title: Australia's Birthstain: The Startling Legacy of the Convict Era
author:  Babette Smith 
description: <div></DIV><div>"Babette Smith's arguments will be hotly debated, but there is no doubting the fascination or drama of this study of the stain we pretend is not there."&#160; &#8212;Thomas Keneally, author, <I>The Commonwealth of Thieves</I></DIV>
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  For the Term of 
  His Natural Life
  By Marcus Clarke
  
  For the Term of His Natural Life 
  
  DEDICATION 
  TO 
  SIR CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY
  M
  y Dear Sir Charles, I take leave to dedicate this work 
  to you, not merely because your nineteen years of po-
  litical and literary life in Australia render it very fitting that 
  any work written by a resident in the colonies, and having to 
  do with the history of past colonial days, should bear your 
  name upon its dedicatory page; but because the publication 
  of my book is due to your advice and encouragement.
  The convict of fiction has been hitherto shown only at 
  the beginning or at the end of his career. Either his exile has 
  been the mysterious end to his misdeeds, or he has appeared 
  upon the scene to claim interest by reason of an equally un-
  intelligible love of crime acquired during his experience in 
  a penal settlem