PART IV.

VARIOUS CHANGES PROPOSED IN THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.

It being thus clear and indubitable that free representative governments are the only foundation on which the prosperity and happiness of communities can safely repose, it only remains to ascertain how far the actual circumstances and situation of this colony are compatible with the concession of so great and important a privilege. At my very offset in this essay, after glancing in a cursory manner at the history of the most celebrated ancient and modern empires, and shewing that their progress kept pace with their freedom, and that their retrogradation is to be dated only from the epoch when they fell under the dominion of arbitrary and ambitious despots, whose successors gradually completed the work of destruction which they had commenced, I was compelled in candour to admit that the heterogeneous ingredients of which this colony was compounded, did not at the period of its foundation, afford his Majesty's government the power, if they had even possessed the will, to establish a free representative system. It is therefore incumbent on me, now that I have demonstrated the beneficial influence which free governments have in promoting the prosperity of communities in general, and have proved that this colony has for many years been languishing in a state of impeded growth, and tottering imbecillity, from the inefficiency of its administration to adopt those measures which are necessary to its revigoration; I say it is incumbent on me to shew that the component parts of this body politic, have undergone such a change since the period of its creation, as will warrant its identification in this respect with other states, and justify the conclusion that such institutions are essential to its welfare as have been found conducive to theirs.

It must be almost superfluous to state, that when this colony was formed, it was composed, with the exception of its civil and military establishments, entirely of convicts. It was consequently impossible that a body of men, who were all under the sentence of the law, and had been condemned for their crimes to suffer either a temporary suspension, or total deprivation of the civil rights of citizens, could be admitted to exercise one of the most important among the whole of them, the elective franchise; and to have vested this privilege in the civil and military authorities, both of whom then as at present were subject to martial law, and were besides at that time without landed property, the only standard I conceive by which the right either of electing or being elected can in any country be properly regulated, would have been equally improper and absurd. A council indeed might have been appointed, but even an institution of this kind might have clogged the wheels of the government by its opposition, and could have been of but little assistance with its advice; for as it has been already stated, there was but one object to be pursued, and that was to promote by every means the agriculture of the colony, so as to emancipate it as soon as possible from a precarious and dangerous dependence on other countries. Until, therefore, the free inhabitants of the colony had increased to a sufficient number to exercise the elective franchise, and until its productive powers had outstripped its consumptive, and it became necessary either to create new markets for its produce within, or to direct a portion of its strength to the raising of articles for exportation to other countries, the establishment of a free representative government would not have been expedient had it even been practicable.

The period at which the produce of this settlement fairly exceeded the internal demand for it, may, as I have already noticed, be dated so far back as the year 1804, being about sixteen years after the period of its foundation. It has been already seen that the harvests of that and the succeeding year were so abundant, that no sale could be obtained for more than one half of the crop;--that had it not been for a tremendous flood which happened in 1806, the majority of the cultivators must have abandoned their farms, and sought for other occupation;--and that since that period there has fortunately been a succession of floods and droughts, which with the exception of two or three seasons of equal plenty, have kept the productive powers of the colony nearly on a level with its consumptive, or else the situation of the settlers, deplorable as it now is, would have been infinitely more so. How radically defective, then, must be the government of this colony, when what would be calamities of the most serious and afflicting nature in a well organized community are here blessings! Is it in the nature of things to adduce more weighty arguments in proof of the necessity which has existed since the above period for its supercession? Ought not a government that would have felt the importance, and have possessed the power of creating new channels of consumption for agricultural produce to have been then instituted? This great object, it has been already shewn, could have been in no way so easily accomplished as by the erection of distilleries. To have diverted the attention of any part of the agriculturists from the growth of corn, would have been highly impolitic in a country, where the greatest and most fertile portion of the arable land is subject to such awful inundations. On the contrary, it was and still is expedient, that the whole agricultural energies of the colony should be confined to the production of grain, until the surplus become so great as to leave no chance whatever of these inundations being any longer attended with their former baneful consequences. But this can only be effected by creating a sure and adequate market for this surplus; and whether such market is to be found in the colony, or to be sought for abroad, no power either would have been, or is so fully competent to accomplish this important purpose, as an independent legislature chosen from the midst of the community, whose interests are identified with its own.

With respect to the expediency or even practicability of instituting a body of this nature so long as fourteen years back, I am aware that there exists a great difference of opinion among the respectable class of the colonists themselves. For my own part, however small may have been the number of those from or by whom a colonial legislature could at that time have been formed, I consider of but little moment in solving this great problem. The only question it appears to me to be ascertained, is, whether a legislative assembly, however small the number of whom it might have been composed, and however limited the body of electors by whom it might have been chosen, would not have done its utmost to promote its own interests, or what would have been the same thing, the welfare of the community which it represented. I cannot conceive the possibility of any one's doubting that such would have been its conduct; and in this case what power could have been instituted in the colony that would have been so well calculated to foster its infant efforts, and develope its nascent prosperity, as one that would have been invested with the faculties of legislation; or in other words, with the authority to enact as a matter of course those measures of which the existing government has not had sufficient influence to procure the authorization.

The expediency, however, of having established a house of assembly in the colony at the period in question, is at this moment, perhaps, rather a matter of curious speculation, than of profitable inquiry. Extensively beneficial, as would in all probability have been its effects, it is nevertheless useless to deplore an omission which cannot now be remedied. Nor has the absence, perhaps, of this important institution been altogether without its advantages. It has at least indisputably proved the inefficiency of the present system of government, and that the colony could not have sunk under any other form of administration whatever, to a lower ebb of poverty and wretchedness, nor have become a heavier and more unproductive burthen to the mother country. The want, therefore, of an internal legislature has combined every consideration that could be adduced in proof of the necessity of changing the present system, and adopting in its stead that form of government which has been found so salutary and efficacious in all countries where it has been established. The only question that remains to be ascertained, is whether the colony is _now_ in a state of maturity for the reception of so important a privilege as the elective franchise; and this I conceive will be best answered by a reference to the numerical strength of its free population. At the general muster or census concluded on the 19th of November, 1817, there were found to be in all the various settlements and districts of the colony of New South Wales, and its dependencies, twenty thousand three hundred and twenty-eight souls, of whom sixteen thousand six hundred and sixty-four were in the various towns and districts belonging to Port Jackson. Out of these there were six hundred and ten soldiers, and six thousand two hundred and ninety-seven convicts, leaving a free population, independent of the military, of nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven souls. At Newcastle, a settlement about sixty miles to the northward of Port Jackson, there were five hundred and fifty souls, about seventy of whom were free. At the settlements of the Derwent and Port Dalrymple, there were in all three thousand one hundred and fourteen souls, of whom two thousand five hundred and fifty-four were at the former place, and five hundred and sixty at the latter: out of these there were about two hundred soldiers, but the number of free persons I have not been able precisely to discover. As these settlements, however, include the majority of the colonists and their families, who were removed from Norfolk Island; and as by far the greater proportion of the convicts who have been transported from this country have been sent to Port Jackson, I have no doubt that the number of free persons there, may be safely estimated at three fourths of their entire population, seeing that it is about two thirds of the population of Port Jackson. According to this rate of computation, therefore, the number of free persons in these two settlements, after previously deducting the two hundred military, will amount to about two thousand one hundred and eighty-six souls. It may, consequently, be perceived, that the grand total of the free population of all these various colonies in the latter end of November, 1817, may be safely estimated to have been eleven thousand nine hundred and seventy-three, being an excess of four thousand four hundred and seventy above the number of convicts, or in the proportion of more than three to two.

As the establishment of the legislative assembly in question could not, however, be well effected before the end of the year 1819, it may not be altogether irrelevant to ascertain what will be the probable amount of the free population at that period. The number of births in the colony cannot at present be computed under two thousand annually, since the increase in these various settlements between the month of November, 1816, and the month of November, 1817, is found to have been three thousand two hundred and eighty-nine souls; and the number of convicts transported thither from the first of January, 1816, to the first of January, 1818, was only three thousand one hundred and eight. Allowing, therefore, that one half of these, or one thousand five hundred and fifty-four, were transported to the colony during the year 1817, the increase that took place there, from birth and emigration will have been one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five: to which if we add five hundred, the number of persons that probably quit the colony annually; the actual rate of increase in the free population in the course of the year 1817, may be fixed at two thousand two hundred and thirty-five souls. Of these the surplus above two thousand, is perhaps composed of emigrants, and the remainder of births. If we add to these one thousand more, who it may be safely calculated yearly become free, by pardon or expiration of servitude, we have an annual augmentation to the free population of three thousand two hundred and thirty-five souls: so that if we take the year 1817, as a standard of computation, and it is evidently a low one, the free population will amount by the end of the year 1819, to at least eighteen thousand four hundred and forty-three souls. This is an elective body much more extensive than is to be found in several of our West India islands, where houses of assembly have been long established. But as this free population is of a mixed description, and composed as well of persons who have been convicts, and have become free either by the expiration of their respective sentences, or by pardon, as of those who have been born in the colony, or have emigrated to it, and have never suffered the penalties of the law, a very delicate question here arises as to the propriety of extending to the first of these classes the privilege of being admitted into the legislative body. There is, I am aware, a party in the colony, by whom the very notion of granting such a privilege to a class of men who have been subject to the lash of the law, would be treated as a chimera pregnant with the most fatal consequences to this infant community. In this, as in most other societies, there is an aristocratic body, which would monopolize all situations of power, dignity and emolument, and put themselves in a posture to domineer alike over the governor and the people. If you consult one of this faction (they deserve no milder appellation) he will tell you that it is dangerous to vest any authority beyond the narrow circle of his own immediate friends. Until the administration of General Macquarie, this body considered themselves possessed of an equal right to the governor's confidence, as if they stood in the same relation to him which the nobility of this country bear to the king, and were _de jure_ his hereditary counsellors. Before his government the great body of the people. I mean such as had become free, scarcely possessed any privilege but that of suing and being sued in the courts of civil jurisdiction. The whole power, and nearly the whole property and commerce of the colony, were in the hands of this faction, who with a very few exceptions were composed of the civil and military, and of persons who had belonged to these bodies formerly. And even in those few solitary instances which could be adduced, of persons originally convicts, who were _allowed_ to acquire an independence, their prosperity was to be traced to the patronage and protection afforded them by some member of the aristocratic junta, to whom they either acted as agents in the disposal of their merchandize (for it was considered by these gentlemen derogatory to their dignity to keep shop and sell openly) or resorted for the purchase of goods on their own accounts. At the prosperity, however, and importance of this faction, the present governor has levelled many a deadly blow within these last nine years; but more particularly in prohibiting the military to hold lands, or to be concerned in traffic, in raising to situations of the highest trust and dignity many deserving persons who had been convicts, and in throwing open the ports of the colony to an unlimited importation of all sorts of merchandize. But he has not effected these radical and salutary changes in the colonial policy without having encountered a long and inveterate hostility. Many have been the attempts which this faction have made to vilify his motives and misrepresent his actions; but to every charge of his enemies his unshaken integrity and unwearied zeal for the conscientious discharge of his duties have proved a sufficient refutation. The opinion of this gentleman with respect to the expediency of adopting a liberal system, that may prove an effectual stimulus to reformation and good conduct in those who have unhappily deviated from the path of rectitude, has been expressed unequivocally both in his dispatches, and in the prominent measures of his government, and will deservedly carry with it more weight than the whole collected opposition which I anticipate from those who have been his opponents and calumniators. The covert aim of these men is to convert the ignominy of the great body of the people into an hereditary deformity. They would hand it down from father to son, and raise an eternal barrier of separation between their offspring, and the offspring of the unfortunate convict. They would establish distinctions which may serve hereafter to divide the colonists into _castes_; and although none among them dares publicly avow that future generations should be punished for the crimes of their progenitors, yet such are their private sentiments; and they would have the present race branded with disqualifications, not more for the sake of pampering their own vanity, than with a view to reflect disgrace on the offspring of the disfranchised parent, and thus cast on their own children and descendants that future splendor and importance, which they consider to be their present peculiar and distinguishing characteristics. Short-sighted fools! they foresee not the consequences of their narrow machinations! They know not that they would be sowing the seeds of future discords and commotions, and that by exalting their immediate descendants, they would occasion the eventual degradation and overthrow of their posterity. Such would be the result of their ambition; for it is the curse of injustice that it brings with it sooner or later its own punishment. Happily for the colony the realization of their projects depends not upon themselves; and his Majesty's ministers will not lend their sanction to schemes of private aggrandizement, which can only be accomplished by the sacrifice of the public good. If these men have not themselves the sagacity to dive into futurity, and to foresee the dangers and contests to which unjust privileges and distinctions must eventually give birth, shall the government be equally blind and improvident? Shall they in the short space of thirty years forget the benevolent designs for which this colony was founded, and convert what was intended as an asylum for repentant vice, not into a house merely of salutary correction, which may moderate with reviving morality and cease entirely with complete reformation, but into a prison of endless torture, where though the sufferings of the body may terminate, the worst species of torture, the endurements and mortifications of the soul, are to end only with existence? Shall a vile faction be allowed to inflict on the unfortunate convict a punishment infinitely greater than that to which he has been sentenced by the violated majesty of the law? Has not a jury of impartial freemen solemnly investigated the case of every individual who has been transported to this colony? And have not the measure and duration of their punishments been apportioned to their respective offences? Is it then for any body of men to assert that the law has been too lenient, and that it is necessary to inflict an ulterior punishment which shall have no termination but in the grave? Shall the unhappy culprit, exiled from his native shore, and severed perhaps for ever from the friends of his youth, the objects of his first and best affections, after years of suffering and atonement, still find no resting place,--no spot where he may hide his shame and endeavour to forget his errors? Shall the finger of scorn and derision be pointed at him wherever he betake himself? And must he for ever wander a recreant and outcast on the face of the earth, seeking in vain some friendly shore, where he may at length be freed from ignominious disabilities, and restored to the long lost enjoyment of equal rights and equal protection with his fellows?

I am aware it may be here urged that these men, if they were to return to this country, could never enjoy the privileges for which I am contending; and that the very same laws, which have fixed the bounds of their corporal punishment have deprived them for ever of the most valuable rights of citizens. To this I reply, that in this country, whither if the whole of the convicts who have been exiled from its shores were to return, they would form but an inconsiderable portion of the people, all such disqualifications as the law has annexed to conviction in a court of justice, are good policy; because they tend to promote virtue and discountenance vice. But the very same grounds of policy require that such disqualifications should not exist in New South Wales. There the great mass of the people are composed of persons who have been under the operation of the law, and who were transported with the avowed intention of the legislature to effect their reformation. How then is this great philanthropic end to be best attained? Is it by holding out no inducements to good conduct, no distinction between repentant vice and incorrigible enormity? Those who have been convicted of the higher order of offences, and have been in consequence transported for life, are from the very nature of their sentences precluded from ever enjoying the privilege in question, unless, indeed, their very exemplary conduct subsequently induce the governor to extend to them the benefit of the king's pardon. This, however, is an indulgence at present so rarely accorded, that the whole of this class may be in a manner considered as being without the pale of citizenship; and it is therefore such only as have been convicted of crimes to which the law has annexed the minor penalties of seven or fourteen years transportation, who could generally become candidates for a seat in the legislative assembly? How many of this description have been detected in their first offence, in their very offset in the career of criminality? How many ever afterwards deplore their errors in sackcloth and ashes, and conduct themselves in the most correct and unexceptionable manner? And shall no distinction be made between _them_ and the still persevering offender whom no inducements can withhold, no punishments deter from the commission of fresh enormities? Shall the _novice_ in crime and the _veteran_ be placed on the same footing and held in equal estimation? To what end do they profess themselves to be Christians who can maintain such infernal doctrines? How can they reconcile them with that universal charity and good will inculcated in their religion? How can they themselves expect pardon of their God, who would thus withhold oblivion from their repentant fellow creatures? If it be then alike conformable to the principles of Christianity and sound policy, to make a discrimination between the reformed sinner, and the still hardened and abandoned profligate, what incentive to good conduct would prove so efficacious as the prospect of regaining, after years of unimpeachable integrity, all those civil rights which they had forfeited, of becoming once more privileged to act as jurymen, magistrates, and legislators? Such a possibility would quickly revive the latent sparks of virtue wherever they were not quite extinct, and electrify the mind when all other applications would fail to rouse it from its despondence and lethargy. And shall not this _sole efficacious remedy_ be administered, because a set of _interlopers_, persons in no wise connected with the purposes for which this colony was founded, wish to monopolize all the respectable offices of the government, all the functions of emolument, power, and dignity to themselves? Shall the vital interests of the whole community sink before the ambitious projects of a few designing individuals, who have no object in view, but their own personal aggrandizement, and the maintenance of a self-assumed aristocratic importance? And who would build their own and their families' prosperity on the ruins of the social edifice, on the misery and degradation of thousands? But it is useless to enlarge on this topic: ministers will not allow their judgments to be warped by the subtle representations of this faction. In organizing that new constitution for this colony, of which every motive of humanity and policy conspires to demonstrate the necessity, they will be actuated solely by those principles that are best calculated to further the philanthropic and enlightened ends which were contemplated by the legislature at the period of its foundation. The good of the many will not be sacrificed to the sordid views of the few, and no disqualifications will be permitted, but such as are confessedly necessary for the repression of vice, and the promotion of morality and religion.

