STATE OF THE CONVICTS 473 



convict servants. 1 am not aware that the tone of society lias 

 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 

 productions 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 farther 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 

 opportunities 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 ; }-ct 

 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 in- 

 telligent man remarked to me, the convicts know no pleasure 



