issed or recalled;
and Mr. Price commenced his career with a vigorous, summary, and, it is
said, merciless exercise of his authority. The agents he employed were,
of course, liable to strong objections: they were chiefly persons who
were or had been prisoners; some remarkable for their crimes. The
clergymen stationed on the island exhibited the most serious charges
against the new commandant, and the persons acting under his authority
and encouragement.[250] Cruelties of the most atrocious description, and
a toleration of evils of an appalling kind; but the often insane
violence of the men, scarcely admitted of either much caution or delay.
It could answer no purpose to collect the awful details. In part, these
charges have been disputed; but their substantial truth is, at least,
rendered probable, by the accumulation of similar facts in the history
of such settlements.[251]

The dismissal of the chaplains occasioned a long and painful
controversy. The reports of their conduct appear to have been hastily
collected; often dependant on testimony which would never be received
elsewhere, unless strongly corroborated. The entire spirit of convict
government is almost inevitably modified by its penal purpose. The
instances are rare where a clergyman, acting in harmony with the design
of the gospel, could escape the censure of men who look on prisoner
piety with habitual suspicion and disdain, and who consider "doing
duty," both the obligation and the limit of the clerical office. Thus
when a prisoner desired to receive the sacrament, although a man of
respectable origin and quiet demeanour, he was sent to the church in
charge of constables, while men of far different habits were
occasionally indulged with considerable liberty.

The constables were afraid for their lives: many of them, when the
discipline became rigorous, implored to be removed from their office.
One was sentenced to chains, for declining to be sworn; another, who had
given evidence, entreated a discharge: he was refused, and was murdered.
The civil commandant, Mr. Price, himself did not dare to neglect his
personal safety, and appeared with loaded pistols in his belt.

When these accounts reached Downing-street, the abandonment of Norfolk
Island was determined. The secretary of state having read the letter of
Mr. Naylor, requested the lieutenant-governor to break up the
establishment without delay: to withdraw the whole population to the
settlement of Tasm