But, while I am thus contending against the total exclusion of such as may have been convicts from the enjoyment of this great privilege, I would by no means imply that the doors of the legislative assembly should be thrown open to _all indiscriminately_ who may _happen_ to be _free_. An unrestricted ability to exercise a function of such great confidence and dignity, would superinduce consequences equally fatal with those against which I would guard: in endeavouring to shun one extreme, it behoves us equally to avoid falling into the other. The very principle which _forbids_ their _utter inadmissibility_ to become legislators, demands that _none_ should be able to arrive at that dignity, but those whose conduct during their abode in the colony shall have been _absolutely unimpeachable_. Retrospection should not be pushed _beyond_ the period of their _arrival;_ but their _subsequent_ behaviour should be subjected to the _severest tests_, to the _most rigorous scrutiny_. _Conviction_ either before a court or a magistrate, for any _offence_ of a _criminal nature_, should be a _bar_ to their pretensions _for ever_. Crimes committed in this country should be overlooked when followed by _adequate_ atonement and _indubitable_ reformation; but the _interests_ as well of the _rising generation_, as of the _great body_ of the _convicts themselves_, require that the _re-convicted_ felon, whom neither the _hope_ of _distinction_ can _reclaim_, nor the _fear_ of _punishment deter_ from a recurrence to his old iniquities, should be branded with the _lasting impressions_ of _infamy_, and rendered for _ever afterwards incapable_ of exercising so respectable and important a function as the one in question.

With respect to the nature and extent of the property to be possessed by the members of the legislative assembly, I am of opinion, that a freehold estate of five hundred acres in any part of the territory of New South Wales, or its dependent settlements on Van Diemen's Land, should be considered a sufficient qualification, and that in the case of electors twenty acres of freehold should give the right of voting at elections for the districts in which such freehold property may be situated; and that either a leasehold of the value of £5 a year, or paying a house rent of £10 a year, that of voting at elections for towns. Excepting conviction, therefore, in this country as a ground of exclusion both as respects the candidates and the constituents, and making the above variation in the standard of their respective qualifications as to property, I think that every cause of rejection which is deemed in Canada of sufficient efficacy to invalidate the claims of either party, should be held of equal force in this colony, not only with persons who may have been convicts, but with all such as may wish either to vote for the return of members, or to become members of the legislative body themselves. In framing, indeed, a constitution for the colony, that of Canada would, I suspect, be upon the whole the best model for imitation; since there is not only a much stronger affinity between the great body of its inhabitants, and those of New South Wales, than exists in any of our other colonies; but every succeeding year will render the approximation of their character and pursuits still more complete.

There is but one topic more connected with the establishment of a house of assembly in this colony, on which I intend to comment; and I notice it not so much with a view to offer fresh arguments in support of the necessity of this measure, which I consider I have already sufficiently demonstrated, as to state all the prominent reasons which might be adduced on the occasion. It is a fundamental maxim of the British constitution, that no taxes shall be levied on the subject without his consent expressed by his representatives, and yet duties have been exacted in this colony for the last fifteen years, by the mere authority of the various governors. These, it has been seen, are appropriated to various purposes of internal economy, all of great public importance and utility, to which it is but equitable that the colonists should contribute. This system of taxation originated, I believe, with Governor King, but whether with the sanction of his Majesty's ministers, or from his own suggestion I am not able to determine. Since his time I should imagine that not less than two hundred thousand pounds have been levied in this unconstitutional manner; and until the administration of the present governor, those who paid this money had not even the satisfaction of knowing how any part of it was applied. From the secrecy indeed which was observed in the expenditure of this fund, and the rapacious character of his predecessor, many of the colonists suspected that very little of it was appropriated during his time to the purposes for which it was intended. This misapplication of it, however, is but a matter of conjecture; and it was probably to shelter himself from the possibility of falling under a similar imputation, that the present governor has caused quarterly accounts, which are first verified by a committee consisting of the lieutenant governor and the judge advocate, and afterwards examined and approved by himself, to be published for the general information. This custom, however, is a deviation, although it must be confessed a good one, from precedent: and the colonists have no guarantee that his successors will not revert to the same mysterious application of this fund that has been practised by his predecessors. In this case it may be converted into a fruitful source of peculation and plunder, and be at last in a great measure diverted from the public objects for which it was instituted to the satiation of private rapacity, and the colonists become gradually burdened with an overbearing load of taxation, merely for the purpose of enriching their governors. Be this, however, as it may, the illegality of levying money by the authority of any individual, is, I should presume, quite unquestionable; and I have no doubt that if any of the colonists had public spirit enough to resist the payment of these duties, the court of civil jurisdiction would not enforce it; since the decisions of this court are solely founded on acts of parliament. The magistrates of the colony might indeed take upon themselves to direct the execution of the governor's orders, which authorize the levying of these taxes, but I have doubts, since resistance to these orders would not amount to an act of a criminal nature, and the point at issue would be a mere matter of debt between an individual and the government, whether they even would consent to give such an illegal method of taxation the sanction of their support. At all events an appeal would lie in the shape of a writ of certiorari to the civil court, which could not avoid annulling the judgment of the magistrates, and consequently declaring the governor's conduct unwarranted and illegal. Such an occurrence would evidently be attended with the most prejudicial effects; for not to dwell on the mortification which the governor for the time being would experience at discovering in so disagreeable a way that by treading in the footsteps of his predecessors, he had been exercising a power to which his situation gave him no claim, there can be little doubt that a victory of this nature gained by an individual over the executive would be the signal for the institution of suits against the government for the recovery of all the money that has been levied under such an illegal and arbitrary authority. To prevent the probability of being forced to refund so large a sum of money to the persons or their heirs from whom it has been thus illegally wrested, and to legalize all future levies of duties in the colony, the establishment of a colonial legislature certainly offers the only judicious and constitutional expedient.

I would not that it should be considered from the foregoing remarks that the colonists are averse to taxation. On the contrary, it is my belief that they would cheerfully contribute whatever may be necessary for the promotion of objects _purely colonial_; but they expect, and have a right to do so, that all such objects should be submitted to the consideration and approval of their representatives, and that their money should not be taken out of their pockets, whether they will or not, by the mere _ipse dixit_ of a governor. Few are discontented with the present rate of taxation, because it is moderate; and, with the exception of that small part of the colonial revenue which arises from duties on articles of export, may be even considered judicious; inasmuch as the great bulk of the duties falls on luxuries which can be dispensed with, without occasioning any material diminution of comfort and enjoyment. But all are averse to the manner in which these duties are levied; for if they once admit that a governor has the right to exact one farthing by his single authority, what limits can be afterwards assigned to the exercise of this power? He may on the very same principle tax every article of consumption, and on the plea of public contributions undermine the whole prosperity and happiness of the community. That the different governors have been allowed to prosecute this system without opposition for so many years, could only have arisen from the peculiar constitution of this colony; but its population has now attained a degree of consequence and respectability, which will not much longer tamely permit such an unprecedented deviation from all constitutional authority; and the best way to obviate the unpleasant circumstances of the contest, to which a continuance of the present system must shortly give rise, is to create a body legally endowed with the powers of legislation.

On the expediency of appointing a council, his Majesty's ministers are, I believe, themselves agreed; and I will not, therefore, enter at great length on the subject. The arbitrary and revolting acts, which the want of a controlling body of this nature has already occasioned, furnish the most convincing proof of its necessity. No power, in fact, could be established, which would at one and the same time prove so firm a defence to the subject, and so stable a support to the executive. A council in the colonies bears many points of resemblance to the House of Lords in this country. It forms that just equipoise between the democratic and supreme powers of the state, which has been found not less necessary to repress the licentiousness of the one, than to curb the tyranny of the other. Besides, it at all times provides a remedy for the inexperience or ignorance of governors; and is a sort of nucleus, round which all new bodies may easily agglomerate. Like a handful of veterans in a newly raised regiment, it will be capable of setting in motion the whole machinery of the government, and establishing with the greatest celerity that organization and discipline which are as requisite in administration as in war. There is but one precaution to be observed in the formation of the council: it is to give the members of it an adequate salary, or in other words to insure the independent and conscientious discharge of the duties of their highly important office.

The expediency of appointing a colonial secretary rests in a great measure on the same grounds as that of creating a council. How can a private secretary, whom every new governor is at present under the necessity of bringing out with him, be capable of entering at once upon the duties of the most complicated and laborious office in the colony? It is evident that a considerable time must unavoidably elapse, before he can acquire, how great soever his abilities, that fund of local information which can alone qualify him for his situation. In the mean while it is ten to one but he becomes the tool of one or other of his clerks, who are for the most part convicts; and thus the principal acts of the governor, which from the confidential nature of his office are necessarily very materially influenced by his advice, may be secretly dictated by persons who possess very little principle or character, and who if they be themselves too insignificant to profit to an extensive degree by the measures of the government, may for a trifling consideration become the agents of richer and more powerful individuals, and the public good be inadvertently sacrificed at the shrine of private avarice or ambition.

The last measure which I consider necessary to the prosperity of this colony is a radical reform in the courts of justice. It has long since been noticed that at the principal settlement and its dependencies, there are five courts, one of criminal and the other four of civil judicature, viz. the criminal court, the governor's court, the supreme court, the court of vice admiralty, the high court of appeals, all of which are held in Sydney, and the lieutenant governor's court, which is held in Hobart Town. The constitution of these various courts has been already explained, and a mere cursory glance at their several jurisdictions, will convince us of the danger and absurdity of their organization. To commence in the order in which I have noticed them, what can be more improper than the constitution of the criminal court? At the time indeed, when this court was instituted, there was a necessity that it should wholly consist of the officers of the colony, since they and convicts were the only two classes of whom it was composed; but even then, what motive existed for excluding the civil officers? Were they either less competent to be members of a court, whose decisions ought to be founded solely on the laws of England, or were they less respectable than the military and naval? The bare appearance of this tribunal has long been odious and revolting to the majority of the colonists. It is disgusting to an Englishman to see a culprit, however heinous may be his offence, arraigned before a court clad in full military costume; nor can it indeed be readily conceived that a body of men, whose principles and habits must have been materially influenced, if not entirely formed, by a code altogether foreign to the laws of this country, should be able on such occasions to divest themselves of the soldier, and to judge as the citizen. Without meaning to impugn the general impartiality and justice of their decisions, it may be easily imagined that _an individual might happen_ to be _traduced_ before a court, of which _all_, or _part_ of the members, might from various causes be _his_ enemies. No one has mixed much in military society, without witnessing that _esprit du corps_ which is so common in regiments, and which, however much it may contribute to their union and happiness, is, in a community of this nature, of the most dangerous tendency to the individual, against whom its collected fury may be levelled. It must be remembered that this colony is not like a country town from whence a regiment may be removed the moment its conduct becomes obnoxious to the inhabitants. There the regiments necessarily remain for many years, and from this very circumstance, disputes of a much more serious and rancorous nature are apt to arise between the inhabitants and the military, than are known in this country. And this observation applies more particularly to the officers and the superior class of the colonists: since the disputes and contests which take place between the lower orders of the inhabitants and the common soldiery, generally arise on the spur of the moment, and evaporate with the immediate cause of the provocation; while the others are more frequently the effect of cool and deliberate insult, and consequently settle into a fixed and inveterate hostility. Under these circumstances, therefore, it is not to be wondered at, that no person should feel himself in perfect security. The respectability of the higher order of the colonists may indeed shield the generality of them from any likelihood of their being ever arraigned before this tribunal; but still it might happen to them to be traduced before a court composed of their bitterest foes, not only on charges of a mixed nature, such as assault, battery, libel, etc. but also on others of a much weightier responsibility. The _probability_ of such a contingency would be still further increased if the governor should happen to have imbibed the same spirit of hostility against the accused, which I have supposed actuating the military. For although the present governor, in order to render the administration of justice as unimpeachable as the nature of this court will allow, has invariably appointed the members of it according to the roaster furnished by the commanding officer of the regiment, his predecessors did not, I believe, invariably observe the same delicacy, nor is it incumbent on his successors to imitate his example. Any person therefore, who may unfortunately become obnoxious to the governor and the officers of the regiment, or indeed any part of them, should he be accused of any offence within the pale of the criminal court, might be thus forced to take his trial before his _selected_ and _implacable_ enemies. In this extremity what could he do to rescue himself from their gripe? He would have no _right_ to _challenge one_ of them; and if the _sanctity_ of an _oath_, and the _dread_ of the _future scorn_ and _detestation_ of mankind, did not _deter_ them from the _commission_ of a _crying_ and _palpable injustice_, his _innocence_, were it as _clear_ as the _noon day_, would _avail_ him _nothing_, and he must _unavoidbly sink_, the _devoted victim_ of _foul conspiracy and deadly revenge_. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the history of the proceedings of this court from the period of its institution, to shew how far the _whole_ or any _part_ of this supposed case may have been in any instance verified. That it _may occur_ is sufficient to _prove_ the _necessity_ for changing the constitution of this court, and to _justify_ the _general anxiety_ which is felt by the colonists for the introduction of that _right_, so dear to the heart of every Englishman, _the trial by jury_. It is this _inestimable privilege alone_ which can _insure_ them the _tranquil enjoyment_ of their _persons_ and _property_, and enable them, while _possessed_ of _conscious integrity of conduct_, to set at _defiance_ the _confederated efforts_ of their _enemies_, and to _despise_ both the _open attacks_ of _power_ and the _secret contrivances of malignity_.

