Page:A lecture on the evils of emigration and transportation.djvu/13

9 that part of the world. Those ladies, assisted by a few of the Malthusian disciples, who imagine a superabundant population in England to be the cause of the general distress, soon obtained abundant supplies of those tender victims for the Colonial market, and for the unsatiable lust of the unfeeling wretches of our Australian Colonies.

I could wish to draw a veil over this part of the subject, for my soul sickens within when I reflect on the heart-rending distress of those helpless creatures. Oh, gentlemen, could you have witnessed those young victims, with their hearts ready to burst with unutterable anguish, calling upon their far distant mothers to protect and assist them, and have witnessed the satanic smiles of the bloated profligate, exulting with infernal joy at their hapless condition, you would, I am sure, have cursed in all the bitterness of your souls the authors of their wrongs. Shall I proceed with the subject, or throw a mantle of darkness over the unfortunate creatures and their distress. The subject is a painful one; but I have a duty to perform, and that of great importance, perhaps to the future happiness of thousands who may yet be tempted to leave their native shores. Therefore I will go into the disgusting particulars of Colonial Society, in doing which I shall endeavour to be as brief as possible, and avoid, if I am able, making use of any language that might offend the ear of the most delicate. Before I enter into the state of society, with your permission I will read a statement of the consumption of liquor in that colony, published by Dr. Ross, the Government printer and editor of the Van Dieman's [sic] Land Almanack:—

Duty of spirituous liquors imported in the year 1836, for a population of 36,000 souls£89,345 10 4½ Recollect this is independent of the prime cost of the article, and of landlord's profit and necessary expenditure, so that, could the total amount spent in liquor be obtained, I feel assured that you would be enabled to form a correct estimate of that society to which so many thousands of our poor deluded country women have been introduced. I will here detain you to read a sentence or two from Dr. Ross's Almanack:— "'The loss of health and life, misery entailed upon families, demoralization, debt, dishonesty, crime, expense of"