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 dispossessed (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

This compulsion to enjoy,-this despotic benevolence, is something quite new in the science of government.

The sale of spirits was first of all monopolised by the Government, and then let out to individuals, for the purpose of building an hospital. subject Mr. Bennet observes

Upon this

"Heretofore all ardent spirits brought to the colony were purchased by the Government, and served out at fixed prices to the officers, civil and military, according to their ranks; hence arose a discreditable and gainful trade on the part of these officers, their wives and mistresses. The price of spirits at times was so high that one and two guineas have been given for a single bottle. The thirst after ardent spirits became a mania among the settlers: all the writers on the state of the colony, and all who have resided there, and have given testimony concerning it, describe this rage and passion for drunkenness as prevailing in all classes, and as being the principal foundation of all the crimes committed there. This extravagant propensity to drunkenness was taken advantage of by the governor to aid him in the building of the hospital. Mr. Wentworth, the surgeon, Messrs. Riley and Blaxwell, obtained permission to enter a certain quantity of spirits; they were to pay a duty of five or seven shillings a gallon on the quantity they introduced, which duty was to be set apart for the erection of the hospital. To prevent any other spirits from being landed, a monopoly was given to these contractors. As soon 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 25. 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 licensed to deal in spirits, though he should think five at the utmost would be amply sufficient for the accommodation of the public." (Bennet, PP. 77-79.)

The whole coast of Botany Bay and Van Diemen'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 of North America, is only eight times the amount on train oil, and twelve times the amount on spermaceti, of that which is levied on the same substances taken by British subjects within the United Kingdom. The duty, therefore, which is payable on train oil, in vessels belonging to this colony, is nearly seven times greater than that which is payable on the same description of oil taken in vessels belonging to the island of Newfoundland, and considerably more than double of that which is payable on the same commodity taken in vessels belonging to the Bahama or Bermuda islands, or to the plantations in North America; while the duty which is levied on spermaceti oil, procured in vessels belonging to this colony, is five times the amount of that which is levied on vessels belonging to the above-mentioned places, and twenty times the amount of that which is levied on vessels belonging to Newfoundland. The injustice of this seems to us to be quite enormous. The statements are taken from Mr. Wentworth's book.

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.

The Australasians grow corn; and it is necessarily their staple. The Cape is their rival in the corn trade. The food of the inhabitants of the East Indies is rice; the voyage to Europe is too distant for so bulky an article as corn. The supply to the government stores furnished the cultivators of New South Wales with a market in the first instance, which is now become too insignificant for the great excess of the supply above the consumption. Population goes on with immense rapidity; but while so much new and fertile land is before them, the supply continues in the same proportion greater than the demand. The most obvious method of affording a market for this redur dant corn is by encouraging distilleries within the colony; a measure repeatedly pressed upon the government at home, but hitherto as constantly refused. It is a measure of still greater importance to the colony, because its agriculture is subjected to the effects both of severe drought and extensive inundations, and the corn raised for the distillers would be a magazine in times of famine. A recommendation to this effect was long since made by a committee of the House of Commons; but, as it was merely a measure for the increase of human comforts, was stuffed into the improvement baskets, and forgotten. There has been in all governments a great deal of absurd canting about the consumption of spirits. 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 and 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. Again, human life is subject to such manifold wretchedness that all nations have invented a something liquid or solid, to produce a brief oblivion. Poppies, barley, grasses, sugar, pepper, and a thousand other things, have been squeezed, pressed, pounded, and purified, to produce this temporary happiness. Noblemen and Members of Parliament have large cellars full of sealed bottles, to enable them the better to endure the wretchedness of life. The poor man seeks the same end by expending three halfpence in gin ;-but no moralist can endure the idea of gin.

The governors of Botany Bay have taken the liberty of imposing what taxes they deem 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!

Mr. Wentworth enumerates, among the evils to which the colony is subjected, that clause in the last settlement of the East India Company's charter, which prevents vessels of less than 300 tons burden from navigating the Indian seas; a restriction from which the Cape of Good Hope has been lately liberated, and which ought, in the same manner, to be removed from

New South Wales, where there cannot be, for many years to come, sufficient capital to build vessels of so large a burden.

