being a penal one (a result, we believe, His Excellency by no means calculated upon when making the application); this, however, might have been resisted had it not been for the subsequent insane conduct of the colonists at the meeting of 20th February."
After the first commotion the opponents wavered, and like a frivolous girl, one moment they complained, the next they were pleased. All classes seemed afraid that some wrong thing had been done, yet their doubts were gradually dismissed when they considered the advantages that might be gained. It is not for us to decry the convict system; that it was introduced is regrettable, but in its working out it was manifestly beneficial. And many years after it was abolished no apparent taint was left on the community. Convictism in Western Australia and convictism in Van Dieman's Land, Norfolk Island, and New South Wales were totally dissimilar. It was a modified slave trade, where the bondmen were calculated to gain in morality, and where their native country was well rid of their presence.
The Legislative Council was convened by Governor Fitzgerald at an unusual season to consider the altered character of the colony. On 20th December, 1849, His Excellency explained to members that the proclamation recently issued was a necessary preliminary to enable Her Majesty's Government to meet the wishes of settlers in their approval of his own application for 100 men from Pentonville. He believed the measure would be of "great and lasting good," and lamented that settlers had taken alarm now that convicts were to be imported. Then, in a spirit of excuse, but doubtful consistency with the actual, he added that Earl Grey had "distinguished Western Australia by not sending one of these convicted persons to this colony until he had the sanction of settlers for doing so;" that the conduct of the expected convicts for good or evil rested entirely with the settlers in their mode of treating them. "With fair and considerate treatment," he emphatically declared, "these persons will prove as obedient and useful to their employers as any class in the community." He was prepared to give adequate protection to settlers, and asserted that if the convicts did revert to their old practices, the ordinance submitted would enable them to crush such a tendency. An ordinance was placed on the Statute book providing for the summary treatment of convicts, their arrest without a warrant, their employment on public works, their restrictions when on ticket of leave, and their punishments.
Governor Fitzgerald's address received searching criticism from some colonists, and was applauded by others. A few weeks later despatches from Earl Grey, dated 12th and 25th July, 1849, relieved the public mind. He wrote that—
"It is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to send a number of free persons equal to that of male convicts received in colonies which cooperate with the Home Government in carrying into effect this important part of penal discipline."
Moreover, he proposed to expend part of the appropriation in sending out the wives and families of convicts, and, wherever practicable, he would despatch military pensioners as a guard in convict ships instead of soldiers. He would not admit the justice of the repeated complaints that the Imperial Government had not in the past rendered the colony the assistance to which it was entitled, for since the foundation of Western Australia, the Parliamentary grants had amounted to £247,579. This was made up of annual grants in aid.
The people now admitted that the employment of gangs of convicts on public works certainly offered a "gleam of hope—just sufficient to drag us on in miserable uncertainty." The free emigrants would act as a set-off to the malefactors. Writing under date of 20th December, 1849, Earl Grey informed Governor Fitzgerald that it was intended to send out a moderate number of convicts, who would first be entirely under the control of the Government for employment on public works—harbours, buildings, roads, and cutting timber. The whole expense would be defrayed by the Home Government. When the convicts were set free from public works on account of good behaviour, their services would be available to the settlers. In conclusion, he pointed out that it was proposed to appropriate an annual sum for promoting free emigration equal in number to the convicts.
The Home authorities wasted little time in choosing the convicts who should inaugurate the penal settlement. These were obtained from Portland, and were stated to be of exemplary conduct. Western Australians wanted labour; they were going to get it as soon as the Imperial authorities could possibly send men out. The barque Scindian was equipped, and started on the voyage. On board were 75 convicts, 50 pensioners, 46 women, 78 children, and 14 emigrant girls. They were in charge of Captain Henderson, R.N., who was designed to be the Superintendent or Comptroller-General of the Convict Establishment of Western Australia, and Dr. Gibson, R.N., the Surgeon-Superintendent. Of other officers on board the Scindian who were to remain in Western Australia were Mr. Dickson (the principal overseer of convicts), and Mr. Manning (the clerk of works).
On 1st June, 1850, exactly twenty-one years after the foundation of the colony, the Scindian anchored at Fremantle. To the few who gathered on the beach, we are told that the landing of these unfortunates was an impressive, even a weird, sight. All the convicts had undergone a period of imprisonment in the congested gaols of England, and, after their long incarceration there and on board ship, the view of Fremantle, with its few houses and background of gloomy uncleared bush, seemed to dumbfound them. The strangeness of the situation and environment filled them with bewilderment. Instead of being received by an efficiently-armed force and marched under its guidance to a nasty prison, they observed but two stern officials. "Indeed," says one eye-witness, "the paucity of blue-coated officers astonished the convicts, which, with their bewilderment, left them indifferent and unconcerned. Presently they recovered from their surprise." It was many days before quarters were arranged for them, when, watched by the warders from the ship and guided by the local officials, they marched in file to their new prison.
The old-time fœtid atmosphere of a convict ship's hold and the overbearing discipline of the officers, associated with tradition and romance, were apparently not experienced by the felons on board the Scindian. Three days after their arrival, a letter, signed by the seventy-five men, was forwarded to John Gibson, R.N., and afterwards published in the local papers. The epistle ran, "We, the undersigned, having been treated by you with the utmost kindness and consideration during the course of that voyage, at the close of which we have now arrived, wish to offer you our most grateful acknowledgments—the only return in our power—and to assure you that we will ever remember the many benevolent acts by which our comfort has been promoted."
The old Fremantle gaol, situated at Arthur Head, was not suitable to accommodate these strange people, nor had the local Government made arrangements for their reception. On 4th June, Governor Fitzgerald proceeded to Fremantle, and agreed with Captain Scott to lease his premises, adjoining the site of the modern Esplanade Hotel, for five years at a rental £250 per annum, and promised to expend £1000 on improvements, which
