if, nothing daunted, ye are ready to dig, we will not keep you back; the gravel, clay, and adamant will find you full employ 'Go forth and prosper then, emprising band: The ocean holds, and rules the whirlwind's sweep, The flag of the Ingots is gathering as many followers as the banner of Saladin and the standard of the Crusades, but with a different object, and a more favourable result; the countless throng will not breed famine and pestilence as of old; they enter no hostile territory or inhospitable clime; they sow not the horrors of war, but, secking the blessings of peace, each one helps his fellow. Only save us from convictism and the Asiatic swarms, and we have no fear of such calamities. Our first trust is in the presiding power, which enjoined man to increase, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. The prophecy and promise to Japhet is emblazoned, and is secure. Emigration is God's will. Next there are natural outlets for a prodigious influx; they may be read off from the outlines of the map; Wide Bay, Moreton Bay, the Clarence, the Meleay, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens, the Hunter, Sydney, Shoalhaven, Illawarra, Twofold Bay, Jervis Bay, Port Albert, Western Port, Melbourne, Geelong, Portland, Port Fairy, the Glenelg, and Adelaide. The upland of New England, Patrick's Plains, Bathurst, Argyle, and Mancroo, give a wide invitation. These are strong absorbents; and if not sufficient, then there are the western slopes of the mountains; or men may flow back again to New Zealand and Van Dieman's Land, whence they have of late been so suddenly collected. Then, again, a brief space suffices to transform the employed into employers; the glut of to-day is the demand of to-morrow. Fresh natural productions are in store, and crave capital and industry; and some well-known articles will be cultivated, such as cotton, oil, silk, sugar, and tobacco. Cotton has been particularly insisted upon, and the soil and the climate are favourable; but the days of profitable cultivation of this valuable article are not yet come; freights are too high, capital too profitably employed, labour too dear. But in the advance of the colony and the increase of labour, capital will find its way to the rich cotton grounds of the north, and the cheapness of cultivation may be an equivalent for the expense of transport. Under these probable circumstances, the planter will find remuneration-and thus, by the growth of cotton in particular, the labour market will have a new drain. Bounty emigration, also, is under control, and may be regulated according to the demand, until, in the nature of things, it will cease. Something, also, may be done to meet a perennial supply by public works, and especially by railroads, so that there is little apprehension of a redundancy; and if there be an excess of emigration at any period, it will only be temporary, for relief, immediate relief, is at hand. Railroads are entitled to a little further consideration; the world has learned their value; they multiply and diffuse national resources; they are the servants and the auxiliaries of steam (steam itself being the concentration and augmentation of strength), and they are the co-executors of the electric telegraph, that magic minister of knowledge. They are more and more valuable in certain localities, and grow in importance with the growing history of man; they promise much for the valley of the Euphrates, for India, the United States, and Canada; they are the hope of Australia. A road from Sydney to Melbourne, to begin with, will open a line of 600 miles along the auriferous region; will give, as it were, two lines of coast; will dive into the heart of fertile regions, and unite two chief ports. This feat accomplished, lines to Adelaide and the Hunter, and onward to Brisbane, will follow as a matter of course. The railway, like the gold itself, will be a fresh employment of labour; it will also be a safe investment for capital. It will carry a full-fledged civilization to the interior. The country is favourable to the rail; there are no engineering difficulties from Sydney to Melbourne, while the timber at hand, and the facilities, as to direction and soil, will probably keep the expenditure below £5000 per mile. Attempts have been made, but they languish for want of capital; the colonists not being content with a guaranteed five per cent., and being already engaged in more profitable occupation. But this guarantee may be increased to six per cent., and the calculated returns are ten per cent. This is sufficient inducement for English capital in a thoroughly English land; and soon the accumulated wealth of the miners must, in the absence of government securities, seek investment in works of this order. The thought of the workmen running away to the diggings need not be entertained; even at this hour there are upwards of seventy men steady to their work on the Sydney and Paramatta line; and before a company can be brought into operation, the legislatures of New South Wales and Victoria can put clauses in their railway acts sufficiently stringent to hold imported labourers to their bargains. There is no fear of an Australian railway company not being a paying concern.' And when established, it will regulate the market for horny hands; and may creep or fly along in different directions as the resources of the provinces become slowly or rapidly developed. Is it too much to say that pro gress will be stopped before the railroad touches Cape York, or the submarine telegraph reach Sincapore, and through it the very centre of Europe! Of the books in review, first comes an old favourite, David Mackenzie, who writes in an interesting and instructive vein. The emigrant may quickly glance through his pages, and on rising from their perusal say, 'This is the very information I want.' Mr. Mackenzie, however, must, in a new edition, correct his view of Sydney society: the period to which he refers is now past; since he first observed, all the good has become better, and the bad has become mitigated or removed. We commend him to alter statements like the following:--' If you were only to peep into the police-office on a Monday forenoon, you would then see a lovely specimen of our morality. Scores of men, women, boys, and girls, who had been dragged off the streets on the preceding evening for drunkenness, fighting, and other similar offences, standing with brazen faces to hear their respective sentences. You may then, every two or three minutes, hear thundered forth, with the voice of