do successfully, to dishonest and vicious practices to procure this indulgence, effectually preclude the possibility of reformation, in the case of a large majority of that class of the convict population.

"It may be urged, indeed, that convict labour, in the way of assign. ment to free settlers, is indispensably necessary for the development of the resources of the colony, and for securing its rapid and progressive advancement; while, on the other hand, the employment of all the convicts, who might hereafter be transported to New South Wales, at government labour and under government superintendence, would subject the British government to an enormous and intolerable expense. I shall endeavour to meet these objections.

"In regard, then, to the alleged necessity for continuing the assignment system, to supply the want of labour in New South Wales, I reply, that if the discontinuance of the system of assigning transported criminals, as agricultural labourers or as house-servants, to the free settlers of that colony, can be demonstrated to be expedient and necessary for the prevention of crime in England, and for the reformation of transported criminals, we are not to be told that the New South Wales settlers cannot dispense with convict labour. The interests of the British empire, which undoubtedly require that transportation should be rendered really efficient for these purposes, are not to be sacrificed for the private advantage to the free settlers of that colony. It is gratifying, however, to be able to state, that the interests of the free colonists of New South Wales are not opposed in this particular to the general interests of the empire: for I trust I shall be able to make it abundantly evident, that in the present advanced state of that colony, the assignment of convicts to private individuals is no longer necessary for the development of its vast resources, or for securing its rapid and progressive advancement."

The author goes on to argue that not one of three classes, viz. the proprietors of sheep and cattle-the cultivators of the soil-or the inhabitants of towns-into which the free colonists are divided, require now-a-days that convict labourers and servants be assigned to them, but that free labour may be obtained from the mother country, to the full extent demanded-and this too without increasing the expense of transportation to the home government. Perhaps the chapters that treat of these points are the most valuable and interesting, both in a statistical and moral view, of any in the volume. Let us obsérve one of the methods by which he says the land revenue of New South Wales may be increased, in order as he would have it, that the importation of free labour might be encouraged and promoted. The following extract, among other things, will show how extremely valuable a certain species of property has become in that settlement.

"But there is also a large increase of the land revenue of New South Wales to be expected from the sale of town allotments. In a letter, which I did myself the honour to address to Lord Viscount Goderich in December 1830, previous to the adoption of the present system of selling land, and in which I took the liberty to recommend that the government should sell

certain Crown lands and town allotments in that colony, and appropriate the proceeds towards the emigration of agricultural labourers and mechanics, of whom a large number were then in great difficulty from want of employment in England, I pointed out certain town allotments belonging to government in the town of Sydney, which I conceived would at that time realize £200,000. Measures are now in progress for the sale of these allotments, of which, from the greatly increased value of property in the colonial capital, the present value has been estimated by competent persons at not less than half a million sterling. Besides, the formation of towns at Twofold Bay and Port Philip, which must necessarily become sea-ports of first-rate importance within a very short period, as well as in various other parts of the territory, will enable the colonial executive greatly to increase the land revenue, from the sale of town allotments. The minimum or upset price of town allotments belonging to government in the town of Sydney is at present £1000 per acre, the price actually realized by private individuals for eligible allotments during the last few years being uniformly much higher. In the future towns of Twofold Bay and Port Philip, £50 or £100 per acre would, I am confident, be a very moderate amount to be established as a minimuin price; as even at Bathurst, a rising town beyond the Blue Mountains in the interior, £50 an acre has been obtained for town allotments. The present minimum price in Parramatta, the second town in the colony, is £20, but the allotment obtained from government for the Scots church in that town during the year 1835 has been since valued at £1000, although not more than half an acre; and in the town of Maitland at Hunter's River, where £7 an acre is the minimum price, a half-acre allotment has brought £56.

