Page:Transportation and colonization.djvu/101

 in some low public-house along with other characters of a similar description, and drinking for weeks together till their last shilling was gone!

In a country in which so preposterous a system has -been suffered to grow up, to extend, and to perpetuate itself, under the fostering hand of authority, it would be absolute mockery to ask whether transportation had proved effectual either for the prevention of crime or for the reformation of criminals. At all events, whatever may be its effect in England, it is unquestionable that, under the prevalence of that system, crime has increased and is increasing in New South Wales. This will appear evident from the following "Return of Convictions for Felonies and Misdemeanours in the Supreme Court, and in the Courts of Quarter Sessions," of that colony, during the following years: viz.

In short, as drunkenness is the parent of crime, it must be self-evident, that a colony, in which the consumption of ardent spirits is so enormous as it