The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-09-24 00:00:00

PRICE OF !MOCKS TESTERINIT.

per Ct. Coos—. 24 I Ss. 84112. 2.... 1.0001.
New 4 ire, Cent.. MOM I 3. I. 2 Pf.
loam Boogie... 49 pr. I Ditto Small 1. 7, 5 pr.
Lottery 'rocket* tti/. 15-. I COM. for Acc....

COAL MARKET, Sarssmosa 23.
Skips et Market. Ships. Sold Prig e.
MI Newcastle
37 looderlaad

The Neptune, of Demise. frogs Mewl for Leedom, is
Soo . o t►e Merlin asad—crew wised. Hot eine is hemp,
Ilea, stasis; foci sosoc of which los bete warned to ghettoes*.

~~ ~il'~'~evi~i ~A~t~~r

• EXTRACT. T ~tax mistpwr pr .
'wool OF INQUIET INTO TES bialni OF THE
COLONY or NEW SOUTH WALES.

~=••••

(Continued from our Paper of Saturday tart.)

The reports made from the criminal courts nre
equally deficient in pitnng these particulars, by
which the means of forming a comparat►ve judg-
ment of the character and conduct of the different
descriptions of convicts transported to the colony is
altogether lost.
It was the general opinion in New South Wales,
that although the state of crime in the convict and
general population had neither exceeded the propor-
tionate augmentation that had taken piece in it, or
had been marked with such characters of atrocity and
desperation as had distinguished the earlier periods
of the colony, yet that the labouring classes of the
convicts were not under such goad control us for-
merly, and that although they were better fed. yet
that their labour was not so severe.

These circumstances we►e mole particularly ob-
served by the older inhabitants of the colony. both by
the class that had suffered, and by those that bad
profited by them. The character of the population,
at those period., had also much influence upon the
state or discipline. The only distinctions that then
prevailed in the cond•t►on of the inhabitants, con-
sisted of that of free persons and convicts; and in
the former (consisting of civil or military, or, as it
frequently happened, ■ compound of both) the
convicts saw only • combination of physical and
moral strength, slid a monopolizing enjoyment of
civil benefits, that inspired them with fear
and with obedience; all external marks of de-
ference and respect that the free people could
devise were demanded and enforced from those of
the convict classes. They are still required to be
paid to civil and military officers, but not to per-
sons who have not that rank.

The feelings of the individuals who took • lead.
ing part in the government that immediately
preceded that of Governor Macquarrie, and who had
co-operated in the violent suspension sod expulsion
of Governor Bligh, strongly partook of the spirit
by which the superiority of the free population over
the convicts had been maintained : ity of dis-
cipline in the labouring class of convicts, and a dis-
tant and haughty demeanour towards those who had
lately emerged frelli that ChM, were the characters
by which their short administration was marked.
Since that period an intermediate class has arisen
and become nume►ous, consisting either of the
lower cl a f settlers who came free, and who do
not partake the same sentiments, and of persons
whose sentences of Irauspo►tation have expired, or
who have received emancipatious and pardons. To
many of these persons convict servants have been
assigned, without a sufficient attention to the su-
periority that it is so essential to preserve in the re-
lation of master and servant, many of them being
mere tenants, although they are described in the
returns as landholder., and some of them only hold-
ing tickets of leave. lit thin description of per-
sona it iv. that Air. Cox, • gentleman much dis-
tinguished for experience and sagacity, boa observed
• want of authority over their convict se le, and
au unwillingness to appear against them, arising
from sympathy with a condition that was once their
own, that tends to relax the seventy of discipline,
and to defeat the efforts of the magistrates to main-
lain it.

As the population of New South Wales has, un-
til lately, been vittually limited to the occepotion
of a small tract of land that lies between the Blue
Mountains and the sea, and nearly encircled by
the river Nepean, and as few temptations to plunder
existed in the tracts contiguous to these bosiodaties,
excepting those that were afforded by the wild
cattle in the cow-pastures, the offence of bush-rang-
ing, or continued ■bsence in the woods, has not of
Iste been common. Instances have occurred
of the departure of convicts for the purpose of tra-
versing the country with a view to escape; of the
escape of some from Newcastle, sent thither for
punishment, and their wandering and temporary
existence in the vicinity of Windsor; and latterly.
a few instances of escape from the road parties to
the districts of Liverpool and Bathurst ; but there
has been no systematic, continued, or combined
effort of desperate convicts to defy the attempts
of the local government of New South Wales,
or to subsist by plunder, such's' have existed until
a very late period in Van Dieman's Lend. The
supply of animal food, moreover, in the district of
Cumberland, had continued to be sbundant until
the month of October of the year 1819; and the
offences of cattle and sheep-stealing had not then
been common, with the exception of the attempts
before alluded to, against the herds of wild cattle
in the cow pastures.
Foont the want of menus, that has before been ad-
verted to, for making individual refrrence to the
names of convicts in the books of the Governor's
Secretary, as well us in those of the tirincilial super-
intendent of convicts at Sydney, I found it im-
possible to ascertain what degree of iufloeoce the dif-
ferent condition of the convicts transported to New
South Wales might have had upon their conduct
there, or the greater propensity of one class than
of the others to commit offences. I could only,
therefore, resort to the opinions of the best-informtd
of the inhabitants respecting it. I found that this
was a ►rthject upon which very few of them hail
ever bestowed any consideration; for the selection
of the convicts on their arrival, by the settlers, as
well as that which is made by the Magistrates, pro-
ceeds altogether upon their capacity for labour, and
not upon ally retrospect of their former lives or
characters, or the length of their sentence.; and
upon the same principle the dismissal of a convict,
either for crime or neglect, by one master, forms
no objection to his admission into the service of
another. The general opinion appeared to be, that
the period of seven years, reduced as it frequently
is by service on board the hulks and the voyage,
was too short for the purposes of punishment to the
labouring classes of the convicts; that it led them
to indulge prematurely the desire of assuming the
condition of settlers, and relaxed these feelings of
habitual caution and obedience, and that respect-
ful demeanour, for which those who had arrived in
the early periods of the colony, and had endured its
rigorous discipline, were and are yet distinguished.
The shortness of this term of seven years, being
still further abridged by the expectatiuus of remit.

