other hand, it only transfers and
aggravates the burthen upon portions of the British Dominions, which,
like New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, are least able to bear it.

In 1836, the free population of New South Wales amounted to 49,255, of
whom about 17,000 had been convicts. In 1834, the free population of Van
Diemen's Land did not exceed 23,315, of whom about 3,000 were expirees.

Of the state of society in the towns of these colonies, a general idea
may be formed from a description of Sydney, according to the accounts
given of it, by the Chief Police Magistrate and by Mr. Justice Burton.
In 1836 Sydney covered an area of about 2,000 acres and contained about
20,000 inhabitants; of this number 3,500 were convicts, most of them in
assigned service, and about 7,000 had probably been prisoners of the
Crown. These, together with their associates amongst the free
population, were persons of violent and uncontrollable passions, which
most of them possessed no lawful means of gratifying; incorrigibly bad
characters, preferring a life of idleness and debauchery by means of
plunder to one of honest industry. Burglaries and robberies were
frequently perpetrated by convict servants in the town and its vicinity,
sometimes even in the middle of the day. No town offered so many
facilities for eluding the vigilance of the police as Sydney did. The
unoccupied bush near and within it afforded shelter to the offender and
hid him from pursuit. He might steal or hire a boat and in a few minutes
place an arm of the sea between himself and his pursuers. The want of
continuity in the buildings afforded great facilities for lying in wait
for opportunities of committing crime, for instant concealment on the
approach of the police, and for obtaining access to the backs of houses
and shops; and the drunkenness, idleness, and carelessness of a great
proportion of the inhabitants afforded innumerable opportunities and
temptations, both by day and night, for those who chose to live by
plunder. The greater portion of the shopkeepers and the middling class
had been convicts, for the tradesmen connected with the criminal
population have an advantage over free emigrants.

Those of the emancipists who were possessed of property had generally
acquired it by dishonest means, by keeping grog-shops, gambling-houses,
by receiving stolen goods, and by other nefarious practices; they led a
life of gross licentiousness; but their wealth and influence