view of pulling the whole of the smoking pageantry off the table in case of molestation.'-vol. ii. p. 139. The origin of the sect of exclusionists, or that class of emigrants who strictly exclude from their society all emancipists, however fair a character they may have acquired, or however wealthy they may have become, appears to be attributed, in some degree, to the humane, but, perhaps, mistaken, views of the late Governor Macquarie, who, deeming the colony to have been founded as much with the view to reformation as punishment, conceived that offenders who had passed through the ordeal of purgatory, possessed a fair claim to the joys of paradise; and that the best mode of accomplishing this object would be to elevate the character of the emancipist, by raising him once more to a respectable station in society. He soon discovered, however, that the countenance of the governor was not enough to overwhelm opposition to his benevolent intention, and that authority was unable to enforce what a mere expression of his wish had failed to effect. These silly party-feuds continued through Sir Thomas Brisbane's government; but, if we understand Mr. Cunningham rightly, they are in a fair way of subsiding under that of General Darling. The testimony of our author in favour of the respectability of many of the emancipists is certainly very strongly given. Our emancipist body, in honest truth, forms the most useful and enterprising portion of our community;-all the distilleries, nearly all the breweries, and the greater portion of the mills and various manufactories, being owned by them; while they have never, so far as I can learn, disgraced themselves by engaging in any of the smuggling transactions, whereby many of those who came out under the proud title of free men have tarnished their reputation. Several of our most respectable merchants have told me that in the numerous matters of business wherein they have been concerned with the emancipists, their conduct has always proved most honourable, though some here will endeavour to detract from this praise, by saying that their principles have suffered no change, the terror of the law and self-interest keeping them honest.'-vol. ii. pp. 143, 144. It matters little, in our opinion, as far as society is concerned, whether they be honest in principle or from necessity, supposing them to be really honest. Mr. Cunningham argues that a stranger is much less likely to be cheated in Sydney than in London, because in the latter a shopkeeper may cheat a stranger without his trade or reputation being much injured; whereas, in the former, every body knows the emancipist shopkeeper to have once been a rogue, and all are accordingly on their guard; on his part, he knows that even a mistake would be at once set down for a sample of the old leaven. It is this cautious conduct, with assiduity and talent for business, business, which has raised many of them to wealth and respectability, without the assistance of great capital. • We have individuals in New South Wales, who, some fifteen years ago, were driving government dung-carts, and shuffling along with hods of mortar on their shoulders, now possessed of incomes larger by all account than I can mention, with a hope to be credited; most of them individuals, too, who came out under the patronage of the Honourable Secretary for the Home Department, with a Recorder's testimonial to character. In fact it is truly astonishing to see how rapidly many of these men prosper in business. They are generally men of talent, but of talent formerly misapplied; and, either through their principles undergoing a change on arrival, or finding that more can be gained here by honesty than by roguery, quit the latter for the former, and directing" their talents into this new channel, flourish in our money-making country like the trees we read of in the Psalms, planted by the river."-vol. ii. pp. 96, 97. be 6 66 Another distinction is made between persons born in the colony and in the mother-country; the former being known by the name of currency, the latter by that of sterling; a distinction given, as Mr. Cunningham tells us, by a facetious paymaster of the 73d regiment; the pound currency being at that time inferior to the pound sterling. By our author's account, however, the keeping up this distinction, in an invidious sense, does not appear to very defensible; our currency lads and lasses,' says he, are a fine interesting race, and do honour to the country whence they originated the name is a sufficient passport to esteem with all the well-informed and right-feeling portion of our population.' They are said to grow up so rapidly in height, and to be so slender, that they are further, and more justly, distinguished by the name of corn-stalks; and they are described as remarkable for that Gothic peculiarity of fair hair, blue eyes, and reddish sallow complexions; but the young women, we are told, like the Americans, lose their teeth at an early period of life. They are, Mr. Cunningham says, in a great degree free from the vices of their parents; drunkenness is almost unknown among them; and their honesty is proverbial. He adds, that they are warmly attached to the country of their birth, and that when they have been sent to England, they hail the day of their return as the most delightful in their lives. They all talk of London as a dull, smoky place; and no doubt the dingy gloom of this brick-covered province is something very unlike their own clear blue cloudless sky. young girl,' says Mr. Cunningham, being asked how she should like to go to England,' replied with great naïveté,“ I should be afraid to go, from the number of thieves there;' forming her judg 'A ment, ment, very shrewdly, on the number of this description annually imported from our country into her own. But the currency lads are stated to be noted for superior spirit and courage, as well as superior morals. Mills, as Mr. Cunningham in slang jargon calls them, often take place between lads of the fancy; and, he says, that when it is sterling against currency, it is observed that sterling is generally at a discount before the winding up of the set-to.' So unfortunate has the facetious paymaster been in the discriminative nomenclature which he has handed down as characteristic of the two classes. It appears, indeed, that the change, which takes place in the physical constitution of all kinds of animals on transplantation to New South Wales, is something quite astonishing. It was long since remarked that prostitutes, who had never borne children in Europe, became prolific mothers in the Australian colonies; and that married women, who had long left off child-bearing, recommenced even at the advanced period, in some cases, of fifty years of age, after a short residence in these regions; and the observation appears to be confirmed, that not only the human race, but most of the quadrupeds produced from animals imported, improve their breed, and increase considerably in size. Mr. Dawson, the intelligent manager of the Australian Agricultural Company,' thus writes in a private journal with which we have been favoured: Both the climate and soil appear by