nd their total disregard
of order and economy in their domestic arrangements; but above
all, if their unfortunate propensity to the excessive use of
spirituous liquors be superadded; a propensity which like Aaron's
rod swallows up every other passion, and for the momentary
gratification of which they willingly sacrifice every prospect of
present enjoyment, and deliberately entail on themselves and
their families lasting privation and want; I say if due
consideration be given to all these circumstances, it will be no
difficult matter to believe in the sad reality of the general
wretchedness and penury which I have depicted. But it must be
further evident that this equal division of the colonial revenue
has been assumed merely by way of exemplification, and that it is
a fiction, the realization of which is beyond the extreme verge
of possibility: a fiction which never has been and never can be
verified. In this colony as in every other community, there is a
regular gradation of property, and perhaps there is no country on
the face of the earth, except Russia, where it is so partially
distributed. If then I have reconciled the probability of the
wretched condition of the colonists, with the assumption of an
equality of wealth, when there is, in fact, the greatest
inequality, it must be evident that the picture which I have
drawn, pregnant and glowing as it is with distress, is far from
surcharged, and still requires both colouring and expression to
convey a perfect representation of the scene.

Of the whole colonial income about L100,000 annually may
be considered as arising from the labours of the agricultural
body. This is undoubtedly that portion of the colonial wealth
which gets into most general circulation; but even _it_ is
far from undergoing that minute subdivision and universal
diffusion which are requisite for the maintenance of a constant
internal circulating medium. Created in the first instance by the
government in payment of the grain, meat, etc. furnished by the
settlers, it is immediately handed over by them to the traders to
whom they may be indebted, and from these again passes to the
importing merchants, on whom they may be dependent for their
supplies of merchandize, who in their turn eventually transmit it
to their foreign correspondents. It may consequently be perceived
that the purchases and sales which must be incessantly occurring,
besides those to which this part of the colonial income is thus