For half the money you could
get twice as good a house in any English country town. This excessive
house-rent is caused by the dearness of labour, which enhances
the cost of building; for, either the builder will exact a rent
proportioned to his outlay, or (if he cannot obtain such a rent)
he will not build.
_Free Emigrants_.
Of what class then, you ask, have been the great mass of emigrants from
England, not convicts? Excellent people in their way, most of them;
farmers, army and navy surgeons, subalterns on half-pay, and a number
of indescribable adventurers, from about the twentieth rank in England.
They came here to live, not to enjoy; to eat and drink, not to refine;
"to settle"--that is, to roll in a gross plenty for the body, but to
starve their minds. To these must be added convicts, many of whom are
become rich and influential; and some, not exactly convicts, to whom
England ceased to be a convenient residence. The English who live at
Boulogne, some for cheapness, some from misfortune, and some from fear,
would offer, I should think, a fair sample of the materials which
compose the best society in New South Wales; though, I must admit, that
the bustling, thriving settler of New South Wales is a companion, rather
ignorant though he be--far away preferable to the not more enlightened,
but melancholy English sluggard of Boulogne.
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