Thus far having delineated the broad features of the system known as the "certain and severe," it will be proper to explain the changes which it ultimately produced in the practical working of transportation. Simultaneously, a new theory of colonisation was promulgated. Land ceased to be granted: the funds accumulated by its sale were available for emigration,--and thus to decrease the rate of wages, and to enable the government to dispense with the services of convicts as writers, overseers, and mechanics. To assist this project, it had been determined to levy a tax on prison labor; but the protest of the colonists and the remonstrance of Arthur, led to its abandonment. The despatch which explained his views, dwelt on the inconvenience, vexation, and loss, to which the settlers were subject. He informed the Secretary of State, that his lordship could not understand, except by experience, how much and how often the colonists were fretted by the misconduct of their servants, and despoiled by their peculation: however perfect the discipline established; although the roads were safe, and violence infrequent; though many prisoners were reformed and useful, still the existing social state was charged with every form of domestic annoyance and mortification. Trivial thefts were constantly passed over, because punishment was attended with greater loss. Thus, two hundred men arrive--they are distributed: their masters pay down money for their clothing; but before they reach their home, their clothes are destroyed or sold--or, perhaps, they are committed for felony to gaol. At first the settler repines, but his difficulties are inevitable: he is silent, because his trials have long lost the interest of novelty, and all around him are fellow-sufferers. The settlers who submitted to the impertinence and unwillingness of pickpockets, he thought certainly entitled to the benefit of their services without any other tax than might be levied by their fingers. This earnest protest was not without success; but it became, afterwards, a potent weapon in the hands of those who pronounced transportation a failure.[214]