From the Eclectic Review. TWO YEARS IN AUSTRALIA. * UNTIL very recently, the Australian colonies were almost entirely unknown amongst us. They were associated with the habits of a penal settlement rather than with commercial speculations or social life. The discovery of gold, however, has invested them with new interest. The scene has suddenly changed. Vast crowds have emigrated, in the hopes of sharing in the wealth discovered; and the tide of emigration has flowed on and increased its bulk so rapidly, that time has not been allowed for earlier disappointments to cool the ardor or to stay the progress of later adventurers. The markets of the Australias have, in consequence, been glutted; emigrants as well as merchandise have been poured into the colonies too rapidly; no adequate provision existed for the vast crowds which arrived weekly, nor was there a demand for a tithe of the goods with which commercial enterprise stocked the colonial markets. An unexampled state of things has consequently ensued, out of which a large amount of good may ultimately flow, but from which, in the meantime, bitter disappointment and much suffering must accrue. A new state of things has hence resulted, to which nothing analogous exists within our experience. We look in vain to the past for anything similar to what the Australian colonies present, and it will be well if we are wise enough to improve the lessons now taught, and to gather from the many evils that have arisen, those rules which educe order from confusion, and the restraints and virtues of social life from the recklessness, intemperance, and debauchery which are so extensively prevalent. Several works on the Australian colonies have recently appeared, which have done much to disperse the mists enwrapping them, and we have begun in consequence to catch a glimmering of their ac tual state. It is lamentable to see how, as in other cases, official reports from the Aus tralias have sometimes served to mislead. It is no great marvel that it should be so. Our colonial appointments are, in most cases, regulated by any consideration rather than personal fitness. The "loaves and the fishes" are distributed as rewards for political partisanship rather than as remuneration for services to be rendered. The parties receiving them, ignorant of their work, and indisposed to its performance, are necessarily dependent on others, whose reports are naturally colored by selfish and sinister considerations. Many of our readers will probably remember the marvellous reports sent home by Mr. La Trobe, the governor of Victoria. Thousands were induced by them to leave their native country, yet, when they were seen pouring into the colony in vast shoals, this same gentleman asked Mr. Howitt, "What are all these people coming for?" to which the latter naturally replied: "To gather the gold that you tell them lies everywhere and all over the country." "Surely," says our author, "never were there such Arabian Nights' stories as those of M. La Trobe's despatches. He rides up to Mount Alexander, and the first two men that he sees at work he pauses to watch. In two hours he sees these men dig out five pounds' weight of gold! He sees other two men wash out of two tin dishes of earth, I think, eight pounds' weight of gold! He pokes the moss away from the foot of a tree, and picks up a piece of gold! He sees gold everywhere; and winds all his wonders up by declaring in his despatch, that the whole country is of the same character.' After this, is it not rather cool to profess astonishment at the avidity of the millions at a distance to witness some of these miracles of affluence for themselves?" Notwithstanding, however, all which has been done to communicate to our people a correct knowledge of the character and resources of the Australian colonies, much re * Land, Labor, and Gold; or, Two Years in Vic-mains to be effected. We know only the outtoria: with Visits to Sydney and Van Diemen's Land. By William Howitt. Two Volumes. Post Svo, 218. London: Longman & Co. line; see only the more prominent points of the case. A few instances of marvellous suc cess were trumpeted abroad, but the ten thousand failures, the wretchedness, disease, and death, which awaited the great body of the emigrants, were unknown. Here and there we heard of a gold-digger who went out in poverty and returned with wealth; but the wasted frames, the broken hearts, and the demoralized passions, which the gold mania engendered, were not passed before us. We saw the few bright gleams, but the thick darkness was never revealed. In the meantime, the more healthy and animating features of colonial life were unheeded. The beauties of its scenery, the varieties and habits of the natural world, its climate, the fertility of its soil, its economical prospects, its commercial and political future, were