. The traders
of Hobart Town, for several years, were compelled to sleep on their
counters, and watch their property with the most scrupulous care: an
inquiry who had been pillaged, became the ordinary morning salutation.
The thieves broke through the walls with oriental skill: a stormy night
afforded them a harvest. During a tempest of extraordinary severity,
which deluged the streets and carried away fences, they contrived to
pillage to a great amount; a ladder was discovered at a window,
constructed for the purpose, by which they ascended to the upper
chamber, and thus proved that no elevation was safe. Nor did they
confine their ravages to the towns; they entered the store of a settler,
and stripped his dwelling of L400 worth of goods, which they conveyed by
boat to Hobart Town. Many were living without any lawful means of
subsistence, and as their numbers increased, fraud and robbery were
perpetrated in every house, and at every hour of the day.

Such was the state of the colony at the close of Sorell's
administration, who found that without the means of nightly restraint,
all regulations of police were in vain. On resigning office, he
predicted the difficulties of his successor, and warned him that he must
expect to contend with increasing crime.[96] To estimate the merit of
Arthur's government, it is necessary to remember those evils--with what
difficulty authority, long relaxed, is recovered--even by the most
skilful and vigorous hands. When a few years had elapsed, the security
of the colony was a subject of universal astonishment; and it was
boasted, that men slept with their doors unlocked, and their windows
unfastened, and often with property to a large amount strewed around
their dwellings; notwithstanding, a dangerous temerity. By what means
these results were, even partially attained, the reader will be curious
to know.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 92: Curr's account.]

[Footnote 93:

_Session_ (Judge Wylde), 1821.
+--------+--------------------+----------------------+
| Cases. | Sheep in question.| Owner. |
+--------+--------------------+----------------------+
| 1 | 300 | William Watterson. |
| 2 | 100 | Ditto. |
| 3 | 250 | Daniel Stansfield. |
| 4 | 150 | Robert Gillet. |
| 5 | 200 | Samuel Clements. |
| 6 | 100 | Edward Lord. |