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purposes of colonization and emigration, the second for the improvement of towns.

Wakefield and Buller on Colonization.

Upon the general principles of colonization, I could say nothing except what I have learnt from the writings of Mr. GIBBON WAKEFIELD, and the speeches of CHARLes Buller. Alas! that name-how can I write it without a thrill of painful recollection? What great hopes, not only for the colonies, but for England, were buried in that untimely grave! Nothing shows more strongly the essential truth of Mr. Carlyle's censures on our legislative and administrative system, than the fact that a man like Charles Buller, with intellect enough for half a Cabinet, should pass through nearly twenty years of public life without ever sitting at a council table. By such a man the office of Judge Advocate could scarcely have been accepted without some feeling of humiliation. For him the opportunity of real work had only begun just before he was called away. Yet it must be acknowledged as characteristic of these "latter days," that he with his eminently attractive personal qualities could not wholly escape the enervating influence of that spirit of society which wages such deadly war with all severe and sustained labour. The strong man was condemned, whether he would or no, to hold the distaff, but he sometimes did it with too little reluctance.

Colonization by the English Aristocracy.

But who that has ever read—and, above all, who that heard -that masterly speech on colonization, which for the time merged all party enmities in one common sentiment of admiration, can doubt that its principles might be acted upon with success if only a mind like that which made the speech were appointed with full powers to carry out the plan? Colonization may be one of the lost arts, but if it be so, the loss is in our lethargic and self-indulgent habits, not in our intelligence. No

one can study that speech, or the writings of Mr. Wakefield, from whose mind the materials were drawn, and feel still in the dark as to what it was that made the ancient Greek colonies in Italy and Asia Minor so successful. The Greeks only did from instinct and intuition what Mr. Wakefield has proposed to effect with a reflective perception of the cause, by a most felicitous application of the modern relations of capital and labour. Mr. Carlyle, however, whose thought always penetrates below the economical foundations, is still right in maintaining that the cool cash-payment calculation will not of itself ever do the work of the ancient heroism. But in England the honours at the disposal of the Crown have still power to accomplish much that cannot be accomplished by money. If successful leadership in colonial enterprises came to be regarded as a better title to peerages and blue ribands than such diplomatic exploits as are wont to be performed in the saloons of Berlin and Vienna, there would still be room for hope that the glories of the Ionic cities might be outdone, and that the English aristocracy, now wasting its high culture and still unbroken energies in aimless and unsatisfying pursuits, would yet become the architects of a great colonial civilization, richer and more fruitful in benefit to man than any social achievement of the ancient world. The Canterbury settlement, considered merely as a private effort, must be regarded with admiration and sympathy, in spite of a theological basis too artificial to bear the strain of any severe trial when it comes to clash with material interests. But the success of any such private undertaking, with the old dispersion and disorganization on every side of it, must at best be doubtful. It is somewhat like the attempt to create a Madeira climate for tender lungs in an English locality. Sooner or later the ever vigilant east winds find out weak points, and at length come with full force sweeping through the enclosure.

The application of Mr. Wakefield's principles would require, in the first instance, some advance of money, although the character of the scheme is essentially self-supporting; but it may be

said, not only for the reasons already urged, but with the additional weight of Mr. Mill's authority, that no advance of money could be made with a greater certainty of yielding a return, both directly, and still more largely in its indirect influence on the condition and industry of the home population. The object of the present chapter, however, is not so much to enforce the general principles of colonization, as to urge the specific necessity which exists for expediting emigration to Australia, in order to save from ruin the most important interest in the whole circle of colonial industry.

Supply of Wool from Australia.

The staple production of the Australian colonies is WOOL, the very same which was in former days the staple production of England herself. What England was during the middle ages to Flanders, Australia is now to England; but neither England nor any other country ever showed a more rapid development of industry than that which appears to have taken place in this department of colonial production. Here are, in round numbers, the exports of wool from New South Wales since 1827, taking only every fourth year1.

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23,379,000 2

thus sent to us comes whose pastures stretch

from innumerable flocks of sheep, out over a tract of land much larger than Great Britain. Exposed to long seasons of drought, often succeeded by floods,

1 Danson's "Commercial Progress of the Colonial Dependencies of the United Kingdom."

2 I cannot state exactly the exports from New South Wales for 1851, but believe them to have been nearly 50 per cent. greater than those of 1847. The fol

and scattered over a country full of dense forests and dangerous rocky gullies, those flocks would soon perish without human care. Hitherto they have been tended, probably by a smaller number of guardians than were ever before found sufficient for so great a task. Neither on the great table-land of Spain, nor the plains of North Germany, nor in the boundless pastures of Asia, are there to be met with examples of life so solitary as that of the shepherds at many of the out-stations in Australia. Months roll by without seeing the face of a stranger, and still from year to year new and more distant "runs" have been sought out and occupied, and the ever-multiplying swarms of sheep and cattle are rolling inwards over the surface of a continent almost equal in size to Europe itself. It is by such means that the astonishing increase has taken place in the exports of wool; but now, all at once, an event has occurred which threatens that hard-won and prodigious mass of wealth with nothing less than absolute destruction.

Effects of the New Gold in Australia.

The discovery-if the limited human mind dared to pronounce upon the ordinations of the All-Wise, one might say the unfortunate discovery-of gold in Australia, seems likely to tear asunder the whole of that industrial organization which has been so rapidly gaining magnitude and strength during the last quarter of a century. The magnetic mountain did not more certainly draw the nails out of the ship of Sinbad the

lowing is a statement given not in pounds as above, but in bales, of our imports of wool from all the Australian colonies since 1847 :

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In the last year, 1851, Australia sent nearly one-half of all the wool imported into England, the gross imports from all countries together having been 307,085 bales.

Sailor, than the gold-mines will draw away those shepherds from their lonely huts, where they are in effect the nails and rivets that hold together the whole pastoral system of Australia. If the stations be once deserted, it will not require many months to effect the irrecoverable dispersion or destruction of the flocks; the half-famished aborigines, one of the most wretched families of the human race, being always at hand to seize any opportunity of adding to their scanty supplies of food, and wholly incapable of preserving what they may acquire, for the wants of a distant time. Meanwhile, the production of gold instead of wool, while it will be a doubtful advantage to the gold-finders, will be a certain loss to the majority of mankind; for its effect must mainly be to cause a new distribution of all the other products of human labour in favour of the discoverers. Neither they nor any others want the gold for its own sake, but only as a means of procuring commodities; and though the new demand will, of course, stimulate and increase production, its chief effect must be to disorder the industrial relations already in existence. Here, then, is a state of things pre-eminently calling for the interference of a Government, if Government can interfere to any useful purpose. It must be admitted, however, that there never was a case which appeared to present greater difficulties.

Probable Effects of Emigration.

Even to maintain order amongst the excited hordes who will be drawn together at the diggings, may prove a matter of enormous difficulty; but to make any provision for the care of flocks and herds, where every new set of guardians will come under the same temptations to forsake them, seems a task almost beyond any power that belongs to a Government. It has been suggested, however, and the suggestion is of great practical importance, that all men are not equally fitted for the gold-mines. Gold-finding, in fact, both in California and Australia, requires much of that intense labour and power of endurance which seems to be peculiar, not merely to the English race, but to

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