The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-09-20 00:00:00

Control of Convicts in the Service of Settlers.

The proceeding's before the Magistrates against
the convicts in the employ of Government and
Pettlem, as well as those holding tickets of leave, are
taken upon nails ; and rough minutes of the evi-
dence are mute by a clerk, which are afterwards
entered in their hocks, teg,ther with the sentence
inflicted. These bmks rile called records, arid
they appear to have been kept with regularity, un-
til the increase of business caused some arrear to
take ;dace in the entries of the pro' eirfingv, espe-
cially in those of Paiainstta, Sydney. and Windsor.
I observed also that the entrit, in the police-book
at Sydney, that were in Ow hand-writing of Mr.
Robert Ivy ihrop Murray, who ar•ted as clerk to the
Magistrates, rind superintendent of police, until
the mouth of February, 18.2 d, were very loosely
made.

The nature or their business consists chiefly of
examinations into the reports and informations of
the constables, and the complaints made by the
superintendents and the settlers "against their con-
vict servant. for neglect or work, or for petty theft,.
Capital offences, if attended with circumstances of
atrocity or violence, are referred, with the examina-
tions, to the con,iderailon of the Judge-Advocate;
hut burgl tries, robberies in dwelling-houses, and
sometimes forgeries, are tried and punished by the
Magistrates, at their weekly meetings, wheu there is
a full attendance.

The returns of offences brought before the ma-
gistrates of New South Wales, and the punishments
inflicted by diem, are contained in several docu-
ments of the Appendix. They exhibit an enumer-
talon and descrtption of the offences brought before
the police magistrates of Sydney, from the Bth of
!tley 1817. to the 91st December 1820; of the
same particulars nt Par:mans, from the 4th of
March 1815, to the 30th of September 1820; of
those at Windsor, from the Ist of January 1818, to
the 30th of December 1820; of those in the dis-
trict of Ewan, from the 2311 of October 1819 (die
date of the establishment of the bench there) to the
20th of December 1820; and finally those of
Bathurst, from the 6th of November 1819 to the
9th of October 1820.

By an omission tit:o4m purely accidental, I did
not receive • similar return of the offences and
punishments at Liverpool, mud I did not thiek it
necessary to lake a wider retrospect of those at
Sydney, although the books were submitted to
me by Mr. Wentworth, and appeared to have been
kept with some regularity, together with an alpha-
belies! reference in the names of the offending
parties annexed to the annual record, which I did
not observe in any of the oiler books. An ab-
stract has been made from these several returns,
showing the nature and number of the offences com-
mitted by convicts in the dal'. -rent districts in each
year. The most trtll:l•Lible circumstance to he col-
lected from these documents, is the increase of crime
that appears to hare taken pl rye in the town end
districts of S)dnty in the year 1820. The amount
of the convict population there, at taken by the
muster of . the year 1819, was 4.231, of whom 547
were stated to be females. la the month of Sep-
tember 1920, the population (- these districts, es
collected by the mogPorsits, amoiireed to 4,457, of
whom only 149 were stated to be females. This.
great decrease in the female population, and the
little increase in the male CJIIVICi population, is
chit fly sttributahle to the different manner iii
which the musters of the two years were taken.
At the first, and indeed at in my previous mus-
ters, with • view to meet the convenience. of
individuals, who had property. at a distance and
bved at Sydney, the returns of their convict err-
vents were allowed to he made in the places where
the masters either resided, or food it most court.-
silent to present them, instead of being made in the
districts where the convicts were actually employed ;
insomuch,. that the numealcal population of each
district was not only in. sorne: instances swelled
beyond its actu rl Nipnutit, hut it also happened
that doti!de returns hawing been made for the same
c•livicts in different placer, the numerical arrrount
of the whole convict populetiort has been further in-
creased. The musters of the year 1820 were taken
by the magistrates of the districts, and it was gene-
r,dly requested that the returns of non-resident
owners of estates. both of property and convicts,
should be made in the cl,sttirts in which they re-
spectively were at the. time ; some difficulty oc-
curred in inductog the inhabitants, even of the
higher classes, to co,,i'am to this rule ; and they
persisted in making their returns at the places in
which they had mitsle them before, and that they
found most convenient to themselves.

. .
This circumstance I beliese to have occasioned
the great difference in the amounts of the 'trend
classes of population in New Stittlt Wale., that is
perceivable in the returns of 1819 and 1820,
and which ecea•istied Governor Macquarrie to sub-
mit them again tn the, miegistrptes for revision in
the early part of the year tail. I have since re-
ceived information, that an order was issued to
that effect on the 17th March ISM but the re-
sult has not Yet leached 4ic. Talting.the numbers,
however, as they uppear on the retains, and •llow-
ing that the whole convict population in the dietract
of y_ilney amounted in October 0119, to 4,231,
the offences copuni ted by convicts in that district.
smoLuited to 649, and in the year 1820, when Hie
convict population obi the same district, as taken
by the Magistrates, amounted to 4,437, the
offence* committed by einivicts, and punished by
the magistrate?, amounted to 1,317, exclusive of
those of a higher nature, and that were tried before
the criminal courts. This augmentation has prin-
cipally taken place in the offences of being absent
without leave, ur from the barracks, in attempts to
cut nut veinal', and to rob, in tkaorderly conduct
and intoxication, in entering houan to steal, iu the
inaolence of the convicts to their overseers, in the
pUrchsse anal' ask of slop-clotbing, tu rinsing
away, in rioting, aqd in stealing the properly of
Government and of individuals.

(Ti I,* coatispe)

IV THE RDITOR OP THE BRITISH PRBSI.

Edinburgh, September 13,1822.
Stn—f beg leave la eall the attention of the caultr,..l
situated on the north and west curios or Scotland to the late
measuica which Parliament have adopted in regard to
bacilli.

At the end of last !Laskin a Bill was introduced and
carried through in a manner unprecedented, and flock had
fbr its object the reduction of the duty on hari la Itr 1. st than
one half of what it has bean for m loy years. Beery one
knows that the reducliun can nu!, Lp of •drsittage to those
engaged in the importation of this article, loot there can be
little doubt that Goveroment his in this instance gelded to
the entreaties of such 'peculators...

At thin period of such universal distress in Scotism!, toe
rednctiuo of the duty on barilla nzg.ne:iie• the eilonitiei of
the north and west districts. In glosr the mantifsetoie of
kelp forms oiie of the pritiripAl means of moron,' of a great
Port of the Inhabitants, and what is to heemne of lite.n tt
Government should persist in the foregoing filtaiu. e it i 4
easy to see; they must tither em grate .4-
Hare ; of
them cannot emigrate. because th•y have no touch' ti, earn
them out of Ws euuntiv, and thous:mils ■ad tens of thou•
sands most exist in ithj et migery. A thrinng population
must be de,troyed to giant, ■ few ioilividu its, viol vd, .0
remedy will be rfretu.il Goverocutot sill feel the come-
quenres that have bees stated.

The reduction of is not to take place ber,,e Pinitary
next, and I would Ilierefure r•rionnieit•l that eviry county
interested should at the next 31iiti•rint is mertiuz epee to
petition aea n“ the reduction of the ditty on bartra. The
prop. ielorit and the inhabitant+ already (.ti the lore of rinta
and of capital, its ron.r.q.srace a the reduction of the urns
of cattle, ate.
andif they do out take r.tre in time, their IN.
will be niultipl.ed So ttludo I h4l they will nut be able
to hear dam. I are, Ac. J. A. L.