MARRIAGE. At Sydney, Dr. Jeannerett, the dentist, to Miss Merrit. BIRTHS. Mrs. Elliston, wife of William 8on. In Hart's Buildings, Sydney, Mrs. Mansfield, the wife of the Rev. R. Mansfield, of a son. DEATIIS. At his residence, Elizabeth street, Hyde Park, Thomas Macvitie, esq. Managing Director of the Bank of New South Wales, aged 52 years. He was the father of the Sydney Magistracy, and much esteemed by the Colonists as a liberal and kindhearted man. William Archer, of Woolmers, father of our highly-esteemed Colonist, Thomas Archer, esq. Member of the Legislative Council. He was riding home on Thursday, the 3d of Jan., with one of his sons, when his horse took fright, and threw him. The injury he received was so severe, as to cause his death in a few hours, to the sincere and poignant regret of a large and distinguished circle of friends. If strict integrity, and undeviating rectitude of conduct, with warm benevolence and general kindness of heart, deserve the commendation and sympathy of mankind, then, did Mr. Archer, most particularly, merit the sorrow of his survivors. Gifted with virtues of no ordinary stamp, imbued with attributes of a high and beneficial order, his loss will be severely felt, by those who enjoyed his society; although he had attained a venerable old age, his friends cannot but lament the sad and sudden manner of his removal. We sincerely and from our hearts exclaim "Requi escat in pace!" After a lingering illness, which he sustained with Christian fortitude and resignation, James Bryant, esq. of Jericho. He was a man, who took a meritorious pride and a warm interest in the welfare and prosperity of the Colony, which is highly indebted to him for the introduction of a superior beeed of horses. He died much and deservedly lamented by a large circle of friends and acquaint ance. On the 23d of January, the son of Mr. Boyd, chief clerk of the Policeoffice, aged two years. The poor little fellow was playing about a new building, on the New Town Road, with his brothers, when he fell from a height of five or six feet, and was so hurt, as to survive the accident only two hours. He was a very fine child, and remarkably intelligent for his age. In the 82d year of her age, from an attack of the cholera, at Drogheda, Ireland, Isabella, the much respected widow of the Rev. Joshua Ferguson, of Ballymoyer, and mother of Joshua Ferguson, esq. of Tinder Box Bay. In September last, at his apartments in Chelsea College, Sir Everard Horne, Bart. and Serjeant-Surgeon to the King. He was in the 77th year, and, although a man of coarse and vulgar manners, his scientific acquirements obtained for him the most fashionable practice of the day. He was an acute and clever physiologist, and devoted a considerable portion of his time to the investigation of subjects connected with comparative anatomy, as well as to the elucidation of many obscure and painful diseases, incident to the human frame. He was, for many years a vice president of the Royal Society, and succeeded, we believe, the celebrated John Hunter (under whose tuition his professional education was perfected) as senior surgeon of St. George's Hospital. His physiological works are characterized by considerable depth of thought, and a pertinacious adherence to certain theories and opinions by no means infallible. He is succeeded in his surgeonship to Chelsea Hospital, by Mr. Keats, while Mr. Brodie receives the appointment of serjeant-surgeon to the King. HENRY MELVILLE, PRINTER, HOBART TOWN. THE HOBART TOWN MAGAZINE. VOL. 1.] APRIL, 1833. [No. 2. THE VAN DÍEMEN'S LAND ANNUAL, And Hobart Town Almanack for the year 1833. Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land. James Ross. With the exception of a long and elaborate "Essay on Prison Discipline," there is nothing in this publication, which merits any very particular notice. The article relating to the erection of a Pontoon Bridge across the Derwent, exhibits considerable research and professional talent; but it is not at all in its proper place within the covers of an Almanack; neither do we learn that the suggestions which it contains, or the plan which it so ably points out, have been productive of any benefit to the Public: with this, however, we have nothing to do; and shall proceed at once to notice the lion of the work-the Essay on Prison Discipline. This is, certainly, a good paper-written with some force-with tolerable feeling, and containing a considerable portion of information, embodying, in short, the result of much observation on a subject of great interest to the writer. We shall, therefore, consider it somewhat in detail, and endeavour to render it that justice which its subject merits, and which our limits will allow. We pass over a "curious" peroration "on the advantages of Government," and come to some remarks on the cause of that frightful increase of crime, which has taken place in England, and which is mainly attributed to the extensive existence of poverty. "We have heard," says the writer, "various impressive discourses from our senior Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Bedford, in Hobart Town, addressed to congregations, of which a large portion consisted of the prisoner class, on the salutary uses of affliction, and it is good to teach us that in all the most trying circumstances of life-in our most forlorn and dependent plights-(this is a vile word) our best and surest reliance is on that great friend, who has already sacrificed himself to rescue human kind from impending and everlasting ruin. But who, that has felt even the approach of its cold, pinch I ing grasp, will deny that poverty, long-continued, depressing, heart-breaking, contemned poverty, will not at last drive the sufferer to put his hand on that which is not his own? That instances of this wretched state have prevailed in England, commensurate with the increase of crime, is a fact but too well known, and we may, therefore, fairly attribute poverty as one great and immediate cause of the increase of crime in England.”—(p. 10.) The uncertainty of punishments is also stated, as another great cause of the increase of crime, and some acute remarks are quoted from Fraser's Magazine, illustrative of the fact. Speaking of the Old Bailey trials, it is stated, "the London thieves entertain a contempt for that tribunal. An opinion prevails throughout the whole body, that justice is not done them. I do not mean to say they complain of the sentences being too severe generally, that would be natural enough, and not worth notice. They believe every thing done at that court, a matter of chance; that, in the same day, and for a like crime, one man will be sentenced to transportation for life, while another may be let off for a month's imprisonment, and yet both equally bad characters."(p. 12.) This is very true; and has a very great influence upon the delinquency of the lower orders, especially in tempting the young of both sexes to the commission of crime. We recollect a case of this kind, which occurred to a young lad, who had been previously in our own service, and was by no means so bad or so long an offender as many who received lighter punishments. He had been seduced by some "old hands," to connive at the robbery of his master's house, was tried and convicted upon evidence merely presumptive, and sentenced to be hanged. We have no doubt of his guilt-but as this was his first offence, a petition was prepared, and presented to the Secretary of State; but the petitioners were informed, that as robberies by servants had become very prevalent, it was necessary to make an example-and he was accordingly executed. The increase of crime, however, cannot be attributed to one or two causes only: there are many circumstances, arising out of, and operating upon, the great machine of society, which promote this évil. Ignorance is one of these-idleness, or want of employment, another: but, our limits will not permit us to expatiate on this very interesting subject; we must, therefore, pass on at once to the effect of punishment, or, in other words, of Prison Discipline. "What," asks our Essayist, "do we find is or has been the effect of severe punishment throughout the world?—not, most certainly, the excitement of any great mental passion, any spirit of hatred, revenge, or retaliation upon society, for that would argue that the mind not only retained its full energies, but was stimulated to exert them, though in a wrong direction, by the cramping severity it had undergone it would argue that the sensibilities of the heart were sharpened by the direct operation of the heavy oppressive engine, that was used with such force to blunt them.... The direct tendency, and the almost invariable effect on the contrary of the |