authority, from the magistrate's bench:-Six hours to the stocks'- Ten days to the cells Twenty days to the treadmill'-'Fifty lashes (on his bare back)! The stocks, the cells, the wheel, and the cat, are among the things that were. Mr. Earp's Gold Colonies' is a hasty compilation, correct in the main, but wanting in the discrimination which an eyewitness can alone possess. Whether it be a blemish or an excellence, he leaves much to the deduction of the reader's mind; he scarcely ventures a decision on important points. Judging this to be a fault, we have endeavoured to correct it in these pages. Mr. Mossman's little volume is racy, the production of a lively and well-informed observer. His earnest warnings, addressed to the profligate, the inert, or the inexperienced, are valuable. He has been lecturing through the country, and certainly few deserve so much attention. His fearless denunciations of fraud and folly make him terrible to some, but his straightforwardness and sincerity entitle him to respect. He has trodden many a foot of the Australian territory, and vividly, and warmly, and truly depicts the glowing scene. His commendations of persons and things are also disinterested. Mr. Sidney's volume has just reached us, and we have in consequence been able only to glance over it hastily. The author is a veteran in the colonization cause, and his work will create a sensation. His anecdotes illustrate the principles we have laid down, and suggest many points which require remark. We shall recur to his work next month, and in the mean time recommend it to the favourable notice of our readers. The dislocation of society occasioned by the gold discovery is touched upon by the latter authors, and doubtless the several provinces have felt much inconvenience; but Sydney has rallied already; Melbourne and Geelong must soon revive, and Adelaide need not despair. The treasures of South Australia are great and enduring. The Adelaideans have done wisely in immediately opening a road to Mount Alexander, and when fresh hands arrive to work their own mines of copper returning prosperity is certain. Instructed by the success of this last act, South Australia ought now to aim at the navigation of the Murray; then a large amount of commerce must pour through her gates, and she will become a flourishing emporium. We cannot close without mentioning the inadequate descriptions of Sydney which have appeared. It is impossible to speak of this city aright. Mr. Barker's panorama, twenty years ago, had something of the transparency and lucidity of the subject, and those who can remember that painting may partially comprehend the peculiar beauty of the southern metropolis, but the pen fails to depict it. Sydney, as the morning mists disperse, rises like a second Carthage, queen of the waters; the beams of the wakening sun mantle on her diadem, and his setting rays throw around her a purple robe: during the day she is canopied in his light; he woos and wins her love; the moon takes her for a sister; and the stars, as they cluster in the dark blue ether, send forth to her their friendly greetings. Let the past of her history be forgotten, oblivion suits it; the present is glorious; the future who shall tell! Looking forward, a brightening sign appears; pure religion, and undefiled, exists in Australia, the Spirit of God has already given emphatic testimony to the word of his grace in the conversion of notorious offenders, in a reformation of manners, in reviving the church. A missionary spirit reigns; Sydney is the focal point for the London Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and the Church of England Board of Missions, in juxta-position with the centre of operations of the Romish missions in Oceana. We know full well which shall prevail. The Christians of the Georgian and Harvey groups on the east, and the evangelized of New Zealand, Tongataboo, the Figis, the Harpais, the Samoas, the New Hebrides, Hawaii, and the Kissas of the Indian Archipelago, find brethren in Sydney-loving helpful brethren. And if God continue His favours, His ministers shall go forth from Australia to regions beyond. The blackest cloud of heathenism rests on the lands to the north, and immediately contiguous to these shores. In the season of persecution Australia is a fit wilderness to receive the hunted church; and if this be not required, the church there may have the honour and the glory, as it now seems to have the disposition, to make known among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. ART. II.—Robert Blake, Admiral and General at Sea. Based on Family and State Papers. By Hepworth Dixon. One vol. 8vo. London. Chapman and Hall. 1852. If there be any persons really doubtful of the power of our navy, under able management, to protect our shores, indepcndently of the army, we recommend them to read this well-timed volume. We are willing to make the most ample allowances for the advantages which steam may now give to the French nation, and to add all others which the more highly disciplined, the greatly augmented, and the more scientifically armed landforces of the continent may suggest. These advantages cannot bear any proportion to those which those nations possessed over us at the time that Blake was placed at the head of our navy. France and Spain had their large and powerful fleets; Holland was held to possess an invincible one. Their former admirals, Tromp, De Witt, De Ruiter, De Wilde, and others, swept our shores with grand armaments in the confidence of their national predominance at sea. Nearly the whole of the continent was ill-affected to England, on account of the destruction of the monarchy. The exiled Stuarts and their followers were there stirring up all possible hostility against us; and Holland, Protestant and republic, which should have made common cause with us, influenced by the same motives, their stadtholder having married a Stuart, and still more from jealousy of the extension of our mercantile and colonial power, was opposed to us mortally. The cause of monarchy, of the Catholic religion, and of an ancient dynasty, overthrown and ejected, all united the majority of the nations against England, and the motives to invade and humble this country were far stronger than they can be now. A terrific shock, such as was without example or previous conception in the annals of the world, that of a nation calling its monarch to account for treason to the constitution, arraigning, condemning, and executing him, as a traitor to liberty and the state, had inspired every kingdom in the |