The constitution of the governor's court and of the supreme court, is liable to the same objection. They are both composed of the judges, who have each a vote in their respective courts, and of two members specially appointed by the governor: so that none of those causes of challenge which are held sufficient in this country to disqualify a juror, are of any validity in the courts of this colony. In the governor's court, indeed, the two members are to be appointed from among the respectable inhabitants; but, although the governor himself is the only judge of the measure of their respectability, he could not well avoid selecting them out of that class which in case of the introduction of trial by jury, would have a right from their property and character to be summoned as jurymen. In this court, therefore, an individual in a trial with the crown, would have a much greater chance of obtaining justice than in the supreme court; because the two members of it are to be appointed from the magistracy, and might be selected by the governor from their known zeal and corrupt devotedness to his service. But it is of infinitely greater importance that the decisions of this latter court should be the less exposed of the two to the possibility of bias; because in the former the injury which an individual could sustain from an unjust verdict could only amount to £50, and in the latter it might extend to £3000, and consequently occasion his utter ruin. I limit the injustice which might arise from the very improper constitution of this court to the above sum; because, although it is competent, as I have before stated, to take cognizance of all pleas to any amount whatever, an appeal would lie, from the high court of appeals, whose verdict I here take it for granted, would in all crown causes be confirmatory of the judgment of the inferior court, to the king in council, when the matter in dispute exceeded this sum. Any unjust verdict, therefore, for more than £3000, would of course be reversed in this country; but this is a trifling set-off against the heavy charges to which the court is in other respects liable; since few of the colonists are wealthy enough to be concerned in causes where the matter at issue could attain so great an amount: so that this remedy is quite beyond the reach of the majority of the inhabitants, and they are abandoned to the scourge of oppression, wherever a capricious and overwhelming tyranny may choose to single out its victim. It is highly necessary, therefore, that the constitution of both these courts should undergo an immediate revision, and be so framed as to ensure henceforth the impartial administration of justice to _all_. They are not to be tolerated because they cannot commit a robbery beyond this enormous amount, and because there are some few individuals, whose prosperity is too deeply rooted to be overturned by the malignant fury of vengeful despots. It must be evident that the power of the governor of this colony is sufficiently leviathan, uncontrolled as he is by a council, and possessed as he is of an incontrovertible right to nominate the most obsequious of his creatures as jurymen on all trials, whether of a civil or criminal nature, to endanger the property and life of every individual under his government. Nor should it here be forgotten that there has been a governor who, if the colonists had not arrested him in his iniquitous career of vengeance and despotism, would have hurled death and destruction from one end of the colony to the other. Without the circle of his immediate creatures, with the most favored of whom it is well known that he was in a commercial partnership, every individual who either had attained affluence, or was gradually rising to it, was the object of his hatred or envy. The former he detested, not more because they had no need of his protection, than from fear they should promulgate to the world his nefarious proceedings; the latter because they were absorbing some portion of that wealth, which he wished should flow wholly into the coffers, the contents of which at the division of the spoil he was to have so large a share of. It does not follow, therefore, because his successor has not imitated his base example, because he has surrounded himself with respectable counsellors and a conscientious magistracy, that we should overlook the possibility that his very successor may undermine the whole superstructure which he has been rearing, and become in every respect as great a monster as the wretch who before drove the colonists to desperation and rebellion. Experience is the beacon of past times set up for the guidance of future; and those who shape their course by it, shall avoid striking on the rocks to which it forbids approach. Woe to the pilot who disregards this friendly admonition, and runs on incredulous of the risk. Soon in the midst of surrounding reefs he shall when too late repent his temerity, and wish, that content with the experience of others he had not authenticated by the shipwreck of his hopes, the folly of his incredulity, and the reality of the danger! It is with governments as with individuals. The institutions which have occasioned anarchy and devastation before, will, if persisted in, produce them again. Vile and detestable as have been the monsters of antiquity, the world still contains their parallels; and if they languish in obscurity, if they have not attained a celebrity equally atrocious, it is because they possess not equal facilities for the display of their real character and propensities. Human nature is still the same, and wherever a field is opened for the growth of tyranny, there that poisonous fungus, a tyrant, will shoot up.

But the encouragement which these courts in general hold out for the indulgence of private animosities, and their consequently imperfect adaptation to the administration of justice, are not the only reasons which may be urged for a change in their present organization. The whole of the inhabitants of the various settlements in Van Diemen's Land, are in a great measure placed without the pale of the law. They have, indeed, what is termed the lieutenant governor's court, but as I have already observed, it can only take cognizance of pleas to the amount of fifty pounds, and possesses no criminal jurisdiction whatever. They are consequently left without any internal protection from the spoliations of lawless ruffians, and in a great measure from the scarcelyless pernicious depredations of dishonest creditors. For although they may obtain redress in both instances in the courts established at Port Jackson, nothing but an invincible necessity will propel them to seek so distant and expensive a remedy. The consequence is, that scarcely any but delinquents of the very worst cast, as murderers and housebreakers, are ever brought to trial; for notwithstanding all criminal prosecutions are conducted at the cost of the government, and the witnesses are paid their indispensable expenses from the police fund, still, what with the period that elapses in the voyage to Port Jackson, the delays incident to the courts themselves, and the time that the witnesses must generally wait before they can obtain a passage back again, very few of the persons who are constrained to give evidence on such occasions can possibly manage to resume their domestic occupations under three months. This to a set of men, who are for the most part agriculturists, is too serious a sacrifice of private advantage to public duty; and it is not, therefore, to be wondered at that a general disposition should be manifested by the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land to suffer quietly the depredations that may be committed on their property, rather than incur perhaps the much greater loss attached to the prosecution of the offender. The remedy, which they possess for civil injuries is, indeed, somewhat more palatable, but still far too remote and expensive. The principal reason, indeed, why so many debts and obligations contracted in these settlements, become matter of action before the supreme court at Port Jackson, is to be traced to the satisfaction which results from compelling one who considers himself a privileged plunderer, and at liberty to fatten with impunity on the industrious, to disgorge the wealth of others, which he may have thus sucked. The expence, however, of supporting witnesses at so great a distance from their homes, and the precarious issue of suits in general, induce many creditors to run the risk of voluntary payment at some future period, who would not hesitate to institute actions against their debtors, if there were a competent tribunal within their reach. The want, therefore, of a court possessing an unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, is of the most baneful consequence to these infant settlements. It encourages all species of crimes and dishonesty, strikes at the very root of virtue and religion, and cannot but have a most pernicious effect on the morals of the rising generation.

Such are the leading defects in the actual system of jurisprudence established in this colony; and I think it will not be disputed that a more crude and undigested organization of the colonial courts could hardly have been devised. Whether the judges of these courts have made any representations on the subject to his Majesty's government I am not aware; but I should apprehend not, or surely they would have been remodelled ere this after a more perfect design. To effect this highly important object would be a matter of very great ease: it appears to me that the following measures would amply suffice. 1st, The entire abolition of the actual courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction; 2dly, The creation in their stead of one supreme court, consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges; 3dly. The establishment of trial by jury; and lastly, the creation of a high court of appeals to consist of the governor in council. The sittings of the supreme court should only be held at Sydney, the seat of government; but circuits should be established through-out the different districts of the colony, and of its dependent settlements in Van Diemen's Land, and commissions of assize, of oyer and terminer, and of general gaol delivery should be issued by the governor to the judges at stated periods, and they should determine among themselves their respective circuits. These courts of assize should possess the same power as belongs to similar courts in this country, and in some respects it might be advisable that they should be vested with a still more extensive authority. In the settlements in Van Diemen's Land I am of opinion that no appeal should be allowed from the decisions of the court of assize to the supreme court at Sydney, unless the verdict should exceed three hundred pounds; but it would of course be proper that the judges of this court should possess the power of granting new trials, on the same grounds on _which_ such are accorded in this country. In judgments, however, for more than the above sum an appeal to the supreme court should be admitted.

With respect to the civil jurisdiction of the courts of assize in the various districts belonging to Port Jackson, I think it ought to be considerably curtailed, and that their decision should not be final in any instance whatever; because the removal of causes to the supreme court would be attended with a comparatively trifling expense and inconvenience to the parties. From the judgment of this latter court itself, I am of opinion that an appeal should lie in all causes where the damages might be estimated at more than one thousand pounds to the high court of appeals, and that its decisions should be conclusive in all pleas under the amount of three thousand pounds; but where the matter in dispute exceeded this sum, that an appeal should lie _en dernier resort_ to the king in council. If to these courts were added a court of admiralty, possessing both a civil and criminal jurisdiction, the system of jurisprudence would be quite adequate to all the present necessities of the colony; justice would be brought home to the doors of all his Majesty's subjects in these remote and extended settlements; the delay and expence now attendant on civil and criminal prosecutions, would be in a great measure obviated; and the loyal and industrious would be effectually protected, both from the secret depredations of the midnight plunderer, and from the open dishonesty of the unprincipled debtor: hundreds of indolent and profligate persons who now prey in one way or the other on the hard earned savings of thrift and frugality, would be compelled to resort to the pursuits of industry for a subsistence; vice and immorality would be checked, and the wealth, happiness, and virtue of the community at large rapidly flourish and expand.

Of all the changes or modifications which I have thus ventured to recommend in the polity of this colony, the creation of a council, the appointment of a colonial secretary, and these alterations in the system of its jurisprudence, are the only measures which would be attended with an increase of expence. The establishment of a house of assembly, might of course be effected without any cost whatever, and even the remodelling of the courts of justice would be productive of but a very trifling addition to the scale of the civil establishment. The three judges who at present preside in the various courts, might be transferred to the supreme court, which I have recommended to be substituted in their stead; so that the appointment of one new judge is the principal additional expense of which this reorganization of the courts would be productive. It is true that it would be necessary to place all the puisne judges on the same footing in point of salary, and likewise to appoint an attorney general to act in behalf of the crown, but all this might be liberally accomplished for about six thousand pounds per annum. As to the court of admiralty, the chief justice might be appointed to preside in it, whenever circumstances might require it to be held; but this necessity would occur so seldom that no additional salary need be allowed him on this account. A few barristers would be necessary besides the attorney general, to support the respectability of these courts; but I consider that the practice arising out of them, would be sufficiently extensive to repay a few gentlemen of the bar very liberally for the sacrifices they would make in emigrating to this colony, and that the government need not hold out any pecuniary inducements to effect this object; although it is only four or five years since two attornies were each allowed £300 per annum by way of encouragement for them to go out and practise in the courts at present established there. Since that time, however, two more have voluntarily gone out to the colony without any salary whatever, and have found that there is sufficient litigation without the assisting liberality of the government. An addition therefore of £6000 per annum to the civil establishment of this colony, would effect the great radical reformation in its polity, of which it has been the main object of this essay to prove the wisdom and necessity; while on the other hand, the savings which this country would derive from the adoption of the various alterations proposed, would be found not only in the almost immediate check which would be imposed on the rapidly increasing expenditure of this colony, but also in the great permanent reduction in it, which would be the eventual consequence. The best means of accomplishing these highly important ends shall be the subject of the following section.

On the Means of reducing the Expences of this Colony.

The establishment of a free constitution in the place of the arbitrary authority of an individual, would superinduce so many privileges of which the colonists have hitherto been debarred, that they would not at first be fully sensible of the nature and extent of their new acquisitions. The great facilities which would be presented to agricultural and commercial enterprize, would not at once be generally perceived, or extensively embraced. Industry, though one of the most active principles of human nature, settles when long restrained into a habit of inertion, which cannot be instantly overcome. When the mounds within which this principle has been long confined, are suddenly removed, it will not of itself rush at once into every new channel in its way, and stop only when it has found its own level. It is not like fluids possessed of an inherent elasticity and tendency to motion, but requires a directing impulse to set and continue it in activity, and its activity will then only be in proportion to the power and energy applied. It is not, therefore, to be expected, because the great fundamental changes which I have recommended in the polity of this colony would if adopted, immediately create new sources of profitable occupation, and completely unfetter the long restrained industry and enterprize of its inhabitants, that they are at once to take full advantage of their situation. There is a timidity in man, which though not sufficient to curb the adventurous spirit of his nature, tends materially to check and repress it. This principle alone, therefore, would suffice to prevent the sober and discreet part of the colonists from rushing headlong into the various new avenues of profitable occupation that would be open to them; but there is also in their poverty a still more effectual impediment. Though labour is itself the origin and measure of all wealth, it contributes but little to public or private advantage when left to its own isolated and unconnected efforts. It is only when in a state of union, and when subjected to the controul of a directing intelligence, which can combine its energies, and render them subservient to the attainment of some single end, that it becomes capable of effecting great beneficial results. But this necessary combination of labour can only be maintained by the help of capital; and where such capital does not exist, these great united efforts, the effect of the gradual accumulation of wealth, and the main cause of the prosperity of all ancient and populous communities, cannot be immediately organized and established. This observation in its reference to this colony, it will be seen, bears more particularly on the commercial privileges of which its inhabitants would thus become possessed. These undoubtedly would not be extensively embraced, until a very considerable accumulation of capital should have arisen from the progress and perfection of agriculture. This and manufactures are therefore the only two immediate channels that remain for the absorption of labour and the development of industry. The latter, I have long since endeavoured to prove would never have occupied any share of the attention of the colonists, had those encouragements which the government had at their disposal, been bestowed on the former. The manufacturing system, now so rapidly gaining ground, has been one of the retributive consequences of the short-sighted and illiberal policy of which this unfortunate colony has been so long the victim, and will cease of itself, whenever the existing impediments to the extension of agriculture shall be removed, for the best of all reasons, because no person will select a less profitable undertaking when a more profitable one, and one requiring less skill, capital, and assiduity, lies open to him. Agriculture, therefore, as soon as it shall be freed from its present restraints, will afford the readiest and most accessible channel for carrying off the large accumulation of stagnant labour which at present infests this colony. It is this mass of superfluous labourers, for whom there exists only a fictitious demand, and with whom the government are at present obliged to give a bounty in the shape of clothing and provisions, to induce the settlers to accept their services, that constitutes the main source of the great and increasing expenditure of this colony; and it is to this point alone that all radical and comprehensive schemes of retrenchment must be directed. The impoverished condition of the colonists, to which circumstance alone the expences of the government are mainly attributable, arises from the means of employment not keeping pace with the rapid increase in the population, and yet perhaps there is no community in which equal encouragements to industry are to be found. It has already been stated that within the last six years the population of this colony has actually doubled itself, in other words, it has advanced in this respect with a celerity nearly four times as great as the United States of America,--a country whose rapid numerical increase has been a subject of astonishment to the whole world. It may therefore be perceived that this unparalleled augmentation in the population of this colony, must of itself afford an unprecedented stimulus to agriculture;--a stimulus, perhaps, with which the agricultural progress of any other country could not keep pace. It is well known that Poland, which is the greatest corn country in Europe, and whose whole strength is directed to the pursuits of agriculture, does not export more than one month's consumption of grain for its population. America exports somewhat less, but would be able, without doubt, to export somewhat more, if the collected force of its inhabitants were applied to the raising of corn; yet still neither the one nor the other of these countries would be enabled to support such a rapid increase of population as is taking place in this colony. Such, however, is its fertility that the vast encouragement afforded by this unprecedented augmentation in its numbers (who, it must be recollected, are for the most part adults, and not, as in the case of old established societies, infants, and in consequence not gifted with the full powers of consumption,) so prodigious, I say, is its fertility, that there is far from a sufficient demand for labour. The settlements in Van Diemen's Land alone, on the occasion of the flood which took place in the month of March, 1817, at the Hawkesbury river, the principal agricultural establishment, and where, for the causes I have already explained, the colonists, in most instances, allow their stacks to remain within the influence of these destructive inundations, were able to supply Port Jackson with about twenty thousand bushels of wheat, the whole of which was raised without any probability of a market, and would have perished in the hands of the growers, or at best, have become the food of hogs, had it not been for the great loss of grain occasioned by the overflowing of the above river. It may, therefore, be perceived, that the colonists in Van Diemen's Land raise on the strength of the bare possibility of a flood happening at the principal settlement, very nearly as much corn as is required for their own consumption; and there can be no doubt if their industry was stretched to the utmost point of extension, that they would be enabled to export at least three times as much as they thus casually furnished in the year 1817. The settlements, however, at Port Jackson, cannot pretend to equal fertility of soil, yet even their productive powers are considerably cramped by the want of an adequate market. How this most important object might be effected, and profitable occupation created for all the labour that is now, or may be hereafter disposable in the colony, I have already explained at considerable length; and it is under the presumption that my recommendations on this head will be deemed worthy of adoption, that I shall hereafter submit a plan for gradually diminishing the colonial expenditure.