nature intended to produce fine wool, and fine animals too, even from the worst beginnings. The latter seems a paradox. The extensive range that can be afforded to every animal keeps it in good condition; and, perhaps, the native grasses may have more of good in them, than their appearance indicates: however this may be, the climate clearly has a wonderful effect upon the size of all animals, even upon man, who is almost universally tall here, although born of diminutive parents. From this I am led to believe that the climate governs chiefly, and that every breed of animals introduced here will attain a size not known in Europe. From what I know of the origin of the breed of horses introduced here, and the size of the stock that has almost promiscuously been produced from them, I have strong grounds for inferring that the produce of such horses as we have imported will be something extraordinary.' We apprehend that the soil and its products can have little share in all this. The soil, indeed, as Mr. Dawson tells us, is in general poor, and inferior to that of any country he has ever seen. It is more probable, therefore, that the salubrity of the climate, and the absence of all disease, may be considered as the prime causes of these extraordinary effects. And if New South Wales is ever to become that great and powerful country, which, some centuries hence-(much sooner its sanguine inhabitants predict) is destined to overawe and to conquer the eastern world, this grand result will certainly be less owing to the labour of the plough, than to the rearing of sheep and cattle, the prosecution of the fisheries, and the pursuits of commerce. We trust, however, that instead of indulging in dreams of conquest, the enlightened inhabitants of New South Wales will use their best efforts to civilise the wretched natives of the numerous fertile and beautiful islands of Australasia, now in the lowest stage of savage barbarity. Hitherto the progress of the colony has certainly been flourishing far beyond what the most sanguine projector or settler could have imagined, when,' thirty-eight years ago,' a few huts and solitary tents were the only indications of the existence of human society. We are not much edified by the landmarks which Mr. Cunningham has set up to note the stages of this progressive improvement; we will nevertheless cursorily run over what he calls a brief medley of their first deeds and their first fruits, in chronological sequence,' The first landing, he observes, was on the 26th of January, 1788; in 1789, the first harvest was reaped at Paramatta; in 1790, the first settler, James Reese, took possession of his land; twelve prisoners located in 1791, upon the Hawkesbury, supplied, in 1793, twelve hundred bushels of corn; in 1796, the first play was performed; in 1803, the first newspaper was printed; and in the same year the first suicide occurred that of a man who hung himself in jail; in 1805, the first colonial vessel was built; in 1806, the first great Hawkesbury flood happened; in 1810, the first census of the population, stock, and cultivated land was made; the first toll-gates were built; caterpillars first made their appearance; the streets of Sidney received names; weekly markets were established, and the first public races instituted; in 1813, the first fair was held, at Paramatta; in 1817, the first bank was established; in 1818, the first crim. con. case was tried (a great advance this in civilization); in 1820, the first colonial tobacco was sold; in 1825, the first book was reviewed (this, we think, was beginning at the wrong end); in the same year the first breach of promise of marriage came before the criminal courts; and in 1826, the first public concert was held. 'When,' says our author, 'we seriously contemplate the wonderful revolution wrought in the colony since its formation, we cannot but be proud of the energies displayed by our enterprising community. Here, where, thirty-eight years ago, not one civilized being disputed the dominion of the woods with their savage inhabitants, now forty thousand such exist, spread over an extent of country of two hundred square miles, having justice administered by civil and criminal courts ;-six separate courts of quarter-sessions, and eleven separate benches of magistrates being instituted among them. Where, thirty-eight years ago, not a single European animal breathed, now upwards of 200,000 sheep, upwards of 100,000 head of cattle, and many thousand horses and other animals destined for the support and pleasure of man, are peacefully grazing. Where, thirty-eight years ago, not an ear of grain was cultivated, we now see fifty thousand bushels advertised for-for the mere annual consumption of one of our distilleries;-while four steammills, ten water-mills, eighteen windmills, and two horse-mills, furnish us with an abundance of excellent flour from our own wheat; two very extensive distilleries, with several hundred thousand gallons annually of a pure spirit from our barley and maize; and thirteen breweries, with ale and beer from our various descriptions of colonial grain, eight thousand hogsheads being the average yearly amount of this wholesome beverage supplied to the public. 'On the site of Sydney alone what a change has been effected! Where, thirty-eight years ago, not a human hut was to be counted, nor the slightest hum of commerce heard, we have now a city occupying a mile square, crowded with industrious citizens, and teeming with vehicles wheeling along the varied productions of the soil,-the market-dues for this traffic renting, the present year, at 840l., and the toll-gate dues at 1000/.:-the town containing twenty-two agents for the management of shipping affairs; eleven auctioneers for expeditiously disposing of colonial and foreign wares; a chamber of commerce to push forward and watch over colonial enterprise, effect insurances, and arbitrate in matters relating to shipping; two flourishing banks, dividing forty per cent. on their advances; and three newspapers, (one weekly, and two printed twice a week,) in one of which I counted one day 124 advertisements.'-vol. ii. p. 73–75. In our author's opinion the commerce of the colony can only be considered as dating its existence six years ago. Since that time the trade with England has increased from three to twentyfour vessels, importing emigrants of property and cargoes valued at 200,000l., while the exports in seventeen ships, consisting of wool, skins, oil, timber, pearl-shells, trenails and hides, exceed in value 100,000l. The foreign trade with India and China, six years ago, did not require above six or seven vessels; last year they amounted to twenty-six, with import cargoes worth 200,000l., a great part of which consisted of tea, sugar, wine, and tobaccoarticles all of which, Mr. Cunningham supposes, may, in time, be produced in the colony itself. On the banks of the Hastings, which discharges its waters into Port Macquarie, 'the sugar cane,' he says, thrives well, and a good quantity of fine sugar and fair samples of rum have been produced here of late, ninety acres of cane being this year (1826) in cultivation.' But though wine, sugar, |