unheeded; stayers-at-home, like those who rushed to its distant shores, saw but one idol; were swayed by one passion only. The love of gold took possession of men's minds, and such was its intensity that, in many cases, every other passion was sacrificed. Mr. Howitt's work is admirably adapted to correct this enormous evil. It supplies eight miles, it was thirty shillings. At the wharf heavy fees are charged, and for cartage to the town an enormous rate is levied ; so that, Mr. Howitt, says, "the whole cost of transferring your effects from the vessel to your lodging is actually more than of bringing them the previous 13,000 miles, including the cost of conveying them from your house to the London docks." The charge for carriage to the diggings is on a similar scale, the lowest rate being about one pound per ton per mile. In the town, everything is on a similar scale. In the shops about three hundred per cent. on the prime cost is charged; and such are the crowds pouring into the country, that most exorbitant charges are made for lodgings. Four, and even six pounds a-week are paid for two small rooms, wretchedly furnished; whilst a couple of empty rooms, of the very meanest description, let, we are told, for two pounds a-week. The price of land in and about Melbourne is proportionately high. That which in the neighborhood of London would be thought dear at one or two thousand pounds per acre, was realizing from four to six thousand pounds. Mr. Howitt tells us: "Houses are frequently pointed out to me in the outskirts, as having recently been sold, with a garden, for £10,000 or £12,000, which in the finest suburbs of London would not fetch above £2,000. Little houses, in the town which in London, in good streets, would let for £40 a year, here let for £400. My brother has built two good houses near his own, which would not let in Lon don for more than £70 a-year each, or £150 together; he lets the two for £1,200. And there is a single house near, worth in London or its evirons £120 a year, for which the modest sum of £2,000 a year is asked!- -a sum that would purchase it at home."—Vol. i. p. 16. fuller and more reliable information on the gold-diggings of Australia than has previously been communicated, at the same time that it betokens the keenest sympathy with a thousand other topics suggested by Australian life, and a deep sense of the gigantic evils which obstruct the progress of the colony, and prevent for a time its full development. Mr. Hawitt's two volumes are amongst the most interesting we have ever read. They evince a freshness and buoyancy and fulness of life; a keen relish of natural scenery; a hearty appreciation of difficulties, with a clear perception, in many cases, of the mode in which they may be mastered; a generous temperament, combined with prudent forecast; a sympathy with humanity, however, degraded, with an ideal not lightly attained, but to be constantly striven after. But we must not detain our readers from the work itself, and we shall, therefore, proceed to lay before them some its statements, from "The land allotment mania bids fair to surpass which they will be better able to judge of its what it was previous to the disastrous 1842. A value. piece of land bought a few months ago for £120 Our author arrived at Melbourne in Sep-was resold for £1,120. Every day the same tember, 1852, and was soon in the midst of thing occurs. A short time since a house and the confusion, extortions, and wretchedness garden were bought for £4,000, and would have which have broken down the spirits of many been dear at that price in London, and to-day emigrants. The charges at Melbourne were they were resold for £12,000. Thus, whatever perfectly monstrous, and we hope that they be the value of gold elsewhere, it is here only of are by this time more moderate than when one-third the value it was a few months ago. That which now requires twelve thousand soverMr. Howitt landed. The freight from Lon-eigns, then was purchasable for three thousand. don to Melbourne, he tells us, was three The prices of all things are in proportion. Flour pounds per ton. From the ship to the wharf, is now £36 per ton, and is expected shortly to As the price of land enters largely into the value of a thousand other things, and is itself affected by the monstrous system which obtains, we shall venture on another brief extract illustrative of the evil : be £40. Bread, the 4lb. loaf, is now 2s; hay is £40 per ton, actually more than sugar! Oats, 153. per bushel; we have ten bushels in our cart, which cost us £4 in London. All tools and the like, which we brought out with us, are £100 per cent. higher, whilst long mining boots, for which we paid £1 153., are here worth £9 per pair. A could sell his Minié rifle for £30. But ter is 3s. per lb.; cabbages 1s. each; cauliflowers, 2s 6d. ; onions, 8d. per lb. B could sell his house and garden-a good house, it is true, with stables and greenhouses-for £12,000. The government rents a flour steam-mill in the town for barracks, which cost £6,000 building, for £4,500 a year."