Jan. 1836. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



531 



her future manufactories. Possessing coal^ slie always has the 

 moving power at hand. From the habitable country ex- 

 tending 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 such future 

 grandeur is rather problematical. 



With respect to the state of the convicts, I had still 

 fewer opportunities of judging than on 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 sup- 

 plied; 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. For life, eight years is the time of pro- 

 bation ; for seven years, four, &c. Yet with all this, and 

 overlooking the previous imprisonment and wretched passage 

 out, 1 believe the years of assignment are passed away with 

 discontent and unhappiness. As an intelligent man remarked 

 to me, the convicts know no pleasure beyond sensuality, 

 and in this they are not gratified. The enormous bribe 

 which government possesses in offering free pardons, to- 

 gether with the deep horror of the secluded penal settle- 

 ments, destroys confidence between the convicts, and so pre- 

 vents crime. As to a sense of shame, such a feeling does 

 not appear to be known, and of this I witnessed some very 

 singular proofs. Though it is a curious fact, I was uni- 

 versally told;, that the character of the convict population 

 is one of arrant cowardice : not unfrequently some become 

 desperate and quite indifferent of life, yet a plan requiring 

 cool or continued courage is seldom put into execution. 

 The worst feature in the whole case is, that although there 



