The Enormous Bribe 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 become desperate, and quite indifferent as
to 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 exists what may be called a legal
reform, and comparatively little is committed which the law
can touch, yet that any moral reform should take place
appears to be quite out of the question. I was assured by
well-informed people, that a man who should try to improve,
could not while living with other assigned servants; - his
life would be one of intolerable misery and persecution. Nor
must the contamination of the convict-ships and prisons, both
here and in England, be forgotten. On the whole, as a place
of punishment, the object is scarcely gained; as a real system
of reform it has failed, as perhaps would every other plan;
but as a means of making men outwardly honest, - of converting
vagabonds, most useless in one hemisphere, into
active citizens of another, and thus giving birth to a new
and splendid country - a grand centre of civilization - it has
succeeded to a degree perhaps unparalleled in history.
30th. - The Beagle sailed for Hobart Town in Van Diemen's
Land. On the 5th of February, after a six days' passage,
of which the first part was fine, and the latter very cold
and squally, we entered the mouth of Storm Bay: the weather
justified this awful name. The bay should rather be called
an estuary, for it receives at its head the waters of the
Derwent. Near the mouth, there are some extensive basaltic
platforms; but higher up the land becomes mountainous, and
is covered by a light wood. The lower parts of the hills
which skirt the bay are cleared; and the bright yellow fields
of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes, appear very luxuriant.
Late in the evening we anchored in the snug cove,
on the shores of which stands the capital of Tasmania. The
first aspect of the place was very inferior to that of Sydney;
the latter might be called a city, this is only a town. It
stands at the base of Mount Wellington, a mountain 3100
feet high, but of little picturesque beauty; from this source,
however, it receives a good supply of water. Round the cove
there are some fine warehouses and on one side a small fort.
Coming from the Spanish settlements, where such magnificent
care has generally been paid to the fortifications, the
means of defence in these colonies appeared very contemptible.
Comparing the town with Sydney, I was chiefly struck
with the comparative fewness of the large houses, either
built or building.
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