The dawning of a new world must have attracted the
national mind, had not an unexampled society, abandoned to vice and
crime, appeared to the people an object of dread and horror.

The progress of the colonies, until 1830, cannot be considered rapid.
The first settlers were, individually, prosperous: many emancipists were
wealthy; but for the rest, their houses were mean, their commercial
arrangements pedling and insignificant; their public buildings generally
miserable. It is from the date of emigration that progress has been
conspicuous: and that date is but recent--a progress in a ratio vastly
greater than any previous cycle. The great colonies of Port Phillip and
South Australia, before that time, were hardly in existence.

If, indeed, no capital had been introduced; no whalers collected the
treasures of the deep; no free emigrant arrived; no free colonies
erected; then the improvements of this quarter of the globe might be
ascribed to penal laws; but they have the same relation to its present
prosperity as the numerous parts of an edifice have to each other--not
such as of the oak to the acorn. When, therefore, it is stated that
transportation has been the making of these colonies, it should be
rather said it was the cause of their establishment. The outlay of the
crown, although great, has been small compared with the outlay of the
people. The chief settlers of the convict colonies were capitalists;
they gave themselves to cultivation, which, in most instances, has
involved them. Agriculturists are poor: it is the shepherd prince who is
rich. He may be benefited a few score pounds by labor artificially
supplied; but nature is the great patron of his house.

The chief connexion between transportation and progress is in the
government outlay; but that has been less than apparent; it has often
been the mere difference between an English and a colonial price; it has
been attended with great consumption without equal re-production. It has
sometimes had no other effect than foreign commerce on the places of
depot and transit. The price of labor, when labor was chiefly supplied
by transportation, was often very high. Thus a farmer found one man with
rations and clothing; but a person, working in the same field, received
L30, L40, or even L60 per annum. The price of labor was therefore often,
on the whole, sufficient to absorb the capital of the employer.

There are many wealthy landowners, who are, however, the sole
r