Star.
London, England, 1822-07-29 00:00:00

NEW SOUTH WALES.
Mr. Bloch employed by Government as a Corn;..
missioner to inquire into the state of the Colony of
New South Wales, has sent in his Report upon the
subject, which has been printed by order of the House
of Commons. The details of this document, which
extend through 200 folio pages, are far too multiplied,
and for the most part too minute and too little inte-
resting, to admit of our copying any part of them for
the use of general readers: but unquestionablt those.
who 'prognosticated from the outset the practical difl
ficulties of combining a scheme of colonisation with
one of punishment or reform, will find nothing in the
report now laid before. Parliament, of a nature to in-
duce them to recant. The Reporter accompanies the
convicts from the shores of England on their passage
out, to their landing in the condemned region. HO'
then purSues them through their several employments
in the public service, or in that of indixicluals, wire-
ther free settlers, or (emancipated) convicts like them-
selves. He describes the course and objects of their
wo:k—the superintendence and discipline to which
they are subjected—the inefficacy of both towards
any sensible amelioration of their vicious and aban-
doned habits—and after enlarging freely on what he
conceives to be the errors and abuses of the local go-
vernment,in its treatment of this worse than barbarous
population, the Reporter recommends.the adoption of
it series of wholesome, or at least plausible; changes
in the future arrangements of the colony, and in the
exercise of those extensive powers which it must be
unavoidable to lodge with the Governor of -such'a
community, and at such a distance from home.
• We can but touch on one or two of the topics ad-
verted to in this voluthinous report, no part of wbich
(though as a whole it displays both industry ana abi-
lity) can be considered important enough in relation
to the context, to fix exclusively the public attention.
It seems to be acknowledged that the severe and stern
controul which once distinguished the treatment of
convicts, both by the officers of Government and by
the resident Magistracy, has been of late years much
relaxed. The increasing numbers, both of the crimi-
nal and the respectable population, have been assigned
as the prinCipal cause of this misfortune. As the free
settlers have r apidly and prodigiously multiplied, even
in proportion to the convicts themselves, the public
safety of the settlement is of course less endangerld
than at an early period of its exivence. Since, more-
over, the convicts have also become more numerous
as ten perhaps to one when compared with their Ori-
ginal numbers; and since at least 4-stbs of them are.
of necessity permitted to go at large for several hours
of each day, and those inhabiting the towns of the
settlement to congregate when they are not eipplOjed.
at work, it is plain that the same degree of rigorous
•• • ,
and constant superintentlance would neither be.sup- •
ported by the same stimulus of natural alarm, aim
could be applied, were it even thotight necessary, with-
the same success as at first. Instead, therefore; of
being lauded on a desert coast, with only a detach-
ment of soldiers and a band of constables to entertain
them, each cargo of criminals from this country now
finds a large assortment of old colleagues in vice—a.
considerable tots n with all the resources of licentious-
ness to give play to their depraved and inveterate.
habits—and a body of free inhabitants fast rising into'
wealth, that their propensity to fraud or force may' •
not want matter for indulgence. as we may.
gather from the report, transportation to New South
Wales has ceased to afford the means eithersof punish=
ing crime, or of reforming the criminal. So large a'
body as nearly 4 500 convicts of both sexes were (Sep-
tcrnber, 1820) inhabiting in or about Sydney alone; •
and to• judge what progress had been made towards
a purification of their old practices, the Magistrates
were obliged to sentence and punishAesclusive of those
•who:vhere tried by the surerior Courts) 1,317 of thesei
or rather more than Imo in seven I

It would appear that:the most powerful motive to
industry and sobriety_ in the convicts, viz, the hope
of iniprovingtheir condition through the practice of
these homely virtues, has been- but rarely or injudi-
c.ously called into action by the Colonial Govern
went. If we rightly under-stain:lithe Report, it states,.
that from the want of steradiness • or sagatiy, neither
mildness nor -coercion have. been so managed as to
exhibit their just effects ; one having- mostly pro-
duced ungrateful insolence, the other idle.desperation.
As a summary of the whole amount of converts to
decency—though even among them, according to a
respectable Clergyman, the 'generality " resident'on
their own property are poor and unmoral, with little
religion among the best; and no appearance of it
among the g: eater pact'.'—esen of such, there could
be calculated no more than about 367, out of a total
of 4376 " remitted" convicts, that is, some pardoned,
and the rest convicts who had served their time, and
who had all become fixed residents iu the colony.
This is not great encouragement to transportation
for the purpose of reform. Nor can we consider the
Istater ents of the Report. more cheering with re-
ference to female convicts than to the other sex, pros.;
titution, the most irreclaimable and brutal, being in-
dulged in almost universally.
The Reporter finishes by proposing to Government
a plan, for alleviating some of the mischiefs which
form the subject of his official representation. He
recommends that the greater portion of the convicts,
instead of being collected in Sydney, and the four or
five other towns of the colony, should be tray :ported
to three new settlements on the coast, not affording
the means of indulgence to profligacy, and there sub-
jected to a more renal system of administration.--
We concur with him in the preference which he en•
forces to agricultural or pastoral employmentsfor other
convicts in the interior, over their accumulation in
Sydney, Paramatta, Liverpool, &c. fur mechanical or •
manufacturing labour; but we cannot avoid hinting
how much snore economical and snore effectual me-
thods of employing, cor-
victed culprits, mighr
wasteful expedient of
sphere the offal of our

1
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correcting, and reforming con• •
• I
It be found at home, than this
spreading over another berm•
• gallows and our jails.