The Early Social State of New South Wales. 253 different, the complete demonstration of the emptiness of the boast of publican political power, everything looks hopeful. It must not be, however, that the long-threatened comprehensive measure' upon the license system can find the temperance reformers unprepared. The grievances of the present system which require to be remedied are of the most serious kind, and Parliament and statesmen incur a grave responsibility in delaying to deal with them. Still graver is the responsibility of those who would neglect so to inform and educate public sentiment, not merely on the personal relations of the temperance movement, but on the national requirements of the citizen and law-maker in reference to the great social evil of the liquor traffic, that when the opportunity offers, an adequate and successful struggle may be made for the right. We write for those who would persevere to the end, not for those who, having put their hand to the plough, turn back. ART. VII.-THE EARLY SOCIAL STATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES. In this day of reformatories, when Eighty years ago a person, styled The gentleman then proceeded to give the following particulars: He had for twenty years taken prisoners off the hands of the paternal government, and paid for these British chattels at the rate of five pounds a head; and he assured the gentlemen of the Committee that it had been by no means so profitable a trade as some had supposed. One seventh of his bargains had died upon his hands, and for the rest he had done his best in disposing of them to the English settlers of the American colonies. For ordinary men he got no more than ten pounds; and for women, unless young and attractive, but eight or nine. Artisans realized a higher figure; fetching in the market, especially if well skilled and docile, twenty and even twenty-five pounds each. To balance this profit, he was obliged to give the old, halt, and lame in for nothing; and, too often, to his sorrow, he had to pay premiums to get rid of them, should they, unfortunately, survive the perils and hardships of the voyage. Not one of the honourable members made a remark upon the barbarity and unchristian character of this sale of their fellow-countrymen. It was a matter of course. Even he who bought them was as reputable, in the eyes of society then, as those who pay for other licenses now. But a difficulty had arisen with the Home Government. These colonists, who had purchased the slave criminals, were in open rebellion against the producing market, and the goods could no longer be forwarded to them. What was to be done? In spite of the terrors of the Plantations, crime had gone on; and the gaols were crowded, in spite of pestilence from their disgusting condition. Sir Joseph Banks now propounded a scheme. He had been on a voyage, a few years before, with Captain Cook. In 1770 they had discovered a country which had been called New South Wales. It would, in his opinion, be an excellent place to which these disturbers of the peace could be sent. It was quite at the antipodes, and so the English would not be troubled with them again. It was altogether away away from any settlement of Europeans, and so the chance of escape was hopeless. On the other hand, the country was beautiful, and the climate agreeable. At any rate, two or three hundred might be sent as an experiinent. Objections were raised. Those who did not mind selling them in America, were shocked at expatriating them to so wild a region of savages at the other side of the globe. Yet what else could be done with the unhappy wretches, thus festering in loathsome prisons, which resounded with shouts of brutal vice, and the fruitless wailings of less-hardened ones? Botany Bay was the decision. Even in that day the wheels of authority moved with proverbial solemnity, so that 1787 came before the fleet could sail. We pass over the dreary eight months' voyage, and bring the party to anchor January 18th, 1788. The strange land was before them, with its bright, warm sky, its forests of eucalypti, its groves of palms, its shrubs of harsh-leaved plants laden with flowering beauties. But Botany Bay was only suited for the hermit lover of the wilds of nature; and the harbour of Port Jackson was selected for the settlement. Let us look at the new comers. There were 558 male prisoners and 228 female. To guard these were 212 marines. They disembarked from the transports, and constructed rude cabins of wattle and dab. Formal possession was taken of the land. Governor Phillip made an oration upon the occasion, and earnestly counselled the convicts to behave themselves well in their new home. Grateful for their preservation on the long voyage, and full of buoyant hopes for the future, the officials terminated the proceedings of the inauguration of the colony by a hearty dedication of themselves and projects to the god of the heathenBacchus. So unhallowed an initiation was quite appreciated by the criminal transports; and the superstructure of vice and intemperance was worthy of such a foundation of immorality. Judge Burton, of Sydney, afterwards exclaimed, How different might have been the effect upon the minds of many of the poor convicts, if the day of their first landing in a new world had been solemnly invoked, as the beginning of a new life under God, by an act of confession and prayer!' Before taking up the social exponents of that early colonial age, we will glance at some points of general history, which influenced the moral phases of the community. For the first few years great suffering was experienced from the want of food. Although seeds had been taken out, yet the general spirit of reckless improvidence, tardy industry, and miserable misgovernment, prevented that prompt attention to agriculture which would have saved much subsequent trouble. The loss of the 'Guardian' storeship would not have been felt so long and bitterly had proper discipline been maintained, and prudent counsels been regarded. As it was, a reduction of even one-half the usual allowance caused a dreadful mortality. Men were seen attempting labour in the field, feeble from exhaustion, and almost as free from dress as the natives about them. The introduction of many ignorant and long-neglected fellow-subjects, after the Irish Rebellion of 1798, did not improve the political aspect of the new colony. Plots were repeatedly being brought to light. Insubordination increased, and morals were even brought to a lower ebb. Some of the Irishmen got it into their