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.[1]
In regard to the probability of finding a sufficient number of virtuous and industrious persons in the mother country willing to emigrate to New South Wales, there can be no doubt whatever on the subject. It is well known that distress, arising from the want of food and clothing and fuel, or rather from the want of remunerating employment for an overgrown population, prevails at this moment to a most appalling degree over an extent of country in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, containing a population of 160,000 souls; and the only means of affording permanent relief to that population, in the opinion of all parties interested in the subject, is emigration. The following are extracts from a paper circulating at present in London, and illustrative of the state of things in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and of the quarter from which alone a remedy for so calamitous a state is to be looked for.
"The Rev. Mr. Macgregor, of Kilmuir, in Skye, thus writes, under date of February 3rd, 1837:—
- ↑ The remainder of this chapter was written in London (March 1837) while the work was in the press.
