In 1814 George Arthur became Lieutenant-Governor of British Honduras "with the rank of colonel on the staff."[4] This office, which was both civil and military, Arthur held until 1822, during which time he suppressed a serious revolt of the slave population. His despatches on the subject of slavery we are told attracted the attention of the great abolitionist, William Wilberforce. In 1822 Colonel Arthur returned to England on leave of absence in order to furnish the British Government with additional information on the subject of the emancipation of slaves. It was during this stay in England that he was in 1824 appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land and at the same time commander of the military forces in that penal colony.
For twelve years George Arthur grappled with the terrible conditions existing in that most unfortunate island. The transportation system, one of the worst blots in British colonial history, was then at its height and its evils were only too apparent. The Select Committee on Transportation appointed by the British Parliament in its Report submitted in 1838, having outlined the unspeakable conditions existing at Norfolk Island, goes on to make the following statement regarding Van Diemen's Land:
"Your Committee will not lengthen this report by describing the penal settlements of Van Diemen's Land, where the severity of the system is as great as, if not greater than, that at Norfolk Island, where culprits are as reckless, if not more reckless, commissing murder" (to use the words of Sir George Arthur) "in order to enjoy the excitement of being sent up to Hobart Town for trial, though aware that in the ordinary course they must be executed within a fortnight after arrival."[5]
As Lieutenant-Governor of such a colony Colonel Arthur was called upon to act with firmness and often with severity. His biographer in the Dictionary of National Biography, Sir Alexander John Arbuthnot, K.C.S.I., claims that the object of Arthur's appointment was "the introduction of an improved system" of treatment for the convicts. Arthur sought to adopt "a middle course between the extreme severity of the system which would make transportation simply deterrent and the over-indulgence of the system which aimed at reforming the convict by gentler treatment. He held that it was possible to make transportation a punishment much dreaded by criminals whilst offering every facility for reform to those who were not hardened in crime; but he entertained no quixotic expectations of frequent reformation."[6] It will be seen from this quotation that Arthur believed in the transportation system in a modified and "improved" form. In this he ran counter to the wishes of the colonists who desired that an end be put to the abomination. Arthur's biographer regrets that "the colonists and their friends in England were bent on putting an end to the transportation system and their views ultimately prevailed."