have only to observe, that a good stout inundation of, oil taken in vessels belonging to the island of Newthe Hawkesbury would be far less pernicious to the foundland, and considerably more than double of that industry of the colony than such gross ignorance and which is payable on the same commodity taken in absurdity as this order evinces. Young surgeons are vessels belonging to the Bahama or Bermuda islands, examined in Surgeon's Hall on the methods of cutting or to the plantations in North America; while the off legs and arms before they are allowed to practise duty which is levied on spermaceti oil, procured in surgery. An examination on the principles of Adam vessels belonging to this colony, is five times the Smith, and a license from Mr. Ricardo, seem to be amount of that which is levied on vessels belonging almost a necessary preliminary for the appointment to the above-mentioned places, and twenty times the of governors. We must give another specimen of Go- amount of that which is levied on vessels belonging to vernor Macquarrie's acquaintance wirh the principles Newfoundland. The injustice of this seems to us to of political economy. be quite enormous. The statements are taken from Mr. Wentworth's book.

'General Orders.

The inhabitants of New South Wales have no trial by jury; the governor has not even a council to restrain him. There is imposed in this country a very heavy duty on timber and coals exported; but for which, says Mr. Wentworth, some hundred tons of these valuable productions would have been sent annually to the Cape of Good Hope and India, since the vessels which have been in the habit of trading between those countries and the colony have always returned in ballast. The owners and consignees would gladly have shipped cargoes of timber and coals, if they could have derived the most minute profit from the freight of them.

His excellency has observed, with much concern, that at the present time of scarcity, most of the garden ground attached to the allotments, whereon different descriptions of persous build huts, are totally neglected, and no vegetable growing thereon-as such neglect in the occupiers, points them out as unfit to profit by such indulgence, those who do not put the garden ground attached to the allotments they occupy in cultivation, on or before the 10th day of July next, will be disposed (except in cases wherein ground is held by lease), and more industrious persons put in possession of them, as the present necessities of the settlement require every exertion being used to supply the wants of families, by the ground attached to their dwellings being made as productive as possible. By command of his excellency. G. BLAXWELL, Sec. Government House, Sydney, June 21st, 1806.”—O'Hara, p. 275. The Australasians grow corn; and it is necessarily their staple. The Cape is their rival in the corn trade. This compulsion to enjoy this despotic benevolence, The food of the inhabitants of the East Indies is rice; the is something quite new in the science of government.voyage to Europe is too distant for so bulky an article The sale of spirits was first of all monopolized by as corn. The supply to the government stores furnis the government, and then let out to individuals, for ed the cultivators of New South Wales with a market the purpose of building an hospital. Upon this sub- in the first instance, which is now become too insigniject, Mr. Bennet observes.ficant for the great excess of the supply above the con'Heretofore all ardent spirits brought to the colony were sumption. Population goes on with immense rapidity; purchased by the government, and served out at fixed prices but while so much new and fertile land is before them, to the officers, civil and military, according to their ranks; the supply continues in the same proportion greater hence arose a discreditable and baneful trade on the part of than the demand. The most obvious method of affordthese officers, their wives and mistresses. The price of spiritsing a market for this redundant corn, is by encouraging at times was so high, that one and two guineas have been given distilleries within the colony; a measure repeatedly for a single bottle. The thirst after ardent spirits became a mania among the settlers: all the writers on the state of the pressed upon the government at home, but hitherto as colony, and all who have resided there, and have given testi- constantly refused. It is a measure of still greater nony concerning it, describe this rage and passion for drunk- importance to the colony, because its agriculture is enness as prevailing in all classes, and as being the principal subjected to the effects both of severe drought and foundation of all the crimes committed there. This extrava- extensive inundations, and the corn raised for the disgrant propensity to drunkenness was taken advantage of by the tillers would be a magazine in times of famine. A governor, to aid him in the building of the hospital. Mr. Went- recommendation to this effect was long since made by worth, the surgeon, Messrs. Riley and Blaxwell, obtained permission to enter a certain quantity of spirits; they were to a committee of the House of Commons; but, as it was pay a duty of five or seven shillings a gallon on the quantity merely a measure for the increase of human comforts, they introduced, which duty was to be set apart for the erec-was stuffed into the improvement baskets, and forgot tion of the hospital. To prevent any other spirits from being ten. There has been in all governments a great deal landed, a monopoly was given to these contractors. As soon of absurd canting about the consumption of spirits. as the agreement was signed, these gentlemen sent off to Rio Janeiro, the Mauritius, and the East Indies, for a large quantity of rum and arrack, which they could purchase at about the rate of 2s. or 2s. 6d. per gallon, and disembarked it at Sydney. From there being but few houses that were before permitted to sell this poison, they abounded in every street; and such was the enormous consumption of spirits, that money was soon raised to build the hospital, which was finished in 1814. Mr. Marsden informs us, that in the small town of Paramatta thirteen houses were licenced to deal in spirits, though he should think that five at the utmost would be amply sufficient for the accommodation of the public.'-Bennet, pp. 77-79.

