portion of the community to the same level as themselves; to abolish all
the salutary distinctions which the laws of God and man have erected
between right and wrong; and if possible to dispossess the whole convict
population of all sense of criminality and degradation."--_Lang's
Transportation and Colonisation_, 1837. p. 109. And yet the
disappearance of emancipist disqualifications has almost banished a
class of writers who were accepted as champions, but who could not
seriously affect the ultimate views of public and private morality--they
were mere actors.]

SECTION XIX.

While these questions were agitated in England, Sir John Franklin
received the government of Tasmania. Captain Maconochie, already known
to scientific men, and who had enjoyed long the friendship of the
Governor, accepted the office of private secretary--a situation of not
much emolument, but highly confidential. When his destination became
public, the society for the improvement of prison discipline requested
him to examine closely the results of transportation, as exhibited in
Van Diemen's Land. To assist his inquiries, they prepared sixty-seven
questions, comprehending the details of convict management, on which
they desired a minute exposition of his views; and added, "_make such
general remarks as occur on the whole convict system of the colony, and
its effects on the moral and social state of the community: also remark
on the effect of the latter, and enter on the subject largely, making
any observation which may be useful in regard thereto_."

Captain Maconochie referred the application to Sir George Grey, who
consented, conditionally:--that all papers on the subject should pass
through the usual channel to the colonial-office, and be first placed at
his absolute disposal. The effects of this commission were momentous.
Maconochie, when he left Great Britain, professed a freedom from decided
bias, and to favor the general system of Arthur, rather than that
propounded by Archbishop Whately. The opinions he ultimately adopted, he
ascribed to his own observation, and disclaimed all prejudice against
those forms of prison discipline he was destined to subvert.

The discussions thus originated are of a deeply interesting character,
and their influence will long survive the animosity they occasioned. The
completion of Maconochie's report was exceedingly rapid, or it was very
early commenced. He had resided but three months, when he felt
a