When the settlers of Virginia were much in the same situation with those on New South Wales, one hundred and fifty young women were procured, it is not stated how, and shipped off to that settlement, where, as the annals of Virginia relate, they were sold to the settlers for wives, at one hundred and fifty pounds weight of tobacco each; and in the same year, 1620, a Dutch trader carried thither the first cargo of negro slaves, among whom was a good proportion of females. Now, if an old procuress of Bristol, as the papers tell us, can purchase from a sister in iniquity living in the metropolis, a bevy of Cyprians for the use of that flourishing city, (for flourishing it must needs be to require such a supply;) we do not materially differ from our author in thinking, that a cargo of such unfortunate females might prove a good speculation both to the adventurer and themselves, in the market of New South Wales-a better school for reform, we venture to say, than any penitentiary at home, and much more likely to improve, not only their morals, but also their condition in life.

On glancing over the above census of the population of this colony, it appears quite ridiculous to hear the democratic newswriters of Sydney holding out notions of declaring their independence, shaking off the yoke of the mother-country, and demanding a colonial legislative assembly. The blockheads do not or will not see, that if England should withdraw her troops and withhold her supplies, neither sterling,' nor currency,' nor their united forces, if a sense of danger would allow such an union of discordant materials, could be able to withstand the insurrection of the convicts, who would be but too ready to avail themselves of an opportunity which offered them the summary attainment both of liberty and of wealth; and, as to a house of representatives, we cordially subscribe to the following observations of Mr. Cunningham:

When it is recollected what bitter dissensions have existed for many years between the emigrants and emancipists, and that the latter would compose at least four-fifths of the electors, it is evident that such a measure would not only tend to revive that discord which his present Excellency is fast allaying, but put the whole emigrant body in the power of the emancipist faction. Yet these two objects, namely, a house of assembly and genuine trial by jury, are gravely declared to be the best means that can be devised for promoting the harmony of the colony; but as lawyers are the singers of the Io pæans about this said harmony, we are naturally induced to wonder what has so suddenly brought about this before unheard-of reform in the principles of that body, of whom discord forms the very food.'vol. ii. pp. 137, 138.

We

We are quite aware, that the policy of sending convicted criminals to so great a distance, at an enormous expense, has frequently been questioned. We have heard it argued, that instead of being places of punishment for those who have been convicted of crimes, the Australian colonies, by affording an asylum for felons, operate, in fact, as an incitement to crime,-in other words, that many crimes are committed here, that the offenders may have a free and pleasant conveyance to this paradise of pickpockets, which is gained by a very short and easy passage through the purgatory that conducts to it. This may be true in some instances.

'Some who had friends doing well in New South Wales would in olden times procure themselves to be transported by way of having a free passage, in order to join them. Several went out with me on these very terms; and among them, one merry youth of two-and-twenty, whose father had been transported while he was a child in arms, and a brother at a later period. This brother had followed the fortunes of the father by special invitation, to assist him in the cultivation of his farm, and the youngster I speak of was therefore the second son induced to entitle himself to a seven years' trip to Botany. On our arrival the elder brother came alongside, and introduced the younger brother and the father (who were of course utter strangers) to each other! "When may we expect, Jem?" was the question put shortly after the preliminary congratulations: Jem being a cousin who had long promised the colony a speedy visit, as I learnt from the younger brother.'-vol. ii. pp. 268, 269.

We understand, however, that these halcyon days are nearly at an end; and that since the government has fallen into the hands of General Darling, the convicts, unless in some peculiar and special cases, are required to work out the time of their sentence before they can receive the boon of emancipation. Still, however, their condition is by no means a hard one; the labour required of them is not severe, and they are well clothed and fed. 'I question much,' says Mr. Cunningham, 'whether many English labourers live better than our convict-servants here, whose weekly ration consists of a sufficiency of flour to make four quartern-loaves at least; of seven pounds of beef; two ounces of tea, one pound of sugar, and two ounces of tobacco, with the occasional substitution of two or three quarts of milk, daily, for the tea and sugar allowance.' The farmers, besides, allow them little gardens for vegetables, and each has two suits of clothes annually, a bed-tick, and a blanket. Formerly, a great proportion were fed from the government stores, and employed in various kinds of labour on public works and roads, in clearing the country of wood for settlers, &c.; but we are glad to find that the extraordinary demand of the settlers for their services has induced the present governor to break up the government

government clearing-gangs, and to distribute them among the colonists. The Australian Agricultural Company alone have taken one hundred and twenty, which were all that could be supplied, and they will gladly receive more into their employ whenever they can get them.

Such being the demand for the labour of these people, it is to be hoped that the public will, hereafter, be relieved from any further expense on account of the convicts, except that of sending them out, which appears to be on an average about 301. per head. Whatever arguments may be advanced, as to the dubious policy of transporting felons, one thing is at least certain,—that in so far as their own condition is concerned, it is incomparably better, morally and physically, than the lot of those offenders who are condemned to work out their time in the hulks. The former, when the term of their servitude is over, if their conduct has been good, mix at once in the mass of the people, and rise, according to their own subsequent efforts and merits, in the scale of society; but where shall the latter find a place to subsist in, with a blasted character, among a superabundant population, a great part of whose honest labourers cannot find employment? Every rogue,' says Mr. Cunningham, whom you retain at home to labour, takes the bread out of the mouth of an honest man; as long, therefore, as England cannot keep her honest poor, so long will it be her interest to turn all her roguish poor out from her bosom, to thieve or work elsewhere.' In the present state of the country, the soundness of this doctrine will not, we think, be denied. The main question seems to be this: whether it is better to get rid of a convicted felon, for life, at the expense of 30l., or, after extorting from him a forced labour of a few years, at the cost of half that sum every year, to turn him loose again on society, to find his way, in all probability, either to the gallows or to the workhouse? It is a question well deserving the serious consideration of the government. There are, at this moment, upwards of four thousand convicts on board the hulks, employed in the dock-yards and on other public works, at an annual expense of at least 60,000l., the whole of whom, we believe, must be turned loose on society within the short period of seven years. Besides, if, according to our author's doctrine, these four thousand rogues' take the bread out of the mouths of four thousand honest poor,' another 60,000l. must be required for the support of the latter from parish funds. To send them out to New South Wales, where, like their predecessors, they would, many of them at least, become good citizens, might cost the public about twice that sum, but there all further expense would cease.

