the colonists for some time after the commencement of the settlement, were sufficient to neutralize the evil consequences of this arrangement. The circumstances of the colony, however, are altogether different now; for the necessaries of life being now in great abundance and comparatively low-priced, the settler generally finds it his interest to give his convict servants such indulgences as are incompatible with a state of punishment, to render their situation as comfortable as he can, and thereby to obtain, with the least possible inconvenience, the largest possible amount of manual labour. In short, it is not the interest of the prudent settler, who merely studies his own personal advantage, to make his assigned convict servant feel his situation to be a state of punishment: but as all settlers are not gifted with this degree of prudence, (some individuals of that class yielding themselves up occasionally to the influence of violent passion, while others evince the utmost blindness in regard to their own interests,) the practice of assignment, as a species of punishment, is necessarily extremely unequal in its operation; the service of certain masters being really a state of hardship and punishment, to a degree almost intolerable to human nature; while that of others is rather a state of idleness and indulgence. Nay, it cannot be denied, that
