eculiar--we had almost said tact--but we should
rather say endowments, with which Mr. Bedford is gifted, for leading to
repentance, and affording all possible consolation to the miserable
beings in their last extremity."--_Courier, August_, 1835.]

[Footnote 183: _Cunningham's New South Wales._]

[Footnote 184: _Gazette_, 1824.]

[Footnote 185: James Hawkins, a celebrated pugilist and pickpocket, was
not less remarkable for his escapes. He was transported to Hobart Town,
where he found several persons who invited him to become a bushranger:
he refused, and devoted all his efforts to escape. In this he succeeded:
soon re-transported for life, again he stowed himself on board a vessel,
and returned to Weyhill, and was again transported. On his way to the
hulks he once more got off his irons, but was secured (1820). In gaol he
was orderly and quiet, and refused all enterprises which might have
compromised his life.]

[Footnote 186: _Par. Papers_.]

SECTION XV.

The principles of penal government recognised in the times of Governor
Arthur, may be best ascertained from his despatches and orders, and from
the writings of Dr. Ross, who, if not directly assisted by Arthur, was
inspired by his opinions. Whether those principles were practically
applied, will be known by reference to other testimony. The deviations
must not, however, be ascribed exclusively, either to the Governor's
connivance, or to the intrinsic defect of his system. He could not act
alone, and the agents he employed were sometimes incapable, and
sometimes corrupt. In his own writings, he repeatedly alludes to the
gradual approximation to what he deemed perfection of detail: it cost
him the labor of years.

The estimate he formed, philanthropists are slow to entertain: one-third
of those who arrived in these colonies, he rated incorrigible; the rest,
chiefly affected by the prospect of reward or the dread of punishment,
and indifferent to abstract good. In tracing crimes to their causes he
largely ascribes them to poverty, and the pressure of classes on each
other. He enunciated a novel view of the mental character of
criminals--that they were subjects of _delirium_; that they saw every
object through a false medium; and that no treatment could be successful
which did not restrain them by an enlightened rigour. This view, given
in a code of rules[187] for the management of road parties, was
attributed to the reasonings of a medical member of his gov