1836.] STATE OF SOCIETY 443 
of about 3000 feet, and runs in a north and south direction at 
the distance of from eighty to a hundred miles from the sea-side. 
The Macquarie figures in the map as a respectable river, and it 
is the largest of those draining this part of the water-shed ; yet 
to my surprise I found it a mere chain of ponds, separated from 
each other by spaces almost dry. Generally a small stream is 
running; and sometimes there are high and impetuous floods. 
Scanty as the supply of the water is throughout this district, it 
becomest still scantier further inland. 
22nd.—I commenced my return, and followed a new road 
called Lockyer’s Line, along which the country is rather more 
hilly and picturesque. This was a long day’s ride ; and the house 
where I wished to sleep was some way off the road, and not easily 
found. I met on this occasion, and indeed on all others, a very 
general and ready civility among the lower orders, which, when 
one considers what they are, and what they have been, would 
scarcely have been expected. The farm where I passed the night, 
was owned by two young men who had only lately come out, 
and were beginning a settler’s life. The total want of almost 
every comfort was not very attractive; but future and certain 
prosperity was before their eyes, and that not far distant. 
The next day we passed through large tracts of country in 
flames, volumes of smoke sweeping across the road. Before noon 
we joined our former road, and ascended Mount Victoria. I 
slept at the Weatherboard, and before dark took another walk to 
the amphitheatre. On the road to Sydney I spent a very pleasant 
evening with Captain King at Dunheved; and thus ended my 
little excursion in the colony of New South Wales. 
Before arriving here the three things which interested me 
most were—the state of society amongst the higher classes, the 
condition of the convicts, and the degree of attraction sufficient 
to induce persons to emigrate. Of course, after so very short a 
visit, one’s opinion is worth scarcely anything; but it is as diffi- 
cult not to form some opinion, as it is to form a correct judg- 
ment. On the whole, from what I heard, more than from what 
I saw, I was disappointed in the state of society. The whole 
community is rancorously divided into parties on almost every 
subject. Among those who, from their station in life, ought tu 
be the best, many live in such open profligacy that respectable 
