thern parts of the colony, that I should rejoice to see its flats
and its valleys filled with an industrious population of a better
description of farmers. A hope might then be reasonably indulged, that the
Home Government would not be backward in recognising, and in acting upon
a principle, the soundness of which has been felt and acknowledged in all
ages, but the chief difficulty of which rests in its judicious
application. I allude to a system of emigration. Sure I am that if it were
well organized, and care were taken to profit by the experience of the
past in similar attempts, it could not fail to be attended with ultimate
success. The evils resulting from a surplus population in an old
community, were never more seriously felt than in Great Britain at the
present moment. Assuming that the amount of surplus population is
2,000,000, the excess of labour and competition thus occasioned by
diminishing profits and wages, creates, it has been said, an indirect tax
to the enormous extent of 20,000,000 pounds per annum. It has appeared
to many experienced persons, that it is in emigration, we should best find
the means of relief from this heavy pressure; particularly if the
individuals encouraged to go out to the colonies were young persons of
both sexes, from the industrious classes of the community. Even if no
more than three couples were induced to emigrate from each parish in
England in ten years, the relief to the springs of industry would be very
great. Besides, the funds necessary for this purpose would revert to the
country by a thousand indirect channels. Persons unacquainted with our
Australian colonies, whether Van Dieman's Land or New South Wales, can
form little idea of the increasing demand for, and consumption in them of
every species of British manufacture. The liberal encouragement given by
government to every practicable scheme of emigration, and the sum advanced
by it towards the expenses of the voyage to the labouring classes,
sufficiently indicate the light in which the subject is viewed by the
legislature; and the fact that no private family taking out servants to
Sydney, has in any one instance been able to retain them, on account of
offers more advantageous from other quarters, shows clearly the great
demand for labour in the colony. If I might judge of the feelings of the
majority of respectable individuals there, from the assurances of the few,
they would willingly defray any parochial expenses atte