ed their crimes, nor
offered atonement. But if the prisoner was injured, the colonist was not
less so. Social virtues were discouraged; all classes were contentious
and overbearing: the police, ever prying into the business of life, thus
intermixed with penal systems, filled the colony with exasperation, from
which not even the mildest spirits could escape. He did not propose to
abolish transportation, but that the government by its own officers
should both punish and reform; that the prisoners, when restored to
society, should stand in the relations of free men to all except the
crown, receiving wages at the current rate; and if restrained in their
expenditure, not for punishment, but for safety--"the chains of paternal
authority" thrown over them, "to protect them against themselves."

Maconochie sent to Sir G. Grey a Summary of his Report, containing his
opinions of existing systems: at his request it was at once handed to
Lord John Russell, who again, conveyed it to the committee then sitting
upon the subject of transportation. Although substantially agreeing with
his report, _the summary_ condensed, and therefore rendered more
flagrant, the charges against the colonists, and his description of the
condition of the prisoners still more revolting.

This _Summary_ appeared in an English newspaper. Hitherto the discussion
had been confined to official circles or to select correspondence: it
was now open to the world; and the colonists found, with astonishment,
that the reform proposed was radical, and that the opinions of the
reformer were wholly adverse to the existing systems.

In this summary, the condition of the convicts was depicted with all the
coloring of misery: they were slaves, subject to coercion; strangers to
moral impulses, save only the distant hope of liberty. They were lodged
in huts with stable roofs, damp floors, and rude furniture.[222] They
slept on truckle bedsteads, often undressed; their food was cooked in
the roughest manner; without wages, they robbed; miserable, they were
drunken. Their better qualities were unregistered: the artful escaped,
while the "careless fellow," otherwise good, was involved in a long
train of penalties. A ticket obtained, the holder could acquire no
property, and was worried by police interference; and in one night his
indulgence might be forfeited. Though some masters, generous or weak,
softened its rigour, assignment as a punishment, generally exceeded the
desert