John Dunmore Lang

“ As to any direct means of attempting the reformation of criminals, it is no want of charity to assert, that they have scarcely ever been had recourse to in any form under the colonial system of New South Wales. Even religious instruction, that most powerful means of reformation, was for a long period either withheld from the convicts altogether, or subjected to some counteracting and polluting influence, which served either entirely to neutralize its efficacy, or to convert it into a system of downright mockery and insult. ”

“ In the case of convicts assigned to settlers in the country, their condition depends in great measure on the character of the master, and in particular instances, they are subject to enormous tyranny; many masters being utterly unfit to be entrusted with convict servants. But in proportion as the convicts have been dispersed over a wide extent of territory, and large numbers accumulated on particular estates, and assignments made to persons of questionable character, there has been a general and progressive relaxation of penal discipline towards the convicts in the service of settlers. ”

“ Those, on the other hand, who are employed as clerks or shopmen, have probably a much better situation, and more money to spend in profligate courses, than they ever had at home; a state of things which naturally induces intolerable impudence and assumption. ”

“ For some time after the original establishment of the colony of New South Wales, the situation of a convict in that colony, whether in the service of government or in that of private individuals^ was one of real hardship and privation: subsequently, however, when provisions became plentiful, and when many of the settlers, to whom convicts were assigned as farm-servants, began to acquire wealth, the situation of a convict gradually became much more tolerable. In the year 1810, Major-General Macquarie succeeded to the government of the colony ”

“ THIRD CAUSE OF THE COMPARATIVE FAILURE OF THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM,—THE GRADUAL RELAXATION OF PENAL DISCIPLINE. The gradual relaxation of penal discipline, and the absolute want of every thing like a regular system of reform, may be regarded as the third cause of the comparative failure of the transportation system in the Australian colonies. ”