A few words may not be out of place, in a work descriptive of the Australian colonies, upon the subject of emigration, but so much has been written upon this matter, that a very few words may suffice to give the opinions of those who are practically acquainted with the subject. Undoubtedly, active, industrious, and prudent persons, are likely to prosper in Australia to a degree which is impossible, and scarcely credible, in Great Britain. No doubt, Providence has in these, and in our other colonies, given England a means of letting its surplus population escape in a way that shall not be merely safe, but even profitable, to the mother country, as well as to the emigrants themselves. The average consumption of English manufactures by the Australian colonists, has recently been stated to amount to ten guineas a-head, while that of the inhabitants of the European countries is only two shillings.[223] And what true-born Englishman would refuse to rejoice in the increased demand thus likely to be opened for our manufactures, and in the increased prosperity of our fellow-subjects on the other side of the globe, who are thus enabled to supply their own wants, by purchasing English goods? The objections which we hear occasionally urged against emigration amount, with one important exception, to little or nothing. The distance and long voyage, the risk of not succeeding, the impossibility now of pig-drivers and convicts becoming masters of many thousands a-year,[224] the paramount necessity of patient industry and prudent forecast in Australia, no less than in the rest of the world,--all these circumstances offer no reasonable hindrance to the emigrant's attempt, either to better his condition, or else to get that daily bread which in England he finds difficult to be obtained. And, whatever obstacles of this kind may at first deter him, the careful settler will soon find himself victorious over these, and more comfortably situated, in a worldly sense, than he ever before was. [223] See the speech of Mr. C. Buller in the House of Commons, on Thursday, April 6th, 1843, upon the subject of colonization. [224] See Evidence before Committee on Transportation in 1837, p. 41.