-Ib. p. 24. Mr. Howitt speedily found that the purchases he had made in England were utterly unsuited to their proposed ends. His cart was sold as unfitted for the country which he had to travel, and the harness was thrown aside as so much rubbish. "Besides this, the tools of hardware,-shovels, picks, dippers, working cradles, &c., which had been puffed off to us in London as being on the true California principle, we should have been infinitely better without. The cradles, like the harness, were the laughing stock of the diggers; and many of our fellow-travellers broke theirs up and burnt them. Indeed, whoever proposes to make a journey to the Australian diggings, if he be wise, will load himself with nothing in England except it be a good light, waterproof tent, and a patent Ransom's cart, with narrow wheels. All that he wants he can procure of the true construction, much better, and in the end more reasonable, on the diggings, sparing himself the most serious labor of trailing them up the country. The wisest man is he that has the lightest load."-Ib. p. 61. In Melbourne one of the greatest nuisances encountered is the dust. Whenever the north wind prevails, the dust-storm is unbearable. The air is then darkened by it; "sometimes in summer it is so thick that you cannot see your hand before you. . . In the streets you cannot walk without a veil over your face, or your eyes and mouth are speedily filled." The increase of population in Melbourne and the colony generally is unprecedented in the history of our dependencies. In 1851, the population of Victoria was 95,000, whilst in 1852 it amounted to 200,000. The increase of Melbourne was still more marvellous. In 1851 (only eighteen years after its commencement), it contained 23,000 inhabitants, whilst in 1852 they numbered 80,000, being an increase in one year of 57,000. The value of the imports in 1851 was £1,056,000, whilst the exports were £1,124000, and in 1852 the imports were £4,044000, and the exports £7,462,000. The discovery of gold in Australia is very recent. The rearing of sheep, with a view of supplying the English wool market, was the previous occupation of the colonists. A large capital was invested in this traffic, and it was found to be highly remunerative. The ruin of this branch of commerce was predicted when the existence of gold was first ascertained. The squatters were loud in their forebodings, but the result has been the reverse of what they anticipated. On this topic our author says:— "The flocks are better shepherded than ever; for when there were plenty of shepherds, they have but one shepherd to one flock, he camps used to pen their flocks regularly: now, as they his flock, that is, he assembles it near his but at found that this suits the flocks amazingly. They night, and there it lies quietly till morning. It is are not crowded together as in a fold of hurdles. They get some food often in the night, and they wool-market at home, and the squatters have are stronger and better. The cry has raised the kept it up as long as they could, by pretending proper shepherding, and that the amount of wool that the flocks are diminished by want of will be naturally diminished. It is all fudge. The flocks are just as numerous, as healthy, and as productive of wool as ever, as the exports of the wool will prove. Sheep have risen, in consequence of the demand at the diggings, from 7s. to 15s. and £1 per head. Cattle have risen in like proportion; and horses, which used to be worth some 30s. a-head in the bush, are now driven down that this idea was erroneous. Much has been said respecting the climate of the Australias. It has generally been described in highly favorable terms; indeed, the language sometimes employed has been far too poetical to carry conviction to thoughtful and reflective minds. There is undoubtedly an absence of some of the diseases prevalent at home, but on the other hand there are ailments from which we are happily exempt. In August our author speaks of a scorching sun following imme- I which he draws serves to strengthen the diately on the rains of winter. "We are keeping a daily observation of the thermometer, having a small portable one of the Messrs. Bennett's, chronometer-makers, of Cheapside, which we carry along with us, and so have always at hand Now it hangs outside the tent, and will show results different to any yet published. On the morning of July 31st it stood at 31°, that is one degree below the freezing point. It had been much lower in the night, for there was strong frost. At 7 o'clock, half an hour after sunrise, it had risen in the