estimate the weight of
testimony, so prejudiced throughout, and nearly as impossible for a
writer, interested in the issue of its discussion, to preserve the
unclouded judgment required to arrive at truth. But little reliance can
be placed on official statistics: they give imperfect views of moral or
industrial results. They have often been compiled by government for
specific purposes, or by agents unworthy of confidence.

It may be proper to point out the chief difficulties which beset this
branch of penal jurisprudence. Some of these have been long noticed by
authorities on political philosophy. From Paley, to the latest
speculators on transportation, all have noticed its inequality. They
have dwelt on the uncertainty of its details--from the differing habits
and original condition of those subject to its infliction; and from the
absence of supervision, only to be expected where those who direct the
sentence secure its observance. The convict is condemned to a penalty
which may subject him to predial slavery, to capricious punishments; to
brutal taskmasters, and to the antipathies of a caste; or he may be
regarded with compassion, good-will, and even preference: the sting of
the law may be taken away, and what was a penalty may constitute a
brotherhood.

Thus it happens that no uniform description is a true one. What may
correctly delineate the aspect of transportation on one class, may be
false in reference to another; what may be facts one year, may be an
exaggeration in the year following. This inequality has been partly the
result of the law. The relation of the convict to the free has been
constantly changing. He was a bond servant; he was permitted to compound
his servitude by a daily payment; he was allowed to work partly for
himself and partly for the crown, at the same moment. He has been
restrained in government gangs; he has lodged in barracks, and worn the
coarsest dress, or he has lived in his own hired house. Sometimes
treated as a public enemy, chained, flogged, and over-worked; at others,
petted as a favorite or soothed like a child.

The public policy has depended on causes which have had little relation
to the individual character of convicts. A mild or severe governor, or
secretary of state; a great increase or decrease of numbers; the book of
some literary idler, or of an angry colonist; instances of extraordinary
good fortune, or an insurrection against tyranny; the fluctuations of
feeling at