icers were assaulted with
violence. The assembly of such numbers in one spot destroyed all
authority: the officers did not choose seriously to infringe the
privileges of the "ring." Those who gave information or evidence, did so
at the venture of their lives. The harmless prisoners were the victims
of oppression and rapid deterioration. At a station where the English
and colonial convicts were intermixed, the colonial suffered various
punishments, in three months 58 per cent., the English 30 per cent.;
while the English separated from direct contamination suffered only
about 18 per cent. Thus contact evidently produced one-half the penal
disorders of the English convicts.

The incapacity and corrupt practices of the officers were serious
obstructions to their usefulness. Thus, they were found to traffic with
the men; to obtain their services under false pretences. The
superintendents left the actual supervision of the work to the convict
sub-overseers, who, had they been inclined to preserve order, or to
enforce labor, would have been liable to vengeance.

The Rev. Thomas B. Naylor, chaplain, who quitted his employment in 1845,
addressed a letter to Lord Stanley, describing the condition of Norfolk
Island. This letter was intended for publication; but being placed in
the hands of Captain Maconochie, he transferred it to Lord Stanley. Mr.
Naylor asserted that the regulations were neglected: the commandant, a
good intentioned but blustering person, was utterly incompetent to
secure obedience. Thus the island was ever on the verge of insurrection.
Large gangs had succeeded by mutiny in obtaining terms with their
officers: the commandant himself had been knocked down. Convicts of
every grade were intermixed; the fresh feelings of English prisoners
cruelly insulted; youths seized upon with abominable violence--_inter
christianos non nominandum_. He described the parade of separation,
classification, and religious instruction, as an elaborate scheme of
delusion.[248]

The reports transmitted by different parties from Norfolk Island, were
published in the colonial newspapers; and the lieutenant-governor
(Wilmot) was induced to issue a commission of inquiry, entrusted to R.
P. Stewart, Esq., whose bold and faithful delineation of abuses more
than sustained the rumours that prevailed.

On his return to head-quarters Mr. Stewart furnished a minute report. He
stated that the reins of authority were relinquished, and that the