sun to 40°; at 9 o'clock to 75°, or within one degree of summer heat; and at 10 o'clock to 78°, two degrees above summer heat. At noon it was at 81°; and this, too, in winter : while the tables kept by government, and published by writers who paint the climate and country not as they are, but as they wish people to believe them, never allow the mercury to descend lower than 45°; so that there could never possibly be any frost; and, in fact, my brother, Richard Howitt, whose work on the colony I have found the most faithful yet published, was severely attacked in the colonial newspapers, for saying that he had seen ice. On the other hand, they tell you that the thermometer rarely, and only in hot winds, ascends above 95° in summer! These statements are really disgraceful; for the mercury, you see, will rise in a winter's morning, in a few hours, to nearly that height, paying no regard whatever to government or to these writers. The cold from the Antarctic, and the sun in these latitudes, cause, in their contest, these violent changes."-lb. p. 380. Cramp and paralysis are said to be very prevalent, and the dogs especially are affect ed by the latter. You cannot be a day in Melbourne without noticing the enormous quantity of dogs lying about the streets, and a great number of these are so paralytic that they can scarcely move, particularly in their hinder parts." Our author himself experienced the annoyance. "The moment," he says, "I take the pen up, the fingers cramp together; and it is only by a constant and determined struggle, sometimes for hours, that I can conquer it." On the whole, Mr. Howitt pronounces the climate fine and genial. "Van Diemen's Land," he tells us, "is the coolest; New South Wales and South Australia are generally warmer than Victoria; but Victoria during the summer months gives you rather the climate of Spain than the promised one of Devonshire." But our readers must be introduced to some of the gold diggings. Let them accompany Mr. Howitt to Spring Creek, which he visited in December, 1852. We can only give very brief extracts from his description, but our judgment fails us, if the picture desire of any of our readers to be co-workers with the men whose occupation it describes. Spring Creek runs into Reid's Creek, which is situated three or four miles below it. About 20,000 people were believed to be at these diggings, and 13,000 ounces of gold were sent down to Melbourne by the last escort. Speaking of these diggings, Mr. Howitt says: "No language can describe the scene of chaos where they principally are. The creek, that is, a considerable brook, is diverted from its course; and all the bed of the old course is dug up; then each side of the creek is dug up, and holes sunk as close to each other as they can possibly be, so as to leave room for the earth that is thrown out. These holes are some round, some square, and some no shape at all, the sides having fallen in as fast as they have been dug out. They are, in fact, pits, and wells, and shapeless, yawning gulfs, not three or four feet deep, as in the tempting accounts from Mount Alexander, but from ten to thirty feet deep. Out of these earth has to be drawn up in buckets; and some wind them up with windlasses, rudely constructed out of the wood that grows about; and others haul it up with blocks and pulleys; others, and the greater nuniber, merely with their hands. The diggers themselves generally ascend and descend by a rope fastened to a post above, and by holes for their feet in the side of the pit. "Many of these holes are filled, or nearly so, with water, filtering from the creek. It is black as ink, and has a stench as of a tan-yard, partly from the bark with which they line the sides of their holes. In the midst of all these holes, these heaps of clay and gravel, and this stench, the diggers are working away, thick as ante in an ant-hill. You may imagine the labor of all this, and especially of keeping down these subterranean deluges of Stygian water. "The course of the creek is lined with other diggers washing out their gold. There are whole rows, almost miles, of puddling-tubs and cradles into the puddling-tubs-half-hogsheads-and stirat work. The earth containing the gold is thrown red about with water, to dissolve the hard lumps, when it is put through the cradle, and the gold deposited in the slide of the cradle, then washed out in tin dishes. It is a scene of great bustle and animation. We saw some parties who had washed out in the course of the day 1 lb. weight of gold, others, 5 or 6 oz. and so most of them had some golden result.”