In my opinion, however, the system of concentration is radically defective.  It supposes the existence in the breasts of criminals of a principle of action, and a desire of improvement and of a change in their condition sufficiently powerful to enable them to resist the temptations to vice held out by habitual intercourse with the depraved.  No doubt there are individuals to be found, even among those who have incurred the penalty of banishment from their native country, of firm character and strong sympathy for virtue; but the majority must of course consist of men almost incapable of resisting momentary impulses, of weak or perverted understandings, of strong animal passions, naturally or from habit averse to what is good, and prone to that which is bad.  In such cases association must inevitably be pernicious; and pardon can only be obtained by comparative, not absolute reformation.  By the dispersion of convicts, under the assignment system or otherwise, the effects of evil communication will be guarded against, and those of intercourse with the virtuous and the honest substituted.

I am not of course, as I have said, prepared here even to sketch a new plan of convict discipline; but I think that the suggestion I have made with reference to the employment of prisoners in the construction of railroads, the capital to be supplied by a private company, would afford a temporary relief to the labour market, whilst it would confer a lasting benefit on the colony.  During the diversion thus created, time would be afforded for digesting a plan of convict discipline, which should be consistent with economy, with a due regard to the interests of the settlers, and with the moral improvement of the prisoners.

LIGHTHOUSES IN BASS STRAIT.

I would also suggest another mode of employing the probationers.  They might be dispersed through the islands in Bass Strait, and engaged in constructing the lighthouses which are so much wanted there.  Six years ago his Excellency Sir John Franklin drew the attention of the Government of New South Wales to the necessity existing for these lighthouses.  On this occasion a mass of evidence was given before the Legislative Council as to which would be the most eligible sites; but up to this period only two have been founded, both by the Tasmanian Government, one on the Chappell Isles, another in Banks Strait.  The important ones for the eastern and western entrances of the Strait have been neglected, although the fullest information was obtained on the subject.  Opinions concur in representing Kent Group as the best position for a light at the eastern entrance, where certainly one is most required, the Strait being there so much impeded with rocks and islands.  I gave my opinion to this effect before the Legislative Council, in September, 1842.  At the same time, for the western entrance, I recommended Cape Otway in preference to the north end of King Island, for reasons already assigned.* The melancholy wrecks that have of late