ncerts, at
which the cabin passengers were spectators, whiled away the voyage. The
gross immoralities of a former period had subsided when he wrote: he
mentioned the change with regret. A free intercourse, he thought, more
conducive to reformation, as well as to harmony: the attachment formed
by the women, softened their demeanor, and facilitated their control.
Such were his views, and they had many partisans: but in connection we
learn, without astonishment, that he thought contemptuously of
saintship, considered reformation utopian, and honesty rather the result
of habit than of principle; the convicts, more unfortunate in their
detection than peculiar in their crimes: capable of the devotion of
hypocrites; hardly of repentance. The dash of libertinism which sparkles
in the pages of this writer, fell in with the humour of the day, and the
work was popular. It greatly tended, notwithstanding its levity, to
change the character of penal discipline in the colonies.[76]

The discipline of a convict vessel, as administered by
Surgeon-superintendent Browning, exhibited a different scene, and was
carried out in another spirit. The devout character of his mind, his
confiding disposition, and boundless good-will, are well known in these
colonies; and his management has been regarded with great admiration,
or great contempt. His high valuation of human nature contrasted with
the common official estimate: he not only saw fellow men in the worst
prisoners, but practicable materials, which knowledge and judgment might
form into comparative moral excellence. The plan of his government
recognised a wide distribution of oversight and responsibility: the
names by which he distinguished those whom he employed were flattering:
they were not gaolers and turnkeys, but captains of divisions and
delegates. He delivered lectures upon geography and astronomy: those who
could play instruments, such as clarionet, fife, and violin, were
stationed on the deck, while the rest marched in ranks. He instituted a
court of enquiry, consisting of five persons, of which his clerk was the
recorder, who examined witnesses, and disposed of trivial offences, by
exhortation, warning, and reproof; and in more flagrant cases, these
preliminary inquiries formed the basis of his own adjudication. He
treated the prisoners as persons sequestered from society for their own
good. He has shewn, by tables, that those who acquired a knowledge of
reading under his instru