Page:Transportation and colonization.djvu/108

 it had been duly shot from an episcopalian bow.

The manner in which penal discipline has hitherto been administered in New South Wales has depended in great measure on the dispositions and views of each successive governor; being either mild and lenient, or rigorous and severe, according to the constitutional temperament of each representative of majesty. To talk of a system of penal discipline under such circumstances is manifestly preposterous; to expect success from such a chance-medley would evidently be absurd. As compared with his predecessor, General Darling, the present governor is undoubtedly of a mild and lenient disposition towards the convicts. In the exercise of this disposition, he deemed it expedient, shortly after his arrival in the colony, to curtail the power of the colonial magistrates in inflicting summary punishments, in the case of convicts charged with minor offences, by causing an Act of Council to be passed, limiting the magistrates to the infliction of fifty lashes in each case of ascertained delinquency. This naturally gave offence to the adherents of General Darling's policy,—the colonial tories;—and a mighty outcry was accordingly raised against the whig governor for so unheard-