220 HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, ETC., 



driving it was the owner, and that although a ticket-of-leave man, he 

 was married to a free woman of handsome fortune, living in one of 

 'he finest houses in Sydney; that their house was built on the very 

 spot where he stood under the gallows some years since, although 

 through a reprieve, or some accident, he had not been hung ; and that 

 it was at any time within the power of the wife to send him off to the 

 whipping-post, and have him severely flogged. There are many 

 convicts who are now the most wealthy people of New South Waies. 

 I do not intend to be understood that they mix at all in the society of 

 the better class ; on the contrary, the convicts and their descendants, 

 even to the third and fourth generation, are excluded from it. 



Society here is composed of many distinct circles. All those of the 

 first class are entitled to be received at the Government House, or are 

 invited there. This privilege seems at present to be the touchstone of 

 gentility; and if an inquiry is now made of the standing of any one, it 

 is quite sufficient to say he visits at the Government House. 



Any connexion with convicts would at once preclude admission to 

 this circle ; and so distinctly has this line been drawn, and so closely 

 is it adhered to, that should an officer, or other person, contract 

 marriage ties with any one of the lower classes, he would forthwith 

 be shut out. This state of things naturally leads to many heartburnings 

 among the rising generation, who have every thing to recommend 

 them but a pure descent ; whose behaviour is acknowledged by all to 

 be irreproachable, and who among the community stand deservedly 

 very high, some of them occupying posts of high trust and responsibility 

 among men of business, and not a few of them being at the head of 

 large moneyed institutions. 



These differences frequently break out when subscription balls are 

 given, and result in challenges being sent to the managers. One oc- 

 curred on the giving of the St. Patrick's ball. A Mr. D. was admitted 

 as a subscriber by the committee; he afterwards asked for a ticket for 

 a friend of his, which was refused. Objections were then taken to 

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

 his money. This brought forth a challenge, which was disposed 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, particularly 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 



