Supposing, therefore, that the assignment of convicts to private individuals should be discontinued, it remains to be ascertained in what manner all such convicts as might hereafter be transported to New South Wales from Great Britain and Ireland could be employed and maintained, without increasing the burdens of the mother country.

The progressive extension of the colony of New South Wales, and the rapid increase of its free population, which may now be reasonably anticipated from free immigration, will render a