scheme. And it must not be forgotten that
money lent and repaid, would be lent again
and again; and thus the good effected by one
small sum would become quite incalculable.

It is admitted in the published letter setting
forth the design, that the friends and well-
wishers of the society can hardly expect the
full confidence of the public at its commencement;
the great moral problem being yet to
be solved; ' whether the various grades of our
working classes can be trusted, or whether,
with all our religious, moral, social, and
commercial advantages, we are rearing rogues or
honest men;' at the same time it is understood
on the authority of the projectress, that in
numerous cases where private advances have
been made with similar objects, the rule has
been gratitude and honesty—not ingratitude
and dishonesty; and that her personal
experience on this point, under many disadvantageous
circumstances, is powerfully encouraging.

There may be difficulties in the details of
such a plan; and it is possible that many
persons who would retain an honourable sense
of an obligation to an individual, would
subside into a more lax morality, if the
obligation were to a Board. The observation is
trite enough, that a number of individuals
united in an association will do, without any
scruple, in the name of the society, what each
of them would deem unworthy of his own
character; but there are two sides to this
question, and it is equally certain that many
persons will take advantage of an associated
body, if they can, who would hesitate to cheat
any single member of it.

Reserving such questions, there can be little
doubt, we apprehend, of the soundness of the
three positions we have briefly stated. It is
unquestionably melancholy that thousands
upon thousands of people, ready and willing
to labour, should be wearing away life
hopelessly in this island, while within a few months'
sail—within a few weeks' when steam
communication with Australia shall be established—
there are vast tracts of country where no man
who is willing to work hard (but that he must
be, or he had best not go there), can ever know
want. That we have come to an absurd pass,
in our costly regard for those who have
committed crime, and our neglect of those who
have not, must be every day more manifest to
rational men whose thoughts are not confined
within the walls of prisons, but can take the
air outside. Nor is it to be contested—either
that where it is possible for the poor, by great
self-denial, to scrape together a portion of the
means of going abroad, it is extremely important
to encourage them to do so, in practical
illustration of the wholesome precept that
Heaven helps those who help themselves; or
that they who do so help themselves, give a
proof of their fitness for emigration, in one
essential, and establish a strong claim on legitimate
sympathy and benevolence, to do the rest.

Besides which, it appears to us that there
are strong reasons in favour of this emigration
of groups of people. It is not only that
colonial experience, acting on this side of the
water, can wisely proportion the amount of
strength and the amount of weakness in each
group—the number of single people, the
number of married people, the number of
men, the number of women, and the number
of children—but it is, that from little
communities thus established, other and larger
communities will rise in time, bound together in
a love of the old country still fondly spoken
of as Home, in the remembrance of many old
struggles shared together, of many new ties
formed since, and in the salutary influence and
restraint of a kind of social opinion, even
amid the wild solitudes of Australia.

These remarks have originated in the
circumstance of our having on our desk certain
letters from emigrants in Australia, written
to relatives and friends here—to serve no
purpose, to support no theory, but simply
to relate how they are doing, and what they
know about the country, and to express their
desire to have their dearest relatives and friends
about them. As the truth, whatever it may
be, on such a subject, cannot be, we think, too
plainly stated or too widely diffused in this
country, we consider ourselves fortunate in
the possession of these documents. We are
responsible, of course, for their being genuine,
and we write with the originals before us. The
passages we shall give are accurately copied,
with no correction, and with no omission, but
that of names when they occur.

The first is from a man in Sydney, who writes
to his brother. He 'would like to come to
England for one day and no more to see the
Railways and the baptist chappel.'

If you can emigrate out i shall be able to provide
for you Send me word in your next what progress
you are making toward finding your way out here
do not stop there to staarve for as bad as Sydney
is no one that is willing to work need want i am
beginning to think of expecting some or all of you
out i have told you what i can do and look to God
and he will do the rest for you dear brothere send
answer to this as soon as Possoble that is if you
can understand it but it is wrote so bad i think it
will take some time to make it out.

The next is from a man at Melbourne
writing to his wife:

My Dear and most beloved Wife this is the 7th
letters I have written and sincerly hope this may
find you and my dear children in good health
likewise all my friends and acquaintances but I have
not yet received one from you excepting the one
Mr W brought I am realy very anxious about you
particularly as I hear such bad accounts from home
you are in my thoughts day and night Oh that I
could see you here then you would spend the
hapiest days you have ever yet spent there is not
the care and trouble on your mind here as there
is at home but God knows I have my share of it
about you but I persevere for your benefit. My
dear wife do keep up your spirits and come as soon
as you can you will not have to study wich is the
cheapest way to get a meal here you can judge for