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hut chiefly perhaps by the abundance of convict Jabour. And having now made large fortunes and grown into flourishing societies from this cause, it seems hard that they should turn round upon the Government and complain of that very practice which originally was the main attraction to their colony. At all events, to borrow an illustration from legal phraseology, it was the settlers who came to the nuisance, and not the nuisance which was brought to the settlers. This line of reasoning, however, has its limits; and it would be difficult to deny that even if convict labour may be valuable in laying the foundation of a new society, yet when that society has become a large and powerful com- munity, with a sufficiency of free labourers to pro- vide for the wants of its industry, the members of it may object without inconsistency to continuing to receive a stream of convicts from the parent country. The other objection is, in the opinion of the writer, grossly exaggerated. Much of what has been said and written on this subject appears to him to have been produced under the delusion that the Penal Colonies are the scenes of the blackest crime and wickedness. Nothing can be more singular and almost amusing, if the subject were not so serious, than the contrast between these home-bred fancies, and the accounts given by impartial observers on the spot, of which some examples have been pre- sented in the foregoing pages. Any one who has had an extensive acquaintance with persons who have resided in the Convict Colonies, can hardly entertain a doubt that travelling by night is far safer there than in many parts of the United Kingdom, and that property is more secure on the banks of the Hawksbury or the Derwent than on those of the Thames. The wife of one of the late Governors of New South Wales, experienced in housekeeping in various parts of the world, once mentioned that, surrounded by a large establishment of convict ser- she took fewer precautions against pilfering, and vants, suffered less from it at Sydney, than in any other place where she had been. People do not lock up their tea- caddies in Australia. Again, let any one contrast the proceedings of the citizens of the United States in California with those of the gold-diggers in our much condemned convict colony of New South Wales, Acts of violence were common amongst the former.

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The conduct of the latter has been excellent and even marked by decorum; it is reported that they have resolutely struck off work on Sunday, and that some of them have travelled from ten to twenty miles to attend divine worship if an opportunity for the

purpose presented itself on that day. Mr. Hall, an eccentric but evidently shrewd and independent observer, who speaks also from the experience of a whole life, says that the differences between the class of free immigrants and of convicts are much less than might be supposed.

In some respects he gives the preference to the convicts, remarking that they are certainly more intelli- gent than the ordinary labourers introduced from England, more susceptible of gratitude for kind treatment, and above all (a most important con- sideration if it can be relied upon), more anxious for obtaining the benefits of a good education for their children. That some who have been convicts have attained to stations of great respectability is beyond all doubt; one of them is at this moment a member of the Legislative Council; that their descendants have recruited the ranks of all the higher classes in the Colonics is equally certain; their acquisitions in wealth are well known, and the bank which was chiefly patronized by the convicts and emancipists was long reckoned the richest in New South Wales. But it would occupy too much time to dwell any longer on this branch of the subject. It may merely be said in general terms, that the absence of great criminality in the Convict Colonies is nothing very surprising. For the acts which lead to transporta- tion be classed into offences against property and offences against the person; but the temptation to the former are infinitely diminished in a new country offering every kind of opening for honest industry, and the latter (except when connected with offences against property) are frequently the result of strong impulses of passion which by no means imply a general moral turpitude.

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For the foregoing reasons it is believed that transportation, when the use of colonies fit for the purpose can be commanded, forms an excellent

part

of secondary punishment, and that no system of such punishment can be so good without as with it.

But in New South Wales, as has already been mentioned, a violent opposition has been created,

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