"At all events, it may be calculated that the revenue arising from the sale of land in New South Wales will very shortly amount to £200,000 per annum; and if that revenue is exclusively appropriated to the introduction of useful emigrants of the working classes into the colony, it will enable the free colonists to import a sufficient number of virtuous and industrious labourers, artisans, and other operatives of all descriptions, not only to supply the existing and rapidly increasing demand for labour in the colony, but also to form a reputable free emigrant peasantry, to cultivate the soil, either as tenements or as small proprietors, and a middle class, consisting of reputable mechanics and other operatives in the towns; thereby gradually elevating the moral character of the colony, and supplying the likeliest means of ensuring the progressive amelioration of its anomalously constituted society. It is therefore unquestionably evident, that the colony of New South Wales possesses the means of supplying itself with free labour, to the utmost extent required by its free population; and that the discontinuance of the assignment system might therefore be effected without the slightest injury to the colony, as far as the necessity of providing a substitute for assigned convict labour is concerned.

To encourage and promote the importation of free labour, in accordance with the views and intentions of His Majesty's government as abovementioned, the colonial executive give a bounty of £30 from the colonial land revenue for every married couple, of the class of agricultural labourers, shepherds, or mechanics, imported into New South Wales, provided the persons so imported have been selected by some agent duly authorized by

a colonial proprietor; five pounds additional being allowed for every child above a year old. On a large scale, this sum would probably be sufficient to cover the whole expense of the emigration of such persons; but the system has not yet been sufficiently long in operation for the colonists to have adopted any plan for carrying it into effect with combined exertion; and the expense to individuals is consequently somewhat larger than the sum allowed.

"It will naturally occur to the reader, however, that so long as convict labourers can be procured for nothing by colonial proprietors, the latter are not likely as a body to make the requisite exertions to procure free labour from the mother country. The change of system would necessarily subject them, moreover, to some temporary inconvenience, and would require considerable effort; and men who are tolerably comfortable in their circumstances already, are not likely to disregard such considerations, even for the prospect of ultimate pecuniary advantage, much less for the promotion of the moral welfare of their families and of posterity. In short, strong representations and combined exertions on this subject are not to be expected from the colonial proprietors. The government must discontinue the assignment system forthwith, if they are really desirous that transportation should be made efficient as a punishment, and that the colonists should put forth their energies in availing themselves of the means they have now so amply at command, of eventually raising the character of the colony in the scale of civilized communities, by the annual importation of numerous industrious and virtuous free emigrants from the mother country."

But how are convicts to be employed? Here is one of the methods recommended.

"As soon, for example, as the colonial boundary shall be extended in a southerly direction to Bass's Straits, two great roads will be required in that part of the territory; viz., from the township of Yass, near the present limits of the colony in the south-western interior, to Port Philip, a distance of about four hundred miles; and from the township of Goulburn, in Argyle, one hundred and twenty miles from Sydney, to Twofold Bay, a distance of about two hundred and fifty miles. Roads along the eastern and southern coasts will also be required, and cross-roads to connect the settlements on the coast with those in the interior. On all these roads bridges will be required; and breakwaters, dikes, quays, embankments, and extensive excavations will be necessary to render the harbours on various parts of the coast safe and commodious, or to give the requisite value to allotments in the future towns in their immediate vicinity. For all these purposes a vast expenditure of labour will be required. In a colony, however, in which all such labour has hitherto been performed exclusively by convicts, it is not to be expected that free emigrants, even of the class of labourers, would willingly accept employment of this kind, even for wages; especially while employment of a more eligible description could be obtained with facility. There would thus be a constant and a constantly increasing demand for convict labour for public works within the territory; and that demand would, I am confident, afford immediate employment for at least ten thousand convicts-a much larger number

than the government would have to dispose of for a considerable time to come, even though the system of assignment should be immediately discontinued.

