This caricature of prospective emigrants was published in London in 1832. It presents a view common among Englishmen at the time. There is little to admire in the appearance of this debased and wretched couple. They are candidates for emigration because they are not wanted at home. Emigration was seen by many as the means to rid the country of the poor and shiftless who were a burden to the taxpayer and a potential danger to the state. In this view there was not a great difference between the emigration of the poor to North America and the transportation of convicts to Australia. Nor was it easy for Englishmen to believe that colonies which took in the rejects of British society would ever become desirable places to live.
