the general opinion that any repetition of the manœuvre was to be regarded as an aggravation of an old offence.
I have mentioned the emigrants as forming a large proportion of the passengers on board our ship, and we could not avoid thinking that some of them were not exactly of a character to make a favourable impression when they should land in their new home. They were divided into three classes,—married couples with their families, single women, and single men. The three classes were berthed apart, and all communication down below carefully cut off. The married folks were mostly decent, respectable people, but both the single men and the single women were decidedly wanting in propriety of behaviour, though the women were worse than the men. They were all under the official charge of the doctor, and a great deal of trouble did they give both to him and to the captain. My husband had offered to act as chaplain while on board, if given the necessary official authority and position, but he was told at the Emigration Office that chaplains were no longer appointed to either emigrant or convict ships, "religious instructors" being substituted for them in the latter vessels, while the former are left to take their chance; he accordingly possessed no official character whatever on board, although he usually performed divine service on Sunday whenever the weather would permit.
Of the single girls we had more than sixty on board our ship, and one fortnight's acquaintance with them had sufficed to show us that they were a most unpromising set; and moreover, our early impression that several of them had made acquaintance with the inside of a jail was not at all effaced by the experience and events of the
