had organised the Female Emigrants' Home. She
says: 'I appealed to the public for support: after a time, this appeal
was liberally met. There were neither sufficient arrangements made for
removing emigrants into the interior, nor for protecting females on
their arrival. A few only were properly protected, while hundreds were
wandering about Sydney without friends or protection--great numbers of
these young creatures were thrown out of employment by new arrivals. I
received into the Home several, who, I found, had slept out many
nights in the government domain, seeking the sheltered recesses of the
rocks rather than encounter the dangers of the streets. It was
estimated that there were 600 females, at the time I commenced,
unprovided for in Sydney. I made an offer to the government of
gratuitously devoting my time to the superintendence of a Home of
Protection for them in the town, and also to exert myself to procure
situations for them in the country.'

While making arrangements for conducting the establishment for female
emigrants, Mrs Chisholm acquired a consciousness that male emigrants
of a humble class likewise required some degree of attention. Great
numbers, for want of proper information, did not know what to do with
themselves on arrival. 'At the time labourers were required in the
interior, there were numbers idle in Sydney, supported at the expense
of the government. Things wore a serious aspect; mischief-making
parties, for some paltry gain, fed the spirit of discontent. The
Irish lay in the streets, looking vacantly, and basking in the sun.
Apart from them, Englishmen, sullen in feature, sat on gates and
palings, letting their legs swing in the air. Another group was
composed of Scotchmen, their hands thrust into their empty pockets,
suspiciously glancing at everything and everybody from beneath their
bushy eyebrows. Mrs Chisholm ventured to produce a change; she
provided for the leaders first, shewed how she desired to be the
friend of the industrious man, and went with numbers in search of
employment, far into the country. She undertook journeys of 300 miles
into the interior with families; and the further she went, the more
satisfactory was the settlement of the parties accompanying this brave
lady. "When the public had an opportunity of judging of the effect of
my system," writes Mrs Chisholm, "they came forward, and enabled me to
go on. The government contributed, in various ways, to the amount of
abo