Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/512

 JtHiK BURTON ON CONVICT GAIS witVi vho concealed their skill convicts wno concealed tneir sinii was lluj (Vur of living kept in bonds. To retain a good workman M Hi^ttUu' i»f low inonil tone, or a government overseer, would piok H ([tiarrel with liini, and the punishment inflicted HhvayH nut off the time at which under the ref^nlations the inthuis^ence of a ticket-of-leave or a conditional pardon would be j^ranted* The ParHamentavy Committee (1812) decliired that the convicts were '* well aware that any skill that they may accpiire or display in the service of govern- luent will hu the cause of their further detention in it/' The a(ii>hefttions fiU' assignment of convicts were in the first iuHtmice luade direct to the Governor. Macqnarie, in this matter, an well as respecting spirits landed from vessels, orth^red that ai)pb*cations should be made to subordinate b'vom the gangs in which the convicts were collected, ihit^v't^s, hnrghirs, and sliarpers wont out marauding. At a later liiiU^ (18:^5) Judge Burton declared (in a Charge) that they ptHired in and out like bees; '*witb this difference, the 4Um wiu'ks by day, the other by night; the one goes forth to industry, the other to plunder/' Macqnarie and hia IViiuuIk vainly pleaded that the colony had prospered under bin care. Kniancipated crime had certainly thriven. The wit of Sydney Suiifch impaled the folly that made crime tha litopping-atoiie to wealth and station. Culprits stood — Oraiites priini transmittere cuiHiimj Trnilr*b[Uitijne maniig, ripit ultprioiiw anmre* (^rciiuiHtauces might liave done something towards thlS^ emh Imt Mactjuarie did more. He endeavoured to make Aubiralia a convict paradise; he reiterateil tiiat the colony WHB created for the benefit of coiivictB; he scorned the H«i4umption of virtue by the unconvicted. He recognized Uii mairs light to be in the colony unless he had, or ought to hae been» convicted, and he strove to compel the free to Vtnuuve the freed into their society, **My principle (he Wi'iJte) is that when once a man is free, his former state aluuUd iiu longer be rememhered, or allowed to act against m^ The class of which he was gaoler occupied his UuiUghtti. Others were intrnders in their domain. He W^h huiju'ised at tlu^ extraordinary and illiberal policy rsonn wo ai wiit:tided him" in office. 4