On the subject of employment for prisoners during the voyage, much might be said; but its necessity and advantages are too numerous, and would render observation tedious, however appropriate. If employment be found useful in the Hulks, why should not its benefits be also tried on board of convict ships? Convicts will certainly be better fitted for industrious occupations in the colony, having been so employed upon their passage thither; and as they are sent to that country not to be maintained in idleness, why not inure them to habits of application previously? In the colony they have inducements to work,—food and an annual stipend; let them on board ship be so employed, as that a portion of what they earn may revert to themselves, and they will work cheerfully. Prisoners engaged at work are as much under the power of restraint as ever; they will, it is presumed, be much more orderly; nor can any reasonable fear be entertained of their contemplating mischief, when steadily occupied with what they must be convinced is intended to benefit themselves, especially if, at the same time, the effects of a moral and religious system operate upon their minds. Of the same nature is the establishment of a school, not alone for children belonging to convicts, but for the instruction of junior offenders; for it will be found in almost every case of this description, that early depravity and ignorance are concomitants. The generality of young culprits derive their hardening career in crime, almost entirely from the want of religious instruction: it must therefore be not only wise and humane, but also a pleasure demanded by prudence and sound policy, to furnish them with the means of gaining moral instruction from its source, by teaching them to read that best of books, the Bible. Neither should those children be left without regular employment: they also will long enjoy the blessings thus arising from habits of industry. Every one who has an interest in the welfare of the colony, as well as the friends of humanity, must feel some degree of anxiety on the subject of convict management, previously to their entering on those duties which are prescribed by their sentence. With regard to males, less concern is usually entertained, from their capability of sustaining severity of punishment, if necessary, in a higher degree; but as to females, corrective applications of that nature cannot be resorted to, to produce reformation of life. In proportion, then, as the difficulty of applying penal treatment exists, the more is prevention requisite to preclude its necessity: but unfortunately this is too little regarded; and to this circumstance may be, in a great measure, attributed that deplorable state of habitual dissoluteness, aggravated by heinous indulgence in open violation of decency, which prevails in the voyage to New South Wales.