Maconochie having drawn up his report, submitted it to Captain Cheyne,
and made a proselyte.

Captain Cheyne took the colony by surprise. Not only did he denounce
assignment, but spoke of the settlers with still less tenderness: he
asserted that a great proportion of those entrusted with convicts "were
dissolute in their habits, and depraved in their principles." That there
"existed a fearful degree of depravity, unparalleled in any age;" that
assignment was the great source of crime and caste: for the convict "no
man cared;" few were exempt from contemptuous and brutal treatment--few
escaped punishment. Such opinions could only usher in a system radically
new. Thus Captain Cheyne proposed to divide the prisoners into gangs of
two hundred each, and the adoption of task work proportioned to physical
strength. He proposed wages to be paid to the road parties, to be
expended in the purchase of comforts, or reserved for a future day. On
introducing the prisoners into society, he recommended a graduated scale
of indulgence, not greatly dissimilar from the propositions stated
already.

The papers of Maconochie and Cheyne were referred to the members of the
executive council, and were generally condemned. Captain Montagu urged
the great danger to the public peace, from the propagation of an opinion
that the laws were unjust, the masters oppressive, and the government
cruel. Were it intended to test Maconochie's theory, he demanded a large
increase of military force. He, however, complained that gentlemen, who
possessed such slight practical knowledge, should venture to assail
established systems. His remarks chiefly related to the colonial
influence of their ideas, and he exaggerated the danger to the public
safety. The most dispassionate examination of this report was given by
Archdeacon Hutchins. It was far more copious in its admissions in
reference to the existing system. Little work was done; the prisoners
were very slightly reformed, and the agents often unfit. But by what
means labor could be exacted, or a "millennial age of righteousness"
supersede the past, he declared himself uncertain. He was sceptical that
it was possible to obtain men of science, prudence, and equity, to
administer a system so complexed, and requiring such discretion.

Mr. Gregory, the colonial treasurer, adopted a less grave form of
criticism. He soothed, by his humour, the colonial wrath, and among the
lesser gods excited unextinguishable la