Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/510

the architects.^[1] A freedman named Home, who had been a schoolmaster at Parramatta, performed divine service regularly to an earnest audience in the temple thus made by the contrite for the worship of Him who is no respecter of persons. We are told that Home ever held fast to the doctrines which in this remarkable manner he was called upon to preach; and dull must he be who is not touched by the yearnings after righteousness displayed by his fellow-creatures in the lonely Australian forest.

For many reasons Macquarie's treatment of the free settlers, and of the convict class, deserves attention. With the petulance of the vain he irritated the first on all occasions; with the weakness of a small mind he made unworthy favourites amongst the second. He brought about his own recall by his demeanour towards the convicts, though his removal was based partly on other grounds. At first, all convicts except those employed as domestic servants were made to work for the government. The houses, the wharves, the streets, the roads, the barracks, and the gaol, had to be provided at once by Phillip. When civil and military officers were allowed to have grants of land, Grose supplied them with convict servants, and these servants were still "on the stores," as it was called, or provided with rations by the government. The convicts preferred assignment to a settler to service under government. Their overseers were convicts or ex-convicts, and were deemed more harsh and unfeeling than overseers who had always beer freemen. When a convict-ship arrived there was much striving to procure the services of expert artificers as assigned servants The freed class usually procured the assignment to themselves of their relatives who might arrive in bonds. A notable thief might sometimes find himself assigned to his own wife, or to his mistress who had followed his fortunes, and applied for him as an assigned servant. Masters of assigned servants in process of time endeavoured to make money directly by their services. They were not content with the profits on farm produce. They sold the boots, the chairs, and other articles manufactured by their skilled servants. But the number of servants to be assigned was