Jan. 1836. 



NEW SOUTH WALES. 



529 



deed on all other occasions, a very general and ready civility 

 among the lower orders 3 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 track, 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 attractio^^ 

 sufficient to induce persons to emigrate. Of course, after st? 

 very short a visit one's opinion is worth scarcely any 

 thing; 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 community is 

 rancorously divided into parties on almost every subject. 

 Among those, who from their station in life ought to be 

 the best, many live in such open profligacy, that respec- 

 table people cannot associate with them. There is much 

 jealousy between the children of the rich emancipist and 

 the free settlers ; the former being pleased to consider honest 

 men as interlopers. The whole population, poor and rich, 

 are bent on acquiring wealth; amongst the higher orders 

 wool and sheep-grazing form the constant subject of conver- 

 sation. The very low ebb of literature is strongly marked 

 by the emptiness of the booksellers' shops ; for they are in- 

 ferior even to those in the smaller country-towns of England. 



VOL. III. 2 M 



