expected;—an alteration amounting to almost an entire change of natural disposition? It is impossible for scepticism, or prejudice itself, to assign any other cause than the influence of moral precept so kindly and unceasingly inculcated by the Committee. The women from Newgate formed one third of the entire number sent out in the Morley; and I can declare conscientiously that their conduct was _not worse_ than that of an equal number of the others: on the contrary, the effects of exhortation were more observable in their manner, in a very remarkable degree; and during the voyage, whenever it was found necessary to rebuke any of them, the mere mention of any of the Ladies of the Committee had the effect of bringing them to a sense of their error, which in almost every instance was attended with profound sorrow, a circumstance certainly not always observable in their companions. I can further assert that there was infinitely more riot, wickedness, and abandonment, amongst _seven_ women who were permitted to accompany the soldiers that formed the guard in the Neptune in 1817, than amongst _all the female convicts_ in the Morley put together: nay, in stating this fact, I feel that the latter are injured by being brought into such a comparison. In a conversation on this subject at Van Diemen’s Land with Doctor Bromley, who was Surgeon Superintendent in the _Lord Wellington_, he assured me that he had less trouble in that ship with the women who came from Newgate than all the rest. Three of these very women on their arrival were received into the service of Mrs. Governor MACQUARIE, where their conduct was so uniformly correct as to merit that lady’s approbation; a circumstance so uncommon, that she felt it a duty to acquaint Mrs. _Fry_ of the happy change. Mrs. Macquarie was prevented from writing by ill health at the time I left the colony, but desired me to communicate the fact as she had herself intended. That several of those who went out in the Lord Wellington behaved very ill after their arrival, does not militate against the system of reform adopted by the Ladies’ Committee; nor would my opinion of its invaluable efficacy be altered in the least, were I told that every one of those who were under my care has been ruined in the colony, because I know what a state of depravity prevails there. Minds much stronger than theirs have yielded to temptation; and in no country is that evil more concentrated and destructive than in New South Wales.