Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/397

 government labour and excluded a similar indulgence during the remainder of their sentence, which in a great lueasure'* secured theo* good coiidiict. No magistrate could ''inflict a severer corporal punishment than iifty lashes if the Governor is absent, or without his approbation." Of Itlie women convicts, there were "many whom no punish- 'ment or kindness could reclaim/* Among the most thoroughly abandoned were the comparatively few who ciiLiiie from tiie Knglish countiea many are well- liehaved women, who soon after their arrival are selected and applied for l>y the induatriona part of the inhabitants, with whom they either marry ^or cobaliit, several being usefid in domestic economy, rearing stock, and Bven in a^icultore. The worst are thoae permitted to accompany their Bxiled hufibandrf, and who are iilmtjat without exception reoeivorB of stolen goods, or lead the most dissolute lives. ,, , No more than 360 couple Fc»f every descriptio n are married in the colony, 17t> having been tmited since 1800. It certainly would be deairablc if marriage were more pre- valent, an every eneouragement is given for their entering into that state, but as the will of the iudividimls ought in this instance to be free, I can- not say that I approve of a proposed plan to lock all tho females up who ire not married until they are ho fortunate as to obtain hnabands." '*0n arrivaF' precautions %Yere taken. Females were placed m the manufactory at Parramatta under care of the resident magistrate. The well-behaved were encouraged to marry. If large numbers were locked up as proposed, instead of marriage being respected it would become a mere • act of convenience to escape from imprisonment. As a set- Poff against the bad character given to the Irishwomen, it should be added that while the male convicts from London were described as vile, the great part of the Irish and itenen from the interior of England were industrious and ^H>eraevering. H^ In ail his plans for the benefit of his reprobate subjects ^the Governor was ably assisted by his wife. She was the life and soul of the management of the Female Orphan ^Asylum; and without her aid the superintendence of the B" factory'' (as the place which contained the eonviet women Hwas called, because they worked there) would have been Bdifiicult even for King and the untiring Marsden. One baneful curse hung upon the colony in the shape of .the cloud which surroimded the children even of the free-
 * ' the Loinlon females and the jL^reEitet- jKirt of tlioae from Ireland* Amon^