We believe the best plan is to let people drink what they like, and wear what they like; to make no sumptuary laws either for the belly or the back. In the first place, laws against rum and rum water are made by men who can change a wet coat for a dry one whenever they choose, and who do not often work up to their knees in mud and water; and, in the next place, if this stimulus did all the mischief it is thought to do by the wise men of claret, its cheapness and plenty would rather lessen than increase the avidity with which it is at present sought for.

The governors of Botany Bay have taken the liberty of imposing what taxes they deemed proper, without any other authority than their own; and it seemed very frivolous and vexatious not to allow this small effusion of despotism in so remote a corner of the globe: but it was noticed by the opposition in the House of Commons, and reluctantly confessed and given up by the administration. This great portion of the earth begins civil life with noble principles of freedom :-may God grant to its inhabitants that wisdom and courage which are necessary for the preservation of so great a good!

The whole coast of Botany Bay and Van Dieman's Land abounds with whales; and accordingly the duty levied upon train oil procured by the subjects in New South Wales, or imported there, is twenty times greater than that paid by the inhabitants of this country: the duty on spermaceti oil, imported, is sixty times greater. The duty levied on train oil, spermaceti, and head matter, procured by the inhabitants of Newfoundland, is only three times the amount of that which is levied on the same substance procured by British subjects residing in the United kingdom. The duty levied on oil procured by British subjects residing in the Bahama or Bermuda islands, or in the plantations Mr. Wentworth enumerates, among the evils to of North America, is only eight times the amount on which the colony is subjected, that clause in the last train oil, and twelve times the amount on spermaceti, settlement of the East India Company's charter, which of that which is levied on the same substances taken prevents vessels of less than three hundred tons burby British subjects within the United Kingdom. The then from navigating the Indian seas; a restriction duty, therefore, which is payable on train oil in vessels from which the Cape of Good Hope has been lately belonging to this colony is nearly seven times greater liberated, and which ought, in the same manner, to than that which is payable on the same description of be removed from New South Wales, where there can

D

not be for many years to come, sufficient capital to build vessels of so large a burthen.

sonably be expected to advance the interests of the colony without embroiling it with the mother-country? Who has leisure, in such a state of affairs, to attend such a parliament? Where wisdom and conduct are so rare, every man of character, we will venture to say, has, like strolling players in a barn, six or seven important parts to perionm. Mr. M'Arthur, who, from his character and understanding, would probably be among the first persons elected to the colonial legislature, besides being a very spirited agriculturist, is, we have no doubt, justice of the peace, curator and rector of a thousand plans, charities, and associations, to which his presence is essentially ne cessary. If he could be cut into as many pieces as a tree is into planks, all his subdivisions would be eminently useful. When a member of Parliament, and what is called a really respectable country gentleman, sets off to attend his duty, in our Parliament, such diminution of intelligence as is produced by his ab sence, is, God knows, easily supplied; but in a colony of 20,000 persons, it is impossible this should be the Some time hence, the institution of a colonial

