The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-10 00:00:00

is to be done with the male convicts, who are sen

tenced to transportation. The probationary system
as it has been termed, which was lately adopted in Van
Diemen's Land, has turned out a signal failure. The
object should be to reclaim the transport, to separate
him from vicious companions, to restore his mind
to a healthier tone, and to bring him to such a state

that he may be enabled to resist the temptations to
which he may be subjected at a future period, but by
the institution of the gangs, the very contrary results
are obtained. The herding together of men of strong
passions and weak principles must lead to the utter
demoralization of all. The depraved and abandoned
reprobate rejoices in stifling the better feelings of his
less guilty associates ; he desires to bring them to his
own level in crime. He uses the most potent weapon
" ridicule," and few, indeed, have sufficient moral
courage to withstand its application.
The report from the Select Committee of the
Legislative Council of New South Wales will be
peculiarly valuable, accompanied as it is by the evi-
dence on which it has been founded. That evidence
contaihs the deliberate opinions of many competent
persons who have had considerable experience in the
affairs of the colony—and who are thoroughly ac-
quainted with the working of the convict system in
all its details. The name of Mr. BENJAMIN BOYD

will carry with it the greatest weight. There is no
person at all acquainted with Australia to whom that
name will not be familiar, and who will not be dis-

posed to respect and pay attention to any suggestions
coming from such a source. But the very suggestions
themselves, if proceeding from an unknown person
would command that respect. The frightful conse-
quences of the former policy are too manifest to be
controverted or denied. No pecuniary consequences
could be balanced against the moral leprosy by which
the district was tainted. Although a certain
amount of labour is much wanting in
the country, to develope its resources, and
improve the properties of its inhabitants, far better
that all should be sacrificed, than that depravity and
turpitude should become universal. But is there no
middle course ; cannot a certain degree of assistance
be rendered, which will, at the same time, prove
beneficial to the Colonists, and afford a fair and
reasonable prospect for the amelioration of the un-
fortunate and guilty men, who have forfeited
their liberties to the offended laws of their country—
but whom it is more desirable to reclaim than to
punish. Mr. BOYD has solved this problem ; he has
shown us how the system may be modified, so as to
render that -transportation which has been a
`curse, and a deep and serious injury to the colony, a
b essing and an advantage. It is by joining a system
of voluntary, with penal emigration, and at once
assigning and distributing the convicts on their
arrival, into the interior; whenever this has been
done, and the convict at once separated and far re-
moved from his evil associates, he has, generally
speaking, turned out a useful and well-conducted
servant, but, after a few weeks of the contagious
influences that beset him while herding with other
more hardened offenders, his ruin is inevitable. There
is no longer a hope of his permanent amendment.
Mr. BOYD calculates that if 5,000 convicts were an-
nually imported, and with them a free emigra-
tion of 10,000 males and females, it would be the
minimum amount of tabour that could be absorbed,
so great and so varied are the resources of the
colony. The cost of ,the free emigration would
be greatly lessened by the saving from the abo-
lition of the convict penal establishments and
so advantageous would be its adoption, that the
colonists would gladly consent to a loan being
raised for the purpose, secured on the landed fund. We
trust that the project will receive the attentive con-
sideration its importance deserves, that the Govern-
ment may accede to the moderate and reasonable
request that has been made, and thereby render our
Australian dependencies thriving, prosperous, and
valuable adjuncts to their fatherland.

We give in another column a letter addressed by
Mr. RIGBY WAAON to the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, with reference to the withdrawal of the measure
for the reclamation of waste lands in Ireland. A com-
parison is drawn between the merits of the plan of
the writer and of that which the Government has
ultimately considered, under all surrounding circum-
stances, as the best to be adopted. Upon the abstract
merits of Mr. RIGBY WAsoN's scheme we have al-
ways expressed a strong opinion in their favour; and
it is observable that the Government have intimated
their concurrence in the same. The announcement
that it would not be persevered in during the present
session was not unaccompanied by the acknowledg-
ment that the reclamation of waste lands in Ireland
would continue to be regarded by the Admi-
nistration as a most important object for legis-
lation. The Government intimated their regret
at having ascertained that the objections to the com-
pulsory powers contained in their measure were held
in such force by many, as to establish the expediency
of their being expunged ; and yet, divested of these
powers, it has been adjudged, and, to our thinking'
wisely, that the utility of the Bill would be seriously
compromised. Our hope, however, is, that the con-
tinued deliberations of the Executive will enable
them to devise some efficient and unexceptionable
machinery, so that early in the next session a measure
may be introduced calculated to secure as rapidly as
possible the redemption of the millions of Irish acres
which, although confessedly of a most fertile character,
are now wholly unproductive. Looking, then, to the
difficulties which the Government thought would at-
tend the task of persevering with their Waste Lands
Bill, in the mutilated form to which we have adverted,
and to the necessity, at this period of the session, of
augmenting by legislation the sources for providing
both immediate and permanent employment to the peo-
ple, the diversion of a portion of the loan of 8,000,0001.,
to the extent of 620,000/. for promoting the comple-
tion of certain railways, is, perhaps, as wise a recom-
mendation as they could have submitted to Parlia-
ment. We have often before remarked that, compre-
hensively viewed, railways are of themselves repro-
ductive works. No railway is laid' down except
where the population and trade at its different
termini will induce a given amount of traffic ; 'and
experience shows that lands in the vicinity of a rail-
way in operation are rapidly brought into cultivation.
It is not the province of the Government, neither is
it desirable, as a general rule, that they should appear
as money lenders in the market. But, nevertheless,
extraordinary exigencies imperatively require, at
times, deviations from established rules, and when
such a conjuncture of affairs has to be dealt with the
point to be regarded is, that the deviation is not wider
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pressed. 110844 Sir ROBEIZT himself, or., the part