EFFORTS OF MRS. CHISHOLM.

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a low wooden barrack fourteen feet square. Mrs. Chisholm found it needful for the protection of the characters of the girls to sleep on the premises. A store-room seven feet square, without a fireplace, and infested with rats, was cleared out for her accommodation; there she dwelt, eating, drinking, and sleeping, dependent on the kindness of a prisoner employed in the adjoining government printing-office for a kettle of hot water for tea, her only luxury; and there she laid the foundation of a system to which thousands owe their happiness in this world and the world to come- saved from temptation to vice, and put on the road to industrious independence; a system which, if fairly carried out, would save and civilize a great empire from the pollution of nomadic money-earning and unsocial profusion-from the rule of a plutocracy and the horrors of a servile war.

Following the example of our greatest philosophers in every branch of science, Mrs. Chisholm was as careful and eager to collect facts as slow to publish grave conclusions. If she claimed publicity it was not to propound a complicated theory, but to attack some flagrant abuse.

The first party of girls collected within the "Home" amounted to ninety, whom Mrs. Chisholm protected from open insult, covert seduction, and the evil influence of black sheep, inevitably admitted at times, while seeking to obtain them employment. The difficulties were great, the annoyances most wearying. The girls were many of them ignorant and awkward, others too pretty, and others again too proud and idle to work; but she never gave them up while there was hope and a good heart.

She says in her first pamphlet, "If I had entered the office expecting grateful thanks from all, I should have seen in a week my folly; but, having a very fair knowledge of human nature, I was aware that to be able to do a good I must be prepared to encounter certain disagreeables. I did not start expecting to please all, but intending to be just and fair towards all."

As for the mistresses, she told them in print,-probably the first time so wholesome a truth had been so plainly stated, that "the assignment system of convict servants had spoiled them a little-it will take some time to teach them," she observes, "that they have lost a little power, or, in fact, that they must bear and forbear;""an English servant would not like the ration and lock-up system, and would expect domestic comforts not common in Sydney"-"many of the mistresses are apt to take the law into their own hands."

These statements were unpleasant to make and unpopular; but

they worked a cure, which if not effected would have damaged the character of the colony in the home country.

The general public, as distinguished from the official class, when they understood the nature of the plans Mrs. Chisholm was engaged upon, responded very liberally to her appeal for assistance. But before they gained confidence in her plans the "Home" became crowded with a number of girls more fit for rough country work than town service. There was no machinery extant for distributing them: she determined to avail herself of the information supplied in answers to her circulars, and to send them into the country. The first dray that came to the door was sent away empty: frightened with foolish 'board-ship stories of blacks and bushrangers, not one girl would go. A second attempt, the first failure having been kept a secret, was successful. Chisholm at her own risk and expense took a party up the Hunter River district by steam-boat: the enterprise was considered so Quixotish by her friends that, as she sat on deck in the centre of her troop of girls, no one of her acquaintance dared to expose himself to the ridicule of owning acquaintance by offering any refreshment.

Mrs.

The enterprise succeeded, the girls were well placed in the families of often humble but always respectable married people, and competent committees were induced to undertake the charge of "Branch Homes" in the interior. The bush journeys were repeated with parties of young women, varying from sixteen to thirty, who were conveyed to Campbell Town, Maitland, Liverpool, Paramatta, Cross Roads, and Port Macquarie-Yass, Gundegai, Murrumbidgee, Goulburn, and Bathurst— where she went from farm to farm, scrutinizing the characters of the residents before she trusted them with "her children."

The settlers came forward nobly, and supplied provisions, horses, and drays; the inns universally refused payment for Mrs. Chisholm's personal accommodation; and the coaches, a most costly conveyance in Australia, carried her sick women and children free. Mr. William Bradley, a gentleman born in the colony, a member of the Legislative Council, gave an unlimited credit to draw for anything for the use of the emigrants-of which she was not obliged to avail herself, so liberally did the colonists of the interior come forward.

Very soon the fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands claimed the same care, and asked to be permitted to form part of her parties. Her journeys became longer and her armies larger: 147 souls left Sydney, which increased on the road to 240, in one party, in drays and on foot, Mrs. Chisholm leading the way on horseback. She established a Jegistry-office for servants, where names could be inscribed and agree

ments effected on fair terms gratuitously: she drew up and printed a fair agreement, of which the master took one, the servant one, and one was filed. The result of this registration was to extinguish litigation as far as regards servants engaged at the "Home." Out of many thousands only two were litigated. Yet in the course of her experience, before she stirred in the matter, and for want of agreements and speedy justice, fifty-one cases occurred up to 1843 of wages unjustly detained or taxed. For the first time the emigrant found a "friend."

The abuse of power by captains, and the immorality of the inferior sort of surgeons, at that time engaged in the Australian trade, were checked by a prosecution which she compelled the governor to institute against parties who had driven a girl mad by their violence.

When Sir George Gipps, hesitating, said, as officials will say, "A government prosecution is a very serious matter," she answered, "I am ready to prosecute: I have the necessary evidence, and, if it be a risk whether I or these men shall go to prison, I am ready to stand the risk." That trial established a precedent and checked the abuse.

