with the wheat; it is impossible to deny that rank and poisonous weeds
have there been scattered along with the good seed, nay, instead of it.
What might have been the present state of Australia, if all, or almost
all, its free inhabitants had been faithful Christians, steadfast "in
the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in
prayers?" How great an effect might the "salt," thus placed in those
remote parts of the earth, have had in rescuing from corruption that
mass of uncleanness, which has been removed thither from our own shores!
Now, alas! nowhere more than in some of the Australian settlements "are
the works of the flesh manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance,
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like."[189]

[189] Gal. v. 19-21.

One cause, unquestionably, of the peculiar prevalence of many of these
evil works is the strange elements of which society in Australia is
composed. In its lowest rank is found the unhappy criminal, whose
liberty has been forfeited, and who is, for a time at least, reduced
to a state of servitude in punishment of his offences. Next to this
last-named class come the _emancipists_, as they are called, who have
once been in bondage, but by working out their time, or by good conduct,
have become free; these and their descendants constitute a distinct and
very wealthy class in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. The third
and highest class is formed of men who have settled as free persons in
the colonies, and of their descendants; and between this last class and
the two first a considerable distinction is kept up, from which, (it
has already been noticed,) miserable dissensions, jealousies, and
heartburnings, have frequently arisen. To an impartial person, beholding
these petty discords from the contrary side of the globe, it is pretty
plain that both classes are in fault.

It is well known that the system of assigning convicts to various
masters has been practised ever since the colony at Port Jackson was
first established, and thus the expense of maintaining so many thousands
of people has been thrown upon the settlers, who were amply repaid by
the value of their labour; by means of which, likewise, the land was
brought into cultivation, and the produce of the soil increased. One
great argument against the system of