The disability,' says Mr.Wentworth, 'imight be removed by a simple order in council. Whenever his majesty's government shall have freed the colonists from this useless and cruel prohibition, the following branches of commerce would then be open to them. First, they would be enabled to transport, in their own vessels, their coals, timbers, spars, flour, meat, &c. to the Cape of Good Hope, the Isle of France, Calcutta, and many other places in the Indian seas; in all of which, markets more or less extensive exist for those various other productions which the colony might furnish. Secondly, they would be enabled to carry direct to Canton the sandal wood, beche la mer, dried seal skins, and, in fact, all the numerous productions which the surrounding seas and islands afford for the China market, and return freighted with cargoes of tea, talks, naukeens, &c.; all of which commodities are in great emand in the colony, and are at present altogether furnished by East India or American merchants, to the great detriment and dissatisfaction of the colonial. And, lastly, they would be enabled, in a short time, from the great increase of capital which these important privileges would of themselves occasion, as well as attract from other countries, to open the fur-trade with the north-west coast of America, and dispose of the cargoes procured in China-a trade which has hitherto been carried on by the Americans and Russians, although the colonists assembly will be a very wise and proper measure, and possess a local superiority for the prosecution of this valuable so clearly called for, that the most profligate membranch of commerce, which would insure them at least a suc-bers of administration will neither be able to ridicule cessful competition with subjects of those two nations.-Went- nor refuse it. worth, pp. 317,318.

The means which Mr. Wentworth proposes for improving the condition of Botany Bay, are-trial by jury; colonial assemblies, with whom the right of taxation should rest; the establishment of distilleries, and the exclusion of foreign spirits; alteration of duties, so as to place New South Wales upon the same footing as other colonies; removal of the restriction to navigate the Indian seas in vessels of a small burthen; improvements in the courts of justice; encouragement for the growth of hemp, flax, tobacco, and wine; and if a colonial assembly cannot be granted, that there should be no taxation without the authority of parliament.

The

case.

At present we are afraid that a Botany Bay parliament would give rise to jokes; and jokes at present have a great agency in human affairs.

The

Mr. Bennet concerns himself with the settlement of New Holland, as it is a school for criminals; and, upon this subject, has written a very humane, enlightened, and vigorous pamphlet. The objections made to this settlement by Mr. Ben tare, in the first colony of New place, its enormous expense. South Wales, from 1788 to 1815 in lusive, has cost this country the enormous sum of 3, 5,9837. In the evidence before the transportation immittee, the annual expense of each convict, from 1791 to 1797, is calculated at 337. 98.54d. per annum id the profits of his labour are stated to be 201. Th price paid for the transport of convicts has been, on average, 371. exclusive of food and clothing. It app, however, says Mr. Bennet, by an account laid wire Parlia ment, that in the year 1814, 109,7461. ree pakt for the transport, feed, and clothing of 10 convicts. which will make the cost amount to about ¡057. per man. In 1812, the expenses of the cells were 176,0007.; in 1813, 235,0007.; in 1814, 231,.\\.; but in 1815, they had fallen to 150,0001.

The cruelty and neglect in the transporton of convicts have been very great-and in this way a punishment inflicted which it never was in the conDuring the first eight templation of law to enact. years, according to Mr. Bennet's statements, onetenth of the convicts died on the passage; on the arrival of three of the ships, 200 sick were la led, 281 persons having died on board. These instances, however, of criminal inattention to the health of the convicts, no longer take place; and it is mentioned rather as an history of what is past, than a censure upon any existing evil.

