The Body Is Taken Into A Public-House, An Inquest
Is Held, The Deceased Is Recognized As A Drunkard, The
Jury is assured
that a POST-MORTEM examination is quite unnecessary; and the man is
buried, after a verdict is
Brought in of 'Died by the visitation of
God;' the said visitation of God having, in this instance, assumed the
somewhat peculiar form of a fractured skull!"
This is a true picture of Melbourne; but whether the "Argus" is
justified in reproaching the "La Trobe dynasty" with it, is quite
another matter.
In pages like these, anything resembling an argument on the
"transportation question," would be sadly out of place. To avoid
thinking or hearing it was impossible, for during my second stay in
Melbourne, it was a never-failing subject of conversation. In Victoria
(which is only forty-eight hours' journey from Van Diemen's Land), I
have seen the bad results of the mingling of so many transports and
ticket-of-leave men among the free population. On the other hand, I
have heard from many and good authorities, of the substantial benefits
conferred on Sydney and New South Wales by convict labour. It is
difficult to reconcile these two statements, and it is an apple of
discord in the colonies.
Whilst in Victoria, I met with a great variety of emigrants, and I was
much struck by the great success that seems to have attended on almost
all of those who came out under the auspices of Mrs. Chisholm. No one
in England can fully appreciate the benefits her unwearied
exertions have conferred upon the colonies. I have met many of the
matrons of her ships, and not only do they themselves seem to have made
their way in the world, but the young females who were under their care
during the voyage appear to have done equally well. Perhaps one way of
accounting for this, is the fact that a great many of those going out
by the Chisholm Society are from Scotland, the inhabitants of which
country are peculiarly fortunate in the colonies, their industry,
frugality, and "canniness" being the very qualities to make a fortune
there. "Sydney Herbert's needlewomen" bear but a bad name; and the
worst recommendation a young girl applying for a situation can give, is
to say she came out in that manner - not because the colonists look down
on any one coming out by the assistance of others, but because it is
imagined her female associates on the voyage cannot have been such as
to improve her morality, even if she were good for anything before.
Much is said and written in England about the scarcity of
females in Australia, and the many good offers awaiting the acceptance
of those who have the courage to travel so far. But the colonial
bachelors, who are so ready to get married, and so very easy in their
choice of a wife, are generally those the least calculated, in spite of
their wealth, to make a respectable girl happy; whilst the better class
of squatters and diggers - if they do not return home to get married,
which is often the case - are not satisfied with any one, however pretty,
for a wife, unless her manners are cultivated and her principles
correct.
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