STATE OF SOCIETY. 231 



comfort was not very attractive ; but future and 

 certain prosperity was before their eyes, and that 

 not far distant. 



The next day we passed thi-ough large tracts of 

 country in flames, volumes of smoke sweeping 

 across the road. Before noon we joined our for- 

 mer road, and ascended Mount Victoria. I slept 

 at the Weatherboard, and before dark took anoth- 

 er walk to the amphitheatre. On the road to Syd- 

 ney I spent a very pleasant evening with Captain 

 King at Dunheved, and thus ended my little ex- 

 cursion in the colony of New South Wales. 



Before arriving here, the three things which in- 

 terested me most were, the state of society amongst 

 the higher classes, the condition of the convicts, and 

 the degree of attraction sufiicient to induce persons 

 to emigrate. Of course, after so very short a visit, 

 one's opinion is worth scarcely anything ; but it is 

 as difficult not to form some opinion as it is to form 

 a correct judgment. On the whole, from what I 

 heard more than from what I saw, I was disap- 

 pointed in the state of society. The whole com- 

 munity is rancorously divided into parties on al- 

 most every subject. Amongst those who, from their 

 station in life, ought to be the best, many live in 

 such open profligacy that respectable people can- 

 not associate with them. Thez^e is much jealousy 

 between the children of the rich emancipist and 

 the free settlers, the former being pleased to con- 

 sider honest men as interlopers. The whole pop- 

 ulation, poor and rich, are bent on acquiring wealth: 

 amongst the higher orders, wool and sheep-grazing 

 form the constant subject of conversation. There 

 are many serious drawbacks to the comforts of a 

 family, the chief of which, perhaps, is being sur- 

 rounded by convict servants. How thoroughly 

 odious to every feeling to be waited on by a man 



