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 under the old colonial regime in America, the cause of the very different result of the more recent experiment becomes self-evident.

For upwards of thirty years after the first establishment of the colony of New South Wales, and for about fifteen years after that of Van Dieman's Land, these colonies were almost exclusively colonies of convicts.

The following statement of the population of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land at the close of the year 1820, that is, thirty-three years after the former of these colonies was founded, will sufficiently exhibit the sort of materials of which society was originally composed in the Australian colonies: