privations-I have the satisfaction of laying before the public, proofs of their importance as a body, and their merits as individuals: their virtues far exceed their failings their language may be rude, but their hearts are kind and true.

"To improve the condition of these people is my object, to break up the bachelor stations my design, happy homes my reward.

"To supply flockmasters with shepherds is a good work, to supply those shepherds with wives a better.

"To give the shepherd a good wife is to make a gloomy, miserable hut a cheerful, contented home; to introduce married families into the interior, is to make squatter's stations fit abodes for Christian

men.

"If I meet with the coöperation I expect, it is my intention to submit to her Majesty's commissioners of emigration a plan for female immigration, which will secure the young women the protection they so essentially repuire on the passage and on their arrival. If protection is extended to the helpless if Britain's moral banner is to be unfurled in the far interior civilization and religion will advance until the spires of the churches will guide the traveler from hamlet to hamlet, and shepherds' huts become the homes of happy, virtuous men and women.

"I feel that a judicious circulation of these statements will promote the best interests in the colony.

"Personal interest in the labor market I have none. I hope to enjoy the proud satisfaction of laying before the British public several thousand proofs of the

MRS. CHISHOLM'S MISSION TO ENGLAND.

183

good character and persevering energy of her Majesty's subjects in New South Wales."

In the following year, 1846, Mrs. Chisholm left the colony with her family for England, charged with missions from the humbler classes:

Firstly, From a number of freed prisoners, who had been promised by the government that, if well conducted, their wives and children should be sent to join them. This promise had been forgotten. A return made to the Legislative Council showed the claimants at several hundreds.

Secondly, From successful emigrants, who desired to pay the passages of their wives, parents, and other near relatives.

Thirdly, From parents who, to comply with the regulations of the emigration commissioners, had left young children beyond the standard number to the care of poor relatives or the parish.

In the first and last classes, armed with those facts and proofs, without which she never makes a claim, Mrs. Chisholm succeeded. The other formed the foundation of the Family Colonization Loan Society.

Before sailing for England a committee, which included eight members of the Legislative Council, magistrates, landholders, and others of all shades of opinion, raised a subscription for a testimonial, and presented an address in which they say:

"We beg to offer you, on the occasion of your departure from this colony, the expression of our thanks for your active and zealous exertions on behalf of the

igrant population during the last seven years. In

establishing emigrants' homes, in establishing great numbers of the emigrant population in the interior as servants, and occupiers of small farms, your exertions have proved of signal advantage to the community. "In the large collection of 'statistical facts' and 'voluntary information,' derived from the laboring classes, you have accumulated materials for establishing the great advantages which New South Wales possesses as a favorable field for the emigration of British settlers."

In the course of her reply, Mrs. Chisholm said: "It is my intention, if supported by your coöperation, to attempt more than I have hitherto performed." During the six years and eight months which she spent in Australia, Mrs. Chisholm, without wealth or rank, or any support except what her earnest philanthropy gradually acquired, provided for eleven thousand souls.

Yet, since her sojourn in England, she has redeemed her pledge, and done much more. She has, with less than two thousand pounds, between 1850 and 1852, personally sent out more than one thousand emigrants of the best class, and has advised, corresponded with, or otherwise assisted, twenty thousand.

We have devoted thus much space to the colonizing career of Caroline Chisholm, because, with her exertions the colonization of the interior commenced. Before her time emigrants were merely shoveled out on the shores, like so much live stock, to find their own way to market to service, to marriage, to sin, or death.

SIR GEORGE GIPPS' GOVERNMENT.

185

She first taught the Australian squatters that property had its duties as well as its rights. She tapped the springs of spontaneous, self-supporting emigration, and showed how closely the extension of national power was connected with the social and domestic virtues.

There is scarcely a line of her works or her evidence that may not be studied with advantage to those who are interested in colonization as a civilizing, cultivating, Christianizing instrument of practical power, because teeming with valuable facts and the sound conclusions of a sagacious mind.

CHAPTER X.

SIR CHARLES FITZROY.

RETROSPECT OF SIR GEORGE GIPPS'S GOVERNMENT-CONTEST ON DISTRICT COUNCILS SIR CHARLES FITZROY'S ADMINISTRATION THE SQUATTERS OBTAIN FIXITY OF TENURE -FUTILE ATTEMPT TO REINTRODUCE CONVICTS.

IN July, 1846, Sir George Gipps retired from the government of New South Wales, and departed for England, worn out in body and mind by the excitement of perpetual contests with colonists as unscrupulous in their attacks, as he was obstinate and haughty in maintaining his opinions and position. was a war to the knife on both sides. The last measure he presented to, the Legislative Council (a bill to renew the border police) was rejected, and an address

It

voted, by a large majority, after two nights' debate, which was virtually a vote of censure on his gov

ernment.

A few examples will illustrate the peculiarities of his government:

He disallowed the cost of curing a black aborigine of an infectious disorder, on the ground "that there were no funds legitimately applicable for that purpose;" but he spared no expense to discover, try and hang, if possible, those gentlemen who had slain blacks in self-defence, after he had withdrawn the police, for which they paid a special tax.

In the same spirit, he threatened to withdraw the pasturing license of any man whose shepherd lived with a black concubine, blacks being the only females within hundreds of miles; but he towered with indignation when it was suggested that it was his duty to provide the shepherds with wives.

Having found officials, who had been elected members of the council, voting against him, he issued an order that, "On questions deemed of importance by the representative of her Majesty, persons who hold office during her Majesty's pleasure, and who may at the same time be members of the Legislative Council, are not at liberty to oppose, in their latter capacity, the government which it is their duty in the former capacity to serve."

A return made to the Legislative Council affords a series of examples of the arbitrary manner in which he exercised the power vested in him, as governor, of raising and reducing the price of land. In many in