tration of justice, and of giving them confidence in its equity,
are very important ones--perhaps not any in all their management are
more so: and both are absolutely wanting now, and may well be so in the
circumstances in which they are placed.

"In 1839, the year before my arrival at Norfolk Island, 811 cases were
tried; of which only four ended in acquittal--such was the certainty at
that time of conviction if accused. In 1840, I acquitted 90 out of 416
tried. (I was then, perhaps, too difficult about evidence, and in my
inexperience carried abstract principle too far.) In 1841, I acquitted
25 out of 297 tried; in 1842, 24 out of 326; and in 1843, 16 out of 429.
I was much in the habit of employing the officers about the court as a
sort of jury, referring to them, though not formally, in cases of
difficulty, and inviting them to ask questions. And I very early
appointed an intelligent prisoner, in whom I otherwise had confidence,
to speak for men accused of local offences, and make the most of their
several statements, on condition, however, that he never said for them
what he knew to be directly false. He thus served me very much, for what
he did not say I sifted with the more care; and the plan altogether, and
it is nearly that in the text, answered extremely well. It greatly
improved the pleader himself: under the new impulses given to both his
head and heart, he became almost a new man: while stupid prisoners, who
could not speak for themselves, had as good a chance given them as the
cleverest, and the latter, another very important point, had no
better."--_Maconochie on the Management of Prisoners in the Australian
Colonies._]

[Footnote 238: The following extract from Maconochie's pamphlet, may be
taken as his plan, matured by experience:--

"The management of penal settlements should be as follows:--1. A
fictitious debt of 6,000, 8,000, or 10,000 marks should be created
against every man, according to his offence, which he should redeem by
labour and other good conduct, having a proportion placed to his credit
daily as wages, according to his behaviour, and suffering a loss by fine
if he offends. 2. No ration should be allowed him of right, except bread
and water: for every thing else, following up the analogy thus created
between marks and money, he should be charged in them. 3. He should be
allowed, however, thus to expend his marks for present indulgencies to
what extent he pleases, but never to obtain hi