. SETTLEMBBFT IN 1792. 211 if a convict at Sydney or Farramatta was hanged for ^'^ stealing a bag of flour from the public store^ lie was not more Iiarshly dealt with than a man who was sent to the gallows in England for stealing a watch &om a dwelling- house: There was, in fact, greater reason for severity in Peculiar the former case than in the latter. It was necessary to of the protect the stores of food by every possible means, and mercy could not be extended to thieves without imperilling the public safety.* It is a noticeable fact that the culprits were in almost ouiprfta . newamvaiB. every case the convicts who came out in the vessels of the Second and Third Fleets ; those brought by the first trans- ports took no part in the robberies. The circumstance is not mentioned in PhUlip^s despatches; but it attracted the attention of Collins, who recorded it without suggesting any reason for the wide difEerence between the conduct of the old and the new convicts.f The reasons are not very difficult to discover. The first convicts had been well disciplined, ^^Ifviour and had become inured to want. They were, as a rule, in ^^^5^ good health, and better able to bear privations than the late arrivals. They also enjoyed advantages which the new- comers did not possess, for some of them, at all events, were able to supplement the ordinary ration with the produce of their gardens. In a great many cases the sentences of the men who belonged to the first batch of convicts were about to expire, and the knowledge that they would soon regain their freedom if they behaved well was a powerful incentive to good conduct.
- Under extraordinary circumstances offenders hare been treated with
•equal rigour in recent times. In 1884, when the surrivors of the Arctic Sxploring Expedition organised by the United States Gbvemment were on the point of starration, one of the party stole food from the common stock, and having disregarded the warnings he had recelTcd, was shot without trial of any kind, by the written authority of the commander, Lieutenant Qreely. — Three Years of Arctic Service, vol. ii, p. 317. t " To the credit of the conyicts who came out in the First Fleet it must be remarked, that none of them were concerned in these offences ; and of them it was said the new-comers stood so: much in dread, that they never wars admitted to any shave in their ooofidenoe." — CoUina, yoI. i, p. 196.