"There is this peculiar advantage in employing convicts only in such public works as I have enumerated, that the labour, if at all severe and incessant, as it ought unquestionably to be, is exceedingly irksome, and must necessarily be felt as a punishment. But such a mode of employing convicts has various other advantages to recommend it. It would enable the government to pursue one uniform system of procedure towards all convicts of the same degree of criminality in the eye of the law, whether in regard to food or clothing, labour or restraint, rewards or punishments. Efficient superintendence, solitary confinement by night, and regular religious instruction, could also be afforded under such a system of management, much more easily than under the assignment system; while exemplary conduct during a certain term of years might still entitle the convict to a ticket of leave, and enable him to return eventually to society.

"As public works of the description I have specified are at present urgently required in New South Wales; and as the colonial revenue, which has hitherto kept pace with the annual increase of the population and the progressive development of the resources of the colony, is fully adequate to meet the whole cost of such works;-I see no reason why a debtor and creditor account should not be kept for the labour expended on such works, on the part of the superintendent of convicts, acting on behalf of the mother country on the one hand, and of the colonial government on the other.

"There would be no difficulty, for instance, in estimating the value of the labour performed by convicts in the construction or repairing of roads, or in any of the other public works to which convict labour might be applied in New South Wales; and there would thus be ample means of striking a balance between the colony and the mother country. The maintenance of a convict employed at the public works cost the colonial government at present £9. 9s. 10 d. per annum; and if the value of the convict's labour for a whole twelvemonth should not greatly exceed that amount, under the proposed arrangement, the fault would be attributable solely to inefficient superintendence."*

We have now gone as far and as widely into the volume before us as to show that its contents are worthy of the attention of His Majesty's government, of the legislature, and of the whole British public; and that though it contained no other statements and

In the year 1831, when beef cost only three farthings, and bread a penny per pound, the whole cost of the maintenance of a convict at government labour in New South Wales did not amount to more than £7. Os. 3 d. per annum. Beef and bread were unusually high in the year 1835, for which year the cost mentioned in the text is given. I am confident that £8 would cover the whole outlay for each convict's maintenance for a series of years, if the number employed at the public works should be considerable."

reasonings than those which bear upon the subject of secondary punishments, or no other suggestions than those which immediately concern the framers of criminal laws, Dr. Lang deserves the gratitude of his countrymen, whether at home or abroad, for having so ably employed his time during his passage from New South Wales to England, in his last voyage hither.

ART. II.-Letters from the South. By THOMAS CAMPBELL, Esq. Author of The Pleasures of Hope." 2 vols. London: Colburn.

1837.

MR. COLBURN has, since he resumed his publishing career, been pouring in upon the reading community, an extraordinary number and variety of amusing and valuable works; but within these two or three past weeks he has been exceeding his former efforts. Our last number bore some testimony to this fact-especially in so far as the lighter departments of literature are concerned and yet we noticed only a sample of these instances-the majority belonging to the school of fiction. The publication, however, which we have at present selected suggests a graver subject, inasmuch as it may be expected to contain the results of travel in a foreign land. But though it details facts and the fruits of observation among strangers, these will be found as lightsome, agreeable, and graceful, as if their accomplished author had wielded his elegant pen in the regions of pure fancy. Altogether, the work is one of the most amusing, lively, and rambling, that we have read for a long time.

As a book of travels, indeed, these Letters do not pretend to offer much important novelty, or any very serious dissertations. They are anecdotical rather than historical. They also contain many animated descriptions of French and Algerine personages and manners, and some speculations regarding the scheme and probable results of the Gallic colony that has taken footing in the part of Northern Africa which he visited. But it is chiefly the goodnatured and generous style of gossiping-together with the grace and point which the finished composition of the author lends to little incidents, or circumscribed events, that captivates, and will at any time wile away an hour-leaving a humanizing influence behind.

Mr. Campbell informs his readers that, while exploring books of ancient geography in the King's Library at Paris, his eye, and consequently his imagination, came in contact with Algiers. Like a young erratic traveller, who allows himself to be driven hither and thither just as the wind or fancy may set in, he found himself on the way to Marseilles, whence he took shipping for the coast that so long harboured the most relentless of pirates. He soon got