but who are sent to learn it in the bitter school of adversity. And when this medicine produces its proper effect when sufficient time has been given to show a thorough change in character and disposition-a young colony really cannot afford to dispense with the services of any person of superior talents. Activity, resolution, and acuteness, are of such immense importance in the hard circumstances of a new State, that they must be eagerly caught at, and employed as soon as they are discovered. Though all may not be quite so unobjectionable as could be wished

Res dura, et regni novitas me talia cogunt
Moliri '—

as Colonel Macquarrie probably quoted to Mr. Commissioner Bigge. As for the conduct of those extra-moralists, who come to settle in a land of crime, and refuse to associate with a convict legally pardoned, however light his original offence, however perfect his subsequent conduct we have no toleration for such folly and foppery. To sit down to dinner with men who have not been tried for their lives is a luxury which cannot be enjoyed in such a country. It is entirely out of the question; and persons so dainty, and so truly admirable, had better settle at Clapham Common than at Botany Bay. Our trade in Australasia is to turn scoundrels into honest men. If you come among us, and bring with you a good character, and will lend us your society, as a stimulus and reward to men recovering from degradation, you will confer the greatest possible benefit upon the colony; but if you turn up your nose at repentance, insult those unhappy people with your character, and fiercely stand up as a moral bully, and a virtuous braggadocio, it would have been far better for us if Providence had directed you to any other part of the globe than to Botany Bay - which was colonised, not to gratify the insolence of Pharisees, but to heal the contrite spirit of repentant sinners. Mr. Marsden, who has no happiness from six o'clock Monday morning, till the same hour the week following,

will not meet pardoned convicts in society. We have no doubt Mr. Marsden is a very respectable clergyman; but is there not something very different from this in the Gospel? The most resolute and inflexible persons in the rejection of pardoned convicts were some of the marching regiments stationed at Botany Bay-men, of course, who had uniformly shunned, in the Old World, the society of gamesters, prostitutes, drunkards, and blasphemers who had ruined no tailors, corrupted no wives, and had entitled themselves, by a long course of solemnity and decorum, to indulge in all the insolence of purity and virtue.

In this point, then, of restoring convicts to society, we side, as far as the principle goes, with the Governor; but we are far from undertaking to say that his application of the principle has been on all occasions prudent and judicious. Upon the absurdity of his conduct in attempting to force the society of the pardoned convicts upon the undetected part of the colony, there can be no doubt. These are points upon which every body must be allowed to judge for themselves. The greatest monarchs in Europe cannot control opinion upon those points sovereigns far exceeding Colonel Lachlan Macquarrie, in the antiquity of their dynasty, and the extent, wealth, and importance of their empire.

It was in vain to assemble them' (the pardoned convicts), even on public occasions, at Government House, or to point them out to the especial notice and favour of strangers, or to favour them with particular marks of his own attention upon these occasions, if they still continued to be shunned or disregarded by the rest of the company.

With the exception of the Reverend Mr. Fulton, and, on some occasions, of Mr. Redfern, I never observed that the other persons of this class participated in the general attentions of the company; and the evidence of Mr. Judge Advocate Wylde and Major Bell both prove the embarrassment in which they were left on occasions that came within their notice.

Nor has the distinction that has been conferred upon them by Governor Macquarrie produced any effect in subduing the prejudices or objections of the class of free inhabitants to associate with them. One instance only has occurred, in which

the wife of a respectable individual, and a magistrate, has been visited by the wives of the officers of the garrison, and by a few of the married ladies of the colony. It is an instance that reflects equal credit upon the individual herself, as upon the feelings and motives of those by whom she has been so noticed : but the circumstances of her case were very peculiar, and those that led to her introduction to society were very much of a personal kind. It has generally been thought, that such instances would have been more numerous if Governor Macquarrie had allowed every person to have followed the dictates of their own judgment upon a subject, on which, of all others, men are least disposed to be dictated to, and most disposed to judge for themselves.

6

Although the emancipated convicts, whom he has selected from their class, are persons who generally bear a good character in New South Wales, yet that opinion of them is by no means universal. Those, however, who entertained a good opinion of them would have proved it by their notice, as Mr. M'Arthur has been in the habit of doing, by the kind and marked notice that he took of Mr. Fitzgerald; and those who entertained a different opinion would not have contracted an aversion to the principle of their introduction, from being obliged to witness what they considered to be an indiscreet and erroneous application of it.'- Report, p. 150.

