Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/603

 VLSIT OF QUAKERS. THEIK NAHItATlVK. 57^ In his liands transportation became a philosophic tortiu'ti to the obstinate. By regular gradations the offending assip;nGd servant encountered flogging, — a roa<l party,— the iron gang, — and the penal settlement. Yet each step could be guarded against by a prisoner : it warf his own choice, Arthur told him, which punished him, lie dis- couraged change from one master to another. It destroyed the fate-like march of his system. Under his guidance it progressed as sternly as the car of Juggernaut, crushing only (he said) the victims of their own folly. Successive Secretaries of State recognized the fact that in hhu they had a strong man equal to any duty in a land where the fortunes of the community were controlled, under the con- stitution, by the personal qualities of the Governor. Lord Batlnn-st, Lord Goderich, Mr. liuskisson, Sir George Murray, Lord Goderich a second time, Mr. Stanley, Mr, Spring Rice, came like sluidows and departed, and still Colonel Arthur was at his post. Lord Glenelg at last relieved Ijim, but with honour, and he governed afterwards in Canada and hi Bombay. Rigid as a rock in doing what he thought his duty, he was more than ordinarily resohtte in labouring to ascertain what that duty was. He shrunk from no toil, and welcomed aid from every «[uarter. Two Quakers, Backhouse and Walker, visited Australia on a mission of benevolence. From hut to liut, from gang to gang of men in chains, from cell to cell they wantlered, Backliouse published a narrative in 1848 :^^ imprefettioii of bis character as a goveraor aii<l a Christian, wbich further ftcqiiaiiitaiiLe with him strongly confirmed. He took great iutereat in the tempoiitl antl apiritiuil prospLiity of the colonists, and in tlio reformation of the priaoni^r popiihition, as weU as in the wtdfare of the siiniving remnants of the native blauk inliabitanta It was gratif jing to ae** the anxiety lie exhibited to ruly on L'liriatiaiJ piiiiciples, and to prosecute the work of rcufoiiiiation among the priaoners acc'ordiuj;^ to the same unerring standard.""^ Archbishop of Dublin, who denounced transportation in all its aspects, and wrotti strongly in reply to Arthur's statements. In a '* Defence of Transportation" (tondon, l.s35)» Arthur, in reply to a letter from Wbately to Earl Gtgj, wound up a forcible pamphlet with the words— if education '*be pursued ius the grand vehicle of comniunj eating religious knQ^h^*Xs^^
 * ' Our first interview (be said) witb Colouel Arlliur g»ve ua a favonrablti
 * = "A Kanutive of a Visit to the AtistraUau Colonies," London: 1843,
 * Colonel Arthur met and did not shrink from the I'edoubtable Whately,