heads that a settlement of whites existed three or four hundred miles to the south-west of Sydney, and numbers started off for it. Although many were brought back, and got lashes for their absence, the discovery of skeletons in the bush for years after, told the fate of the rest. A rush once took place among the same class of people for China, which was thought not far away. A rebellion among the Irish convicts arose from a report that the French were about to land. This tale sprang from the simple circumstance of an old Scotch wife retailing to her beer-drinking customers her dream about the French coming to the camp. At an early period grants of land, of thirty and fifty acres, were made to freed prisoners, who became dignified with the name of settlers, and who were located at Rose Hill, Parramatta, some twenty miles from Sydney, and on the fertile banks of the Hawkesbury, at a greater distance from the port. Liberal aid was rendered by Government, in grants of seed and tools, The Government Despotic. tools, the use of bullocks for ploughing, stores till the crops appeared, and purchase at a remunerative rate afterwards. But it was found that this weak dependence upon the authorities, together with the frightful appetite for drink, produced a feebleness of effort, and a deficiency of energy, which told as mischievously upon the individuals, as upon the general condition of the colony. A few free settlers arrived about a dozen years after the settlement of Sydney; but it was a long time before any considerable number visited so distant a station. A dozen Scotch families came in Governor Hunter's reign, and were located at Portland, becoming the nucleus of a thriving people. Generally, however, the free emigrants sank to the level of society about them, and were besotted and idle. As late as 1833, while the bond, above twelve years, were 17,588, the free, including the emancipists by servitude, were only 21,845. As an illustration of the general improvident character of these landed proprietors, the following may be given. When Governor Phillip left his charge in 1792, he kindly gave each married settler, from the public stock, a ewe for breeding, and to others such goats as could be spared. Instead of preserving these valuable gifts, procured with such trouble and, expense from Britain, most of the parties either killed them at once for a rich repast, or sold them to the officers. Squatting soon showed itself the great business of the prudent. At one time no regulations existed, and then a half-a-crown rent was charged for every hundred acres. With the system of large free grants of land came the great era of progress. A man received an amount proportionate to his cash in hand, or stock in possession. It was said that among the claimants the clerical squatters were foremost; but their demand, according to their flocks, was so formidable that an especial order had to be issued by Earl Bathurst, that no clergyman should be entitled to more than 1250 acres grant. It is obvious that this class of men would have greater chance of success, less from their habits of business than from their temperance and intelligence. As may readily be supposed, the government was essentially despotic. 255 An officer was appointed as the prosecutor for the crown, called the Advocate-General, who, not being a lawyer, but usually a military person, had to depend upon the more technical knowledge and legal talent, in difficult cases, of some convict, who had perchance been a clerk in some solicitor's office in England. Occasionally an advocate, upon being remonstrated with upon some decision being more than usually absurd and tyrannical, would indulge in violent abuse of the individual complainant, and expressions of contempt for the genius of law itself. As the appointment was from the crown, the governor himself was unable to remedy this incapacity or injustice by a removal of the judge. When it is added that too frequently such adjudications were given under the influence of intemperance, and from men notorious for their immoralities, the condition of justice in those good old times may be fully appre ciated. The jury was composed of officers of The press suffered in that age of land, on which to depasture some cattle. The general refused the application on the avowed ground of the editor's opposition to Government. Further, to trouble the scribe, he took from his service a printer, who happened to be a convict, and, therefore, under the authority of office. Mr. McArthur in council, recommended Governor Darling a mode of quieting the interference of the press. He would have a stamp act enforcing the payment of one shilling for each printed copy issued. General Darling, however, thought this too harsh a measure to be adopted. The first paper brought out in New South Wales, was the Sydney Gazette and Advertiser,' which appeared March 6th, 1803, by order of Governor King. Upon an oval device, ornamented with rude drawings of implements of husbandry, were the words, Thus we hope to conquer.' When the press appeared as the exponent of the prisoner class, it was sometimes prostituted for the maintenance of, or connivance at, improper practices, and a low tone of moral feeling. It was to remedy this evil that Dr. Lang, the chivalrous advocate of liberty, but the stern denouncer of social wrongs, undertook a crusade against a party, whose principles he regarded as a curse to the colony, and a shame to literature. And if, in the vehemence of attack, he occasionally forgot the dignity of a gentleman, and the charity of a Christian, we must remember the provocations which existed, the character of his assailants, and the condition of society, rightly to appreciate the position he assumed. Convictism lost some of its more repulsive aspects, as far as public opinion was concerned, when wealth was accumulated by those who had borne the badge of servitude. The great landowners and flockmasters were emancipists, while many merchant princes and city magnates were of the same class. Governor Macquarie, whose dynasty was between 1810 and 1821, thought to encourage the emancipists by bestowing upon them favours not sanctioned before. He admitted some to his table, and raised a few to the magistracy. Those arrived free were indignant at this extension of patronage; but they were laughed at by the new aristocracy, and called, scoffingly, The Pure Me rinoes.' One clerical magistrate, the Rev. Mr. Marsden, could not meet the newly elected justices, and resigned his office. General Macquarie's successor, Governor