_Session_ (Judge Wylde), 1821. +--------+--------------------+----------------------+ | Cases. | Sheep in question.| Owner. | +--------+--------------------+----------------------+ | 1 | 300 | William Watterson. | | 2 | 100 | Ditto. | | 3 | 250 | Daniel Stansfield. | | 4 | 150 | Robert Gillet. | | 5 | 200 | Samuel Clements. | | 6 | 100 | Edward Lord. | | 7 | 60 | Crown. | +--------+--------------------+----------------------+
Some of these robbers suffered death: others are still in the land of the living; and their names are suppressed, on the presumption of their reform.--_Compiled from Gazettes._]
[Footnote 96: "I entered upon the government, at a moment which my predecessor considered a most eventful one. Circumstances, connected with convict population, which it would not be prudent for me to dwell upon in this place, co-operated to render it probable, in the opinion of Colonel Sorell, that crime would rapidly increase."--_George Arthur_, 1825.]
It will be proper, however, first to retrace the penal history of these settlements, and to mark the incidents which moulded their form, and contributed to their failure or success. The administration of the penal laws cannot be understood, except by a broad and continuous survey. The developments of one colony re-acted on the other: Van Diemen's Land, long the satellite of New South Wales, attended all its motions, and with it prospered or suffered. From the fortunes of that colony, the history of Tasmania is inseparable.
The evils described, were not of a recent origin; they may be traced from the commencement of penal colonisation: the journals of the first officers exhibit all sorts of mischief, which only entered into new combinations as times advanced, and property was diffused. Collins, whose account descended to the close of the century, records a perpetual struggle with vice and crime. What could be expected of men who burned their gaol at the risk of their lives, and the church to escape attendance on worship?
The first expiree, James Rouse, who was established (1790) as a settler, was industrious and successful. Phillip, anxious to test the competence of the land to sustain a cultivator, cleared two acres for this man, erected his hut, and supplied him with food. Fifteen months after, he relinquished his claim on the King's stores, and received thirty acres of land, in reward for his diligence. It thus became common to afford similar facilities to expiree convicts,[97] but generally in vain.