The same authorities that I have quoted in the case of these colonies, speak favourably also of the Belgian colonies up to the same period; and on the part of the latter experiment it may be asserted, that the unsettled state of the country since that period ought very much to qualify any condemnation of its principle. But notwithstanding this disadvantage (which is much less, I fear, than has been insisted on), there would still have remained evidences of the probable success of the experiment. Those evidences were not satisfactory to my mind; and I may further observe, that while the people in general recommended the colonies to foreigners as especially worthy of their notice, I do not remember meeting with one individual who could point out any specific results, and few who would distinctly assert that there was any increasing and permanent benefit to the community from them. It is probable that unless some great change is made in the present system, the colonies will be ultimately abandoned, or merge into the establishments for compulsory labour: in other words, the society will become the farmers, and the present colonists merely agricultural labourers, differing only from the ordinary labourer, inasmuch as they will work under the penalty of being treated as vagabonds in case of contumacy. The observations I have hitherto made apply only to the free colonies. In the mendicity or compulsory colonies, the poor are assembled in large establishments, and cultivate the ground, either by task or day labour, and attend the cattle, &c., under the direction of certain officers; it is, in fact, a species of agricultural workhouse. The following is a Return of the compulsory establishment at Merxplas. (p. 20.)