 

 been to some extent met by the detention of a large number of the 

 more desperate criminals on board four prison hulks moored in the 

 bay. Parties of these men were landed daily to work in the stone 

 quarries and at some projected fortifications at Williamstown. On 

 one occasion a gang of them, led by a notorious bushranger, popu- 

 larly known as Captain Melville, had seized the launch in which 

 they were returning from work, killed the man in charge, and 

 thrown two others overboard. They were not long in the enjoy- 

 ment of their liberty, being recaptured by the water police before 

 they could regain the shore. Nine of the men were put on their 

 trial for murder and duly convicted, Melville as the leader being 

 sentenced to death. During the trial this man had made state- 

 ments about the treatment of prisoners and the brutality of some 

 of the officials so repulsive as to be almost incredible. They so 

 shocked the moral sense of the community that a public meeting 

 was convened by the Mayor of Melbourne, which resulted in a 

 petition against the execution of Melville, and a demand for a 

 searching inquiry into the methods of the Penal Department. Mr. 

 David Blair and Dr. Singleton led the indictment, which was sup- 

 ported by several prominent ministers of religion, many members 

 of the legal profession, and other leading citizens. The result of 

 the public interference was startling. Melville was reprieved, and 

 had the satisfaction of dying by his own hand some eight months 

 later. The Government appointed a Select Committee of the Legis- 

 lative Council to investigate alleged abuses. That body was quickly 

 convinced that the management of the department was costly and 

 unsatisfactory in nearly every respect, but that the defects were 

 largely due to the want of proper buildings in which classification 

 and separate treatment could be carried out. They did not, how- 

 ever, consider that the charges of callous brutality and official cruelty, 

 so freely voiced by the citizens' committee, had been substantiated. 

 Unfortunately, by some means the press reports of the citizens' 

 meetings were smuggled aboard the prison hulks, and they served 

 to keep alive a defiant and mutinous spirit that gave a fine flavour 

 of danger to a warder's duties. In the belief that public sympathy 



