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Finding on my arrival many persons free, who had come out originally as convicts, and sustaining unblemished characters since their emancipation, but treated with rudeness, contumely, and even oppression, as far as circumstances permitted, by those who had come out free, and viewed with illiberal jealousy the honest endeavours of the others to attain and support a respectable station in society, I determined to counteract this envious disposition in one class, by admitting, in my demeanour and occasional marks of favour to both, no distinction where their merits, pretensions and capacities were equal. I considered this as the first step towards a general reformation of the manners and habits of the motley part of the population of New South Wales as it then existed; and I am happy to add that twelve years of experience of its effects has fully justified my most sanguine expectations.