In general, we agree with Mr. Wentworth in his statement of evils, and in the remedies he has proposed for them. Many of the restrictions upon the commerce of New South Wales are so absurd that they require only to be stated in Parliament to be corrected. The fertility of the colony so far exceeds its increase of population, and the difficulty of finding a market for com is so great-or rather the impossibility so clear-that the measure of encouraging domes. tic distilleries ought to be had recourse to. colony, with a soil fit for every thing, must, as Mr. Wentworth proposes, grow other things besides corn, and excite that market in the interior which it does The want of demand. in not enjoy from without. deed, for the excess of corn, will soon effect this without the intervention of goverment. Government, we believe, have already given up the right of taxation without the sanction of Parliament; and there is an end, probably, by this time,to that grievance. A council and a colonial secretary they have also expressed their willingness to concede. Of trial by jury, and a coIn addition to the expense of Botany Bay, Mr. Benlonial assembly, we confess that we have great doubts. At some future time they must come, and ought to net contends that it wants the very essence of punish come. The only question is, is the colony fit for such ment, terror; that the common people do not dread institutions at present? Are there a sufficient num.it; that instead of preventing crimes, it rather excites ber of respectable persons to serve that office in the the people to their commission, by the hopes it affords various settlements? If the English law is be to fol- of bettering their condition in a new country. lowed exactly, to compose a jury of twelve persons, a pannel of forty-eight must be summoned. Could forty-eight intelligent, unconvicted men, be found in every settlement of New South Wales? or must they not be fetched from great distances, at an enormous Is such an institution expense and inconvenience?

All those who have had an opportunity of witnessing the effect of this system of transportation agree in opinion, that it is no longer an object of dread-it has, in fact, generally ceased to be a punishment: true it is, to a father of a family, to the mother who leaves her children, this perpetual separation from those whom they love and whom they support, is a calculated for so very young a colony? A good go cruel blow, and, when I consider the merciless character of the vernment is an excellent thing; but it is not the first law which inflicts it, a severe penalty; but by far the greater in the order of human wants. The first want is to number of persons who suffer this punishment, regard it in subsist; the next to subsist in freedom and comfort; quite a different light. Mr. Cotton, the ordinary of Newgate, first to live at all, then to live well. A parliament is informed the police committee last year, "that the generality still a greater demand upon the wisdom and intelli- of those who are transported consider it as a party of pleasure -as going out to see the world; they evince no penitence, no gence and opulence of a colony, than trial by jury contrition, but seem to rejoice in the thing-many of them to Among the twenty thousand inhabitants of New South court it. I have heard them, when the sentence of transportaWales, are there ten persons out of the employ of tion has been passed by the recorder, return thanks for it, and government whose wisdom and prudence could rea-seem overjoyed at their sentence: the very last party that

went off, when they were put into the caravan, shouted and huzzaed, and were very joyous; several of them called out to the keepers who were there in the yard, the first fine Sunday we will have a glorious kangaroo hunt at the Bay-seeming to anticipate a great deal of pleasure." He was asked if those persons were married or single, and his answer was, "by far the greater number of them unmarried. Some of them are anxious that their wives and children should follow them; others care nothing about either wives or children, and are glad to get rid of them."-Bennet, pp. 60,61.

authority, and to establish a regular police, under such a weight of accumulated and accumulating evils. I am as sensible as any man can be, that the difficulty of removing these evils will be very great; at the same time, their number and influence may be greatly lessened, if the abandoned male and female convicts are lodged in barracks, and placed under the eye of the police, and the number of licensed houses is reduced. Till something of this kind is done, all attempts of the magistrate, and the public administration of religion, will be attended with little good. I have the honour to be your excellency's most obedient humble servant, SAMUEL MARSDEN'

It is a scandalous injustice in this colony, that per--Bennet, p, 104. sons transported for seven years, have no power of Thus much for Botany Bay. As a mere colony, it returning when that period is expired. A strong ac- is too distant and expensive; and, in future, will of tive man may sometimes work his passage home; but what is an old man or aged female to do? Suppose a convict were to be confined in prison for seven years, and then told he might get out if he could climb over the walls, or break open the locks, what in general would be his chance of liberation? But no lock nor

doors can be so secure a means of detention as the

distance of Botany Bay. This is a downright trick and fraud in the administration of criminal justice. A poor wretch who is banished from his country for seven years, should be furnished with the means of returning to his country when these seven years are expired. If it is intended he should never return, his sentence should have been banishment for life.

course involve us in many of those just and necessary wars, which deprive Englishmen so rapidly of their comforts, and make England scarcely worth living in. If considered as a place of reform for criminals, its distance, expense, and the society to which it dooms the objects of the experiment, are insuperable objec

tions to it.

in New South Wales will soon bear a greater propor
It is in vain to say, that the honest people
tion to the rogues, and the contamination of bad.
This only proves that it
society will be less fatal.

may be a good place for reform hereafter, not that it
is a good one now. One of the principal reasons for
peopling Botany Bay at all, was, that it would be an
admirable receptacle, and a school of reform, for our
convicts. It turns out, that for the first half century,
it will make them worse than they were before, and
that, after that period, they may probably begin to
improve. A marsh, to be sure, may be drained and
cultivated; but no man who has his choice, would
select it in the mean time for his dwelling-place.