The readiest way of accomplishing this object would be to abolish at once the system of victualling and clothing the convicts from the king's stores; but this is impracticable and must be done judiciously, and in proportion only to the gradually increasing demand for labour. This mode of retrenchment, indeed, has already been pushed further than circumstances have warranted. The ticket of leave system, by which convicts are permitted to go on their own hands, and administer in any way that they can to their own wants, though first intended as a reward to the really reformed and meritorious convict, has of late years been resorted to as the most efficacious means of lessening the expences of the government. And hence the very end and aim of this colony, the reformation of the lawless gang who are transported to its shores, have been postponed to a paltry saving, unworthy the character of the nation, and subversive in a great measure of the philanthropic intentions with which the legislature were originally actuated. The alarming increase of crime that has taken place within the last few years, is the re-action of this pernicious and mercenary system, which has already been carried to such an extent as to endanger the lives and property of every honest and well disposed inhabitant of the colony. This system, so injurious of itself, has been powerfully seconded by the lax and indiscriminate manner in which convict servants have been assigned to the various settlers. Being in most instances freed or emancipated convicts themselves, many of them possess but little character, and in fact only accept the different indulgences that are held out to colonization, with a view to the immediate profit which they can derive from them, and without any intention of performing the remote conditions which they tacitly or expressly enter into with the government. So long as their servants are victualled and clothed at the cost of the crown, they in general avail themselves fully of their services, but the moment this great indulgence ceases, they generally compound with them, and in consideration of the performance of a stipulated quantity of labour free of expence, grant them an exemption from their employment for the remainder of the year, and consequently, a licence to prowl about the country, and plunder at every convenient opportunity, the honest and deserving part of the community. And although the present governor has taken every step that could be devised for the suppression of this pernicious practice, yet in consequence of the thinly inhabited state of the colony, and the remoteness of the various agricultural settlements from one another, circumstances which prevent the appointment of proper persons to detect and punish such violations of public orders, his efforts have been in a great degree unavailing. He is well aware of the nature of the disease under which the colony is languishing, but he has not the power to administer the only effectual remedy. Create but a sufficient market for the colonial produce, and labour will then become too valuable to be suffered thus to remain in inactivity. It will then and not before be the interest of the settlers to push their servants' exertions to the utmost. The competition that will then exist for the products of labour, will be the best guarantee for its proper application. The method which I am about to submit for the suppression of this alarming state of anarchy and danger, will, it must be confessed, occasion a very considerable immediate addition of expence; but this is necessary to rectify the great and increasing evils of the ticket of leave system, and to insure the honest and laborious colonist that security of person and property which the injudicious extension, within these few years, of this narrow-minded system has so greatly endangered. Without the enjoyment of a full and sufficient protection, the colonists, however enlightened may be the future conduct of their government in other respects, will make but a timid and feeble advance in the various departments of internal industry. A certainty of reaping the fruits of their exertions, is indeed an indispensable preliminary to the resumption of those active habits which have been so long paralyzed, and a recurrence to which is the main stock whereon all _shoots_ of future retrenchment must be engrafted. Under a hope, therefore, that an internal legislature, which I again insist can alone fully provide for the present and future necessities of this colony will be established, I venture to propose the following plan for eventually diminishing the scale of its expenditure:

First, That the ticket of leave system, except in as far as its continuance may be really essential to the promotion of good conduct in the convicts, should be abolished.

Secondly, That the ticket of leave men, and all the convicts now in the service of individuals, whether victualled and clothed at the expence of the crown or not, should be called in and re-assigned, either to their present masters or to others, and that these should be allowed with them the premium hereafter to be named; but that they should be previously in every instance required to give security to the government, that such convict servants should not on any account be permitted to be absent from their respective employments.

Thirdly, That instead of the present mode of victualling and clothing the convicts from the king's stores, the settlers should be allowed a stipulated premium with them, one fifth less than the actual cost of maintaining them, and that this premium should diminish one fifth yearly from the date of the changes in the colonial polity, which have been recommended.

Fourthly, That the price now directed to be paid convict servants for their extra time, should be reduced from £10 in the men, to £5; and from £7 to £3 10s. in the women: and that this reduction should be subtracted from the amount of the above premium, and carried to the credit of the government.

Fifthly, That all such convicts as may arrive in the colony within the five years next ensuing the above period, other than those who may be required for the government works, should be in like manner assigned to deserving applicants, with the decreased premium of the year in which they may arrive.

Sixthly, That at the expiration of the above period of five years, the whole of the government works which are now for the most part carried on by convicts, victualled and clothed from the king's stores, should be performed by contract.

Seventhly, That the utmost encouragement should be held out by the government to the emigration of wealthy individuals to the colony; and that with a view to effect this object, not only a passage should be furnished them free of expence in the various transports, which are annually sent thither, but that also the quantity of land to be hereafter granted them, should be increased in proportion to their capital, from eight hundred acres (the present customary grant) up to five thousand.

Lastly, That the unappropriated lands most eligibly situated for the purposes of colonization, should be surveyed and marked out into sections, each containing one square mile, or six hundred and forty acres; that each of these sections should be again subdivided into four parts; that thirty-six of these sections should as in America form a township; that at stated periods the lands so surveyed should be set up to auction, and sold to the best bidder, provided the price offered for them should exceed one dollar per acre; if not, that they should be retained until they could be sold for such price at some subsequent period; that the same credit should be given for the purchase of these lands as is given in America, and the same discount on ready money; and that the amount of such sales should go to the Police Fund, and be employed in defraying the expences of the colony.

The object of the foregoing propositions must be too evident from the preliminary remarks which I have made, to need any extended illustration; nevertheless, it may not be altogether inexpedient to say a few words in further explanation of them to such persons as have bestowed no portion of their attention on the circumstances and situation of this colony. The first, second, and third articles speak for themselves. The remedy here proposed for the alarming evils, which I have so copiously traced to the causes of their origin and continuance, will certainly occasion the government for the next five years a very great additional expence; but after the most mature reflection on the present impoverished state of this colony, and the deeply rooted habits of idleness and vice, which a fifteen years' deprivation of the most important civil and political rights has occasioned, I can devise none besides that could be applied with any probability of effecting a radical and permanent cure. The arrangement recommended in the third article, I mean the substitution of a premium for the present mode of clothing and victualling the convicts, would be highly favourable to the agricultural interests, both by limiting to the cultivators of the soil, the supply of the food consumed by their servants, and by sparing them the trouble and expence of sending their carts for it to the king's stores, an exemption which would be attended with a considerable saving to such of them as inhabit districts remote from the towns: it would also be a source of economy to the government, by enabling them to make a great reduction in the commissariat department. The only objection I can anticipate to this article, is, that it fixes an arbitrary rate of reduction on the premium to be allowed the settlers with the convicts; and that this rate may prove greater than the advance which the colony may make in the various avenues of internal industry. This may possibly be the case, although I consider the period I have named sufficiently protracted to allow the colonists due time to ascertain the nature and extent of their newly acquired privileges, and to profit by them. If, however, it were practicable, it would certainly be more eligible that they themselves should become the arbiters of the abatement which should annually take place in the premium to be given with the convicts. I do not, however, well know how this desideratum could be effected, unless the grand juries during the circuit of the courts in the different districts, could be empowered to inquire into and determine the increase that may take place in the demand for labour, and regulate the price of it, or in other words the premium to be given with it accordingly. To detract as far as possible from the increased expence which would follow the adoption of the measures recommended in the first, second, and third articles, is the object of the fourth. By making the abatement here proposed in the amount of the wages now directed to be paid by the settlers to their convict servants, and carrying it to the credit of the government, an immediate saving of £5 per man, and £3 10s. per woman would be effected. And if the calculation be accurate that each male convict victualled and clothed at the expence of the crown costs £18, and each female £12 10s. it will be seen that above one fourth more might be supported by the government in the manner here recommended, and that likewise a fifth might be annually added to the number, without occasioning any increase whatever in the colonial expenditure. The weight too of this mode of retrenchment would not fall on the settler, and by operating as a check to agriculture perhaps prolong the period when the various departments of industry will be enabled to absorb the large mass of labour which is annually regurgitated on the shores of this colony, but on the convicts themselves, to whose reformation indeed, (the primary object of its foundation) it is essential that every incentive to the renewal of their ancient disorderly and profligate habits should be withdrawn. Even with this diminished scale of wages, the situation of the convicts would be far preferable to that of the labouring class in this country. £2 10s. to the men, and £1 10s. to the women, would then remain, independently of their food and clothing, which is surely quite sufficient for the "_menus plaisirs_" of a set of persons who are supposed to be smarting under the lash of the law. Article fifth needs no explanation. Article sixth, contemplates the saving that might be effected in the public works of the government, by exchanging at the expiration of the period, when the bounty to be allowed to settlers with convicts shall cease, the present mode of carrying them on by a body of men, victualled and clothed at the expence of the crown, for the more economical plan of contracting for them with the lowest bidder. I limit the commencement of this method of retrenchment to the above period, because so long as a necessity exists for giving a bounty with convicts, there can be no doubt that it would be judicious for the government to profit as far as possible by the labour of persons whom even in the employment of individuals, they would be in a great measure obliged to support. But the moment this necessity shall cease, it is equally indubitable that a considerable saving might be effected by carrying on the public works by contract. Where a body of fourteen or fifteen hundred convicts are employed under the superintendence of the most active and upright man, there will always be a system of idleness and plunder, which his assiduity will never be able entirely to baffle. Out of the immense number of minor agents on whose intelligence and integrity he would be obliged to place a considerable degree of dependence, it is not readily to be believed, however great may be his activity and discrimination, that he would not be frequently deceived, and that those very men on whom he most relied to suppress the dishonest inclinations of others, would not themselves occasionally profit by the facilities to plunder and peculation, which the confidence they enjoyed might throw in their way. That such is, and always has been the case in this colony, no person at all conversant with its real state, can have any hesitation in asserting; and consequently that the substitution of contracts in the place of the present mode of conducting the public works, would become a very important source of economy at the period in question. Article the seventh, is intended to encourage emigration to the colony, and to turn to its shores some portion of the immense numbers who are annually withdrawing from this country to the United States of America. It appears almost inexplicable how the government can look on, and behold the thousands who are propelled by various causes to quit their native land, and not make some vigorous efforts, if not to check this strong tide of emigration, at least to divert it to our colonies, where in general it is so much required, and might become of such immense and permanent utility to the empire. It is true that of those who thus abandon the land of their forefathers, many are actuated by political animosities, and could not by any means be induced to settle in any of our colonies. But it is not less certain that there are others, and that the majority are of this class, whom mere distress and inability to provide for the growing wants of their families, unalloyed with any political feelings whatever, most reluctantly drive to seek an asylum in America, and who deeply lament the necessity of betaking themselves to a country where they and their children may one day be compelled to draw their paricidal swords against the mother that gave them birth. It cannot indeed be denied that the government to prevent this horrible alternative, have for a long time held out considerable encouragements to persons emigrating to Canada; but besides that the policy of thus peopling at so considerable an expence a country which in the natural course of events must become an integral member of the American union, is at least questionable, it is well known that three-fourths of those who are thus induced to settle in Canada, end by removing to the United States. The intense severity of the winters, and the unavoidable suspension of the pursuits of agriculture during six months in the year, with the habits and language of the Canadians, so repulsive and annoying to the generality of Englishmen, sufficiently account for this circumstance, without taking into computation the superior advantages of climate and soil which the greater part of the United States is represented as possessing. If the impolicy, therefore, of encouraging emigration to Canada be disputed, still the inefficiency of the means employed to attain the end contemplated by the government ought to decide them to try some other expedient to prevent so large a stock of British industry and capital from thus adding to the resources of a nation, who is already the most formidable, as she is the most rancorous on the list of our enemies. No measure, perhaps, that could be adopted would tend so effectually to the accomplishment of this object, as holding out the great encouragement specified in this article to all such as may settle in this colony. Possessed as it is of a most salubrious and diversified climate, fertile soil, and unbounded extent of territory, it evidently contains every requisite for the formation of a great and flourishing community; and whenever it shall be blessed with a free government will offer much greater facilities for the development of industry and the acquisition of wealth, than are to be found in the United States. Until the colony, however, shall possess this fundamental privilege, every attempt of the government to divert the current of emigration thither from America must prove in a great measure unavailing. A free constitution is the first want of those who have known the blessings of one; and no prospects of profit to an honourable and independent mind can compensate for its loss. There can be little doubt, therefore, that as soon as this indispensable preliminary to general emigration shall be granted, thousands of persons will embark for this colony, and continue to contribute to the wealth and power of their native country, who would otherwise become citizens of her most formidable and inveterate rival.

The adoption also of the measures here recommended, would have a sensible effect in diminishing the expenditure of this colony; and would amply compensate for any loss which the government might sustain by affording settlers a passage thither, free of expence, in the transports. I commenced this section by an attempt to prove that the great immediate hindrance to the employment of the large mass of unoccupied labour in the various new departmeuts of internal industry that will be created by the establishment of a free government, will arise from the want of capital; and the premium I have recommended to be granted with convicts for the first five years ensuing the proposed change in the colonial polity, is intended to impart an _artificial_ vigour into the community, and to allow of that accumulation of wealth, which may afterwards suffice of itself to keep in solution all the disposable labour of the colony. Every accession, therefore, of capital that may take place, will contribute to swell the colonial stock to that extent which is necessary for the complete occupation of the convicts, and thus become the means of accelerating the period when the government will be entirely emancipated from the necessity of allowing the settlers a bounty with them.

The last article scarcely needs any explanation. Whenever that extensive emigration of capitalists which I confidently anticipate would follow the establishment of a free government shall take place, the sale of the crown lands would evidently become a source of considerable profit, and would go a long way towards defraying the expences of the colony. It would also be the means of bringing numbers of rich speculators thither, who wonld not think of emigrating even for the increased indulgences which I have recommended in the foregoing article. A man of fortune would then be enabled to vest his money in land to the exact extent that he might desire; whereas at present, he must either be content with the portion assigned him, or else purchase by _dribblets_ the _farms_ that may become vacant in the vicinity of his estate, and after all perhaps, be annoyed by having the possessions of others in the midst of his own. It is true that individuals, who do not possess sufficient land for the support of their flocks and herds, are allowed to feed them on the unappropriated lands, and can therefore increase their stock to any extent they may please. But the rapid progress of colonization places the crown lands every day at a greater distance from the original settlements, and occasions a constant necessity for receding, so that at last that part of his stock which the farmer cannot feed at home is gradually removed to an inconvenient distance, and no longer can have the benefit of his personal superintendence. With men of capital, therefore, the class of whom it has been seen that the colony is most in need, this sale of the crown lands at half the price which is demanded for land in America, would prove a very powerful stimulus to emigration, and would consequently have a twofold operation in diminishing the expenditure of this colony; viz. by filling the coffers of the Police Fund, and by occasioning that accession of capital, which I have before shewn to be essential before the government can be freed from the burden of supporting the convicts.

On the Advantages which the Colony offers for Emigration.

