EMIGRATION. 
267 
before such can be expected. The gentleman who leaves 
England, with his servants, male and female, must not be 
surprised if, before many years have gone by, he should sit at 
the same table with them, and hear his former footman, now 
the influential member or superintendent of his province, 
request the pleasure of taking wine with his lady; and he be 
obliged to ask his lady’s waiting maid, now converted into 
the wealthy Mrs. so and so, to take wine with him. It is 
surprising to see what a difference a few years make in the 
relative positions of colonists: how many of the lowly are 
exalted, and some of the high brought down. Mind, in some 
respects, has more play in the colony, and more probability of 
getting forward, whatever external difficulties it may have to 
contend with. In fact, the colonist is the man stripped of the 
garb of artificial society. Man is there equal to his fellow man; 
it is mind that draws the true line of distinction; and there is 
a freedom and charm in such a state, which more than com¬ 
pensates for the loss of fancied dignity; and few who have 
lived many years in a colony, will find the artificial state of 
society at home so congenial to their feelings as the freedom 
from it in the colony. 
There is one great want felt in all these infant settlements, 
and that is of roads and bridges, and other public works. 
Labor being high, and the colonial resources small, there 
is little chance of these necessary works being completed 
without aid. Few colonies can boast of so many public 
works, and sucb good roads, bridges, hospitals, &c., as New 
South Wales, and in this respect there is a marked difference 
between that country and Victoria, where all these are wanting. 
The former is indebted for them to the convict, who supplied 
an amount of labor which could not otherwise have been 
procured. When the home Government proposed to continue 
sending its convicts, there was a general outcry, lest such an 
influx of crime should have swamped the morality and virtue 
of their society, which would not perhaps have been very 
difficult to be done, and therefore their fears were just. 
Neither was the plan proposed by Government one likely to 
answer. It might have made the convict hypocritically good, 