The three books are all books of merit. Mr. O'

Hara's is a bookseller's compilation, done in a useful
and pleasing manner.
mation on the present state of Botany Bay. The
humanity, the exertions, and the genuine benevolence
of Mr. Bennet, are too well known to need our com-

Mr. Wentworth is full of infor

mendation.

The most serious charge against the colony, as a place for transportation, and an experiment in criminal justice, is the extreme profligacy of manners which prevails there, and the total want of reformation among the convicts. Upon this subject, except in the regular letters, officially varnished and filled with fraudulent beatitudes for the public eye, there is, and there can be, but one opinion. New South Wales is a sink of wickedness, in which the great majority of convicts of both sexes become infinitely more depraved than at the period of their arrival. How, as Mr. Bennet very justly observes, can it be otherwise? The felon transported to the American plantations, became an insulated rogue among honest men. He lived for All persons who have a few guineas in their pocket, years in the family of some industrious planter, without seeing a picklock, or indulging in pleasant dia- are now running away from Mr. Nicholas Vansittart logues on the delicious burglaries of his youth. He to settle in every quarter of the globe. imperceptibly glided into honest habits, and lost not subject of emigration to Botany Bay, Mr. Wentworth only the tact for pockets, but the wish to investigate observes, 1st, that any respectable person emigrating to that colony, receives as much land gratis, as would cost him 400l. in the United States; 2dly, he is allowed as many servants as he may require, at one-third of the wages paid for labour in America; 3dly, himself and family are victualled at the expense of gov ernment for six months. He calculates that a man,-wife, and two children, with an allowance of five tons for themselves and baggage, could emigrate to Botany Bay for 1007., including every expense, provided a whole ship could be freighted; and that a single man These points are could be taken out thither for 301. worthy of serious attention to those who are shedding their country.

their contents.

But in Botany Bay, the felon, as soon as he gets out of the ship, meets with his ancient trull, with the footpad of his heart, the convict of his affections, the man whose hand he has often met in the same gentleman's pocket-the being whom he would choose from the whole world to take to the road, or to disentangle the locks of Bramah. It is Impossible that vice should not become more intense in such society.

Upon the horrid state of morals now prevalent in Botany Bay, we would counsel our readers to cast their eyes upon the account given by Mr. Marsden, in a letter, dated July, 1815, to Governor Macquarrie.It is given at length in the appendix to Mr. Bennet's book. A more horrid picture of the state of any settlement was never penned. It carries with it an air of truth and sincerity, and is free from all enthusiastic

cant.

I humbly conceive that it is incompatible with the character and wish of the British nation, that her own exiles should be exposed to such privations and dangerous temptations, when she is daily feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, and receiving into her friendly, and I may add pious bosom, the stranger, whether savage or civilized, of every nation under heaven. There are, in the whole, nnder the two principal superintendents, Messrs. Rouse and Oakes, one hundred and eight men, and one hundred and fifty women, and several children; and nearly the whole of them have to find lodgings

for themselves when they have performed their government tasks.

I trust that your excellency will be fully persuaded, that it is totally impossible for the magistrate to support his necessary

Upon the

Account of the Proceedings of the Society for superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys. Baldwin, &c. London, 1816. AN excellent and well-arranged dinner is a most pleas ing occurrence, and a great triumph of civilized life. It is not only the descending morsel, and the enveloping sauce-but the rank, wealth, wit, and beauty which surround the meats-the learned management of light and heat-the silent and rapid services of the attendants-the smiling and sedulous host, proffering guests and relishes-the exotic bottles-the embossed plate-the pleasant remarks-the handsome dressesthe cunning artifices in fruit and farina! The hour of dinner, in short, includes every thing of sensual and intellectual gratification which a great nation glories in producing.