After the gloomy picture which I have drawn of the actual condition of the colony; after having represented both its agricultural and commercial interests as being already not only in a state of impair, but also of increasing dilapidation and ruin, it may appear somewhat paradoxical that I should attempt to wind up the account with an enumeration of the advantages which it holds out to emigration. If due consideration, however, be given to the nature of the ingredients of which the agricultural body is composed; if it be recollected that it consists principally of persons, who have been since their earliest years habituated to every sort of vice and debauchery; of persons bred up in cities, and unacquainted with the arts of husbandry, who had, therefore, to contend against the combined force of an inveterate propensity to the profligate indulgences of their _ancient_ mode of life, and of utter ignorance of the laborious occupations and thrifty arts of their _new_: I say if all these serious impediments to success be impartially weighed, it will be seen that the _anomaly_ is rather _apparent_ than _real_. Nevertheless I do not mean to imply that this colony or its dependencies, present at this moment any very flattering prospects for the _mere agriculturist_. That the _skilful farmer_ would be enabled to obtain an _independent_ and _comfortable subsistence_ is, however, _indubitable_; and the larger his family, provided they were of sufficient age to afford him an effectual co-operation, the greater would be his chance of a successful establishment. Hundreds of this laborious class of people, who in spite of unremitting toil and frugality, find themselves every day getting behind-hand with the world, would undoubtedly better their condition by emigrating to this colony, if there were only a probability that they would be enabled to go on from day to day as they are doing here. In this country they are at best but _tenants_ of the soil they cultivate; whereas there they would be _proprietors_, and the _mere advance_ which would be taking place in the value of their farms, would before many years not only render them _independent_ but even _wealthy_. Of the truth of this assertion, we shall be fully convinced by referring to the price of land on the banks of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, the only parts which can be said to be even tolerably colonized. It has already been stated that as far as the river Hawkesbury is navigable, the unimproved land is worth five pounds per acre, and improved land double this amount. This land was at first of no value whatever; because in the infancy of societies, so long as there is an unlimited scope of land of the first quality, which any one may occupy as far as his occasions require, it is evident that there would be no purchasers; since it is absurd to imagine that any one would buy that which he could obtain for nothing. It is only, as Mr. Ricardo has demonstrated, when land of an inferior quality is brought into cultivation, and when the difference in the produce of the two sorts gives the occupier of the one a superiority over the occupier of the other, and renders it as eligible for a person to cultivate land of the first description as a tenant, and to pay the proprietor the difference of produce by way of rent, as to be himself the proprietor of land of the second description; or when the situation of the different appropriated tracts of land does not admit of the conveyance of their produce to market at an equal cost; and thus again gives the owners of those farms which are more contiguous, an advantage over the owners of those which are more remote: I say it is only when societies have made that progress, which begets one or other of these contingencies, or both, that land is of any value whatever. In the course, therefore, of thirty-one years, the tract of land in question, taking the unimproved part as our criterion, since the improvements made in that portion of it, which is in a state of cultivation, may be considered tantamount to the difference in value between the one and the other, has evidently risen to this enormous price, from having been of no worth whatever: or in other words, each acre of land has increased in value during the interval that has elapsed since the foundation of the colony at the rate of 3s. 2 1/2d. per annum; and this too under the most impolitic and oppressive system, to which any colony, perhaps, was ever subjected. How much greater then, will be the future rise in the value of landed property, if, as there is now every reason to hope from the attention which the government are at this moment paying to the state of this colony, the whole of the disabilities under which its inhabitants have been so long groaning, should at length be abandoned? Without taking at all into the estimate the immediate amelioration which a radical change in the polity of this colony, would occasion in the condition of the agricultural body; without depending on the probability that it will soon be in the power of the laborious and frugal settler to rise rapidly to wealth and independence; it must be evident that the mere increase which is yearly taking place in the value of landed property, affords of itself the strongest inducement to emigration; since if it does not hold out to the industrious man the prospect of acquiring immediate wealth, it relieves him from all apprehensions for his family, should a premature destiny overtake himself. He at least knows that every succeeding year will be augmenting in a rapid manner the value of his farm, and that the same spot which administers to his and their present wants, cannot fail to suffice for their future. This is of itself a most consolatory prospect; it at all events prevents the present good from being embittered with any dread of future evil; it permits the industrious man the tranquil enjoyment of the fruits of his labours, and rescues him from the necessity of hoarding up against the approach of gathering calamity, against the stormy season of impending poverty.

The amelioration, that would take place in the condition of the mere labourer, who should emigrate to this colony, without funds adequate to the formation of an agricultural establishment, would not be so considerable. Still there can be no doubt that the honest and industrious man would always be able to provide for himself and his family a sufficiency of food and clothing; comforts which with his utmost endeavours he can hardly obtain in this country without having recourse to parochial relief. He would, therefore, at all events emancipate himself from this humiliating,--this demoralizing necessity; for although there is confessedly a greater portion of labour in the colony than can at present be maintained in activity, any person who might emigrate thither voluntarily would easily find employment, when those who are, or have been under the operation of the law would seek for it in vain. A good character is a jewel of greater value there than in this country, because it is more difficult to be met with; and consequently all the advantages which it procures its possessor in the one place, it will insure him at least in a two-fold measure in the other.

The colony offers very little encouragement to the manufacturer. The manufacturing interests are not at present in the most prosperous situation; and if the government should, as there is every probability, at length adopt those measures which are called for by every consideration of justice and expediency, a few years will annihilate them entirely. To this class therefore, with reference both to the proprietor and workman, a removal to this colony would undoubtedly be prejudicial.

For the artisan and mechanic, who are skilled in the works of utility, rather than of luxury, there is, as it has been already remarked, no part of the world, perhaps, which affords an equal chance of success. To any, therefore, who have the means of transporting themselves and families to this colony, the removal would be in the highest degree advantageous. They could not fail to find immediate employment, and receive a more liberal return for their labour, than they would be able to procure elsewhere. The blacksmith, carpenter, cooper, stone-mason, brick-layer, brick-maker, wheel and plough-wright, harness-maker, tanner, shoe-maker, taylor, cabinet-maker, ship-wright, sawyer, etc. etc. would very soon become independent, if they possessed sufficient prudence to save the money which they would earn. For the master artisan and mechanic, the prospect of course is still more cheering; since the labour they would be enabled to command would be proportioned to the extent of their capital.

The advantages, however, which the colony offers to this class of emigrants, _great_ as they undoubtedly are, when considered in an isolated point of view, are absolutely of _no weight_ when placed in the balance of comparison against those which it offers to the capitalist, who has the means to embark largely in the breeding of fine woolled sheep. It may be safely asserted that of _all_ the _various openings_ which the world at this moment affords for the _profitable investment_ of money, there is not _one equally inviting_ as this _single channel_ of _enterprize_ offered by the colony. The proof of this assertion I shall rest on a calculation so plain and intelligible, as I hope to be within the scope of the comprehension of all. Before we proceed, however, it is necessary to settle a few points, as the data on which this calculation is to be founded; viz. the value of wool, the weight of the fleece, and the number of sheep to be kept in a flock. With regard to the value of the wool grown in this colony, the last importations of the best quality averaged five shillings and sixpence per pound in the fleece. This was sold last month; [March, 1819] and as the market was at that time overcharged, and as moreover the best description of wool yet produced in this colony, is far from having attained the perfection of which it is capable, and which a few more crosses with the pure breed will undoubtedly effect in it, it may be safely concluded, that this is the lowest price at which this sort of wool will ever be sold. This will be more evident, if we contemplate the gradual rise in value, which the wool from the same gentleman's flocks has been experiencing during the last four years. In 1816, it was sold for 2s. 6d. per pound in the fleece; in March, 1818, for 3s. 6d. per pound; in July, 1818, for 4s. 4d. per pound; and in March, 1819, for 5s. 6d. per pound in the fleece. For some of this last quantity of wool, properly sorted and washed, Mr. Hurst of Leeds was offered 9s. per pound, and refused it. To take the future average price of wool at 5s. 6d. per pound, is, therefore, forming an estimate, which in all probability will fall far short of the truth. However, let this be one of our data; and let us allow three pounds, which is also an estimate equally moderate, as the average weight of each fleece. The weight of a yearling's fleece may be taken at three quarters of a pound, and the value of the wool at 2s. 9d. per pound. The number of ewes generally kept in a flock by the best breeders are about 330, and we will suppose that the emigrant has the means of purchasing a flock of this size of the most improved breed: this with a sufficient number of tups may be had for £1000. These points being determined, let us now proceed to our calculation.

[Table not included in this text version--see html version. Ed.]

It would be useless to prosecute this calculation, since any person who may be anxious to ascertain its further results, may easily follow it up himself. It will be seen that with the most liberal allowances for all manner of expenses, casualties and deteriorations, capital invested in this channel will yield the first year an interest of 13½ per cent. besides experiencing itself an increase of nearly 24 per cent.; that the second year it will yield an interest of nearly 25 per cent. besides experiencing itself a further increase of rather more than 37½ per cent.; and that the third year it will yield an interest of nearly 37 per cent. besides experiencing itself an additional increase of about 42½ per cent. or, in other words, money sunk in the rearing of sheep in this colony will, besides paying an interest of about 75½ _per cent_. in the _course_ of _three years_, _rather more than double itself_. Here then is a mode of investing capital by which the proprietor may insure himself not only an annual interest, the ratio of which would augment every year in the most astonishing progression, but by which the capital itself also would experience an advance still more rapid and extraordinary. Any person, therefore, who has the means of embarking in this speculation, could not fail with common attention to realize a large fortune in a few years. His chance of so doing would be still greater if he should happen to be acquainted with the management of sheep; but this is by no means an _indispensable_ qualification; for such is the fineness of the climate, both in the settlements in New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, that all those precautions which are necessary to be observed in this country, in order to shelter this animal from the inclemency of the seasons, are there, quite superfluous: sheds, indeed, are not only useless, but injurious; the flocks never do so well as when they are continually exposed to the weather. It is only necessary that the folds should be shifted every other day, or if the sheep are kept by night in yards, to take care that _these_ are daily swept out.

The extent to which capital might thus be invested is boundless; since if the breeder did not possess as much land as would feed the number of sheep that he might wish to keep, he would only have to send his flocks beyond the limits of colonization, and retire with them as the tide of population approached. His hurdles, and the rude huts or tents of his shepherds, might always be removed with very little difficulty and expense; and if his and his neighbours' flocks should happen to come into contact, such is the immensity of the wilderness which would lie before him, that he might exclaim in the language of Abram to Lot: "Let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herds-men; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before us? Separate thyself I pray thee from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." Such, should any of these disputes occur, might always be their amicable termination. There is, and will be for ages to come, whatever may be the extent of emigration, more land than can possibly be required. The speculation, therefore, of growing wool can meet with no checks from the want of pasturage in the colony, and it is equally improbable that it can be impeded by the want of a market in this country. It is well known that the Saxon wool cannot be sold under the present prices without loss to the growers. The severity of the climate of Saxony, renders it indispensable for the sheep-holders to take a variety of precautions which are not only useless in this colony, but would even prove highly detrimental to the constitution of this valuable animal. In the former country, the flocks are kept almost invariably in sheds of a very costly construction both by day and night, and are fed almost wholly upon hay; in the latter, they are always better when kept in the open air and fed on the spontaneous herbage of the forest. The mildness of the seasons, therefore, spares the colonists two immense sources of expence, and will without doubt in the end, enable them to undersell and ruin the Saxon wool growers; since the only point of superiority these latter can pretend to is their greater contiguity to the market, and this, in consequence of the extreme value of the commodity, is of too trifling import to demand consideration. The freight of wool from the colony, has already been reduced to three pence per pound, which is very little more than is paid for the transport of wool from Saxony; and all the other expences, with the exception of insurance, as brokerage, store-room, etc. are precisely the same. Upon these grounds, therefore, I am contented to rest the support of my assertion, that the world does not at present contain so advantageous, and I might also add, so extensive an opening for the investment of capital as the one in question.

With reference to the commercial prospects presented by this colony, they are certainly much more limited, but still of very considerable scope. The extraordinary fluctuations which are incessantly taking place in the prices of all sorts of merchandize, are evidently capable of being turned to great account by a skilful and cool calculator. Any person of this character possessed of sufficient capital to enable him to buy goods when the market should happen to be in a state of depression, and to keep them in his store till the glut should pass by, could not fail to realize a rapid fortune. The only event that could prevent his success, would be an imprudent avidity. If he should be once tempted to go out of his depth, so that he would be compelled to sell whether at gain or loss, in order to make good his payments, he would most probably sink never more to rise. But if he would never speculate beyond the compass of his actual means, he might easily clear fifty per cent. per annum on the amount of his trading capital.

Were I asked to particularize any avenue of industry not strictly included in any of the foregoing general classes, in which persons inclined to emigrate to this colony, might embark with a fair chance of success, I should say that any one who had the means of taking out a steam engine of six or eight-horse-power with the requisite machinery for sawing boards, would make it answer his purposes very well; that a timber merchant also, possessing a capital of three or four thousand pounds, might employ his funds very advantageously by establishing a timber yard; and that a skilful brewer who could command five thousand pounds and upwards, would succeed either at Sydney or Hobart Town. It would be necessary, however, that he should understand the process of making malt, since there are no regular maltsters yet in the colony, and that he should also grow his own hops.* Until, therefore, he had established a hop plantation sufficient for his concern it would be requisite that he should make arrangements to be supplied with hops from this country. There are already several breweries in New South Wales, but the beer which is made in them is so bad, that many thousand pounds worth of porter and ale imported from this country, is annually consumed in these settlements. This is in some measure occasioned by the inferiority of the barley grown at Port Jackson; but more, I am inclined to believe, by the want of skill in the brewers. If the indifferent quality of the beer, however, be attributable to the badness of the barley, this impediment to success would be removed by emigrating to Van Diemen's Land; since the barley raised in both the settlements in this island is equal to the best produced in this country. I should also say, that the skilful dairyman who could take out with him a capital of from one to two thousand pounds, would do well in any of these settlements, but more particularly in New South Wales. Butter, as it has been already remarked, is still as high as 2s. 6d. per pound, notwithstanding the immense increase which has taken place in the black cattle. The extreme dearness of this article arises principally from the natural grasses not being sufficiently nutritive to keep milch cattle in good heart, and from the colonists not having yet got into the proper method of providing artificial food. Any one, therefore, who would introduce the dairy system practised in this country, could hardly fail of finding his account in it.

[* The hop thrives very well at Port Jackson: there are several flourishing plantations owned by the brewers. This plant has not, I believe, yet been introduced into the southern settlements; but as they bear a much greater affinity to this country in point of climate than Port Jackson, no doubt can be entertained that it might at least be cultivated there with equal certainty of success.]

These various advantages which this colony and its dependencies offer for emigration, have many points of superiority over any to which the United States of America can lay claim; if we even admit the truth of all that the most enthusiastic admirers of that country have written, respecting its flourishing condition. Mr. Birbeck*, whose "Letters," if not "Notes," contain strong marks of an exaggerated anticipation of their resources and capabilities, has not, though evidently under the influence of feelings quite incompatible with a correct and disinterested judgment, ventured to rate his imaginary maximum of the profit to be derived from farming in the Illinois, (which appears to be the principal magnet of attraction possessed by the United States,) so high as I have proved by a calculation, to which I defy any one to attach the character of hyperbolical, that the investment of capital in the growth of fine wool in this colony will infallibly produce. This too, although certainly the most inviting and extensive channel of enterprize which it contains, is not its only ground of preference: it has many temptations besides for emigration, of which the United States are wholly destitute: among these the following are perhaps the most considerable.

[* See Mr. Cobbett's Letter to Mr. Birbeck on his "Letters from the Illinois."]

First, Any person of respectability upon emigrating to this colony, is given as much land as would cost him four hundred pounds in the United States.

Secondly, He is allowed as many servants as he may require; and the wages which he is bound to pay them, are not one third the amount of the price of labour in America.

Thirdly, He, his family and servants, are victualled at the expence of the government for six months.

These are three considerations of great importance to the emigrant, and quite peculiar to this colony: added to which the value of the produce of this gratuitous land and labour is three times as great as in the Illinois, as will be seen by a comparison of the prices of produce there as given by Messrs. Birbeck and Fearon, and the prices of similar produce as stated in the first part of this work. It is true that there is not the same unlimited market as in America; but it must be evident, that, if the price of labour were even equal, the colonist who could dispose of one third of his crops, would be in a better condition than if he were established in the Illinois, and could find vent for the whole. The market, however, has never been circumscribed to this degree in periods of the greatest abundance; and the immense arrivals of convicts, that have been daily taking place for the last three years, have increased the consumptive powers of the colony so considerably, that there has at most been but a very trifling surplus in the barns of the farmers at the close of the year. On the other hand, all articles of foreign growth and manufacture are in general much cheaper than in the Illinois, and the other remote parts of the American Union, provided the purchaser has ready money, and is not under the necessity of having recourse to secondary agents for goods on long credit.

Here, then, are many powerful reasons why persons bent on emigration should prefer this colony to America. The only point is whether the latter can throw any weightier arguments into the opposite _scale_. What may be urged on the other side of the question, may, I apprehend, be comprised under these two heads: first, the greater contiguity of the United States to this country, and the consequent ease and cheapness with which emigration thither may be effected; and, secondly, the superiority of their government.

