226 HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, ETC., 



marked, in conspicuous letters, " chain-gang." They wear a canvass 

 jacket and trousers, and a jockey-cap. They were a rough-looking 

 set, with bad countenances, and, like all other prisoners, stared us 

 broadly in the face. Sentinels or guards constantly acccompanied 

 them. 



The English are very partial to this mode of treating criminals, 

 and cannot be persuaded that any better course can be devised ; yet it 

 is attended with obvious evils. 



For a trifling and first offence, a perpetual brand of infamy is set 

 upon a fellow-mortal, his family, and connexions. The natural 

 consequence has been, to foster and keep alive, a public opinion 

 which tends to the disorganization of society, and to obliterate all that 

 remains of principle in the criminal. 



The convict who has just arrived, is regarded by the others as a 

 simpleton and a mere novice; and they undertake to complete his 

 education. 



The exploits and crimes performed and committed by these hard- 

 ened offenders in Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of Poly- 

 nesia, exhibit a dark picture ; and the annoyance thus inflicted upon 

 their inhabitants would not be borne, had they the strength to resist 

 it. Power is the only right that can be urged by Great Britain as a 

 justification of this infliction, and that it would be useless to question. 



The majority of convicts are either assigned servants, or ticket-of- 

 leave men, and their condition is not unlike that of the slaves in our 

 Southern States. They form a distinct class, and may be considered 

 as the original groundwork of the colony. At present they constitute, 

 about a third of the population, but when transportation ceases, their 

 relative numbers will rapidly decrease. 



This colony, take it all in all, is in spite of these drawbacks a noble 

 one, and is a new proof of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race, 

 and of its enterprise and perseverance in overcoming difficulties. 



I understood that Sir George Gipps had determined to adopt 

 Captain Maconochie's system in the management of the road-gangs, 

 and shall therefore proceed to examine it. 



Captain Maconochie's argument for the necessity of a change is 

 founded on the admitted fact, that the example of severe suffering 

 on the conviction of crime, has not hitherto been found effective in 

 preventing its recurrence. He maintains that the sole and direct 

 object of secondary punishments should be the reformation of the 

 individual culprit, or at all events his subjugation, and his training to 



