at height. Some of the finest trees
may be seen in driving from Hobart along the Huon Road.

Up to within the last five and thirty years, the history of Tasmania
was that of a penal settlement. Much has been written of the convict
life, which it is not necessary to repeat here. I have often heard
that Marcus Clarke's powerful but repulsive tale, "His Natural Life"
is strictly true, even in its most horrible details. To the evils
inherent in the system, others seem to have been deliberately added by
the authorities. The convicts were employed as servants, and it was
even permitted to a free woman to marry a convict, and then if he
displeased her, she might have him punished. The buildings of the
settlement at Port Arthur are still standing, but are fast falling
into ruin. On the ceiling of the chapel there are yet to be seen marks
of blood from the floggings there inflicted. The old doors and bolts
of cells are used by the people in their own houses. It was of
frequent occurrence that convicts effected an escape, but they were
usually compelled, through hunger, to give themselves up. In cases
where several escaped, they became bushrangers, and rendered
travelling in the interior unsafe, for, their lives being already
forfeited, they had no motive to abstain from pillage and murder. It
appears that one at least of the Governors of the convict
establishments, took a malicious pleasure in taunting those under his
care. At length he fell a victim to his own conduct. It may be a
question whether it would not have been better to hang a man at once
than to transport him to Van Dieman's Land; but there can be no
question whatever that to class one who had been guilty of some petty
theft, with the abandoned wretches that convicts speedily become, is a
deed of which the wickedness can hardly be exaggerated. The system,
too, had a bad effect upon the free inhabitants. While the convicts
were no better than slaves, in the masters were engendered some of the
autocratic habits of slave-owners. If a convict gave the slightest
offence to his master or mistress, nothing was easier than to send him
with a note to the nearest magistrate, requesting that the bearer
might receive fifty lashes. The spirit of caste would soon be
manifested. The free white population would despise the convicts, or
children of convicts--perhaps also the poor free whites. These
distinctions have long ceased, but the feelings associated with them
are not so easil