wise to obtain a regular ticket-of-leave.

Under a system so irregular, great practical injustice was occasionally
inflicted: while advantages were enjoyed by artisans, who could hire
their time; who obtained large profits from their trade, and indulged in
every form of vice and licentiousness.[85]

An action in 1821 (Loane _v._ Beamont), for the recovery of a debt
incurred by a prisoner of the crown assigned to the defendant,
illustrated the system which then prevailed. The man in question arrived
in 1813, and in 1816 he was Beamont's government man, who then by verbal
agreement, and afterwards in writing, engaged to sell him a farm, near
Herdsman's Cove, for L1,400, including the stock and implements of
husbandry. He possessed, besides a sum of money, a considerable flock of
sheep. There was nothing disguised in this transaction: the annual
rental was intended to cover the purchase. The judge remarked, that the
memorandum "was as good a sale upon honor as ever he saw." The suit was
an instance of the strange perversion of prison discipline, which
however excited no remark, and therefore could not be uncommon.

At the close of Governor Davey's administration in 1817, the population
of Van Diemen's Land was 3,114, and of these 566 resided in the county
of Cornwall. The convicts were slowly augmented by deportations from
Sydney, and they were subject to the absolute will of the officers. It
is in vain to look for systems in a community so small, and separated by
so great a distance from public opinion. Management was lax or rigid,
according to the temper of the moment; and no object was contemplated by
those who had power, except to render its exercise subservient to their
private views. Previous character had no marked influence in determining
the lot: a life of crime was no barrier to indulgence, when its price
could be paid: the early career of the prisoners was generally unknown.
The discipline was, indeed, often severe: lashes were administered by
hundreds, and crimes or offences, were resented or forgiven, not
according to rule, but circumstances. There were, however, gradations of
penal banishment: as at Sydney, those separated to special punishment,
were sent to Hobart Town; such as were still further implicated were
forwarded to Launceston; but the dregs of all settled at George Town.
What was the character of the inhabitants of that place, may be inferred
from the Commissioner's Reports. Prisoners, male and fe