Brisbane, on the other hand, held the reins of government too tightly, and with much nobleness of conduct, exhibiting too often that severity of rule which caused part of his régime to be denominated The Reign of Terror.' By some strange official neglect there were prisoners who brought over to New Holland the very gold and jewels, for the abstraction of which they had been transported. The man who robbed the Bank of Stirling, for instance, is said to have thus carried out property to the amount of a thousand pounds; the judicious employment of which removed him from the necessity of hard labour and degrading treatment, and enabled him to invest to advantage. While discipline was so lax that every encouragement seemed given to the indulgence of disorder, the severity of the code was equally apparent, however irregular its exercise. Capital punishment was not uncommon for petty thefts. But flogging was the favourite mode of punishment. Did a man forget to touch his hat when passing an official, he received twenty-five lashes. Had he been said to have returned an improper answer to his master, or neglected obedience to his order, lashes became the order of penalty. In November, 1800, a case of absconding came before the Sydney bench. An extract from the sentence is given :-That they do sentence Matthews, as a principal, to receive 1000 lashes; Moore, Galvin, and Saunders, 500 lashes; Francis Allen to hard labour, with an iron collar, at Newcastle; W. Blake, free from servitude, 200 lashes and three years' hard labour,' &c. At another time a bench, of which the chaplain was a member, ordered a man to be severely flogged every morning till he should confess where goods were secreted, supposed to have been stolen by him. After receiving as much as could be borne, he was, in the event of continued contumacy, to be sent to Port Macquarie, where prisoners were very roughly treated. A man, who had wounded a woman with whom he cohabited, was sentenced to 700 lashes, one-half to be given at a time. A woman, convicted of aiding a thief, had Moral Character. had her head shaved, and was clothed with a canvas frock, on which the letters R. S. G. were painted-Receiver of Stolen Goods. The distinctions of society were thus marked. The English born were Sterling; and the Colonial youth were Currency or Cornstalks. Those who had legal reasons for being forwarded to the colony were Legitimates; while those not so favoured by the law of the mother-country were styled Illegitimates. The new comers, among the convicts themselvers, were Canaries, from the yellow dress they were condemned to wear. The moral character of the primitive population of New South Wales can be easily imagined to occupy no dignified position. And how could it be otherwise? The historian of England and Scotland would give us no favourable view of society at the period of t early transportation; while the annals of suffering, endured by the pioneers of Methodism, would exhibit our lower orders as ignorant, brutal, and depraved. The police arrangements then had not the present Scotland Yard perfection. The Dick Turpin heroism of the road is now exchanged for the slinking meanness of the thief, from the constant apprehension of a detective's touch. Men were accustomed, at that time, to carry their bravado to the scaffold, and smile from Tyburn upon the cheering sympathisers with their dashing deeds. With so demoralized and brutal a commonalty, we can be surprised at no depth of vicious artifice, and bestial criminality among the selected convicts from such a class. Place such a congregation of evil-doers together, as at Sydney; supply them with the great provocative to vice-strong drink-and withhold opportunities of moral elevation and religious restraint; and then we have a community which, for the open exhibition of wickedness, may be considered one of the worst the world has seen. And yet, strange to say, in that very colony, so originated and sustained, there is now a development of social progress, moral appliances, and religious fervour, which may truly class it with some of the most virtuous of nations. That our estimate of the depravity of that period may not be supposed without ground, we give certain testimonies of others. Barrington wrote sixty years 257 ago, They were too callous for anything human to reform.' Governor Bligh told the committee of the House of Commons that, from the habits of the people in that colony, prostitution was extremely common;' and, again, 'In the beginning there were two-thirds of illegitimate children.' Dr. Cunningham, referring to the frequency of perjury, asserts, A dollar and a pint of rum were currently stated to be the prices fixed at the outset for witnesses of this description, till competition broke up the monopoly, and admitted of purchasers at a more equitable rate.' An early minister adds, All those ties of moral order and feelings of decency, which bind society together, are not only relaxed but almost extinct.' Bishop Broughton speaks of 'highly respectable persons, residing near church, not only neglected to require their convict servants to attend the church, but suffered them to spend the Lord's day amidst scenes of drunkenness and debauchery. Nor was that all. It has been further proved that that day by some masters was actually made a day of labour, and some other day allowed as an equivalent.' The first Wesleyan minister in New South Wales thus, in 1815, describes the state of society: Many in respectable situations riot in all the crimes of which their depraved natures are capable; several live in adultery either with other men's wives, or with women to whom they were never married; and this example is practised by persons in various ranks of society. I suppose one half at least of the colony is thus circumstanced. I was the other day taking a list of the children of a public school, and, inquiring about their parents. I learned from the mouths of the children that full one half of their parents cohabit in this way. The children are brought acquainted with it while young, and grow up in it.' Drunkenness was the great vice of the day, and the active agent in the crimes and miseries of the colony. The narrative of such wrongs may well surprise the English reader; but the more recent immigrants of Australia, who behold so improved a state of things, would be almost equally surprised at the detail. Excepting at the rushes of the diggings, and to those in their very worst circumstances, there is no parallel existing. As has been stated, the foundation of |