to exhibit the working of the principle: it was a convict colony at the outset. In 1822, when free settlers first began to flock in, the relative numbers were three thousand six hundred and sixteen to four thousand nine hundred and ninety-six; in 1824 and 1825 the numbers of bond and free were nearly equal; by 1829 the free settlers had attained a majority of about two thousand; and this rapidly and steadily increased, till in 1840 the colony had lost its exclusive character of a penal settlement, the number of convicts being only about half that of freemen, and not greater than the latter could employ as labourers and servants.*

In 1840 all this was suddenly at an end. Transportation from England to New South Wales was discontinued, and Tasmania was constituted the grand jail of the empire. The more desperate criminals were to be sent, in the first instance, to Norfolk Island, and thence, after a period of not less than three years, re-shipped to Tasmania; where all prisoners, whether direct or indirect, were to be kept in probationary gangs of two hundred and fifty or three hundred men, for at least one year, when, if found deserving, they were to receive permission to engage themselves as servants for wages. It may be doubted whether this is the best mode of avoiding the abuses, already described, of the assignment system. If it was absolutely necessary to destroy the rising hopes of the colony, and throw it back into the condition of a penal settlement, it would perhaps have been better to have introduced a rigorous reform into the plan of assigning convicts, rather than have depended upon the desperate chance of amendment in criminals condemned

*The above figures are taken on the authority of Mr. Martin; but it should be noticed that among the free population are included emancipated convicts, in a proportion which we are unable to ascertain.

to herd together for one or more years in one mass of contagion. However this may be, under the new system thirteen thousand seven hundred and sixty-four male convicts, and two thousand four hundred and ninety-two females were landed on the island between 1st January, 1841, and 31st October, 1844; and the result is stated to be an enormous increase of crime and misery. Twenty gangs of convicts of several hundreds each, are scattered throughout a country of about half the size of Ireland; and more than two thousand of those who are supposed to be sufficiently reformed to be entitled to tickets of leave, are unable to find employment. This state of things is very different from Sir James Graham's anticipation:"The prisoner should be made to feel," said he, "that he enters on a new career. The classification of the convicts in the colony, as set forth in Lord Stanley's despatch, should be made intelligible to him. He should be told that he will be sent to Van Diemen's land, there, if he behave well, at once to receive a ticket of leave, which is equivalent to freedom, with the certainty of abundant maintenance, the fruit of industry." The experiment has been tried, and may be considered to have failed.

The aborigines of Tasmania were a modification of the race we shall have to advert to as roaming in small tribes over the deserts of Australia. The island variety resembled negroes more than their brothers of the continent; but the question is now of little consequence, as after their ranks had been thinned by disease, famine, and the musket, the few survivors were transported some years ago to Flinder's Island in the neighbouring Straits.

CHAPTER IV.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA-SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA-NORTHERN

AUSTRALIA.

WHEN the prosperity of New South Wales and Tasmania was as yet uninterrupted by those temporary checks, as the future historian will regard them, which appear so alarming and calamitous to us men of the day, its career received an additional impulse from the foundation of a new settlement. The Tasmanians, as their hopes expanded, found their own island too small, and great numbers migrated with their flocks and herds to the opposite coast, the south-east point of New South Wales, where they were speedily joined by the enterprising settlers of Sydney, who drove their sheep and cattle overland, to share in the almost limitless pastures of Port Phillip. The enterprise being conducted, not by settlers from Europe, but by experienced colonists, was instantly and eminently successful; and was probably one of the chief causes which led to the settlement of Swan River on the south-western coast.

Some capitalists made an offer to government to invest 300,0007. in colonizing the district, on condition of receiving a grant of four million acres of land, out of which they were to provide every male emigrant with two hundred acres free of rent. This offer was not accepted, but it had the effect of drawing attention to the subject; and in 1829 a colony of free emigrants was planted, consisting chiefly of the middle classes, land being assigned at the rate of forty acres for every 31. expended, and the adventurers being conveyed to their destination at their own expense. This was, of course, a colony of gentry, all anxious to become great esquires at so trifling an outlay; and the surveyed lands fit for agricultural purposes were found to be too limited in extent for the influx of claimants. Those who could not wait went on to the penal colonies, while the persevering or comparatively rich remained behind, to form the nucleus perhaps of a great nation.

The period of mistakes, follies, and misfortunes, lasted for about three years; during which some were halfruined, some half-starved, and none probably found much use for their carriages, pianofortes, and blood-horses. At length they contrived to preserve some imported sheep for their wool, instead of devouring them as they had done while money was plenty; and having thus found an article of export, their course was clear. Their advance, however, has been rather steady than brilliant. They are as yet neither great consumers nor great producers; but they have formed a permanent settlement in a great and unoccupied country, and they bide their time.

The settlement lies between the parallel of 31° and 35° south latitude, and extends eastward to the 129° of longitude, and is thus one thousand two hundred and cighty miles in length, and eight hundred in breadth.

Three distinct ranges of mountains run parallel with the sea coast, giving off numerous streams of greater or less magnitude besides the Swan River, from which the colony takes its name. The coast itself is deeply indented with bays and headlands, islands and straits, among which are some of the finest harbours in the world; while towards the south-west there are a series of estuaries with narrow and shallow entrances, and in length from five to ten miles by two or three broad. The climate is said to be healthy, and more especially adapted for invalids labouring under pulmonary complaints. The soil is not rich, yet sufficiently productive in its natural state. Food, therefore, is plentiful, including abundance of fruit at certain seasons of the year; and even the wandering natives, who live only from day to day, have little difficulty in procuring subsistence.

The Swan River colonists who, at the first disappointment, had carried their capital to New South Wales and Tasmania, were sufficiently numerous to be felt in the growing prosperity of these settlements. They were of a class which does not work, and their presence, therefore, contributed, with other circumstances, to raise the price of labour. In Tasmania, convicts were in such demand that the humourist who described them as being hired by means of a speaking trumpet before they left the ship hardly exaggerated the fact. As for free labour, it was not to be had in any of the Australian colonies but at a price which would materially diminish the profits of the employer, then on the high road to fortune; and the exclamation rose simultaneously from every moneyed lip,-"Oh, that we could get servants as cheap as in England!" A whole world of wealth seemed before them if they had only labourers to gather it in. Flocks,