materials for establishing the great advantages which New South Wales possesses as a favourable field for the emigration of British settlers."
In the course of her reply, Mrs. Chisholm said:—"It is my intention, if supported by your co-operation, to attempt more than I have hitherto performed."
During the six years and eight months which she spent in Australia, Mrs. Chisholm, without wealth or rank, or any support except what her earnest philanthropy gradually acquired, provided for eleven thousand souls.
Yet since her sojourn in England she has redeemed her pledge, and done much more. With less than two thousand pounds, between 1850 and 1852, she personally sent out more than one thousand emigrants of the best class, and has advised, corresponded with, or otherwise assisted tens of thousands.
We have devoted thus much space to the colonising career of Mrs. Chisholm, because with her exertions the colonisation of the interior commenced. Before her time, emigrants were merely tumbled out on the shores, like so much live stock, to find their own way to market—to service, marriage, sin, or death.
Mrs. Chisholm first taught the Australian squatters that property had its duties as well as its rights. She tapped the springs of spontaneous self-supporting emigration, and showed how closely the extension of national power was connected with the social and domestic virtues inseparable from family colonisation.
TO MRS. CHISHOLM.
FROM THE "SPECTATOR," SYDNEY, 28TH FEBRUARY, 1846.
The guardian angel of her helpless sex,
Whom no fatigue could daunt, no crosses vex;
With manly reason and with spirit pure,
Crown'd with the blessings of the grateful poor,
For them with unrepining love she bore
The boarded cottage and the earthen floor,
The sultry day in tedious labour spent,
The endless tale of whining discontent:
Bore noonday's burning sun and midnight's chill.
The scanty meal, the journey lengthening still;
Lavished her scanty store on their distress,
And sought no other guerdon than success.
Say ye who hold the balance and the sword,
Into your lap the wealth of nations poured,
