The Convict question has not yet died out in Australia,
and it threatens new irritations. There are about 13,000 convicts in Van Diemen's Land, which, it will be recollected, continued to be the depository of convicts from this country after transportation to the other Australian Colonies, except in the North-west, was dis- continued. This convict class forms a nuisance and a disgrace to Van Diemen's Land, and a source of alarm to Victoria ; for the escaped convicts have been the great originators of crime—of the robberies, the burglaries, and murders—in the three chief Austra- lian Colonies. The Van Diemen's Land Legislature has pro- posed to extinguish the convict class, by merging it in the general body of the community ; giving absolute pardon in lieu of conditional pardon, setting free those whom the local Government can recommend, and leaving a small remainder for stricter confinement and surveillance. It is a bold and per- haps not an unwise measure. It creates alarm, however, in Vic- toria, whither most of the released convicts would be attracted, and where they would fall into new temptations in the Diggings, in the gambling purlieus of Melbourne, or in the desperado class of "unemployed." Hence a great excitement in the capital of Victoria; where the spirit of Judge Lynch is displaying itself. The Government has a gentle plan to keep released convicts under licence and watch; but what certificate or police could restrain ten thousand men of the roughest make from the worst school of sturdy malefactors ? The Melbourne men clamour for the disal- lowance of this mild measure and the absolute exclusion of the released. Swan River probably offers the only available asylum to such a dose of convictism ; which ought at least to be a final bonne bouche for that backward colony.
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