"In our political contests the opposing candidates use as hard language about one another as the same class of men do in political contests in the United States; they may say anything they please except that the man they are denouncing is the descendant of a transported convict. Whenever this is done, although the statement may be perfectly true, the injured man can bring a suit for slander, and be certain of high damages. Only a few years ago an aspirant for office was compelled to pay ten thousand pounds for saying in a public speech that the man against whom he was contending was the son of an 'involuntary emigrant' from England."
The gentleman paused, and Fred took the opportunity to ask what a ticket-of-leave man was in the days of transportation.
VIEW OF SYDNEY FROM PYRMONT, DARLING HARBOR.
"As to that," was the reply, "tickets-of-leave are in use to-day in other countries as well as in England, though they are not known by that name. In the United States you have a system of remitting part of a sentence in case of good conduct, and we do the same in England. Well, this is what the ticket-of-leave was in Australia: a man received a conditional pardon consequent upon good conduct up to the time it was granted, and also conditioned upon continued good conduct during the time it was in force. In Australia a ticket-of-leave man was required to remain in a certain prescribed district, where his conduct could be observed; in practice it often happened that the man ran away and sought a home elsewhere than under the British flag. A good many ticket-of-leave men found their way to the Feejee, Samoa, Society, and other islands of the Pacific, where they led lives that often were not in accordance with civilized rules. In consequence of their violation of the permit granted them, they were always greatly alarmed when a British ship appeared in the offing.
HOME OF AN EMANCIPIST.
"Many ticket-of-leave men became good citizens; some of them obtained grants of land, and established farms where they supported themselves, and not a few of this class became prosperous and wealthy. The mechanics found plenty of occupation in the cities and towns, and thus there gradually grew up a population of emancipists, who have been mentioned already. In the disputes about the rights of the emancipists their cause was warmly espoused by Governor Macquarie, who earned the title of 'The Prisoner's Friend.' Some excesses followed the adoption of this policy, but the colony was benefited by it, and ultimately all classes of freemen were admitted to an equal footing, and the cessation of transportation in time caused a perfect commingling of classes and an extinction of the old feud."