acts as the British "First Offender's Act" and "Summary Jurisdiction Act" have done more to keep down the English prison population than all other measures combined. The whole subject is one of the greatest importance and interest, and I have endeavoured to treat it adequately in the following pages. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION 5 I. THE FIRST FLEET 13 II. THE GROWTH OF NEW SOUTH WALES 41 III. CONVICT LIFE 67 IV. A CONVICT COMMUNITY 94 V. THE PROBATION SYSTEM 116 VI. CONVICT SHIPS 138 VII. THE EXILES OF CRIME 167 VIII. THE COLLAPSE OF DEPORTATION 207 IX. GIBRALTAR 230 X. THE BRITISH SYSTEM OF PENAL SERVITUDE 248 XI. FRENCH PENAL COLONIES 277 XII. PENAL METHODS IN THE UNITED STATES 308 XIII. BRITISH PRISONS OF TO-DAY 327 List of Illustrations ARMOR WORN BY NED KELLY, AND MANACLES WORN BY PRISONERS IN TASMANIA _Frontispiece_ CONVICT SHIP "SUCCESS" _Page_ 162 RUINED PRISON CHURCH, TASMANIA " 222 PRISONS OVER SEAS CHAPTER I THE FIRST FLEET First idea of riddance of bad characters--James I removes certain dissolute persons--Sale of criminals as indentured servants to American Colonies and West Indies--Prices and profits--American Revolution closes this outlet--Discoveries by Captain Cook leads to the adoption of Botany Bay as the future receptacle--First fleet sails March, 1787--Settlement made at Port Jackson, christened Sydney--Landing of convicts--Early labours--Famine and drought--Efforts to make community self-supporting--Assisted emigration a failure--General demoralisation of society--Arrival of convict ships and growth of numbers--Unsatisfactory condition of Colony. News of the discoveries, by Captain Cook, of vast lands in the South Seas reached England just as the scheme of Penitentiary Houses had been projected by John Howard, the great philanthropist, to remedy and reform the abuses of gaol administration. Why embark on a vast expenditure to build new prisons when the entire criminal population might be removed to a distance to work out their regeneration under another and a brighter sky? The idea was singularly attractive and won instantly in the public mind. The whole country would be rid of its worst elements, the dregs and failures of society, who would be given a new opportunity in a new land to lead a new life and by honest labours become the prosperous members of a new community established by virtue. The banishment of wrong-doers had long appealed to rulers as a simple and effective means of punishment, combined with riddance.