He has also to confess his ignorance of the colonists having, as stated, petitioned for convicts—­he knows that such a wish was not expressed in their memorial drawn up in 1832, and laid before His Majesty’s Government by Sir James Stirling in person.  The colonists having had before their eyes, in the neighbouring penal settlements, the serious evils inflicted on society by the employment of convicts (especially as indoor servants) have firmly resisted the temptation to seek such a remedy for their wants.  The extreme difficulty, which it is notorious respectable families there experience, to sufficiently guard the morals of their offspring, and to secure their being brought up in the necessary principles of virtue and integrity, is alone a consideration which, it is believed, will keep the colonists in Western Australia stedfast on that point.  No mere worldly prosperity whatsoever can compensate for the tremendous risk to which children in a penal settlement are exposed, as many a heart-broken parent can testify.

It now remains for the author to offer a few observations

1.  On the failures that occurred among the early settlers.

2.  On the origin of the reports so widely circulated to the prejudice of the country.

3.  On the tardy progress of the colony, compared with what had been expected.

The following extract from one of the earliest despatches of the Governor (written in January 1830, and addressed to the Secretary of State) will serve to preface these remarks, as it bears immediately on the first point.  Adverting to the circumstances under which the first settlers came out, he thus proceeds:  “There could not be a great number with minds and bodies suited to encounter the struggle and distresses of a new settlement.  Many, if not all, have accordingly been more or less disappointed on arrival, with either the state of things here, or their own want of power to surmount the difficulties pressing round them.  This has been experienced, in the beginning, by every new colony; and might have been expected to occur here, as well as elsewhere.  The greater part, incapable of succeeding in England, are not likely to prosper here to the extent of their groundless and inconsiderate expectations.  Many of the settlers who have come should never have left in England a safe and tranquil state of life; and, if it be possible to discourage one set of people, and to encourage another, I would earnestly request that for a few years, the helpless and inefficient may be kept from the settlement; whilst, as to the active, industrious, and intelligent they may be assured with confidence of a fair reward for their labours.”

If, after what has been said, it be granted that Western Australia, as far as natural advantages go, is well suited for the purpose of colonization, still it will be apparent, from the principle on which the colony was founded, that its success must be greatly dependent on the capital and exertions of the settlers.  The charge of maintaining a military and a civil establishment being all His Majesty’s Government was pledged to, every other expense was to be borne by the emigrant; such as his outfit, voyage, and settlement in the colony.