interests
affected by the question. Crime will still be committed--and its
treatment, the great problem of the age, is the business of all men.

The comptroller-general, Captain Forster, who obtained his appointment
by the influence of Captain Montagu, entered on his office when Sir
Eardley Wilmot arrived (1843), and re-modelled the practical measures of
Dr. Milligan, who for a time, under the auspices of Sir John Franklin,
had possessed the chief command. Captain Forster was too well acquainted
with discipline to entertain the smallest expectation of ultimate
success. Among his friends he expressed his distrust without reserve:
but believing the home government irrevocably pledged, he concluded that
penal philosophy was not his affair; and, not without reason, that he
was better qualified than a stranger to mitigate the natural tendencies
of the system. He had not been consulted in its structure: he did not
hold himself responsible for its errors or results.

During four years, ending in 1844, more than 15,000 prisoners arrived:
in 1847, there were, in all, 30,000. Free emigration was stopped. In
1842, 2,446 emigrants landed; in 1843, 26; in 1844, only 1.[255] The
greater number of transports under short sentences became almost
immediately eligible for hire, who were at first preferred by the
farmers to free men. The free laborers rapidly retreated to the other
colonies. Gangs of probationers were formed throughout the country.
Their locations were chiefly selected with reference rather to their
easy accommodation than their useful employment. A few large gangs were
established beyond the settled country, but the greater part were lodged
in the old buildings erected for the use of road parties, and
ill-adapted for either moral or industrial operations.

Van Diemen's Land was supposed by the crown to be peculiarly fitted for
the experiment: an area nearly equal to Ireland, occupied by little more
than 50,000 inhabitants, appeared to offer ample room for the stations.
It was not considered that the free population was condensed chiefly
within a line of country between the Derwent and Tamar, or on the
borders of those rivers; and that however a temporary location might be
chosen, the settled districts must ultimately absorb the pass and ticket
holders. Most were within a few hours, nearly all within a day's journey
of the free population. The ample supply of food; a system of moral
training, which devoted considerable