SECTION XXV.

The notices of the treatment of female prisoners in this work have been few. Until recently, the attention of the English government has been almost entirely confined to the management of male convicts; and the impression has been always too general, that the unhappy women are beyond recovery. In the local discussion of the convict question the deliberate opinion of Captain Forster has been usually adopted, by all who have seen the conduct of the women. "I have not," said that distinguished officer, "entered upon the topic of discipline for female convicts, not considering them available subjects for prison discipline." (1837) Colonial experience, before and since, would hardly authorise any other conclusion.

The first female transports were left to the casualties of a convict colony. Some, who were adopted by the officers, became the mothers of respectable families: some wholly emerged from their degradation, and became respectable wives; but, for the most part, they merely exhibited the depth to which vice can depress. Nearly 20,000 have been transported; of these, a considerable proportion have fallen victims to intemperance, and sunk into a premature grave.

The description of the conduct of female prisoners is so uniform, that any date and any account might be joined at random. Those who read the works of Collins, of Read, of Henderson, and of Lang, and compare them with each other, and with works of the present time, will find little variety of incident. They represent woman deprived of the graces of her own sex, and more than invested with the vices of man.

The transportation of women has been a great social evil to the colonies. At first it seemed unavoidable: it was afterwards deemed highly expedient, for reasons it is not necessary to describe. Yet it is not too much to attribute the chief vexations of domestic life to their character and conduct. It would have been better for the nation, for the male convicts, and for the women themselves, had they been detained at home, or banished to countries where they would have avoided the double degradation of moral and social infamy. Such were the views of many most enlightened men. The extreme difficulty of finding them employment as servants, and their perpetual relapses, have induced the government usually to encourage, at first concubinage, and, in more scrupulous times--marriage: in some instances with great success. It is the last expedient in the administration of penal laws; when it fails, the case is considered hopeless.

The number of females transported, until within twelve years, were about 1 to 10 men; since then, they have been about 1 to 7. The penalty has been inflicted for the lighter crimes; and in many instances the Irish courts must have been influenced rather by a vague notion of humanity than of punishing offenders. Such are often young creatures: not a few could be scarcely considered depraved.

The accumulation on the hands of the government has been usually very great, and curious expedients have been devised to dispose of the burden. The factory at Parramatta, in former times, was a mart of women. Thither the laboring man went in search of a wife, and often, after a general survey, selected one on the spot. These marriages were not always a failure, but far the greater number ended in intemperance and prostitution.

To overcome the reluctance of the settlers to employ them, Sir George Murray, when secretary for the colonies, directed the governor to compel the settlers to receive one woman with three or four men (1829). The effect of this stipulation was probably never considered. The condition of the better disposed has been one of great hazard and temptation. The last state of female degradation was often their inevitable lot. They were surrendered to solicitations and even violence: a convict constable conducted them to the houses of their master; they lodged on the road, wherever they could obtain shelter; convict servants were usually their companions,--or when their manners were superior to their class, corrupters of a higher rank were always at hand to betray or destroy them. Reformation has been commonly deemed unattainable, and precautions useless.

The influence of such persons on the tone of society, the temper of masters, the morals of children, and even the conduct of the convict men, has proved everywhere disastrous, unless checked by incessant vigilance. Smoking, drinking, swearing, and prostitution, have very commonly formed the character ever present to the tender mind. The stranger entered perhaps a splendid dwelling, and found all the advantages of opulence, except what money could not procure--a comely and honest-hearted woman servant. The eye at length became more familiar with lineaments bloated or rigid with passion and debauch, and the ear accustomed to the endless vicissitudes of the servants' hall, which discharged and received an endless succession of the same debased, despised, and unhappily despicable beings. The writer has not forgotten, for a moment, that under the protection of a virtuous mistress, some unfortunate but not depraved females have escaped the terrible ordeal, and have found in the land of their exile the comforts of a home.

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