LECTURE AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2088, 13 September 1875, Page 2

LECTURE AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC.

The Rev. Mr Agnew delivered a most interesting lecture at the Academy of Music^ on Saturday night on "Reminisbence's'of the early prison, convict and bushranging life in New South Wales." The reverend lecturer is a gentleman who, from having filled the office of gaol chaplain for many years, is admirably qualified to speak with the authority of experience on the subject he has chosen, and those who had the pleasure of listening to his lecture will freely acknowledge that he dealt with that subject in a manner that fully sustained the interest which a subject must necessarily possess. The gross abuse of power by irresponsible officials; the wrongs inflicted on convicts in the early days of the colony of New South Wales—wrongs inflicted under a tyrannous system of discipline, were told in simple but plain language. The lecturer made no attempt to magnify the enormities of the system for the reform of' which he labored for so many years. He described the daily life of the unfortunate prisoners, their treatment by the inhuman task masters placed over them; the miseries endured by the less hardened criminals from close association with men grown grey in crime. He described in graphic terms the internal system which prevailed at Cockatoo Island, and the recklessness which such a system begot in the minds of -many men whose "crimes" had b«en mere trifles, but which had been punished by banishment to which death would have been infinitely preferable. It is simply impossible to give in the limited space of a newspaper notice any precis of the reverend gentleman's lecture. It was of absorbing interest. Most of the incidents used in illustration were drawn from personal experiences, but there were some which were introduced which carried the listener back to a period the facts and circumstances connected with which are now matters of history. The treatment of England's convicts in the Island of Tasmania and in the Colony of New SoHth Wales has been the theme on which many writers have dilated, but few of them have been able to give their own experiences. Mr Agnew does this. As gaol chaplain he visited Cockatoo Island twice every week—sometimes oftene*. He is thus able to speak of scenes and incidents with which he was daily familiar, and in the recital of which he brings to bear a retentive memory and a most observant mind. Mr Agnew is no practised-lecturer who depends for effect upon artificial aids. His simple narrative of the miseries of a criminal class is much more effective than it would be if supplemented by theatrical accessories, and appeals more poweifully to human sympathies than if clothed in choice phrases and rhetorical periods. No one can listen to Mr Agnow and fail to be interested. His charm Ties purely in the forcible appeal which a truthful description of real scenes and incidents makes to the better side of nature. The real character of the lecture may be perhaps misapprehended, but we may state that while some of the narrations are well calculated to excite a feeling of indignation against the system under which the grossest injustice was perpetrated, there is nothing objectionable in the details, wbile the humorous or lighter side of the story of conviqt life is amply illustrated. Mr Agnew will give another lecture tomorrow night, and we cannot do less than say that all who wish to learn something of the early history of the colonies should attend. Old colonist and new arrivals alike will learn something of which they were previously ignorant. When the history of the colonies comes to be written, Mr Agnew's experiences will form a valuable contribution to that history, especially as regards New South Wales.