The first of these points merits very little consideration, except in the instance of those who have not the means of choosing between the two countries. If a person only possess the power of removing to that which is the more contiguous, eligibility is out of the question: he is no longer a free agent. But the difference in the cost of emigrating is far from being so considerable as might be imagined on a mere view of their comparative distances from this country. I understand that a gentleman of great experience and respectability in the commercial world, has presented a calculation to the committee of the House of Commons, which is now occupied with an inquiry into the state of this colony, from which it appears that a family, consisting of a man, his wife and two children, with five tons for their accommodation and for the reception of their baggage, might emigrate to the colony for one hundred pounds, inclusive of every contingent expense, provided a sufficient number of families could be collected to freight a ship. The same gentleman calculates that a single man might be taken out thither for thirty pounds.* The difference, therefore, in the mere cost of emigrating to the two places is so trifling, that the superior locality of the one cannot be admitted as any sort of set off against the superior advantages of the other. With respect, however, to the last plea, that has been adduced in favour of emigration to the United States, the superiority which they possess in a free government, it must be admitted, that this is a decisive ground of preference, and a blessing to which the greatest pecuniary advantages cannot be considered a sufficient counterpoise. And if it be imagined that the present arbitrary system of government is not drawing to a conclusion; if it be apprehended that it has not yet reached its climax of oppression and iniquity, and that it will be enforced until all who are within the sphere of its influence are reduced to a state of moral degradation and infamy, and the colony becomes one vast stye of abomination and depravity; the emigrant will do well to discard from his mind every mercenary consideration, and to turn away with disgust from all prospects of gain; so long as they are only to be realized by entering into so contagious and demoralizing an association. But if he believe that the hour is at hand when the present system is to be abolished; when oppression is to be hurled from the car in which it has driven triumphantly over prostrate justice, virtue, and religion; and when the dominion of right and morality is to be asserted and established; then I have no hesitation in recommending him to give a preference to this colony. In the agonies of approaching dissolution, the efforts of tyranny will be feeble and impotent. Moral corruption, though the inevitable result of a voluntary submission to the will, is not the consequence of an indignant and impatient sufferance of its rule for a season; and the chance of personal injury would be still more precarious and uncertain. Under the most arbitrary governments the vengeance of the despot has seldom been known to extend beyond the circle of his court; his victims have been among the ambitious candidates for power and distinction. The retired pursuits of unobtrusive industry have proved a sanctuary, which has remained inviolate in all ages.

[* See a calculation in the Appendix made by an eminent merchant in the city; from which it appears that a single man, on the ration allowed sailors on board of a king's ship, might be conveyed to the colony at a still cheaper rate.]

"The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel, To men remote from pow'r but rarely known, Leave reason, faith, and conscience all our own."

APPENDIX.

Civil Establishment, and Public Institutions in the Territory of New South Wales and its Dependencies.

Seat of Government, Sydney.

* * *

Captain General, Governor in Chief, Vice Admiral, and Commander of the Forces, His Excellency Lachlan Macquarie, Esq. Major General in the Army, and Lieutenant Colonel of the 73d Regiment.

* * *

Lieutenant Governor--James Erskine, Esq. Lieutenant Colonel of the 48th Regiment.

Aid-de-Camp to his Excellency the Governor, John Watts, Lieutenant in the 46th Regiment.

Major of Brigade--Henry Colden Antill, Captain in the 73d Regiment.

* * *

_High Court of Appeals_.

Judge--His Excellency the Governor in Chief.

Secretary--John Thomas Campbell, Esq.

Clerk--Michael Robinson, Gent.

Door-keeper--Serjeant Charles Whalan, of the 46th Regiment.

* * *

_Court of Vice Admiralty_.

Judge--John Wylde, Esq. L. L. B.

Registrar--John Thomas Campbell, Esq.

Clerk to the Registrar--Mr. Michael Robinson.

Marshal--William Gore, Esq.

Cryer--Mr. Edward Quin.

* * *

_The Governor's Court_.

The Honorable the Judge Advocate and Premier Judge of this Territory--John Wylde, Esq. L. L. B.

Members--Two Inhabitants of the Territory, specially appointed by Precept from His Excellency the Governor and Commander of the Forces.

Clerk, and Registrar of the Court--Joshua J. Moore, Gent.

Cryer--Mr. Edward Quin.

* * *

And it is to be noted, that this Court has cognizance of all pleas, where the amount sued for does not exceed 501. sterling (except such pleas as may arise between party and party, in Van Diemen's Land); and from its decisions there is no appeal.

* * *

_The Supreme Court_.

The Honorable the Judge--Barron Field, Esq.

Members--Two Magistrates of the Territory, appointed by Precept from His Excellency the Governor.

Clerk of the Supreme Court--Mr. John Gurner.

Cryer--Mr. Edward Quin.

Solicitors--Mr. Thomas Wylde; Mr. William Henry Moore; Mr. Frederick Garling; Mr. T. S. Amos.

* * *

_Secretary's Office_.

Secretary--John Thomas Campbell, Esq.

Principal Clerk Michael Robinson, Gent.

Second ditto--Mr. Charles Reid.

Assistant Clerks--Mr. James Sumpter; Mr. Thomas Ryan.

* * *

_Commissariat Staff_.

Deputy Commissary General--David Allan, Esq.

Assistant Commissary General--John Palmer, Esq. Parramatta;

Acting Assistant Commissary General--W. Broughton, Esq. Hobart Town;

Deputy Assistant Commissary General--P. G. Hogan, Esq.

Acting Ditto--Thomas Archer, Esq. Port Dalrymple.

Clerks on the Commissariat Staff--Mr. E. Hobson, Parramatta; Mr. A. Allan, Sydney; Mr. R. Fitzgerald, Windsor; Mr. George Johnston, Sydney.

Principal Assistant Clerk--Mr. T. W. Middleton.

Storekeepers--Mr. W. Scott, Sydney; Mr. S. Larken, Parramatta; Mr. John Tucker, Newcastle; Mr. R. Dry, Port Dalrymple; Mr. John Gowen, Liverpool; Mr. John Rayner, Hobart Town.

Assistant Clerks--Mr. John Flood, Mr. E. J. Yates, Mr. John Rickards, Mr. J. Hankinson, Mr. George Smith, Mr. C. Sommers, Mr. N. Edgworth, Mr. C. Bridges, Mr. W. Todhunter, Mr. Richard Walker, Mr. Todd Watson--at Sydney.

Mr. J. Obee, at Parramatta--Mr. B. Rix, at Windsor--Mr. W. Kitchener, Port Dal.--Mr. John Gregory, Hobart Town--Mr. W. Turner, Hobart Town.

Messenger--Thomas Parsons.

Store Assistant--T. Jennings.

Cooper--Edward Hewen.

* * *

_Provost Marshall's Department_.

Provost Marshall--William Gore, Esq.

Clerk--Mr. Henry Hart;

Bailiff and Officer at Sydney--Mr. W. Evans;

Ditto at Windsor, etc.--Mr. Richard Ridge.

* * *

_Church Establishment_.

Principal Chaplain of the Territory--The Rev. Samuel Marsden, Parramatta;

Assistant Chaplain at Sydney--Rev. Wm. Cowper;

Assistant Chaplain at Windsor--Rev. Robert Cartwright;

Assistant Chaplain at Castlereagh--Rev. Henry Fulton;

Assistant Chaplain for Port Dalrymple, but now officiating at Liverpool--Rev. John Youl.

Assistant Chaplain appointed for Liverpool--Rev. Ben. Vale, returned to Europe on leave of absence.

Parish Clerk of St. Philip's, Sydney--Mr. Thomas Taber;

Ditto of St. John's, Parramatta--Mr. John Eyre;

Ditto of the Chapel at Windsor--Mr. Joseph Harpur.

* * *

Magistrates.

The Principal Magistrate of the Territory, and Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates at Sydney--The Honorable the Judge Advocate.

_Magistrates of the Territory and its Dependencies_.

D'Arcy Wentworth, Esq.

John Thomas Campbell, Esquire.

_Magistrates of the various Settlements of the Territory_.

At Sydney--W. Broughton, Esq. absent at Hobart Town; Simeon Lord, Esq. Richard Brooks, Esq.

Clerk to the Bench of Magistrates--Joshua John Moore, Gent.

Assistant Clerk--Mr. Ezekiel Wood.

At Parramatta--The Rev. Samuel Marsden; Hannibal M'Arthur, Esq.

At Windsor--William Cox, Esq.

At Wilberforce--Rev. Robert Cartwright;

At Castlereagh--James Mileham, Esq. Rev. Henry Fulton;

At Liverpool--Thomas Moore, Esq.

At Bringelly--Robert Lowe, Esq.

At Hobart Town--Rev. Robert Knopwood, A. M. A. W. H. Humphrey, Esq. James Gordon, Esq. Francis Williams, Esq. A. F. Kemp, Esq.

At Port Dalrymple--Brevet Major James Stewart, 46th Regiment; Thomas Archer, Esq.

* * *

_Medical Staff_.

Principal Surgeon--D'Arcy Wentworth, Esq.

First Assistant ditto--Mr. James Mileham, at Windsor.

Second ditto ditto--Mr. William Redfern, at Sydney;

Acting ditto ditto--Mr. Wm. Evans, at Newcastle;

Acting ditto ditto--Mr. Major West, at Parramatta;

Acting ditto ditto--Mr. R. W. Owen, at Sydney;

Acting ditto ditto at the Lunatic Asylum, Castle: Hill, Mr. Thomas Parmeter.

Assistant at General Hospital--Mr. Henry Cowper.

* * *

_Surveyors of Crown Lands_.

Surveyor General--John Oxley, Esq.

Deputy Surveyor--Mr. James Meehan.

Ditto at Hobart Town--Mr. G. W. Evans.

* * *

Collector of Quit-Rents, Mr. James Meehan.

* * *

_Naval Officer's Department_.

Naval Officer--John Piper, Esq.

Assistant to the Naval Officer--Mr. Alfred Thrupp.

Wharfingers--Mr. William Hutchinson; Mr. James Stewart.

* * *

Acting Engineer, and Artillery Officer, and Inspector of Government Works--Captain John Gill, 46th Regiment.

Civil Architect--Mr. F. H. Greenway.

* * *

Barrack Master--Charles M'Intosh, Esq.

* * *

_His Majesty's Dock Yard_.

Master Boat Builder--Mr. William Cossar.

Book-keeper--Mr. John Fowler.

* * *

Harbour Master--Mr. Stephen Milton.

* * *

_Superintendents_.

Of Government Stock--Mr. Rowland Hassall;

Assistant Superintendent of ditto--Mr. Sam. Hassall;

Of the Lunatic Asylum at Castle Hill--Mr. George Sutter;

Of Government Labourers and Cattle, and of Public Works at Windsor--Mr. Richard Fitzgerald;

Of Public Labourers, etc. at Sydney--Mr. William Hutchinson;

Of Carpenters at Parramatta--Mr. Richard Rouse;

Of Bricklayers--Mr. Thomas Legg;

Of Government Mills--Mr. Abraham Hutchinson.

* * *

_Principal Overseers of Government Stock, under the Orders of the Superintendent_.

Mr. Thomas Arkell, and Mr. William Chalker.

* * *

_Trustees and Commissioners of Turnpike Roads and Highways_.

For the Roads from Sydney to Hawkesbury--D'Arcy Wentworth, Simeon Lord, and James Mileham, Esquires;

For the Roads to and from Liverpool, branching out at any of the above--Thomas Moore, Esq.

* * *

Inspector of Highways and Bridges--Mr. James Meehan.

* * *

_Female Orphan Institution_.

Patron--His Excellency the Governor.

Patronesses--Mrs. Macquarie; Mrs. Wylde; Mrs. Hannibal M'Arthur.

Committee for the Orphan Fund.

His Honor Lieutenant Governor Erskine;

The Honorable Mr. Judge Advocate Wylde;

The Reverend Samuel Marsden, Principal Chaplain;

The Reverend Wm. Cowper, Assistant Chaplain;

Hannibal M'Arthur, Esq.

Treasurer--Reverend Samuel Marsden;

Master of the School--Mr. William Hosking;

Matron--Mrs. Hosking.

_Institution for the Civilization, Care, and Education of the Aborigines or Black Natives of New South Wales_.

Patron, the Governor; Patroness, Mrs. Macquarie.

* * *

Committee.

1. His Honor Lieutenant Governor Erskine, President. 2. The Honorable Mr. Judge Advocate Wylde;--3. J. T. Campbell, Esq.--4. D. Wentworth, Esq.--5. William Redfern, Esq.--6. H. M'Arthur, Esq.--7. The Rev. Wm. Cowper;--8. The Rev. Hen. Fulton;--9. Mr. Rowland Hassall.

Secretary and Treasurer of the Institution--John Thomas Campbell, Esq.

Schoolmaster--

* * *

_Masters of the Public Schools throughout the Territory_.

At Sydney--Mr. Thomas Bowden;

At Liverpool--Mr. Robert Keeves;

At Parramatta--Mr. John Eyre;

At Windsor--Mr. Joseph Harpur;

At Richmond--Mr. Matthew Hughes;

At Kissing Point--Mr. James Cooper;

At Wilberforce--Mr. M. P. Thompson;

At Newcastle--Mr. H. Rainsforth.

* * *

_Police Establishment at Sydney_.

_Committee of the Police Fund_.

The Lieutenant Governor; the Judge Advocate.

Treasurer--D'Arcy Wentworth, Esq.

Superintendent of Police--D'Arcy Wentworth, Esq.

Assistant to the Superintendent--Mr. Robert Jones.

Principal Clerk in the Police Office . . .

Assistant Clerk--Mr. Ezekiel Wood.

Six District Constables, and 50 Constables in Ordinary;

Chief Constable at Sydney--Mr. John Redman;

Ditto ditto at Parramatta--Mr. Francis Oakes;

Ditto ditto at Windsor--Mr. John Howe.

Keeper of the County Gaol at Sydney--Mr. John Jaques.

Clerk to ditto--George Jubb.

* * *

Coroner--Mr. J. W. Lewin.

Ditto for Windsor, and the Districts on the Banks of the Hawkesbury--Mr. Thomas Hobby.

* * *

_Bank of New South Wales_.

President--J. T. Campbell, Esq.

Directors--D'Arcy Wentworth, Esq.--John Harris, Esq.--Thomas Wylde, Esq.--William Redfern, Esq.--William Gore, Esq.--Robert Jenkins, Esq.

Secretary and Cashier--Mr. E. S. Hall.

Principal Accountant--Mr. R. Campbell, junior.

* * *

_Printing Office_.

Government Printer--Mr. George Howe.

* * *

_Post Office_.

Post Master--Mr. Isaac Nichols.

Deputy at Hobart Town--Mr. James Mitchell.

* * *

_Licensed Auctioneers and Appraisers_.

At Sydney--Mr. Simeon Lord; Mr. David Bevan.

At Parramatta--Mr. Richard Rouse; Mr. Francis Oakes.

At Windsor--Mr. John Howe.

Clerk of the Market at Sydney--Mr. Miles Fieldgate.

Clerk of the Market and Fair at Parramatta--Mr. Francis Oakes.

N. B. These Fairs are held half-yearly; viz. the second Thursday in March, and the first Thursday in October

* * *

Marine Establishment.

His Majesty's Colonial Cutter Mermaid, employed in surveying the Coast, Lieutenant Philip Parker King, R. N. Commander.

His Majesty's Colonial Brig Elizabeth Henrietta--Mr. Thomas Whyte, Master.

His Majesty's Colonial Brig Lady Nelson, at present undergoing repair--Mr. David Smith, Master.

* * *

_Harbour Pilots_.

At Port Jackson--Mr. Robert Mason; Mr. Robert Murray.

At Hunter's River--Robert Whitmore.

* * *

_Newcastle_.

Commandant--Captain Wallis, of the 46th Regt.

Acting Assistant Surgeon--Mr. William Evans.

Store-keeper--Mr. John Tucker.

* * *

_Civil Establishment at Hobart Town_.

