prevent a salutary restraint being placed upon transgressors, till these kindly principles could be made to bear efficaciously upon them.
Several persons called upon us to obtain tracts: some of these were reformed prisoners, who were diligent in distributing them, sticking up in cottages the broad sheets containing the Ten Commandments, &c. and in other ways endeavouring to do good.—One of them said he had reason to bless God, day and night, for having caused him to be sent to this colony; for by this means he had been broken off from his evil associates: he attributed his change to the labours of Benjamin Carvosso, a Wesleyan minister, whom he heard preaching to condemned criminals in Hobart Town Jail; and he said he was much confirmed by reading religious tracts.—Another told us that he was distinguished as an audacious sinner, and a pugilist; he was awakened to a sense of his undone state about a year and a half ago; he is now distinguished among the Wesleyans for his great fervency in prayer.
Intemperance, and a disposition to embark in business beyond the capital of the parties engaging in it, are prevailing evils in V. D. Land. The consequences are such as might naturally be expected. In addition to premature death, and other awful effects of intemperance, distress and ruin in temporal concerns, are of frequent occurrence. Upwards of four hundred writs have passed through the Sheriffs Office within the last three months.
In a walk in the forest embosoming Mount Wellington, I was attracted to a timber-feller's hut, by the singing of two men, the father of one of whom was a Wesleyan class-leader. This young man said he was sure they were not singing because they were comfortable, but because, having finished their work, they had nothing to do; they had no books, and he assured me that he was very uncomfortable in his mind; he said he had been thinking in the night, how easily one of the trees, such as they are surrounded by, might have fallen upon their hut, and crushed them to death, and he was sure he was not prepared to die. The scrub was burning near to the place: their little bark hovel had narrowly escaped the flames, which had communicated to the lofty Stringy-