"The disability," says Mr. Wentworth, "might 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 opened to them. First, they would be enabled to transport, in their own vessels, their coals, timber, spars, flour, meat, &c., to the Cape of Good Hope, the Isle of France, Calcutta, and inany 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 directly to Canton the sandal wood, bêche 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, silks, nankeens, &c.; all of which commodities are in great demand 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 exclusively carried on by the Americans and Russians, although the colonists possess a local superiority for the prosecution of this valuable branch of commerce, which would insure them at least a successful competition with the subjects of those two nations."-(Wentworth, 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 burden-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.

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 corn is so great-or rather the impossibility so clear-that the measure of encouraging domestic distilleries ought to be had recourse to. The colony, with a soil fit for everything, must, as Mr. Wentworth proposes, grow other things besides corn,-and excite that market in the interior which it does not enjoy from without. The want of demand, indeed, for the excess of corn will soon effect this without the intervention of Government. 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 Colonial Assembly, we confess that we have great doubts. At some future time they must come, and ought to come. The only question is, Is the colony fit for such institutions at present? Are there a sufficient number of respectable persons to serve that office in the various settlements? If the English law is to be followed exactly,-to com. pose a jury of twelve persons, a panel 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 expense and inconvenience? Is such an institution calculated for so very young a colony? A good government is an excellent thing; but it is not the first in the order of human wants. The first want is to subsist; the next to subsist in freedom and comfort; first to live at all, then to live well. A Parliament is a still greater demand upon the wisdom and intelli

gence and opulence of a colony than trial by jury. Among the twenty thousand inhabitants of New South Wales, are there ten persons out of the employ of Government whose wisdom and prudence could reasonably 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 perform. Mr. MacArthur, 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 director of a thousand plans, charities, and associations, to which his presence is essentially necessary. 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 absence is (God knows) easily supplied; but in a colony of 20,000 persons, it is impossible this should be the case. Some time hence, the institution of a Colonial Assembly will be a very wise and proper measure, and so clearly called for, that the most profligate members of administration will neither be able to ridicule nor refuse it. 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.

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. Bennet are, in the first place, its enormous expense. The colony of New South Wales, from 1788 to 1815 inclusive, has cost this country the enormous sum of £3,465,983. In the evidence before the Transportation Committee, the annual expense of each convict, from 1791 to 1797, is calculated at £33 9s. 52d. per annum, and the profits of his labour are stated to be £20. The price paid for the transport of convicts has been, on an average, £37, exclusive of food and clothing. It appears, however, says Mr. Bennet, by an account laid before Parliament, that in the year 1814, £109,746 were paid for the transport, food, and clothing of 1,016 convicts, which will make the cost amount to about 108 per man. In 1812, the expenses of the colony were. £176,000; in 1813, £235,000; in 1814, £231,362; but in 1815 they had fallen to £150,000.

The cruelty and neglect in the transportation of convicts have been very great -and in this way a punishment inflicted which it never was in the contemplation of law to enact. During the first eight years, according to Mr. Bennet's statements, one-tenth of the convicts died on the passage; on the arrival of three of the ships, 200 sick were landed, 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 a history of what is past, than a censure upon any existing evil.

In addition to the expense of Botany Bay, Mr. Bennet contends that it wants the very essence of punishment, terror;-that the common people do not dread it ;-that, instead of preventing crimes, it rather excites the people to their commission, by the hopes it affords of bettering their condition in a new country.

"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 cruel blow, and when I consider the merciless character of the law which inflicts it, a severe penalty; but by far the greater number of persons who suffer this punishment regard it in quite a different light. Mr. Cotton, the Ordinary of Newgate, informed the Police Committee, last year, That the generality of those who are transported consider it as a party of pleasure-as going out to see the world; they evince no penitence, no contrition, but seem to rejoice in the thing-many of them to court it. I have heard them, when the sentence of transportation has been passed by the Recorder, return thanks for it, and 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 were 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.)

It is a scandalous injustice, in this colony, that persons transported for seven years have no power of returning when that period is expired. A strong, active man may sometimes work his passage home; but what is an old man or an 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.

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 years in the family of some industrious planter, without seeing a picklock or indulging in pleasant dialogues on the delicious burglaries of his youth. He imperceptibly glided into honest habits, and lost not only the tact for pockets, but the wish to investigate 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 now appeal to your Excellency" (he says at the conclusion of his Letter), "whether, under such circumstances, any man of common feeling, possessed of the least spark of humanity or religion, who stood in the same official relation that I do to these people, as their spiritual pastor and magistrate, could enjoy one happy moment from the beginning to the end of the week?