____

To encourage reformation, and check that spirit of idleness which is the
mother of mischief, alike in convicts and free people, it is strongly
recommended to allow the well-disposed men to profit by their own
industry. It is forbidden to pay money to prisoners, at least before
they obtain their ticket, but they may be rewarded by tea, sugar,
tobacco, Cape wine, extra clothing, &c. Mr. Macqueen had one Scotchman,
who, under this system, actually sheared 101 sheep in the day, being
allowed at the rate of 2_s._ 6_d._ per score upon all above 25, which is
the quantity fixed by the government rule for a man to do in a single
day. And in the same establishment, acting upon like inducements, might
be seen sawyers and fencers working by moonlight; and others making tin
vessels for utensils, bows for bullocks, &c., in their huts at night.
From this method of management a very great degree of comfort arises, of
which Mr. Macqueen gives the following instance in a convict's feast,
which he once witnessed. At Christmas, 1837, one of his assigned
servants, (who had a narrow escape from capital conviction at home,)
requested leave to draw the amount of some extra labour from the
stores, since he wished to give an entertainment to a few of his
colleagues, all of whom were named and were well conducted men. The
party making this application had been industrious and well-behaved,
being besides very cleanly in his hut, and attentive to his garden and
poultry, so the request was granted, and his master had the curiosity to
observe the style of the festival. The supper consisted of good soup,
a dish of fine mullet out of the adjoining river, two large fowls, a
piece of bacon, roast beef, a couple of wild ducks and a plum-pudding,
accompanied by cauliflower, French beans, and various productions of his
garden, together with the delicious water-melon of the country; they had
a reasonable quantity of Cape wine with their meal, and closed their
evening with punch and smoking.[192]

[192] See a pamphlet entitled "Australia as she is and as she may be,"
by T. Potter Macqueen, Esq., published by Cross, Holborn, pp. 12-14.

But the picture of the peculiar class by which a penal colony is
distinguished from all others will not be complete without a darker
shade of colouring than those upon which we have been gazing. It is a
painful feeling to contemplate the past condition of one portion of the
convict population, but it is a wholesom