The

The two colonies of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land would, it appears certain, at once absorb this number of fresh convicts. If the two great agricultural companies, and the ordinary settlers, could not receive the whole, the remainder might usefully be employed in clearing and preparing the ground at the new settlements of King George's Sound, Port Western, and Moreton Bay. Encouragement to good conduct might be given by assigning grants of land, in these new and distant settlements, to such of the convicts as might be deemed deserving of superior indulgence. A practice prevails in the colony which enables a poor man to stock his little farm at a cheap rate; let him only be able to purchase a cow or two, and a few ewes, he has the advantage of putting them out to graze with some extensive landholder, who requires only one-third of their produce for the care and food bestowed on them. Such a regulation is particularly advantageous to the convicts, few of whom, we learn from Mr. Cunningham, are sent out without money or money's worth-the unholy products of their illegal practices; and even those who have nothing to look to but what they earn from their labour, or the saving of their rations, may soon be in a situation to purchase a few sheep and horned cattle, which, at the expiration of their term of servitude, will be found sufficiently increased to stock the little farm allotted to them.

In point of fact, the emancipated convicts have, in many respects, the advantage of the poorer class of emigrants. Many of them actually do save a little money by labouring for the settlers at task and job work; they are acquainted with the people and their way of life; inured to the climate and the soil; know where to select the most productive spots; while the new settler, after spending a great part of his little property in implements, furniture, and passage money, has to consult persons in Sydney, generally not of the first character, who have no scruple, it would seem, about taking advantage of the ignorance or the simplicity of the new comer, so that a great part of his money is gone before he gets possession of the grant of land on which he is to be located. Mr. Cunningham recommends the co-operation of three or more individuals: thus six individuals, for instance, with 100%. each in their pockets on arrival, willing and able to work, would soon form a comfortable asylum for themselves; while the same persons, each acting separately with his own hundred pounds, would make but a bad hand of it. By the regulations of granting land, the joint-stock capital of 500l. would procure a square mile, or 640 acres. Mr. Cunningham gives an amusing account of what a new settler is likely to encounter in his search for a suit

able

able place of location, which, as it affords a favourable specimen of the writer's style and manner, we hesitate not to extract, for the amusement of our readers :

A horse, with canvas bags for changes of clothes, &c. slung over behind the saddle, with a blanket under to wrap yourself up in at night, and a light cord round the horse's neck to tether him by, furnish your personal equipment while upon this quest; and if pushing into a country at a distance from settlers, a pack-horse with provisions ought to accompany you. A steady white man who is a good bush-ranger, and a black native, complete your train. The note of the bell-bird, tinkling like a dull sheep-bell, announces in our drouthy wilds the welcome presence of water (a very useful thing to know); and toward this sound you may confidently proceed.

The settlers are generally hospitably disposed, and in these jaunts you are always welcome to such fare and such accommodation as they have it in their power to give. A tinder-box, or powder-flask, conjures up a fire when you bivouac in the forest; while a few slips of bark, peeled from a tree, shelter you from the cold and wet;-and with a good fire at your feet, and a tin of hot tea before retiring to rest, you may sleep comfortably enough. Your muskets will furnish you with birds of various kinds;-and with a brace of good grayhounds you will never lack kangaroos and emus; so that your bush-fare is a true sportman's feast. You meet with some adventures probably both to astonish and alarm you, but these mostly end in your amusement. If you should hear a coach-whip crack behind, you may instinctively start aside to let the mail pass; but quickly find it is only our native coachman with his spread-out fan-tail and perked-up crest, whistling and cracking out his whiplike notes as he hops sprucely from branch to branch. Neither must you be astonished on hearing the razor-grinder ply his vocation in the very depths of our solitudes; for here he is a flying instead of a walking animal, and consequently can very readily shift his station. On seating yourself comfortably by the fire of one of our backwoodsmen, your attention may probably be arrested by a heavy foot-tread approaching the door, followed by the heavier souse of a load tossed down at the entrance; and pricking up your ear at the observation of "Good Lord! what a whapper! where did you meet with that old fellow ?" you hear a gruff grumbling voice reply, "Why I had a tightish job on't wi' the ould boy; he took a good many thumps on the head before I could do for'un." Confounded at the meaning of this conversation, you bend your eyes with anxious gaze towards the door, which slowly opening, a desperate-looking ruffian, habited in a huge hairy cap and shaggy kangaroo-skin jacket, dappled thickly with blood, stalks solemnly across the floor, casting a grunting sort of recognition to each person around, and while teasing out the tobaccoleaf to charge his pipe, relates with the most cool, villanous indifference that he has been fortunate enough to kill an old man as he came along, whose hind quarters he had just brought with him to make steaks of for supper ending his horrible recital with a significant glance at you,