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Show 530 ~EW SOU'l'H WALES. Jan. l83G. There are many serious drawbacks . to t~e comforts of families ; the chief of which, perhaps, IS bcmg surroun~ed by convict servants. How thoroughly odious to every feelmg to be waited on by a man, who the day before, perhaps, was flogged, from your representation, for some tn"f l."m g rni.s d e~ meanor. The female servants are of course much_ worse' hence children learn the vilest expressions, and it IS fortu-nate if not equally vile ideas. . On the other hand, the capital of a person w1thout any -trouble on his part, produces him treble interest t_o what 1t, will in England; and with care he is sure to. grow nch. The luxuries ot life are in abundance and very little dearer, and most articles of food cheaper, than in England. The climate is splendid and quite healthy; but to my mind its charms are lost by the uninviting aspect of the country. S.ett~ers possess a great advantage in finding their sons of service, when very young. At the age of from ~ixteen .to twen~y they frequently take charge of distant farmmg. statwns; th1~, however, must happen at the expense of the1r boys associating entirely with convict servants. I a:n not aware that the tone of society has assumed any peculiar char~cter.; but with such habits and without intellectual pursmts, 1t can hardly fail to det~riorate. My opinion is such, that .nothing but rather severe necessity should compel me to emigrate. The rapid prosperity and future prospects of this col?ny are to me, not understanding these subjects,. very puzzlmg. The two main exports are wool and whale-ml ; an~ to both of these productions there is a limit. The country IS ~otally unfit for canals ; therefore there is a line not very distant, beyond which the land carriage of wool will not repay the expense of shearing and tending sheep. Pasture eve~y where is so thin, that settlers have already pushed far mto the interior : moreover the country further inland becomes extremely poor. I have before said that agriculture can never succeed on a very extended scale ; therefore so far as I can see, Australia must ultimately depend upon being the centre of commerce for the southern hemisphere, and perhaps on Jan. 183(). NEW SOU'rll WALES, her future manufactories. Possessing coal, she always has the moving power at hand. From the habitable country extending along the coast, and from her English extraction she is sure to be a maritime nation. I formerly imagined that Australia would rise to be as grand and power~l a country as North America; but now it appears to me such future grandeur is rather problematical. With respect to the state of the convicts, I had still fewer opportunities of judging than on other points. The first question is, whether their condition is at all one of punishment : no one will maintain that it is a very severe one. This, however, I suppose is of little consequence as long as it continues to be an object of dread to criminals at home. The corporeal wants of the convicts are tolerably well supplied; their prospect of future liberty and comfort is not distant, and after good conduct certain. A "ticket of leave," which, as long as a man keeps clear of suspicion as well as of crime, makes him free within a certain district, is given upon good conduct after years proportional to the length of the sentence. For life, eight years is the time of probation ; for seven years, four, &c. Yet with all this, and overlooking the previous imprisonment and wretched passage out, I believe the years of assignment are passed away with discontent and unhappiness. As an intelligent man remarked to me, the convicts know no pleasure beyond sensuality, and in this they are not gratified. The enormous bribe which government possesses in offering free pardons, together with the deep horror of the secluded penal settlements, destroys confidence between the convicts, and so prevents crime. As to a sense of shame, such a feeling does not appear to be known, and of this I witnessed some very singular proofs. Though it is a curious fact, I \Vas universally told, that the character of the convict population is one of arrant cowardice: not unfrequently some become desperate and quite indifferent of life, yet a plan requiring cool or continued courage is seldom put into execution. The worst feature in the whole case is, that although there 2M. 2 |