Reid's New South Wales* f 
\ rets ; fyut they soon convinced me by 
pointing cut s event I of these half-naked 
half-starved, miserable-looking wretch¬ 
es, who were still lurking around this 
receptacle ef misery,—the well-known 
theatre of infamous excesses. Several 
<of the women, whose dispositions had 
been particularly improved on the voy¬ 
age, and who still retained a strong 
sense of propriety, exclaimed with tears 
of anguish, * O God’ Sir, we are all 
sent here to he destroyed/’ They de¬ 
clared it to be quite impossible to re¬ 
main virtuous amidst the concentrated 
immorality, and the various forms in 
which temptation was presented to 
them, 
MORALS OF SYDNEY.' 
It may at first view appear strange, 
fbu,t the fact is indisputable, that the 
public houses in Sydney, although for¬ 
tunately reduced recently from sixty- 
seven to twenty-five, still evidently too 
numerous in proportion to the popula¬ 
tion, are as much frequented as almost 
any of those in the British metropolis. 
A notion of the customary run of those 
houses may lie formed from the gains 
of the persons who keep them being 
sometimes so enormous, as to enable 
them to accumulate in about three 
years’ time what they consider a for¬ 
tune. 1 low the persons frequenting 
those houses obtain money to purchase 
beer and spirits, both of the worst kind, 
at a price vastly beyond the London 
rates, is a matter of astonishment ; 
yet so constant among the convicts is 
the habit of drinking, that one can 
scarcely pass through the streets of 
Sydney without meeting some of them 
in a state of intoxication. They are, 
it is true, under the watchfulness of a 
police said to be extremely active,-— 
and in many respects this representa¬ 
tion is correct; but the fact is as above 
stated; I have seen women in a state 
of inebriety too shocking to describe, 
and this occurring at almost every hour 
of the day. 
This account has reference to the re¬ 
spectable parts of the town of Sydney ; 
but there are other divisions of that 
place which would be difficult of de¬ 
scription. In those portions designated 
the Rocks , scenes of drunkenness, 
shameless debauchery, and open pro¬ 
fligacy are so frequent and disgusting, 
that they cannot be seen without abhor¬ 
rence ; and such is the absolute want 
of common decency, that even in the 
day time a person of respect able appear¬ 
ance is there liable to be abused and 
Monthly Mag. No. 363. 
641 
maltreated; but at night It %vould be 
extremely imprudent to attempt pas¬ 
sing through even the extreme parts of 
this fortress of iniquity, as there is a 
hazard, or rather a certainty of being 
stripped and plundered. The mffians 
treat one another in the same manner; 
hence broils and boxing-matches are 
perpetually occurring in that quarter. 
The low public-houses, many of which 
are permitted in those purlieus, present 
a ready way of converting the plunder 
into means of intemperate jollity; 
wh ilst the occasion is com monly heigh t- 
ened by the presence of one or more 
of those degraded felmales, who minister 
to the mischief of the moment, and are 
thereabouts constantly resident in great 
numbers. 
TREATMENT OF CONVICTS. 
Having inspected the condition of 
the prisoners, and redressed their com¬ 
plaints, if any, His Excellency gives 
them all a salutary and solemn admo¬ 
nition. He assures them, that no ap¬ 
plication in their favour from home or 
elsewhere will be attended to, unless 
their own behaviour in the colony be 
correct; that they must now consider 
themselves in a new world, where their 
lives are, as it were, beginning; and 
that their future prosperity, or misery, 
will depend upon themselves. 
It occasionally happens that ill-fated 
individuals arrive in the colony, as con¬ 
victs, who have been brought up as 
gentlemen, and in whose cases there 
may appear, perhaps, more of misfor¬ 
tune than moral delinquency: such 
persons are generally indulged by His 
Excellency with tickets of leave, and 
opportunities allowed them to do well. 
The number of persons, however, to 
whom tickets of leave are granted on. 
their arrival, is by no means so great 
as has been represented. 
The convicts are now transferred to 
the care of the principal Superinten¬ 
dent, to whom all persons who want 
servants must apply. Some demur re¬ 
garding the assignment of the indivi¬ 
dual for whom the application is made, 
not unfrequently occurs in this quarter. 
Persons of the first respectability, well 
informed regarding matters ofthiskind, 
have assured me, that the settlers have 
frequently complained of the difficulty 
they experienced in obtaining the 
acquiescence of the Superintendent of 
convicts to allow them servants of their 
own particular choice, and that there 
was under such circumstances, only one 
way of procuring what they desired. 
4 M Having 
