OUR COLONIES. 579 



fine spirit of philanthropy and justice, and opens some sound views 

 as regards convict discipline. He speaks, as follows, regarding 

 convicts and emigrants, after giving at length the regulations now in 

 force regarding the distribution of the former. 



" Three-fifths of all the prisoners in the Colony are provided for by 

 the capital and industry of the free population. After serving a certain 

 time, with unblemished character, in this new stage of his existence, the 

 prisoner (male or female) is entitled to what is termed a * ticket of leave ;' 

 the advantage of which is, that the holder thereof becomes, to all intents 

 and purposes, a free person, throughout the district over which his or her 

 ticket of leave extends ; but should any crimes be committed, this ticket 

 is withdrawn, and the probationary period is required to be re-commenced. 

 Should the ticket be held for a certain number of years, the holder is 

 entitled to a ' conditional pardon,' which is not liable to be forfeited by the 

 will of the executive, but is limited in its sphere of operation to the 

 Colony: is this differing from an ' absolute pardon,' which restores the late 

 prisoners to all the privileges of a British subject? This plan is not only 

 good in theory, but has also proved admirable in practice ; and no person 

 of the most ordinary understanding can visit New South Wales, without 

 perceiving its beneficial and politic results. On every side the traveller 

 witnesses the proofs of an industrious and prosperous community : he 

 beholds ships, warehouses, steam-engines, farms, &c., the owners of 

 which were transported as prisoners from their natal soil, who have paid 

 the penalty demanded by rigorous laws, and, commencing a new life, set 

 an example of honesty, morality, and enterprise, to those from whose 

 sphere they have emerged, and who are thus strongly urged to follow 

 their praiseworthy example. I have visited almost every part of this 

 earth, but nothing ever gave me so much pleasure as the grand moral 

 spectacle which our penal colonies presented : it is indeed a glorious 

 sight, one of which England may well feel proud, for on her historic 

 scroll is eternally engraved the triumph of Christianity over human 

 prejudices, and the reformation of feeble and fallen man. 



'* The second class of society are those who have once been prisoners, 

 and are now free : they are termed emancipists: individually, and in the 

 aggregate, they are possessed of great wealth, in land, houses, ships, mer- 

 chandise, &c.; some of them being worth several hundred thousand 

 pounds, and remarkable for their probity in dealing, charitable feeling, 

 and enterprising spirit. They are associated with the next class in so- 

 ciety (the free emigrant) in various public undertakings and institutions, 

 and the colony is much indebted to their talents and honestly acquired 

 wealth for its present prosperity. 



" The next class consists of those who have arrived free in the colony, 

 either as emigrant-farmers and settlers, whether shopkeepers, merchants, 

 or government officers and functionaries, &c. Some individuals of this 

 class refuse to associate in private, and as little in public as possible, with 

 the preceding class, termed emancipists : they hold that a man having 

 once committed a fault against society, is to be for ever shut out beyond 

 the pale of that station in which they move no consideration being paid 

 to the circumstances of his having legally atoned for his offence, by under- 

 going the punishment ordered by the law, and morally expiated his crime 

 by the unblemished life subsequently pursued, which, together with his 

 industry and talents, has placed him on a par, as regards wealth, with 

 those who exclude him from their community." 



The emancipists and the exclusionists, here alluded to, have, for 

 some years, embroiled both the private and public affairs of the 



