estrict the habit of change, Macquarie established the rule that no
convict should be returnable, except for infirmity, sickness, or crime;
but when the supply exceeded the demand, this condition was evaded, and
the result--an accumulation in the hands of the government. A large
proportion were from the manufacturing districts of Great Britain: they
were utterly ignorant of farming, and when the plough superceded the
hoe, they required a tedious training before they repaid the expense of
their support.

The agriculture of this colony was long trifling: the convicts were
chiefly employed as stockmen and shepherds: from the banks of the
Derwent to the district of Launceston, the land in general was a
wilderness, unfenced and untenanted: the men, stationed forty and fifty
miles from their masters' dwellings, were rarely visited, and were under
no immediate control. They were armed, to defend themselves from the
natives, and clad in skins: they lived in turf huts, thatched with long
grass, and revived the example of savage life.[84]

It was the custom to allot to the superior officers, magistrates, and
constables, in proportion to their rank, a certain number of men, who
were subsisted from the king's stores. A skilful mechanic, or pedlar,
was a valuable acquisition: he hired his own time, and paid from 5s. to
L1, according to its estimated weekly value, while the master drew, for
his own use, the rations of the servant. Others rented farms, and paid
their masters in produce; and when "government men," as assigned
servants were called, were unable to obtain payment, and thus failed to
make good an engagement with the master, they were liable to be thrown
back into their former position.

Tickets-of-leave were freely given to those incapable of much service to
the government, or its officers: such as were useful, whatever might be
their conduct, were long detained, and for a period often indefinite.
Females, who arrived with property, were discharged to enjoy it. If
followed by the husband, the wife was instantly assigned to his care. To
enable a prisoner to support his wife when she joined him, or when a
convict married a convict, if of no special value he was released to
labor for himself.

No accurate account was preserved of these distributions, and a notice
appeared during the government of Sorell, which required all women
living at large to give an account of the grounds on which they
pretended to freedom, or other