John Dunmore Lang

“ The acquisition of large fortunes by such persons and by such means, has, doubtless, had a powerful and direct influence in frustrating one of the great ends of transportation—the prevention of crime in the mother country—by holding out the colony as the paradise of criminals to the whole class in England; it being consistent with the nature of man to look only to the prizes in the grand lottery of crime, and to disregard the blanks. ”

“ By retailing ardent spirits as a licensed publican;—a course which, although, in consequence of increased competition, it no longer presents such a highway to fortune as it once did in New South Wales, is still sufficiently alluring to attract numerous candidates for the patronage of colonial drunkards, and to afford various ways and means of amassing wealth much more rapidly than can generally be done by honest industry. ”

“ There are doubtless instances of persons of the class of emancipists rising into the possession of wealth and consideration in society, by commencing as small settlers, or as mechanics, through sheer industry and perseverance; but these instances are not numerous, in comparison with those in which wealth has been amassed by persons of this description by other and less laborious, though more questionable means. ”