Page:Transportation and colonization.djvu/169

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AND COLONIZATION.
155

that of kelp. They are a frugal and industrious people,—eminently virtuous and religious and I need scarcely state, that whether as agricultural labourers or as shepherds, they would be peculiarly welcome, and would be sure to find immediate employment and sufficient subsistence in New South Wales. In short, that colony could very easily find room for not fewer than from five to ten thousand Highlanders, including men, women, and children, every year; and while I have already shown that the colonial land revenue would be amply sufficient to effect the entire emigration of even a much larger number of virtuous and industrious persons, without cost to the mother country; it is difficult to say whether Great Britain would be more benefited on the one hand by the gradual removal of such persons from a country that cannot possibly support one half their number, than the colony of New South Wales on the other, by their progressive settlement in its ample and fertile territory.