Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/155

 A VAIN PETITION. 57 that the serious nature of the oversight presented itself to 1787 his mind. One of the very first things he had to do was to appoint overseers or superintendents for the purpose of keep- ing the convicts in order ; but no men of the proper kind ovewecre. having been sent out, he was obliged to appoint convicts to that position. The inevitable results soon made their ap- pearance ; the so-called superintendents were either unable or unwilling to exercise any authority over the men, who were thus left to please themselves about the way in which their work should be done. Under such circumstances, it was a very difficult matter to get any work out of them at all. In this exigency Phillip was driven to appeal to the military for assistance, and accordingly requested the officers Appeal to of the garrison to exercise their influence over the men by encouraging those whom they saw disposed to be diligent, and threatening the idle and disorderly with punishment. The officers, under Major Rosses instructions, bluntly refused to do anything of the kind, saying that they would not ''interfere with the convicts" in any shape, except as a garrison force. The most essential means for the good government of the community was thus absolutely wanting, and the natural results soon showed themselves. It might have been fore- seen in the first instance that physical force alone is not enough to rule any people, even the most degraded; and that without some efficient moral influence at work, it is not Physical .- _ _ . « . . -. force not possible to keep the constituent elements of society in work- sufficient, ing order. The defect was first felt by Phillip in the absence of overseers — the non-commissioned officers, so to speak, whose services he needed so much from day to day. But it was afterwards felt in the absence of a sufficient number of religious instructors, as well as of ordinary teachers. No schoolmaster, or teacher of any kind, formed part of the first no teacbers. establishment, although there were many children among the soldiers' families as well as among the convicts; and although it must have been known that even the men and Digitized by Google