I
elan or pillasluttenf, tbat have assumed mort the
character Of claiasi thin of rewards, since the pro.
mulgotion bf Goveroor Mack'Gerrie% order* of the
par leo. inspire& the tbrivict transported to New
South Witte', for that term, *ith • stronger wish to
return to Englaod, than to remain in the colony.
This feeling is also shore prevalent amongst the
convicts whose criminal habits are confirmed,
and whose only view in returning to England to
that of indulging theiti, than amongst those who
have been the vietims rif a single error, or of casual
but strong temptation. to this WI descrip.
tion of convicts the transportation to New South
%Vales, even for seven years, holds out an oppor-
tunity of retrieving that error, which it will he rare.
ly their lot to bad at home ; and it affords a Artier
from reproach, from which, I have heard rosily of
them declare, they *ere most anxious to be ic,
leveed, and which they were determined never sow
to encounter. With such feeling., men transported
for short terms may be made good servants, and
may afterwards become good settlers. To this class
of convicts, which, in respect to the term of see.
tense, is • numerous one, it must be admitted that
the prospect afforded by transportation to Neo
South Wales is more one of easigra,ion than of
punishment. Iti the convicts transported for four-
teen years, and for life, there is a natural disposition
to remain is the colony; and if their previous state
of discipline in it were prolonged, or rendered more
severe, and, above all, if it were adapted to their
future state of existence in the colony, it might hare
the effect of creating industrious habit., accunipo.
nied with a hope of ultimate reward, that is yet
consistent with a long state of servitude and bond.
age. This hope, however, should be directed to
the colony, and not to Great Britain; and all tfe
circumstances that tend to revive or to cherish dart
hope, must be carefully kept out of view.

(Ti he continued)

MR ARMY.

It is wailesstood, that, should Lieslessnl•Generul Lord
Cowberamere, G.C.B. drelise assuming the command, Lu•u-
tensul-Geoent Si► T. Motor, G.O S. will succeed the lit..
'Acuteneat General Sir S. Auchatuty as Commander et !Le
Forces is In-lard.

Otte etompony of the royal artillery, under the cauterised or
Ertigade-Major Alms, embarked oo the 20th imagine at Ports.
mouth dock-yard, oa board boys, for the purpose of being
convoyed to Jersey.
The two daub companies and eta of the 13th regiment
of foot, lat. ly quartered in the Castle, embarked oa bottri
the Briltiod mesa yacht for C►atham, yeeterday afternoon
(Wednesday, 18th inst.) The Brilliant bat bees frelectrd for
tryin how far this deseriptioa of vessel, it adapted for the
conveyance of troops.—(Coledonion Mercury.)

SINGULAR REQURST OP A CONDILIINED
CULPRIT.
-ma.-

At the Glasgow Assizes, yesterday. se'nnight,
James Campbell was indicted for entering a dwel-
ling house, by means of false keys, on the 14th July
last, and stealing 851. in bank note.. The evidence
for the prosecution and the defence having been
gone through, the Jory, by plurality of voices,
lova the Prisoner guilty of the came libelled.
The Learned Judge (Lord Pitesilly) said, that as
there were a majority awd minority in this case, he
thought it proper to aisle, that hod he been out ihe
Jury he should have agreed with the former. Lord
Pitrisiq then admonished the Panel, in jayvee.
sive language, to prepare for the awful and inevit-
able fate that awaited him, and concluded by
senteneing him to be hanged on Wedeesday, the
1311 October next. Campbell then addressed the
Heidi as follows :

"My Lord, as ibis is the last lime that you am' 1 will
meet together on this earth, I have two requests to 'nab?,
which I hope your Lordship will grant me. The (lent in,
that my name shall not be cried thorough the public street
its those puny papers, se is usually done with persons 4 my
situatiorr; sad that on the day of execution 1 shall not be
brought into the Court Hall amidst the gime of an iiinorset
rabble, by which say devotions may be disturbed, sad my
thoughts diacompored. I will ever be' glad to receive the
Instructions of any Protestant orrini.t,rs who may desire to
visit me, as I was bred up to that persuasion; aid I hope
that your Lordship elk indulge me is my wishes, mid, that
though we bare been enemies here to-day, we will meet to-
gether as friends is Heaven." This was said in a very firm
audible voice. Lord Pilmilly said he world do every thing
is his power for him; but it lay not with him to grant his
requests. He had no doubt, however, if be would apply
to the Magistrate, of Glasgow. who, while they acted was
firmness, were at the same time merciful, they 'would do.
every thing possible fur a percet' to his ...happy situation.
Campbell then said, " I have your good will, my Lord,"
and left the bar, saying, " Death was sweeter than eon-
finrenent ; cowards doe many times, but I shall ouly die
once."