out in its integrity, directed the attention of intending emigrants to those Colonies, and as the depressed state of the agricultural interest had caused a corresponding collapse in trade (in 1848 there was no sugar in the Colony), and there was no hope of obtaining labour by immigration, on the accession of Governor Fitzgerald to office, a large number of the colonists petitioned for the introduction of convicts to bring labour and money into the Colony, and supply a market for produce,—not, however, without opposition on the part of the few, who thought that these benefits would be more than neutralized by the evil influence which the presence of a large number of convicted felons might exercise on the morals of the people. To this petition the Imperial Government, then in want of a place to which they might transport convicts, acceded, and the first body arrived on the 1st of June, 1850. The result has proved the correctness of the anticipations of both parties; the Colony has profited much by convict labour and by the money spent on the convict establishment, and on the military and pensioners who were sent out simultaneously. The criminal calendar will show the less pleasing consequences of this measure; during the 10 years, from 1860 to 1869 inclusive, the convictions in the Supreme Court show 254 of the convict class against 63 free persons; in 1875 30 expirees, 11 free men, and two ticket-of-leave holders; but probably more evil influence was exercised, at this time, by the sealers who had established their head quarters on Middle Island at the Recherche Archipelago, in the Great Bight on the Southern Coast, and who seem to have rivalled in their habits those recorded of pirates and buccaneers. It had been part of the agreement in making Western Australia a Convict Colony, that free immigrants should be sent from England in number equal to the convicts,
