As Lieutenant-Governor of such a colony Colonel Arthur was called upon to act with firmness and often with severity. His biographer in the Dictionary of National Biography, Sir Alexander John Arbuthnot, K.C.S.I., claims that the object of Arthur's appointment was "the introduction of an improved system" of treatment for the convicts. Arthur sought to adopt "a middle course between the extreme severity of the system which would make transportation simply deterrent and the over-indulgence of the system which aimed at reforming the convict by gentler treatment. He held that it was possible to make transportation a punishment much dreaded by criminals whilst offering every facility for reform to those who were not hardened in crime; but he entertained no quixotic expectations of frequent reformation."[6] It will be seen from this quotation that Arthur believed in the transportation system in a modified and "improved" form. In this he ran counter to the wishes of the colonists who desired that an end be put to the abomination. Arthur's biographer regrets that "the colonists and their friends in England were bent on putting an end to the transportation system and their views ultimately prevailed." This difference of opinion between Arthur and the colonists furnished W. L. MacKenzie with some of his choicest bits of invective against the new Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. In his _Gazette_, MacKenzie prefaced a long series of excerpts from the newspapers of Van Diemen's Land on the occasion of Arthur's recall with the sarcasm: "Such credentials cannot fail to increase the loyalty of the happy Canadians. O, the blessings of Colonial Dependence!!!"[7] These excerpts clearly show that there was a considerable body of colonial opinion in Van Diemen's Land opposed to the policies of Governor Arthur. The following from the Hobart Town _News_ may be taken as fairly typical. As a matter of fact it is quite moderate in tone in comparison with some of the other invectives against Arthur. "It was with feelings of the most sincere satisfaction, we announced in our last number the arrival of the 'good ship' "Elphinstone", from England, bringing the very gratifying intelligence of the recall of Colonel George Arthur after an administration of twelve years; during the whole of which long period the people have been rendered wretched, unhappy, discontented and miserable by the misrule of his government...."[8]