ons shall not be driven from their homes to seek employment in distant
lands--to meet there suspicion and contempt. These are the wrongs of
which we complain--wrongs which could never have been perpetrated but in
oblivion of that first great Law, alike the basis of private and public
virtue: "do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." The
Rev. gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud and prolonged cheering.

W.P. WESTON, ESQ.--It was with mingled feelings that he rose to address
that meeting; but when he ascertained that Mr. West was to accompany
him, he lost all fear, and at once accepted the invitation.

It had not been considered necessary to furnish them with written
instructions how to act; it was left entirely to their own judgement;
they had, as it were, a _carte blanche_; but he thought it advisable to
mention one or two points towards which he and his colleague would
direct public attention on the other side of the Straits. The first was,
that transportation as hitherto conducted, was altogether and entirely
rotten. He anticipated no very great difficulty in establishing that
point. The next was, that no country had a right to force its crime upon
a distant and unoffending one; it was a moral wrong. He was much struck
at a remark which appeared in the Public journals in Melbourne. It seems
to have been the custom of some persons to collect all the filth and
rubbish from their persons and during the night to force it upon the
premises of their neighbours. Now, these persons were designed
miscreants, the paragraph commenced "the miscreants have been at work
again." But he considered that the Government who would force a mass of
moral filth upon a small and helpless colony were miscreants in the very
worst sense of the term. (Hear, hear.) However severely the evils of
convictism may have been felt in this community, they will be felt at
Melbourne in a greater degree. Any evil may be counter-balanced and
perhaps removed, if it can only be seen. The convicts come to this land
under restraint and are completely at the disposal of the Government,
but after completing their education in a chain-gang, and filling up, as
it were, the measure of their iniquity they go over there where they are
unknown to the police and consequently their crimes escape detection.
The very worst characters amongst us proceed to the neighbouring
colonies as soon as an opportunity offers. This fact accounts for the
insecurity of