OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 249 



fighters, gamblers, receivers of stolen goods, harbourers of thieves, 

 and the most depraved of both sexes ; they exist upon the vices of 

 the lower orders, and inasmuch as there are no licensed pawnbrokers 

 in Sydney, they act as such, but not as occurs in other countries, 

 upon occasion of some temporary pressure on the poor, for some 

 necessary of life, but for intoxicating liquor. 



There is a great unwillingness on the part of respectable persons 

 to appear and serve on juries, arising from a natural repugnance 

 to association and confinement in the jury-room with disreputable 

 persons. Judge Burton goes on to give many instances of the 

 behaviour of the jury in their room, and their determination to acquit; 

 stating, that he had been informed by a respectable inhabitant of 

 Sydney, on whose veracity he could fully rely, that upon one occasion 

 when a prisoner was on trial for cattle-stealing, he was defended 

 by one of the practitioners of the court, when, during the progress of 

 the trial, a juryman leaned over him towards the practitioner, calling 

 him by name, and said, " It's all right, we'll acquit him." When the 

 prisoner was called on for his defence, the practitioner advised him 

 to say nothing, and call no witnesses, which course was adopted ; 

 and he was acquitted. 



It is proper to state that the other judges think that the jury trials 

 have met with the success reasonably to be expected, and that 

 matters will grow daily better as the free emigrants arrive and are 

 qualified. From what I understood from gentlemen of the legal 

 profession, there has some improvement taken place since the 

 year 1836. 



The courts still adhere to the use of wigs and gowns, and the 

 opinion seems to be that such appendages cannot be dispensed with 

 without injuring their respectability and solemnity in the eyes of the 

 people. 



Under the additional clause, amendments have been made by the 

 Legislative Council in the laws regulating trials, and they have also 

 abolished military juries. 



Education in the colony of late years has claimed some portion of 

 the attention of the government, which has made allowances to the 

 different sects of Christians for the maintenance of schools. I was 

 obligingly provided with the school return for the year 1838, by 

 William Lithgow, Esquire. This will be found in Appendix XII. 



It appears that the whole number educated is only six thousand 

 and thirty-seven, and that the expense incurred by government is 



vol. ii. 63 



