became much more tolerable. In the year 1810, Major-General Macquarie succeeded to the government of the colony; and having adopted the principle that all recollection of a convict's history and doings in England should be obliterated in "New South Wales, and that his situation as a convict in that settlement should be ascribed rather to misfortune than to misconduct, the idea of classifying the convicts according to their previous criminality was thenceforth entirely out of the question. To those employed in government labour, unrestrained intercourse was allowed with one another, and generally also with the free population; while no attempt was made to try the experiment of solitary labour or solitary confinement, either by night or by day. Nay, a pernicious system of rewards and indulgences was established by authority, in virtue of which a convict of any ability could devote a large proportion, both of his time and labour, to his own personal benefit; and the direct tendency of which was to obliterate from his mind all sense of criminality. On the other hand, as it was not the interest of the private settler, to whom convict labourers were assigned, to subject them to any degree of restraint or punishment beyond what his own pecuniary interests or personal convenience might dictate, misdemeanours, which
