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 CHAPTER VI.

gradual relaxation of penal discipline, and the absolute want of every thing like a regular system of reform, may be regarded as the third cause of the comparative failure of the transportation system in the Australian colonies.

For some time after the original establishment of the colony of New South Wales, the situation of a convict in that colony, whether in the service of government or in that of private individuals^ was one of real hardship and privation: subsequently, however, when provisions became plentiful, and when many of the settlers, to whom convicts were assigned as farm-servants, began to acquire wealth, the situation of a convict gradually