232 HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, ETC., 



himself, and he was requested to withdraw his name, and receive 

 back his money. This brought forth a challenge, which was dis- 

 posed of in a summary manner by the committee handing him over 

 to the police, by which he was obliged to apologize to the committee, 

 and bound over to keep the peace. I cannot but believe that this state 

 of society is destined in a very short time to undergo a great change : 

 and many of the inhabitants seem to be of the same opinion, par- 

 ticularly if they obtain a colonial legislature. This it seems almost 

 indispensable they should have, for the wishes and wants of the 

 rising community are too little known and heeded, at the distance of 

 sixteen thousand miles, to insure good government ; and the acts and 

 varying policy of the mother country are so ill adapted to the state of 

 things here, as to strike the most common observer, and only tend to 

 loosen the ties of affection that bind the colonists to it. 



The introduction of free emigration, and the discontinuance of the 

 use of the colony as a penal settlement, must soon produce the 

 necessity of legislative bodies, and the elections will give the wealthy 

 part of the citizens, emancipists and their descendants, a powerful 

 voice in those bodies when constituted, which will finally lead to 

 their amalgamation with the higher classes. I was surprised to find 

 among the emancipists themselves the same distinctions kept up. 



The labouring class of free emigrants form another class. They 

 have great difficulties to contend with on their landing. As few of 

 them will consent to serve as domestics in association with ticket-of- 

 leave men or convicts, they find themselves placed in many difficult 

 situations. They are compelled to resort to the public inns kept by 

 these people, who endeavour to take every advantage of them, and 

 cause them to part with what little amount they may have brought 

 with them from the mother country. They soon become destitute, 

 and from disappointment betake themselves to all the vices of the con- 

 vict class. Some steps have been taken to provide for the emigrants 

 on their first arrival, under the government system ; but they have 

 not yet been carried into effect, and it is difficult to enforce them. 



There is yet another class, and one, as far as my experience goes, 

 now unknown elsewhere, which sets at defiance both law and regula- 

 tions. I mean a class known here by the name of " Crimps," who 

 are a pest to the trade of the port, and the destruction of all the sailors 

 who visit it. Their trade or employment may be summed up in a 

 few words. It is to entice or kidnap sailors from their ships, and 

 keep them drunk and concealed in some out-of-the-way place. Whole 



