| 7 | 60 | Crown. |
+--------+--------------------+----------------------+

Some of these robbers suffered death: others are still in the land of
the living; and their names are suppressed, on the presumption of their
reform.--_Compiled from Gazettes._]

[Footnote 94: Mr. Birch.]

[Footnote 95: _Bigge's Report._]

[Footnote 96: "I entered upon the government, at a moment which my
predecessor considered a most eventful one. Circumstances, connected
with convict population, which it would not be prudent for me to dwell
upon in this place, co-operated to render it probable, in the opinion of
Colonel Sorell, that crime would rapidly increase."--_George Arthur_,
1825.]

SECTION VIII.

It will be proper, however, first to retrace the penal history of these
settlements, and to mark the incidents which moulded their form, and
contributed to their failure or success. The administration of the penal
laws cannot be understood, except by a broad and continuous survey. The
developments of one colony re-acted on the other: Van Diemen's Land,
long the satellite of New South Wales, attended all its motions, and
with it prospered or suffered. From the fortunes of that colony, the
history of Tasmania is inseparable.

The evils described, were not of a recent origin; they may be traced
from the commencement of penal colonisation: the journals of the first
officers exhibit all sorts of mischief, which only entered into new
combinations as times advanced, and property was diffused. Collins,
whose account descended to the close of the century, records a perpetual
struggle with vice and crime. What could be expected of men who burned
their gaol at the risk of their lives, and the church to escape
attendance on worship?

The first expiree, James Rouse, who was established (1790) as a settler,
was industrious and successful. Phillip, anxious to test the competence
of the land to sustain a cultivator, cleared two acres for this man,
erected his hut, and supplied him with food. Fifteen months after, he
relinquished his claim on the King's stores, and received thirty acres
of land, in reward for his diligence. It thus became common to afford
similar facilities to expiree convicts,[97] but generally in vain.

The solicitude of Phillip was displayed in every form of kindness; but
the proneness of his subjects to intemperance, defeated all his efforts:
he gave them stock; and had scarcely left the lan