Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/601

 EXTINCTION OF BUSHRANGING. 573 was captured, and sent back to Macquarie Harbour, whence he again escaped with another man. This man he slew, and thus filled to overflowing the measure of his crimes. Horror seized him, and he gave himself up to the execu- tioner. Such was the material with which Arthur had to cope. He was not slow to denounce the cowardice of those who yielded without a struggle to robbers. As far as he was concerned, the march of the law was unrelenting. One hundred and three criminals suffered death in two j^ears. All instances of bravery in capturing bushrangers were sedulously proclaimed and rewarded by grants of land. The reins of government were tightened in every direction. Arthur notified that the flagitious proceedings of the criminals were often caused by the '* ill-judged neglect of discipline or corrupt toleration of irregularity" shown by the masters. From such masters he declared that he would withdraw all ** support and indulgence.'' Criminals knew what to expect from him. No morbid feeling, no sensitiveness, would restrain him in administer- ing the law in such a manner as justice seemed to require. He was not, like Macquarie, — variable. Acting on principle, he was at the last what he was at the first. As a Christian man, before he left the colony he sought reconciliation with men whom he had stringently dealt with, and by whom he had been bitterly opposed ; but, as a Governor, he never swerved from the path he had chosen. In 1827 several bands of bushrangers were extinguished. On the 3rd July eight men died on the scaffold. Ten bush- rangers were captured a few days afterwards, and Arthur issued a public order thanking the magistrates by whose exertions the robbers had been secured. Two accomplices were subsequently caught, and in August the twelve were convicted, and nine of them were executed. Arthur announced that he commuted the sentences of three because through their means the others had been kept from murder or bloodshed. But the commutation was only to transpor- tation for life. To witness the **aw^ful spectacle" of the execution of the nine men, all the convicts in Hobart Town were compelled to leave their tasks ; and the notice added, " In order to prevent the further effvmoxv oi^ft^^x.«^^«^'^^^