nd hard-working
immigrants was adding greatly to the prosperity of the other colonies,
Tasmania was losing its free population, and was sinking more and more
into the degraded position of a mere convict station.

Lord Stanley, the British Colonial Secretary, in 1842, proposed a new
plan for the treatment of convicts, according to which they were to pass
through various stages, from a condition of absolute confinement to one
of comparative freedom; and, again, instead of being all collected into
one town, it was arranged that they should be scattered throughout the
colony in small gangs. By this system it was intended that the prisoners
should pass through several periods of probation before they were set at
liberty; and it was, therefore, called the Probation Scheme. The great
objection to it was that the men could scarcely be superintended with
due precaution when they were scattered in so many separate groups, and
many of them escaped, either to the bush or to the adjacent colonies.

#3. Franklin's Difficulties.#--The feelings of personal respect with which
the people of Van Diemen's Land regarded Sir John Franklin were greatly
increased by the amiable and high-spirited character of his wife. Lady
Franklin possessed, in her own right, a large private fortune, which she
employed in the most generous and kindly manner; her counsel and her
wealth were ever ready to promote prosperity and alleviate sufferings.
And yet, in spite of all this personal esteem, the experience of the new
Governor among the colonists was far from being agreeable.

Before the arrival of Sir John Franklin, two nephews of Governor Arthur
had been raised to very high positions. One of them, Mr. Montagu, was
the Chief Secretary. During his uncle's government he had contrived to
appropriate to himself so great a share of power that Franklin, on
assuming office, was forced to occupy quite a secondary position. By
some of the colonists the Governor was blamed for permitting the
arbitrary acts of the Chief Secretary; while, on the other hand, he was
bitterly denounced as an intermeddler by the numerous friends of the
ambitious Montagu, who, himself, lost no opportunity of bringing the
Governor's authority into contempt. At length Montagu went so far as to
write him a letter containing--amid biting-sarcasm and mock courtesy--a
statement equivalent to a charge of falsehood. In consequence of this he
was dismissed; but Sir John Franklin, who considered M