posed to more than
disease. Yet all this severity was useless for the purposes of
discipline, while the precautions against violence and crime were
comparatively neglected.

The apprehensions of Mr. Stewart were, unfortunately, realised. A
murderous outbreak on the 1st of July, filled the settlement with
terror. The constables were ordered, on the 30th of June, to remove the
dishes and cooking utensils while the men were in the school-room.
Westwood was calculating a sum: at the sound, he raised the pencil and
listened; and a murmur passed through the classes: a sullen gloom
overspread the whole. The next morning they were mustered for prayers:
their conduct was orderly. They then marched to the lumber-yard; there
they collected in a crowd, and suddenly moved to the stores, which they
broke open and carried off their impounded dishes. They then returned to
the yard, and Westwood told them that he was going to the gallows, and
advised those who were afraid to keep back. Several armed with
bludgeons; Westwood caught up an axe, and in a few moments four
constables were murdered, some in their beds. The military were
instantly called out, and in a very short time appeared, and the
prisoners, without waiting a charge, retired to their quarters. When the
account of these proceedings were received at Hobart Town, a special
commission was sent down to try the rioters: thirteen suffered
death.[249]

It is exceedingly difficult to determine to whom the chief blame of this
fatal disaster belonged. The officers on the spot, whose testimony can
be scarcely deemed impartial, alleged that it was chiefly due to the
system of Maconochie: "when," said they, "the reins of discipline were
tightened, the rage of the prisoners was unbounded." The police
magistrate declared that he had all along expected such resistance:
"before a more healthy state of things could be produced, a sacrifice
would be made." It is, however, obvious that no such necessity could
have existed, had the two classes of prisoners been divided, and proper
military precaution secured.

On the 3rd of August, 1845, Major Childs was succeeded by John Price,
Esq., formerly a police magistrate at Hobart Town. This gentleman,
remarkable for his knowledge of prisoner habits, language, and
artifices, was represented by the local government as unusually
qualified to put down the disorders which prevailed. The greater number
of the officers, civil and ecclesiastical, were dism