We do not think Mr. Bigge exactly seizes the sense of Colonel Macquarrie's phrase, when the Colonel speaks of restoring men to the rank of society they have lost. Men may either be classed by wealth and education, or by character. All honest men, whether counts or cobblers, are of the same rank, if classed by moral distinctions. It is a common phrase to say that such a man can no longer be ranked among honest men; that he has been degraded from the class of respectable persons; and, therefore, by restoring a convict to the rank he has lost, the Governor may very fairly be supposed to mean the moral rank. In discussing the question of granting offices of trust to convicts, the importance of the Scelerati must not be overlooked. Their numbers are very considerable. They have one eighth of all the granted land in the colony; and there are among them indviduals of very large fortune. Mr. Redfern has 2600 acres, Mr. Lord 4365 acres, and Mr.

Samuel Terry 19,000 acres. As this man's history is a specimen of the mud and dirt out of which great families often arise, let the Terry Filii, the future warriors, legislators, and nobility of the Bay, learn from what, and whom, they sprang.

The first of these individuals, Samuel Terry, was transported to the colony when young. He was placed in a gang of stonemasons at Paramatta, and assisted in the building of the gaol. Mr. Marsden states, that during this period he was brought before him for neglect of duty, and punished; but, by his industry in other ways, he was enabled to set up a small retail shop, in which he continued till the expiration of his term of service. He then repaired to Sydney, where he extended his business, and, by marriage, increased his capital. He for many years kept a public house and retail shop, to which the smaller settlers resorted from the country, and where, after intoxicating themselves with spirits, they signed obligations and powers of attorney to confess judgment, which were always kept ready for execution. By these means, and by an active use of the common arts of over-reaching ignorant and worthless men, Samuel Terry has been able to accumulate a considerable capital, and a quantity of land in New South Wales, inferior only to that which is held by Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth. He ceased, at the late regulations introduced by the magistrates at Sydney, in February, 1820, to sell spirituous liquors, and he is now become one of the principal speculators in the purchase of investments at Sydney, and lately established a watermill in the swampy plains between that town and Botany Bay, which did not succeed. Out of the 19,000 acres of land held by Samuel Terry, 140 only are stated to be cleared; but he possesses 1450 head of horned cattle, and 3800 sheep.'- Report, p. 141.

Upon the subject of the New South Wales Bank, Mr. Bigge observes,

Upon the first of these occasions, it became an object both with Governor Macquarrie and Mr. Judge-Advocate Wylde, who took an active part in the establishment of the bank, to unite in its favour the support and contributions of the individuals of all classes of the colony. Governor Macquarrie felt assured, that, without such co-operation, the bank could not be established; for he was convinced that the emancipated convicts were the most opulent members of the community. A committee was formed for the purpose of drawing up the rules and regula

tions of the establishment, in which are to be found the names of George Howe, the printer of the Sydney Gazette, who was also a retail dealer; Mr. Simon Lord, and Mr. Edward Eager, all emancipated convicts, and the last only conditionally.

'Governor Macquarrie had always understood, and strongly wished, that in asking for the co-operation of all classes of the community in the formation of the bank, a share in its direction and management should also be communicated to them.'Report, p. 150.

In the discussion of this question, we became acquainted with a piece of military etiquette, of which we were previously ignorant. An officer, invited to dinner by the Governor, cannot refuse, unless in case of sickness. This is the most complete tyranny we ever heard of. If the officer comes out to his duty at the proper minute, with his proper number of buttons and epaulettes, what matters it to the Governor or any body else, where he dines? He may as well be ordered what to eat, as where to dine-be confined to the upper or under side of the meat-be denied gravy, or refused melted butter. But there is no end to the small tyranny and puerile vexations of a military life.

The mode of employing convicts upon their arrival appears to us very objectionable. If a man is skilful as a mechanic, he is added to the Government gangs; and in proportion to his skill and diligence, his chance of manumission, or of remission of labour, is lessened. If he is not skilful, or not skilful in any trade wanted by Government, he is applied for by some settler, to whom he pays from 5s. to 10s. a week; and is then left at liberty to go where, and work for whomsoever, he pleases. In the same manner, a convict who is rich is applied for, and obtains his weekly liberty and idleness by the purchased permission of the person to whom he is consigned.

The greatest possible inattention or ignorance appears to have prevailed in manumitting convicts for labour. and for such labour! not for cleansing Augean stables, or draining Pontine marshes, or damming out a vast length of the Adriatic, but for working five weeks with