OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 237 



ciation 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 practi- 

 tioners 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 twelve 

 thousand four hundred and twenty-six pounds, or upwards of two 

 pounds per head. The number of children attending schools is to the 

 aggregate of population as about one to twenty, which is the same as 

 in 1836. In the return above mentioned, it will be found that there 

 are seventy-six schools, of different denominations ; three colleges, and 

 sixty-seven private schools : showing an increase more than fourfold 

 during the last five years. Several attempts have been made to 

 establish the Irish national school system, or a general system of 

 education, but thus far, without success. The chief opposition to this 

 has been from the Church of England. 



Among the colleges, two are under the guidance of the Church of 

 England, viz. : King's College or School, at Paramatta, and Sydney 



