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Tliere arc many serious drawbacks to the comforts of
families ; the chief of which, perhaps, is being surrounded
by convict servants. How thoroughly odious to every feeling
to be waited on by a man, who the day before, perhaps, was
flogged, from your representation, for some trifling misdemeanor.
The female servants are of course much worse;
hence children learn the vilest expressions, and it is fortunate
if not equally vile ideas.
On the other hand, the capital of a person without any
trouble on his part, produces him treble interest to what it
will in England; and with care he is sure to grow rich. The
luxuries oi life are in abundance and very little dearer, and
most articles of food cheaper, than in England. The climate
is splendid and quite healthy; but to my mind its charms
are lost by the uninviting aspect of the countr)'. Settlers
possess a great advantage in finding their sons of service,
when very young. At the age of from sixteen to twenty
they frequently take charge of distant farming stations; this,
however, must happen at the expense of their boys associating
entirely with convict servants. I am not aware that
the tone of society has assumed any peculiar character ; but
with such habits, and without intellectual pursuits, it can
hardly fail to deteriorate. My opinion is such, that nothing
but rather severe necessity should compel me to emigrate.
The rapid prosperity and future prospects of this colony
are to me, not understanding these subjects, very puzzling.
The two main exports are wool and whale-oil; and to both
of these productions there is a limit. The country is totally
unfit for canals; therefore there is a line not very distant,
beyond which the land carriage of wool will not repay the
expense of shearing and tending sheep. Pasture every where
is so thin, that settlers have already pushed far into the
interior: moreover the country further inland becomes extremely
poor. I have before said that agriculture can never
succeed on a very extended scale; therefore so far as I can
see, Australia must ultimately depend upon being the centre
of commerce for the southern hemisphere, and perhaps on
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future manufactories. Possessing coal, she always has the
moving power at hand. From the habitable country extending
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. Tlie
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 supplied;
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 probation;
for seven years, four, &c. Yet with all this, and
overlooking the previous imprisonment and wretched passage
out, I 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 In-ilje
which government possesses in offering free pardons, together
with the deep horror of the secluded penal settlements,
destroys confidence between the convicts, and so prevents
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 universally
told, that the character of the convict population
is one of arrant cowardice: not unfrequently some liecome
desperate and quite indilferent 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