A'ev, South Wales.—This article would be incomplete, were we to emit noticing a colony of a peculiar kind formed in our own day. Though the experiment of transporting convicts has been found highly expensive, (the whole cost, from first to last, exceeding 300/. a head,) and though the practice, as a measure of punish ment, is not likely to be continued, the settlement in New South Wales is, as a colony, an object of considerable interest. Its growth, in point of population particularly, has of late years becu more rapid than was to be expect ed from the bad habits of the people, and the desert con-, dition of the country on their first arrival. Imagination cannot conceive a tribe less likely to become useful and productive labourers, than the occupants of this settle ment. Distance from home had by no means the effect of operating a reformation in their conduct. They had hardly arrived, when they were tempted to display their habits of knavery even on the poor and miserable natives. Some time after, a theatre being erected, the persons who ventured to resort to this amusement generally found, on their return home, that their neighbours had made free with their property. It became necessary, in con sequence, to destroy the theatre ; and it was at the same time found indispensible to erect a stone prison, the wooden buildings of that description having been wilfully burned. A vice equally odious, and productive of more general mischief than the propensity to theft, was a rooted habit of intoxication. Whatever was the price of spirits, a price rising frequently to 20s. a bottle, these victims of depravity were found to expend their last pittance in this ruinous gratification. Such excesses were confined, indeed, to the convicts ; but the high profit attending the spirit trade, had a bad effect likewise on the free settlers, many of them being tempted away from the pursuits of agriculture by the dazzling pros pects of this noxious traffic.
Such NV S the state of the colony during its first years. In 1795, Governor Hunter entered on office, and was indefatigable in his efforts to reclaim the inhabitants, and improve the settlement. He continued governor during six years, and, at his departure, the number of colonists of all descriptions amounted to 6000. By this time the natives had become reconciled to their European neigh bours. It was a matter of some consequence to suspend their acts of hostility, although their incurable indolence afforded no room to hope for their co-operation in useful labour. They seem to belong to the least promising class of barbarous tenants of the woods ; and even in a state of peace, they have little scruple in plundering the corn of the settlers. In the midst of their misery, they ridicule the labour and precautions of Europeans ; and, after a temporary residence in a civilized quarter, they are found to return with double relish to their original wildness. Their chief weapon is a spear, which they throw with great force, and with unerring aim, to a dis tance of more than one hundred and fifty feet. Next to the savages, the Irish convicts proved the most trouble some inmates in this new establishment. A detachment of them arrived in 1800, after the unfortunate rebellion, and were eager to disseminate their seditious feelings among the rest of the prisoners. The vigilance of the governor, however, prevented them from gaining ground, so as to disturb the tranquillity of the settlement.
The colony of Botany Bay differs from our other foreign settlements, in the material point of being a government undertaking. While in North America and
the West Indies, each settlement has had to make its own way, and to find its chief resources within itself, the government in New South Wales was authorized to draw capital in large sums from the mother country. The consequence has been, a rapid progress in the for mation of the colony, accompanied, however, with an ex -raordinary degree of expence. Part of that expence, indeed, was unavoidable, in consequence of the wretched habits of the colonists ; but part, also, has been very unprofitably incurred. New establishments have been formed on distant points ; and one of them, that of Nor folk Island, has been abandoned. Under such a system, we must not expect to find a favourable display of the virtues of industry and economy ; nor are military or naval men (who have hitherto filled the station of gover nors) the fittest persons to give a beneficial direction to the labour of the prisoners. There is now, we under stand, a disposition to put an end to farming for govern ment account ; a symptom which we hail as indicative of considerable amendments. Among grievances of a different nature, we mean the abuses calculated to excite sympathy and regret, one of the most striking is, the want of humanity shewn to convicts on the passage out. This is strongly exemplified by the contrast between our ships of war and the contract ships employed to carry out these unfortunate people. The former have been known to perform the passage, long as it is, without almost any loss of lives, while the latter sometimes lose so large a proportion as a third of the number embarked. This is owing, in some degree, to excessive severity of treatment, but much more to a scandalous embezzlement of the provisions. Equal mismanagement has prevailed in regard to the clothing sent out from home. It has been made up, in the first instance, without sufficict. regard to the nature of the climate ; and, on arrival in the colony, it has been distributed at once, without at tending to the necessity of dealing it out by piece-meal to the thoughtless creatures, who are impatient to sell whatever they do not require for present use.
The convicts, on arriving, are in general released from their irons, and ordered by the governor to work on some public undertaking. A proportion of them are successively removed from public work, to be employed in the country under the free settlers. The number of government labourers is farther diminished, as well by deaths as by emancipation for good behaviour, and by expiration of the term of servitude. Those who have been brought up to a mechanical profession, generally find it expedient to practise it here. The noted Barring ton belonged to the number, unfortunately not large, of penitent sinners. His conduct latterly became exemp lary, and he discharged the duty of chief constable with great propriety. To those convicts who persist in a course of depravity, no mode of punishment has greater terrors, than that of removal to a solitary branch of the settlement. The apprehension of separation from old connections, is, on such minds, of much more powerful operation than the prospect of bodily suffering. Repeat ed examples have occurred, of criminals returning to their iniquitous course, after a second and a third pun ishment of the latter description ; and the case of one Samuels, (Mann's New South Wales, p. 12.) seems to imply, that, in certain individuals, a recurrence to guilty practices is unavoidable.