One of the supposed advantages of transportation is, that it prevents
this country from being burthened with criminal offenders, after the
expiration of their sentences. It is now, however, evident that
transportation does not tend to diminish the sum total of offences
committed in the British Dominions; it may, perhaps, relieve Great
Britain and Ireland from a portion of their burthen of crime; though,
from the little apprehension which transportation produces, that fact
may be reasonably doubted. On the other hand, it only transfers and
aggravates the burthen upon portions of the British Dominions, which,
like New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, are least able to bear it.
In 1836, the free population of New South Wales amounted to 49,255, of
whom about 17,000 had been convicts. In 1834, the free population of Van
Diemen's Land did not exceed 23,315, of whom about 3,000 were expirees.
Of the state of society in the towns of these colonies, a general idea
may be formed from a description of Sydney, according to the accounts
given of it, by the Chief Police Magistrate and by Mr.
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