es ended in the proof of these facts
before the supreme court at Hobart Town. At Deloraine, nearly one
thousand prisoners were in charge of twenty persons, including the
military: on one occasion, eighteen started for the bush, and filled the
neighbourhood with terror. The local authorities could offer nothing but
condolence; and even this poor relief was presented in a peculiar form.
It was alleged that the amount of depredation and violence had not risen
more rapidly than the number of convicts. This was scarcely correct; but
it was little consolatory to the sufferers, assailed so much the more
frequently, though by different hands.[272] Their honors the judges,
with repeated and pointed condemnation, reprehended the utter want of
proper surveillance and restraint, as cruel alike to the settlers and
the convicts. Nor were the towns exempt from extraordinary inundations:
many hundreds of men were turned out from the penitentiary on Saturday
afternoon, and were thus exposed to the temptations of a populous city.

The officers of the department were charged with the trial of a system
professing to breathe the most exalted charity. Had they, however,
designed to expose theoretical benevolence to endless execration, no
course could have been chosen more obvious. The liberty and indulgence
given to the unfortunate prisoners seemed to bring them purposely within
the circle of their old temptations. Many were led into scenes which act
with fascinating power on men of criminal tendencies: they were often
seen lingering for hours around the doors of houses for the sale of
liquor. Amusements, which are always attended with some peril, were
rendered more public and accessible. Dancing houses of the lowest kind
were licensed, until their noise and confusion compelled their
suppression. The regulation of night-passes became much less practically
stringent. Everything facilitated the allurements and the commerce of
crime. Receivers were always at hand, and robbers were tolerably insured
when the first danger was over, by the rapid shipment of their spoil.
Offenders, practised in the fraud of cities, were admitted into the
towns, and placed in situations precisely calculated to recall their
former habits, and excite their habitual passions. The puisne judge, in
passing sentence on prisoners of this class, for new crimes, and holding
up their police character in his hands, exclaimed--"Now, Mr.
Attorney-general, I ask you what we may ex