J

By the end of 1842 Mrs. Chisholm had succeeded in placing comfortably two thousand emigrants of both sexes, and then, when slowly recovering from the effects of a serious illness brought on by her exertions, she published the remarkable letter or report to which we have before alluded.*

It is a collection of notes and memoranda, interspersed with pithy remarks and pathetic and comic sketches from real life,—a valuable contribution to the art of colonization, and a literary curiosity. It was an outspoken book; it did not mince matters-as, for instance, in the following passage, which went far to kill the bounty system, and so, although people were shocked, the evil was abated :-" One girl, long known at Liverpool as the Countess, arrived per ship; the last time I saw her was on a Sunday; she had evidently started in the morning, with an intention to look interesting at either St. James's or St. Mary's, for her book was in her hand; but she had taken a glass by the way, and was so far aware of her state that she retired to the domain. I saw her fall twice. Now people express their astonishment that English girls are not sent out.' We will suppose that some Liverpool families are meditating this step, and, in their anxiety to obtain all information, they learn that the Countess is missing-has left for Australia (by a bounty ship). They condemn all for one-they shrink with horror from sending their daughters where the Countess is received-they are strangers to all on board, therefore all suffer for one—I wish particularly to call attention to the injustice done to girls of good character by a case of association, and not a solitary one like the one I have stated. Again, in Sydney, the character of the Countess is known in less than two hours, and the girls of good character in the same ship suffer."

In this "Countess" story was the germ of one great feature of Mrs. Chisholm's Family Colonization Society-protection for single girls.

In the same effective manner the letter exposes all the tricks practised on the Bounty Board and on the government agents. The following illustrates a class still plentiful :—

"One girl, having health and strength, had refused five situations; at last I thought I had suited her. She was to live in a settler's family, and teach five children to read and write: she was not required to wash the children; but, as the good and thrifty woman kept no servants, she was to wash her own clothes (or pay for the same out of her wages), make her own bed, and clean her own room: the good woman also said, she would teach her anything she knew, but ask her to do nothing. I thought there could be no objection to this; but when I told her, once a week she must scour her own room (the best in the house)—when I

"Female Emigration considered in a Brief Account of the Sydney Emigrants' Home, by the Secretary, Sydney James Tegg, 1842."

THE DO-NOTHINGS

-SHAM GOVERNESSES.

147

said this she burst into a passionate flood of tears; the degradation was more than she could bear I thought it then my duty to refuse her the benefit of the Home. In less than three months from this this victim of false pride was living with ; anything rather than work: I have since regretted that I did not give her one more trial.

"The Do-nothings.' This name will surprise some and offend others, but in the end will do good; and I really do not know any one useful thing they can do. E was entered as a governess; I was glad of this, for I had then, as I have now, several applications for governesses, in the country: she was a pretty girl too; and I know when pretty girls have no money-no friends-Sydney is a very bad place. There is nothing so unpleasant as to question a young lady as to her competency. She could teach music, French, drawing, &c. &c.; she was satisfied with the salary, and her testimonials were first-rate. 'You say you can teach music?' 'Yes ma'am.' "You thoroughly understand it?' 'Most certainly.' 'One of your pupils is nine years of age, how long do you think it will take her to get through Cramer's Instruction Book?' A pause. Perhaps you have not seen it ?' 'No, ma'am, but I was very quick myself I have a good ear for music.' 'What book did you study from ?' 'I learnt singing and music at the same time.' 'Tell me the name of the first piece you played?' 'Cherry Ripe.' "The second ?' 'Home, sweet Home.' "The third ?' 'We're a' noddin.' I said no more about music. I gave her a sum in addition; and she made sixteen pounds five, eighteen pounds four. Now this girl, I afterwards ascertained, at home, had lived in a family as nursemaid, and washed the clothes of five children every week: but she was a pretty girl-something of a favourite at sea. The captain was very anxious about her; had taken her in his own boat, to the North-shore, to try and get her a good place; he devoted seven hours to this work of charity. Nor did his zeal rest here—the following day he took her to Paramatta ; they returned to the ship, and this girl was kept four days in it, after the other girls left. When he called at my office he was astonished, horrified, that I knew the detail; said, Sydney was a scandalizing place; that his feelings were those of a father. However, I received the girl the same evening, and removed her the following day very far from his parental influence."

"But for another specimen; and really, out of fifty, I am at a loss how to select; but I will give She was another of the would-be governesses; but her views were more humble-for the nursery. Now, she could neither read, write, nor spell, correctly. Can you wash your own clothes?' 'Never did such a thing in my life.' 'Can you make a dress?' 'No.' 'Cook?' 'No.' 'What can you do?' 'Why, ma'am, I could look after servants; I could direct them; I should make an excellent housekeeper.' 'You are certain ?' 'Yes, or I would not say so.' 'Do you know the quantity of the different ingredients wanted for a beaf-steak pie—for that dish—and a rice pudding for this?' 'Oh, no, ma'am, that's not what I mean; I'd see that the servants did it.' 'But there might be great waste, and you not know it; besides all, or nearly all, the servants sent to this colony require teaching.' Nothing but my faith in Providence that there must be a place for everybody enabled me to bear with this infliction ; and yet, if I turned them out, I knew their fate. But it was trying to my patience every morning to be up and breakfasted, and in my office first. I never had but one in the Home of this class that fairly made her own bed; they could smooth them over and night after night get into them."