reformation of its convict population, (as well as of 28,402 additional convicts, imported during that period,) only 10,284 free emigrants of all classes and ages. If these ten thousand free emigrants had all been virtuous and industrious persons, I admit that their influence in neutralizing and counteracting the natural influence of this immense accumulation of depravity would have been exceedingly powerful; for not only is it true in New South Wales, as it was in ancient Rome, that "ipse aspectus boni viri delectat," ("the very sight of a virtuous man is refreshing,") but it is also true that such a man uniformly sheds a moral influence around him in that colony, the beneficial effect of which is incalculable, and which will not unfrequently make vice herself assume the aspect of virtue. Unfortunately for the colony, however, a considerable number of these ten thousand emigrants consisted of discharged soldiers and pensioners, who had been induced to commute their pensions for a free passage to the Australian colonies, and most of whom proved good-for-nothing, dissipated, and worthless characters. A large proportion of the remainder consisted of families and individuals of the class of mechanics, who had been assisted in effecting their emigration to New South Wales by colonial bounties in the shape of passage-
