ase. _Black_ and _white_
books were kept, in which meritorious actions and the reverse were
recorded. The term of preparatory servitude was four, six, or eight
years--as the sentence was for seven, fourteen years, or life; then a
ticket-of-leave allowed the prisoner to find his own employ, to enjoy
his own earnings; subject to the surveillance of the police, and to a
forfeiture for breach of its regulations.

Arthur described the police as the pivot of his system: it comprehended
surveillance and detection. The establishment of district courts, in
which a paid magistrate resided, was an essential element of its
success. The masters had a correctional authority at hand: a few miles,
often a few minutes, brought them within the police court, and the
punishment ordered followed the offence by a very short interval. The
police constables, mostly prisoners of the crown, were selected from
each ship to assist the recognition of their fellow prisoners, and they
were rewarded for every runaway they arrested. They often shortened
their own sentence by procuring the conviction of others; often, too,
they obtained considerable sums, and even instant liberty, by the
discovery of an outlaw. They were acute, expert, and, we are told by
Arthur, vigilant beyond all men he ever knew. They were objects of fear
and detestation.

The strong will of the prisoners thus encountered opposition on every
hand. They were hedged round with restrictions; they were at the mercy
of the magistrate, and subject to the lash, for offences which language
is not sufficiently copious to distinguish with nicety.[188] Their
unsupported accusations recoiled on themselves. They were entitled to
complain, but the evidence they could generally command, was heard with
natural suspicion. So well did they understand the hopelessness of
contest, that they rarely replied, where a defence sometimes aggravated
their punishment.

The convict was subject to the caprice of all his master's household: he
was liable every moment to be accused, and punished.[189] Unknown,
without money, he had no protector or advocate: one magistrate could
authorise fifty lashes; one hundred could be inflicted by the
concurrence of a second. It was asserted by Arthur, that the statement
of their liabilities produced an expression of dismay in the
countenances of convicts newly arrived. The indefinite character of
these offences; the boundless discretion of the magistrate; the
influence of