OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 221 



insure good government ; and the acts and the varying policy of the 

 mother country are so ill adapted to the state of things here, as to 

 strike the most common observers, 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 convict 

 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 

 crews of merchantmen are frequently carried off by these fellows, and 

 they are in consequence at times detained until the master or assignee 

 resorts to the agents of these crimps, who are ready to give them 

 a crew at four or five guineas for each sailor. I was told, a few 

 days after my arrival, that the crimps had determined to get some of 

 the men of the squadron ; and they succeeded in enticing away the 

 crew of the tender Flying-Fish and three or four other men belonging 

 to the ships. The vigilance and system of these crimps bid defiance 

 to the laws and police, who although quite aware of the existence 

 of the evil, find it out of their power to put a stop to it. Since my 

 departure, the shipping interests have memorialized the Government 

 and Council, and there is a prospect that this nuisance will be abated. 



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