Lieutenant Governor of the Settlements on Van Diemen's Land--Lieutenant Colonel William Sorrell;

Deputy Judge Advocate--Edward Abbott, Esq.

Chaplain--Reverend R. Knopwood, A. M.

Surgeon--Mr. Edward Luttrell;

Assistant Surgeon--Mr. H. St. John Younge;

Acting Assist. Commissary General--W. Broughton, Esq.

Provost Marshal--Mr. Martin Tims;

Surveyor of Lands--Mr. G. W. Evans;

Inspector of Public Works--Captain Nairn, 46th Regt.;

Naval Officer--Mr. John Beamont;

Store-keeper--Mr. Rayner;

Auctioneer--Mr. Richard Lewis;

Harbour Pilot--Mr. Michael Mansfield;

Two Superintendents, and two Overseers.

_Magistrates at Hobart Town_.

Reverend R. Knopwood, A. M; Acting Assistant Commissary General Broughton; James Gordon, Esq.; A. W. H. Humphrey, Esq.; Francis Williams, Esq.; A. F. Kemp, Esq.

* * *

_The Lieutenant Governor's Court, Van Diemen's Land_.

Deputy Judge Advocate--Edward Abbott, Esq.;

And two resident Inhabitants, appointed as Members by His Honor the Lieutenant Governor.

Clerk to the Deputy Judge Advocate--Mr. N. Ayres.

* * *

And it is by Charter provided, that the present and all future Governors, Lieutenant Governors, the Judge Advocate, Judge of the Supreme Court, and Deputy Judge Advocate, shall be Justices of the Peace throughout the Territory and its Dependencies; and all Places and Settlements therein, with all the Powers possessed by Justices of the Peace in England, within their respective Jurisdiction.

* * *

_Civil Establishment at Port Dalrymple_.

Commandant--Brevet Major James Stewart, 46th Regt.

Assistant Chaplain, now doing duty at Head Quarters, Reverend John Youl;

Surgeon--Mr. Jacob Mountgarret;

Assistant Surgeon--Mr. John Smith;

Superintendent of the Government Herds--David Rose, Esq.

Inspector of Government Public Works--Mr. William Elliot Leith;

Store-keeper--Mr. R. Dry.

Harbour Master.

Master of the Public School--Mr. Thomas M'Queen;

Acting Master Carpenter--Mr. Richard Sydes.

* * *

_Magistrates_--Brevet Major James Stewart, 46th Regt. Thomas Archer, Esq.

* * *

Fees and Dues in the Various Offices.

* * *

SECRETARY'S OFFICE.--GOVERNOR'S FEES.

For the great seal to every grant, not exceeding 1000 acres 0 5 0 For all grants exceeding 1000 acres, for every 1000 each grant contains 0 2 6 For a license of occupation 0 5 0

Secretary's Fees.

For every grant, and passing the seal of the province, if under 100 acres 0 5 0 Between 100 and 500 acres 0 10 0 All above 0 15 0 In grants of land, where the number of proprietors shall exceed 20, each right 0 2 6 In ditto, where the number of proprietors shall not exceed 20--the same as for grants in proportion to the quantity of land For license of occupation of land 0 2 6 For every grant of land from 1000 to 20,000 acres, take for the first 1000 acres 15s. and for every 1000 acres more, 2s. 6d.

_Fees to be taken by the Surveyor General of Lands._

For each grant, not exceeding 40 acres 0 7 6 Ditto 90 ditto 0 10 0 Ditto 190 ditto 0 15 0 Ditto 250 ditto 1 0 0 Ditto 350 ditto 1 10 0 Ditto 400 ditto 2 0 0 Ditto 750 ditto 2 12 6 Ditto 1000 ditto 3 5 0 Ditto, on town leases, per foot on street front 0 0 1 And on all grants exceeding 1000 acres for each 100 acres so exceeding 0 4 0

Auditor's Fees.

For the auditing of every grant 0 3 4

Registrar's Fees.

For recording a grant of land, for or under 500 acres 0 1 3 For ditto from 500 to 1000 acres 0 2 6 For every 100 acres to the amount of 20,000 0 10 6 For recording a grant of a township 1 0 0

To be received in the Secretary's Office.

On all colonial appointments, and commissions of whatever kind, where the official seal is affixed 5 5 0 On all special licenses for marriages 4 4 0 On the registering of vessels exceeding 40 tons per ton; 0 1 0 And to the Principal Clerk 0 10 0 For all vessels not exceeding 40 ton's 2 0 0 And to the Principal Clerk 0 10 0 On affixing official seal to the clearances of vessels of foreign voyages, or fishing, per ton 0 0 6 For every person leaving the colony, whereof ls. goes to the Principal Clerk 0 2 6 Transcripts of all papers, per folio of 72 words ls. and transcribing Clerk, per ditto, 3d. 0 1 3 Licenses for colonial vessels coastwise to the Coal River, Hawkesbury, or elsewhere, not extending to Van Diemen's Land or Bass's Straits, as heretofore to Coal River 0 5 0

Fees to the Principal Clerk

On free or conditional pardons, each 0 5 6 Certificates and tickets of leave, each 0 2 8 N. B.--Six-pence of the free and conditional pardons, and two-pence on certificates and tickets of leave, are to be paid to the Government Printer, as a remuneration for the paper and printing.

On receiving Appeals.

If for the sum of £50, or under, as heretofore 1 1 0 Upwards of £50, and not exceeding £100 2 2 0 Upwards of £100, and not exceeding 300 3 3 0 Any sum exceeding £300 5 5 0 On all Appeals To the Principal Clerk 0 10 0 To the Door-keeper 0 5 0 Affixing colonial seal to appeals to the King in Council 5 5 0 Principal Clerk 1 0 0 Transcripts of all papers, per folio of 72 words ls. and transcribing Clerk per ditto, 3d. 0 1 3

Naval Office.

Entry for a ship with articles for sale, and in Government service 0 15 0 Ditto, ditto, and not in Government service 1 10 0 Ditto with no articles, ditto ditto 0 15 0 Ditto for all foreign vessels 3 0 0 Permission to wood and water, for every vessel not exceeding 100 tons per register 1 0 0 For every vessel upwards of 100, and not exceeding 200 tons 2 0 0 For every vessel upwards of 200, and not exceeding 300 ditto 3 0 0 For every vessel upwards of 300, and not exceeding 400 ditto 4 0 0 For every vessel upwards of 400, and not exceeding 500 ditto 5 0 0 For every vessel upwards of 500 tons 6 0 0 Ditto to trade 1 1 0 Dues of each bond 0 10 6 Ditto of port clearance 0 5 0 Ditto ditto to the Naval Officer's Clerk 0 2 6 Ditto to Naval Officer's Clerk, for each permit to land spirits or wine, per cask 0 0 6

For Colonial Vessels

Deeds of entry and clearance to the Hawkesbury 0 4 0 Ditto ditto to Newcastle 0 10 0 Ditto to the fishery or settlements at the southward 0 10 0 Ditto to Naval Officer's Clerk 0 2 0

King's Dues for Orphans

For each ton of coals for home consumption 0 2 6 Ditto ditto exported 0 5 0 For each 1000 square feet of timber for home consumption 3 0 0 Ditto ditto exported 6 0 0

Duties

Ships from any part of the world importing cargoes (the manufactures of Great Britain excepted) to pay a duty of 5 per cent. _ad valorem_ on the amount of their respective invoices. On every gallon of spirits landed 0 10 0 Ditto wine ditto 0 0 9 n every pound of tobacco 0 0 6 Wharfage on each bale, cask, or package 0 0 6 The Naval Office to receive 5 per cent. on all duties collected at this port.

Wharfinger's Fees.

On each bale, cask, or package, landed or shipped 0 0 3 Metage per ton on coals 0 2 6 Measure of timber, per 1000 feet 0 2 0

The following duties to be levied and collected by the Naval Officer on the articles hereunder named, upon their arrival and landing, whether for colonial consumption or re-shipment.

On each ton of sandal wood 2 10 0 On each ton of pearl shells 2 10 0 On each ton of beech-le-mer 5 0 0 On each ton of sperm oil (252 gallons) 2 10 0 On each ton of black whale or other oil 2 0 0 On each fur seal skin 0 0 1½ On each hair ditto 0 0 0½ On each kangaroo ditto 0 0 0½ On cedar, or other timber, from Shoal Haven, or any other part of the coast or harbours of New South Wales (Newcastle excepted, as the duties are already prescribed there), when not supplied by government labourers, for each solid foot 0 1 0 For every 20 spars from N. Zealand or elsewhere 1 0 0 On timber, in log or plank, from New Zealand or elsewhere, for each solid foot 0 1 0

Gaoler's Fees.

From every debtor on his discharge from each action 1 0 0 From every sailor confined for being disorderly, for the first night thereof 0 2 6 For every following night 0 1 0 From every free person thereof, and person having a ticket of leave, taken up and confined for being disorderly, on the discharge of the same, each 0 3 0

From every person receiving a certificate of his or her term of transportation being expired (reference being always had to the black book in his possession) 0 0 6

Fees to be received by the Chief Constable

On the apprehending and lodging in gaol any sailor who may be found riotous or disorderly, of constables assisting in the apprehension 0 2 6 For each night that sailors so apprehended may be confined; which is to be directed as the foregoing 0 2 6 For the apprehending of deserters or runaway sailors, to be divided equally among apprehending constables and himself 2 0 0 For serving summonses from the Judge Advocate's Office, for debts under 40s. each summons 0 1 0 For the seizure of stills, or other articles prohibited by the Colonial Regulations, and ordered for distribution among the seizing Constables, the Chief Constable is to receive an equal proportion with them.

Surplice Fees.

Marriages by License, Clergyman 3 3 0 Clerk 0 10 6 Sexton 0 5 0 Ditto by Banns, free persons Clergyman 0 10 6 Clerk banns 0 2 0 Clerk marriage 0 3 0 Sexton marriage 0 10 6 Christenings, for registering Clerk 0 1 0 Churching, free persons only Clergyman 0 1 0 Clerk 0 0 6 Sexton 0 0 6 Funerals, free persons--Clergyman 0 3 0 Clerk 0 1 0 Bell 0 0 6 Grave digger 0 2 6

Post Office Charges

Every letter, English or Foreign 0 0 8 Every parcel not exceeding 20lbs. 0 1 6 Every ditto if exceeding 20lbs. 0 3 0 Every colonial letter from any part of the territory 0 0 4 Soldiers' letters, or those addressed to their wives 0 0 1

_Market Duties at Sydney_.--Grain, etc. lodged in the store to be paid for as follows; viz. wheat or barley 3d. per bushel; maize or oats 2d. per ditto; potatoes 3d. per cwt. and if not sold the same day shall pay store-room rent every succeeding market day the articles continue there, to the clerk, who is not to deliver up such articles until the same be paid.

_Market and Fair Duties at Parramatta_.

For each horse, mare, gelding, or foal, if sold 0 1 6 Ditto ditto, ditto, if not sold 0 0 6 For each bull, cow, ox, or calf, if sold 0 1 0 Ditto ditto, ditto, if not sold 0 0 4 Sheep, lambs, or pigs, per score, if sold 0 2 0 Ditto, ditto, ditto, if not sold 0 0 8 And any number of sheep, lambs, or pigs, under a score, for each sold 0 0 1½ Ditto, ditto, ditto, if not sold 0 0 0½

_Ferry_ across the River Hawkesbury, called _Nowland's Ferry:_

Tolls for each foot passenger 0 0 3 A saddle horse 0 1 6 A foal 0 0 6 A horse and chaise 0 2 6 A cart with 1 horse or two bullocks 0 2 6 A ditto with 2 horses or 3 bullocks 0 3 0 A waggon with 4 horses or 6 bullocks 0 4 0 For horned cattle 1s. per head For do. if more than 1, and not exceeding 20, 9d. per ditto For ditto, if upwards of twenty, 6d. per ditto For sheep 2s. per score, or 7s. 6d. per hundred For hogs and goats 2d. each, or 2s. per score Passengers to pass and repass the same day for one payment.

Toll Gates between Sydney and Parramatta:

For each head of horned cattle 0 0 2 For each score of sheep or swine 0 0 10 For every single horse 0 0 3 For every cart drawn by a single horse or bullock 0 0 4 For every cart drawn by 2 horses or bullocks 0 0 6 For every cart drawn by 3 horses or bullocks 0 0 9 For every cart drawn by 4 horses or bullocks 0 0 10 For every waggon drawn by 2 horses or bullocks 0 0 10 For every waggon drawn by 3 horses or bullocks 0 1 0 For every waggon drawn by 4 horses or bullocks, or more 0 1 2 For every single horse chaise 0 1 0 For every curricle with two horses 0 1 6 For a four-wheel carriage drawn by 2 horses 0 2 0 For the same drawn by three horses 0 2 6 For the same drawn by four horses 0 3 0

N. B. The tolls between Parramatta and Windsor are exactly the same as those between Sydney and Parramatta, only at the former a cart drawn by 4 horses or bullocks is 10d.

_Tolls at the New Bridge over the South Creek at Windsor, called Howe Bridge_.

For each foot passenger 0 0 2 Ditto ditto single horse 0 0 6 Ditto ditto ditto, or bullock in draft 0 1 0 A cart, with 2 horses or bullocks 0 1 2 For each horse or bullock above that number 0 0 2 Waggons, or four wheeled carriages with two horses or bullocks 0 1 6 For each head of cattle not in draft, under a score 0 0 6 For every score 0 5 0 Ditto ditto per hundred 1 0 0 Ditto ditto sheep, goat, or pig, under a score 0 0 1 Ditto ditto a score 0 1 0

The Governor and Family, the Lieutenant Governor, and all persons on public duty to pass free.

_Tolls to be taken at the Ferry across the River Hawkesbury_.

(This is Mr. Howe's Ferry).

For each foot passenger 0 0 3 A single horse 0 1 0 A single horse chaise 0 1 6 A chaise with 2 or more horses 0 2 6 A cart with 1 horse or bullock 0 2 6 Each additional horse or bullock 0 0 3 Waggons, or 4 wheeled carriages, with 3 horses or bullocks 0 2 0 Each horse or bullock 0 0 3 Each head of cattle not in draft, under 6 0 0 9 Ditto ditto under 20 0 0 6 Every score 0 7 6 Every sheep, goat, or pig, under a score 0 0 1 Ditto ditto per score 0 1 0 Ditto ditto per hundred 0 4 0

The unweaned young of every kind, half price.

_Tolls to be taken at the Bridge over the Chain of Ponds, near Windsor_.

For a single horse 0 0 3 A cart and horse, or two bullocks 0 0 6 Ditto with more than two 0 0 9 A waggon with 3 horses or 4 bullocks 0 1 0 Ditto with more 0 1 3 A single horse chaise 0 1 0 A four-wheel carriage 0 1 6 Horned cattle, each 0 0 2 Sheep and pigs, per score 0 1 0

The Colonial Garden.

Potatoes.

For a general winter crop in field or garden, should be planted from the end of January to the end of February, or even the beginning of March, rather than lose the planting; and they will come into use in winter, when cabbages and other vegetables run to seed. The ground should if possible be prepared a month before the planting, and a preference given by the country gardener to new ground, or dry wheat stubble, where the soil is light. The town gardener should keep his ground in a good state by frequent light manuring.

The sets made choice of should be the produce of the last winter crop; and when planted should have a covering of light manure; without which the ground will be impoverished; but with such assistance be improved.

The best potatoes to preserve for sets are of a middle size, as well for profit as security; for if the largest are made use of, there must be a considerable waste; and those of the dwarf kind should be rejected, from their degeneracy and weakness.

An experienced gardener, who has been a settler here more than twenty years, plants his seed potatoes uncut for the winter crop; his reason for which is, that if they are cut they are likely to perish in the ground, from the rains of March; which will not be the case if put in whole.

In July the ground should be prepared for the summer crop, at which time the winter crop will be fit for digging; in which process every care should be taken to prevent their being bruised; and if possible they should be dug in cloudy weather, to avoid exposure to the sun, which would rot them; whereas if carefully preserved they will keep sound for a length of time; which will be the more desirable, as at this season vegetables are mostly scarce and dear.

