requires,--men that will, in vulgar phrase, "swear through a six-inch
plank" to get him off. It is no uncommon case for Sydney jurors, on
retiring to consider their verdict, to exclaim that their minds are made
up, and that they will be d----d if they will give a verdict of guilty.
Another source of trouble to all persons concerned with a court of
justice here, is the extreme difficulty experienced in extracting truth
from witnesses. It is almost impossible to conceive the effrontery with
which nine-tenths of these men will swear any thing: they invariably
prevaricate and contradict themselves when cross-examined, and are not
unfrequently sent from the witness-box to prison, to take their trial
for perjury. I remember, on one occasion, seeing a father, mother, and
three grown-up daughters, who came into court to sustain a charge
against a farmer for an assault on one of the daughters, committed for
perjury, while the prisoner was released without a stain on his name.
The crime of cattle-stealing, probably, comes oftener before the Judges
of New South Wales than any other, particularly since the punishment for
it has been changed from death to banishment for life. When death was
the penalty, many graziers put up with their loss, rather than prosecute
the offender: now, the cattle-stealer is shewn no mercy, from one end of
the Colony to the other. The Judge has no discretionary power with this
class of offenders, but, in the event of a verdict of guilty, must pass
the sentence of banishment for life. If the prisoner came free to the
colony, he is banished to Van Diemen's Land: if, on the other hand, he
is an old convict, he is sent to rusticate for the remainder of his days
on Norfolk Island. Whole droves of stolen cattle are, nevertheless,
continually offered for sale in the neighbourhood of Sydney, and ready
purchasers are found for them, the risk of being brought up as a
receiver not being so great as might be supposed. The regular
cattle-stealer has stations in the bush, where he collects his
ill-gotten herds, defaces and alters their brands, and keeps them till
the new brand has healed and assumed the usual appearance; he then
boldly starts for market in open day, and, though he may be met by the
former owners of the beasts he is driving, he fears nothing, proof of
identity being a difficult task, when a P has been made into a B, and,
perhaps, three or four other brands have been added.

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