OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 213 



removed from the mother when at the breast, and taken to the factory 

 at Paramatta, where convicts' children are nursed and brought up. 

 The mother is thus severed from her progeny for months, and, perhaps, 

 for ever. The scenes that occur at these separations are often heart- 

 rending, and ought to condemn the whole system. The feelings of the 

 poor creatures may be more readily conceived than described. 



Connected with the convict system, are the convict prisons, where 

 the road and iron-gangs are lodged for safe keeping. There is one on 

 the hill at Sydney, which, like most of the buildings at Sydney, bears 

 the name of Governor Macquarie, 1817. In it are shown the guard- 

 room, the working and eating-rooms, and dormitories, all of which are 

 well ventilated. The prisoners sleep in hammocks, swung from 

 parallel bars a few feet above the floor. A whipping-post was shown 

 in an adjoining yard. The older prisoners are kept at work making 

 brooms. 



The female convicts who do not conduct themselves well, are sent 

 back to the factory at Paramatta, where they are engaged in prison 

 labour. The practice of keeping them in great numbers there, after 

 they have been sent back, is liable to many objections, and is not 

 calculated to produce reformation. It is very questionable whether 

 their employment in small parties would not have a greater tendency 

 to produce the desired reform. 



The factory at Paramatta is situated on the river, about half a mile 

 from the centre of the town, near the place where the steamboats stop. 

 It is a large stone building, enclosed with high walls, and usually con- 

 tains one thousand inmates. A part of these are those female convicts 

 who have not yet been assigned ; and the rest, those who have been 

 remanded for their refractory conduct. Many of the settlers have, from 

 necessity, taken these females into their service, and have been quite 

 glad to get rid of them ; for their corrupting influence had often 

 resulted in the total ruin of the male servants who had been assigned in 

 the same family. 



It is only lately that good order has been introduced into this esta- 

 blishment, and this is owing to the supervision and care of Sir George 

 Gipps. The accounts of the disorder in it in former times are truly 

 disgusting. 



These females are now divided into three classes, according to their 

 ability and behaviour, of which the latter is more especially attended 

 to. The first class is employed in making linen clothing, such as 

 shirts, children's clothes, &c, and do much work for the shop-keepers 

 in Sydney. The second, in making up coarse articles of apparel for 