In August the planting should be made, or even in September, if necessary; and at the end of the latter, or in October, they will require to be hilled and earthed, and well cleansed from weeds, which must also now and then be done as weeds make their appearance. In the choice of seed for this crop, a middle sized potatoe should be preferred, without any objection to their being cut, as is the customary mode of planting.

_Manure_.--Fresh stable dung, and litter, or decayed thatch, answers better for manure than that which is very rotten; but if the ground be fresh and light, they will want no manure, and the potatoes be of a better quality, though probably less plentiful.

In October you may also plant potatoes for a latter crop; and this, though perhaps less abundant than that sown in August or the beginning of September, will nevertheless be sufficiently productive to pay well the expence and labour of planting.

The potatoe is so essential and desirable an article of food, that too much care cannot be bestowed in their culture and preservation; for should other crops fall short, this will afford the grower a certain means of supporting his family.

Carrots and Parsnips

For a general crop, may be best sown in December and January. The ground should be dug deep, and broke up very fine. If the soil be light, the seed should be sown on a calm day, and trod in.

_Carrots_ and _Parsnips_ may also be planted in July, and also in November. They thrive best in an open situation, or a light sandy soil; and after they come up, should be thinned and set out with a small two inch garden hoe.

Cabbages

For a constant supply may be sown in January, April, May, July, August, October, and early in November, at a time when the ground is in a moist state. The plants sown in April will not run to seed. Care should be taken to set out the plants in a richer and stronger ground than the bed they are taken from; otherwise the crop will be poor. Their first bed should now and then be weeded with the hand, in dry weather, and the freshest and strongest plants removed first. In setting them out, a passage should be allowed between the rows of at least two feet, and in the rows the plants kept eighteen or twenty inches distant from each other, which will allow them a free circulation of air. As they grow up, they should occasionally be earthed up a little, and carefully weeded, as nothing has a more negligent and slovenly appearance than a foul bed of cabbage. In very dry hot weather, their first bed should be watered now and then; after rain they should be set out, but not during its continuance, as it would wash the mould from the roots, and numbers decay without taking root at all in the new bed. Cabbages run to seed in August and September.

A gardener of long experience in the Colony has favored us with the following remarks on the culture of the cabbage: "Although cabbage seed may be here sown with advantage at several times of the year, yet I have of late years confined myself to two sowings only; namely, in January, and as near the middle of May as I could find the weather most favorable, for two general crops. That sown in January comes well in for a winter supply; but must be taken great care of, or will come to nothing; for as January is one of our hottest months, they will require to be shaded from the sun's excessive heat by boughs, which if closely twined together will continue their shelter even after the leaves are withered; and also, to be watered at least once in every two or three days, until they get pretty strong in the ground. The other crop, sown in May, will come into use early in summer; and do not require any care more than they usually receive."

Turnips

The ground should be prepared in February; and at the latter end of the month some may be planted; for which purpose gentle showery weather is most favourable.

Turnips for a general crop should be sown early in March, and they will be ready for food for sheep in the beginning of May. During their growth they require hoeing once or twice, to thin and keep them clean, if the land be foul.

Turnips for table use may be sown at any time between March and September, or the beginning of November, when absolutely necessary.

_Turnips for Sheep_.--The ground should be prepared in January and February, by the plough or hoe, harrowing, manuring, and totally cleansing it from all weeds whatever, so that it be brought into the best state possible.

_The Seed_.--To raise turnip seed properly is an object worthy of the strictest attention. To do this, the bed should be examined carefully when the turnips have attained about a third of their size, and the largest, smoothest, and most healthy taken up and transplanted into a richer bed, in rows a foot wide, and about six inches between the plants that are in the same row.--The seed will be fit to cut the latter end of November.

Cauliflower.

The seed may be sown at any time between November and February; but best in December. Some sow about the middle of May for a summer crop, and this practice is found to answer.

Asparagus.

The seed should be sown in October, in drills, four drills in a bed four feet wide, the ground being first well prepared, and richly manured. At the latter end of April, or beginning of May, the haulm should be cut down within two inches of the bed (though some cut it nearly level), and constantly kept from weeds. The ground should be dug with a three pronged fork, and not with a spade, as the latter will cut the crown of the roots, and destroy the plants. A professed gardener of twenty-three years practice in the colony assures us, that he has now a bed of twenty years standing, which constantly yielded a good crop until the year before last, the failure of which he attributed to the ground being worn out, and therefore set out a fresh bed. In this country it requires a cool soil, and that the beds should not be laid too high, four or five inches being a sufficient height.

Onions.

In March prepare the ground, by breaking it up well, and richly manuring it. At the end of the month, and beginning of April, sow for a light crop of onions for immediate use.

In April prepare for a general crop, which should be sown at the latter end of the month, or beginning of May, to keep them from going to seed. When they grow to a proper size, which will be from the latter end of October to the beginning of November, they should be carefully laid down, so as not to break the tops; for should the tops be broke, and the wet penetrate, the onions will inevitably spoil. When fit to draw, they should be gathered on a fine dry day, and lain under cover, so as not to be at all exposed to the sun.

Pease and Beans of all kinds.

The ground should be prepared in March, by well working and manuring; and at the end of the month, and in April, they may be sown for a spring crop. Some sow from the beginning of March till the middle of June, as occasion may require.

Prepare in August for a latter crop; and

French beans may be as well sown in October as at any other time.

Cucumbers, Pumpkins, and Melons.

The ground should be got ready for these in August, and they should be sown in September.

Radishes.

May be sown when turnips are sown.

Lettuces and Small Sallad

Are sown every month, for a constant supply; but lettuces are best sown in April and November, and small sallads in May, and the latter end of November.

Grass and Clover.

Turnip ground, on which either is intended to be sown, should be cleared, cleaned, and broke up in August, great care being taken to leave no weeds or large clods.

Spinage

Is best sown in March and September.

Brocoli, brown and white

Should be sown the beginning of January, and treated as cabbage sown at that time. Some observe the practice of sowing from November until February, but this is a vague method, and not to be depended on.

Strawberries.

March is the proper season for planting this fruit. The runners and leaves should be all cut close away before they are set, which will strengthen them greatly, and before winter they will have new leaves. If planted in clumps, the fruit will be larger than if suffered to run over the bed; but by the latter method they preserve a more delicate appearance, and are certainly less likely to contract filth.

As soon as planted, a sprinkling of fresh earth should be thrown over the beds, which should be plentifully watered twice or thrice a week, if the season turn out dry; and as the plants require much air, they should be thinned, in order to preserve a free circulation.

When sown in beds, the following mode of treatment should be observed:--When the bed is well prepared, plant the rows of the large kinds, such as the Chili and Carolina, two feet apart, and allow one foot between each of the plants in the same row. The smaller kinds do not require so much space; eighteen inches between the rows, and eighteen between the plants will be sufficient; but as much greater space may be given as the ground will admit of.

In April all strawberry beds should be well dressed and cleaned, in order to prevent the lodging of insects; and in July they should be gone well over, and have their spring dressing; in doing which the runners must be taken off from the plants, and the weeds cleared away. The ground will then also require to be loosened, and would be much benefited by a layer of fine manure and fresh earth between the rows, as this treatment will strengthen the plants, and produce the largest and finest fruit.

Raspberries

Should also be dressed and cleaned in July.

Grapes.

Begin in April to pinch and prune the vines, which must be cleaned from all cankered and unhealthy leaves or other substances, to preserve them from insects. In July they should also be gone over, and pruned and nailed, where requisite. All walls and stakes should then be attentively examined, to prevent the harbouring of insects, which will otherwise destroy the young wood and fruit.

Pine Apples.

In the management of Pinery, should gentlemen incline their attention thitherward, the following observances will be useful. In May let them be unplunged, and lain down on their sides, till all their leaves be free from water. Take off all yellow leaves, and suckers, and let these suckers be plunged into fresh pots of earth, and in a fresh bed of heat, by means whereof the Pinery will always be kept full. The spider is their chief enemy, and therefore should not be permitted to harbour near them, as the smallest of the tribe will kill the crown, and destroy the fruit.

Trees of all Kinds

In JANUARY and FEBRUARY should be BUDDED. A competent judge will best inform himself of the proper time for this operation by the ripe appearance of the buds themselves. For this use the practical gardener chooses a small instrument which may be made of bone, with wrappers of worsted, which being elastic, is better than bark, or any other substitute. The tops of the budded stocks are by some left uncut until the August or September following; but a gardener of much experience in the Colony makes it a rule to cut his tops off immediately, as the buds strike much sooner with this practice.

PEACHES and PLUMS are best budded upon their own stocks.

APRICOTS may be budded upon peach stocks.

The ENGLISH MULBERRY upon the cherry; or Cape; and ORANGES will succeed best upon lemons; and all tender trees are better to be budded in summer than in spring.

It may be here proper to observe, for the better information of those who have not given themselves the trouble of dividing the year into seasons, and which it would indeed be difficult to do by a comparison with those to which in Europe we were accustomed, that the spring months are, _September, October_, and _November_; the summer months, _December, January_, and _February_; the autumn months, _March, April_, and _May_; and the winter months, _June, July_, and _August_. Hence it is observable, that our wheat harvesting begins in the last of the spring months, November, and is entirely over before the end of summer.

In March, all fruit trees should be examined, and the broken or decayed limbs taken off.

In May, all fruit trees should be pruned, except evergreens, and such branches as are necessary to be taken off cut close to the tree, that the wound may heal the sooner, and thus prevent the tree from injury by rain or dew.

In May, orange trees may be safely transplanted, as well as in

June; which is the general season for transplanting fruit trees: in doing which, the roots should be carefully taken up, and planted as near to the surface as possible, taking care at the same time that the whole be covered, being first spread out like an open hand; after which the covering may be thickened with a little rich manure; and when the hole is filled, the earth about the root should be trodden gently, so as to fix the position of the plant.

June is also the best time for making layers, and planting cuttings from hardy trees.

In July, such fruit trees as were not transplanted in June should be removed, and stocks to bud and graft upon transplanted.

In August, evergreens may be transplanted, in which great care must be observed, as they are very tender; and as their roots will not bear exposure to the sun, they must be so carefully dug round as to admit their being taken up with as large a ball of earth clinging to the root as can be done, in which exact state they always should be fresh planted.

In August, also, the nursery will require to be well gone over and cleaned, and young trees prepared for grafting. Wall fruit and shrubs must be now particularly attended to, in divesting them of every foul or decayed substance.

In this month, also, all gardens should be cleaned and dressed. The gardener ought to be particularly attentive in keeping off weeds and insects, as grubs frequently make their appearance at this time, which very much injure all vegetable productions.

This month also the nursery wants cleaning, and the young trees must be prepared for grafting: the weeds preparatory to which, must be cut down and destroyed, or they will afterwards give much trouble. Decayed branches should likewise be taken from fruit trees; and such trees as appear stunted should have the ground opened about the roots.

SEPTEMBER is a good month for grafting fruit trees, the scions intended for grafts being cut off a fortnight or three weeks before, and the ends which are cut stuck in the ground until wanted for use.

Trees budded at the beginning of the year must now be cut down within about two inches of the bud; this space above the bud being left to tie the young shoots to, to prevent their being broken off by the wind. No shoots should be suffered to grow but the eye that was budded, and all others should be rubbed off as soon as they appear.

OCTOBER.--Young trees that were grafted in September should now be examined, and all the young shoots broken off, but one or two, both from the grafts and stocks:--The clay must be taken off, and the bandages loosened. The ground between the rows of all young trees should also be kept clear of weeds, or they will deprive the trees of a great part of their nourishment.

Apricot and peach trees should be examined this month, and where the fruit appears to be set too thick, which will be mostly the case in prolific seasons, they must be reduced to a moderate quantity. This must nevertheless be done with care, and only such of the fruit as is proper to remain left upon the tree.

In this month the garden should be cleaned all through, and walls and fruit trees well examined, to prevent insects from lodging.

In NOVEMBER such trees as were inoculated the previous summer will want the young shoots tying, either to the top of the stock, or to have a stake driven in near them to tie the shoot to, that they may not be broken off by the wind. All budded and grafted trees will in November want constant attention. All shoots that do not grow from the eye of the bud, or from the graft, must be taken off, that the graft or bud may receive all the nourishment the stock can afford.

In November evergreens may be propagated by layers, from the young shoots of the summer's growth.

In December the same observance is to be attended to with respect to evergreens; and peach trees should now be thinned of their fruit, where it appears too thick.

_Observations on some particular Fruit Trees_.

The Orange.

In pruning, the knife should be as little used as possible, if you wish them to bear. The southerly winds are very unfavorable to their growth, and parts opened by the knife admit the air, and kill the bloom. This tree is perhaps more infested by ants than any other; and the black contracted appearance of the leaves is much attributed to this insect. From this persuasion, which is pretty general, various methods have been tried to keep them off. Human ordure laid round the boll of the tree will prevent their appearing so long as it retains moisture, but not longer; tar has been applied round both the trunk and branches, and only answered while moist; yet a cure, if the ant be really inimical, is certain to be found, with little trouble, and without expence, in common suds from a wash tub, in which ley has been used. This wash should be laid well about the roots in the evening, when the ants have left the tree, which will be mostly the case, and in wet weather always so, and there need be little apprehension of their return next morning; a woollen bandage, dipped in oil, will also be found a preventative to their ascending the tree. This application, whenever ants appear, will have the desired effect; but whether these insects are injurious to the tree or not, is to be doubted upon this principle, namely, that the ant, being excessively carnivorous, is instinctively led to the orange tree in quest of the eggs, exuviae, larvae, etc. of some very minute insect, whose eggs are attached to the leaves by a glutinous substance, emitted by themselves in such quantity as to discolour the leaf, the pores of which being thus stopped, it becomes hard and tusky, and gradually closes. It seems impossible that this change should be produced by the ant: for if it even attacked or destroyed the blossom, this would not affect the leaves when the tree is not in bloom; and therefore it is rational to conclude that their changed appearance proceeds from some other cause, perhaps from some other insect, perhaps from the assaults of the weather, or some peculiarity in its soil or situation, or from a combination of these and other causes; in exemplification whereof it is worthy to be remarked, that a gardener in the Brickfields planted a number of seed sixteen years ago, all from the same tree; of which forty-four came up, and were all treated with equal care. None shewed fruit until about seven years since; when one produced about two-hundred oranges, and four or five others had from thirty down to ten or a dozen each. The following year the same trees were full; and afterwards others began to bear. This very great disparity in their time of bearing, keeping in mind at the same time that the seeds were from the same tree, all sown at once, and all equally well attended to, would be sufficient to excite astonishment, were we not to make allowance for the various causes that might have tended to accelerate or retard their growth.

The gardener himself says, that the chief of the defaulters were a good deal shaded from the sun by a range of peach trees, which depriving them of a great proportion of the warmth necessary to a fruit which thrives best in the hottest climates, he considers sufficient to occasion all the difference spoken of.

The Apple

Has a great enemy in a minute insect called the Cochineal, owing more, perhaps, to its being nearly of the same colour, than from any resemblance to the Spanish insect of that name. A gentleman who had eight trees that had for several years borne a delicious apple, had the mortification to find the whole of his trees at once infested by those insects in excessive number; after which they left off bearing, and after failing in many experiments to relieve them, he came unwillingly to the resolution of cutting down the trees. These insects are of a dark red, approaching to a purple, and combine in such numbers on the roots as well as branches, as to shew in protuberated clusters, exhibiting a downy whiteness on the surface. A gardener of the colony, who has attended a good deal to this matter, affirms that a weed called the Churnwort presents a perfect remedy to the disaster; with this weed, the roots, cleared of the earth, and the branches also, he advises to be thoroughly well rubbed.

[TABLE: VICTUALLING ONE MESS OF FIVE MEN.] [Table not included in this text version--see html version. Ed.]

The End