In the midst of all this, who knows that the kitchen chimney caught fire half an hour before dinner!-eud that a poor little wretch, of six or seven years old

was sent up in the midst of the flames to put it out? | inside of a room? Yes, I have helped to break through into a We would not, previous to reading this evidence, have kitchen chimney in a dining room.-Lords' Minutes, p. 34. formed a conception of the miseries of these poor To the same effect is the evidence of John Daniels wretches, or that there should exist, in a civilized country, a class of human beings destined to such extreme and varied distress. We will give a short epitome of what is developed in the evidence before the two Houses of Parliament.

Is that usual? Yes, I have been burnt myself, and have got 'Did you ever know a boy get burnt up a chimney? Yesthe scars on my legs; a year ago I was up a chimney in Liquor Pond Street; I have been up more than forty chimneys where I have been burnt.--Did your master or the journeymen ever general case.-Do they compel you to go up a chimney that is direct you to go up a chimney that was on fire? Yes, it is a on fire? Oh yes, it was the general practice for two of us to You talked of the pargetting to chimneys; are many chim-stop at home on Sunday to be ready in case of a chimney being neys pargetted? There used to be more than are now; we chimneys on fire? Yes, boys get very ill-treated if they do a-fire. You say it is general to compel the boys to go up used to have to go and sit all a-twist to parge them, according not go up.'-Lords' Minutes, p. 34. to the floors, to keep the smoke from coming out; then I could Were you ever forced up a chimney on fire? Yes, I was not strengthen my legs; and that is the reason that many are forced cripples, from parging and stopping the holes.'-Lords' Min-home and well hided with a brush by the journeyman.-Have up one once, and, because I could not do it, I was taken utes, No. 1. p. 17.

you frequently been burnt in ascending chimneys on fire? They are often stuck fast in a chimney, and, after mon in the trade with other boys? Yes, they are.'—Ibid. p. Three times.-Are such hardships as you have described comremaining there many hours, are cut out.

'Have you known, in the course of your practice, boys stick in chimneys at all? Yes, frequently.-Did you ever know an instance of a boy being suffocated to death? No; I do not recollect any one at present, but I have assisted in taking boys out when they have been nearly exhausted.-Did you ever know an instance of its being necessary to break open a chimney to take the boy out? O yes.-Frequently? Monthly might say; it is done with a cloak, if possible, that it should not be discovered: a master in general wishes it not to be known, and therefore speaks to the people belonging to the house not to mention it, for it was merely the boy's neglect; they oftey say it was the boy's neglect.-Why do they say that? The boy's climbing shirt is often very bad; the boy coming down, if the chimney be very narrow, and numbers of them are only nine inches, gets his shirt rumpled underneath him, and he has no power after he is fixed in that way (with 'He appeared perfectly willing to try the machines everyhis hand up.)--Does a boy frequently stick in the chimney? where? I must say the man appeared perfectly willing; he Yes, I have known more instances of that the last twelve- had a fear that he and his family would be ruined by them, month than before.-Do you ever have to break open in the' but I must say of him, that he is very different from ether

The bed of these poor little wretches is often the beneficial for him? I do; and I have heard that "early to bed soot they have swept in the day.

the committee, is, that there are several little girls employed; there are two of the name of Morgan at Windsor, daughters 'Are you at all lame yourself? No: but I am knappedof the chimney-sweeper who is employed to sweep the chim- kneed" with carrying heavy loads when I was an apprentice. neys of the Castle; another instance at Uxbridge, and at-That was the occasion of it? It was.-In general, are perBrighton, and at Whitechapel, (which was some years ago,) sons employed in your trade either stunted or knock-kneed by and at Hadley near Barnet, and Witham in Essex, and else- carrying heavy loads during their childhood? It is owing to where.-Commons' Report, p. 71. their masters a great deal; and when they climb a great deal it makes them weak.'-Commons' Report, p. 58.