, and not
reduced to the state of the convicts in Prince of Wales Island, who were
kept as a Government gang to be employed wherever their services might
be thought most desirable.

Upon December 20th, 1823, Sir Stamford Raffles wrote a further letter to
Government in regard to these convicts, of which we can only give an
extract, which runs thus--

"As the management of convicts ought to be a subject of
consideration, I send you a copy of the regulations established
for those of this place. The convicts now at Bencoolen amount
to 800 or 900, and the number is gradually increasing. They are
natives of Bengal and Madras; that is to say, of those
presidencies. The arrangement has been brought about gradually,
but the system now appears complete, and, as far as we have yet
gone, has been attended with the best effects. I have entrusted
Mr. John Hull with the superintending of the department, and he
feels great pleasure and satisfaction in the general
improvement of this class of people."

It is greatly to be regretted that we have been unable to obtain a copy
of the regulations to which Sir Stamford Raffles refers, but we have no
doubt they formed the basis of what were hereafter called the "Penang
rules."

It was, as we have said, in the year 1825 that the whole of the
Bencoolen convicts were transferred to Penang, and thence, as
opportunities offered later on, to Malacca and Singapore. One point we
trace in regard to those convicts is that, greatly to their
disappointment, they missed the freedom they had possessed at Bencoolen,
for they were sent to work in gangs upon the roads, and in levelling
ground near the town of Penang. At first they were tried at jungle
cutting and burning, but had no aptitude for it. This work was therefore
entrusted to Malays, who we all know have a natural bent for cutting
down trees and underwood, and are possessed of implements wonderfully
suited for the purpose.

We may remark here that transportation in those early times had its
terrors both to the European from our shores to Australia, and to the
native of India to these settlements, and more especially to the latter.

Though, by a system of "assignment" or "compulsory" servitude to
masters, or by a ticket of leave which made it open to the European
criminal to work for whom and where he pleased, expatriation became in
time to be less severely felt; still, for a long period it continued