he
continuance of what they considered demoralising their community. In
future ages their conduct will be regarded as one of the few examples of
a people struggling against temporal advantages for morality and virtue;
and if the desire of removing a grievous injury, and aiding the
sufferers in recovering from its effects, be a noble feeling, the people
of England are bound to afford their powerful sympathy and assistance to
the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land."--_A System of Penal Discipline,
with a Report on the Treatment of Prisoners in Great Britain and Van
Diemen's Land. By the Rev. H. P. Fry, A.B._]

[Footnote 272: "A settler in the interior loses a quantity of sheep:
whether correctly or not, he believes that they are stolen by
probationers. Perhaps they are sold, perhaps they are slaughtered, and
the wool 'planted.' He finds two members of the gang wandering over his
grounds: he suspects, challenges them, and on their refusal to withdraw,
attempts to arrest them. One of them seizes him by the throat, and
threatens his life: the timely appearance of his brother enables him to
secure them both. He conveys them to the station, lays before the
magistrate a charge, who sentences them. They are turned out among the
gang, without special permanent restraint, and abscond again. Our
readers may fancy this to be mere romance, but every word of it is
truth, and the detailed account will be found in another column. The
place is Oatlands; the complainant, Mr. Wilson; the time, last week. Let
us look at this case. A settler who bought his land from the government,
finds in his neighbourhood ninety convicts, in the charge of a single
overseer. His property, and it is impossible it should be otherwise, is
subjected to daily depredation. And who is the real robber? Who, at
least, are the more accountable parties? The men whose known
propensities have occasioned their transportation--the unfortunate
overseer, whose life hangs upon his connivance or indifference--_or the
government_, which, knowing all these circumstances, exposed the men to
temptation, and the settler to ruin? And what will be the result of all
this? The unfortunate settler will chafe, murmur, and implore, but he
must, at last, gather together the remnant of his property, and escape
for his life!"--_Observer, March_, 1846.

"In another column will be found the proceedings of the criminal court.
The puisne judge, in passing sentence on the prisoners, said 'it mus