"To such a pitch has this system arrived, that the streets of Sydney are, literally, almost as crowded with carriages of every class as Cheapside, or the Strand, in London; carriages not only conveying, but being the property of emancipists, and convicts assigned to their wives. "A London thief, of any notoriety, after having been a short time in Sydney, would scorn to place himself or his assignee wife in so mean a vehicle as a gig; nothing less than a carriage and pair is commensurate with the rank in felonry to which they have arisen in Australia. "A better idea of the effect of all this upon a stranger cannot be conveyed than by the following anecdote of an officer who visited New South Wales on leave of absence from his regiment in India. "Having gone with a friend in a gig from Sydney to the races at Paramatta, they were passed on the road by many genteel equipages, including close carriages, curricles, and landaus. "In answer to the stranger's questions, his companion informed him that one brilliant 'set out' belonged to Sam Such-a-one, who had been a convict, but was now a free man and a man of fortune; that another was the property of a convict who kept a draper's shop in Sydney, but was assigned to his wife, who had brought out with her a large sum of money; that a third belonged to a ticket-of-leave man, who had obtained that indulgence almost immediately after his arrival in the colony--and so on. "At the racecourse, where all the 'beauty and fashion' of felonry was assembled, the stranger's astonishment was complete at the number of instances in which he obtained similar answers. "After some graver reflections on so singular an exhibition, he ironically remarked that he thought he had better return as soon as possible to India for the purpose of there committing some crime that should subject him to a short sentence of transportation; for it really seemed to him that that was the best way of getting on in the world!" His description of the "fine lady convicts" is particularly amusing-- "Things are differently managed now, and when a transport ship arrives at Sydney, all the madams on board occupy the few days which elapse before their landing in preparing to produce the most dazzling effect at their _descent_ upon the Australian shores. "With rich silk dresses, bonnets _a la mode_, ear pendants three inches long, gorgeous shawls and splendid veils, silk stockings, kid gloves, and parasols in hand, dispensing sweet odours from their profusely perfumed forms, they disembark, and are assigned as _servants_ and distributed to the expectant settlers.