—lb. p. 171. In another part of his description he speaks of men working under a broiling sun up to their middle in water, and adds," If any one at home asks you whether he shall go to the Australian diggings, advise him first to go and dig a coal-pit; then work a month at a stone-quarry; next sink a well in the wettest place he can find, of at least fifty feet deep; and finally, clear out a space of sixteen feet square of a bog twenty feet deep; and if, after that, he still has a fancy for the gold-fields, let him come; understanding, however, that all the time he lives standing, however, that all the time he lives on heavy unleavened bread, on tea without milk, and on mutton or beef without vegetables, and as tough as india-rubber." This is about enough to temper the eager ness with which thousands of our countrymen have rushed to the New El Dorado. But the government established at these diggings increases the evil vastly. Mr. Howitt gives several instances of official tyranny and corruption, for which we should gladly find room did our space permit. We must, however, content ourselves with referring to his volumes, merely saying, that if only one-half of what he alleges be true, we need not be surprised at the resistance with which the colonial authorities have recently met. Anything more short-sighted or absurdly mischievous than the system established cannot well be imagined. The viciousness of it is so monstrous that a remedy must be speedily devised. The whole amount of taxation raised from the squatters does not exceed £20,000, whilst the diggers pay upwards of half-a-million. Yet nothing has been done by the government to facilitate the transit of the diggers, to economise their resources, or to contribute to their comfort. "There are no bridges, no roads, no anything; the colonial government of Victoria appears to have no idea but the single one of-taxation, and 'no feeling but of grasping all they can get. Any one found on the diggings without a license in his pocket, though he may have one in his tent, is summarily fined from three to five pounds, and if he complains is handcuffed without ceremony. "If," says Mr. Howitt, "there wants reform generally in the colony, there want enormous reforms in the gold-fields. The whole of the government in them is a pseudo-military system, and most repulsive to an English eye. The commissioners sport a semi-military unform. They have each a regular trooper riding after them on all occasions. The mounted police are in reality regular armed troopers. The magistrates are the judges, and decide everything without a jury, in the style of a court-martial. Numbers of horse-police and foot-police are constantly scouring the gold-fields and the roads, man-hunting, and are constantly marching poor wretches up to the camp for lack of licenses. That is their great business. While they keep one eye shut to grog-shops, for which they are notoriously paid, they have the other always open to catch any poor devil without a license. You may undermine the roads in quest of gold, sell grog, or break the laws in any sort of way, but you must furnish revenue; and you hear every day of atrocities perpetrated in enforcement of it, which, were they done in Hungary or Russia, would rouse the indignation of all Europe. The diggings would be a strange sight at home, if they could be, by some Arabian Nights' magic, suddenly set down before you; and not the diggings only, but other parts of this colony."-Vol. ii. p. 20. Before leaving this part of our subject, we must give another extract from Mr. Howitt's volumes, which, though somewhat longer than our space permits, is so illustrative of a digger's life, that it must not be omitted. The desperate competition which exists on the various gold-fields, inclines the more adventurous to look out for new scenes where larger gains may be made. Many are consequently employed in surveying the country, with a view to the discovery of gold deposits. These movement are conducted with the utmost possible secrecy, in order to prevent pursuit. From the Ovens Diggings Mr. Howitt determined to steal away, in the hope of lighting on some unexplored field. His scouts were sent forward, but had not proceeded far before they fell in with a man belonging to a substantial miller named Mutch, who was tracking a bullock-dray belonging to one Braidy of Albury, a wellknown and experienced gold seeker. Joining this man, they continued their vocation. "At length they came up with a loaded cart, also on the track of the bullock-dray. Very soon after they overtook two Yankees on foot with their swags on their backs, and also on the same had more the look of Poles or Hungarians, but chase. Two bearded fellows they were, who whose intonation left no doubt of their nationality. They declared they would dog the dray to the world's end if necessary, saying that they had heard that the proprietors of this party had brought twenty pounds' weight of gold with them. The country was covered with hop-scrub up to their very heads, so that these Yankees could follow very near to the pioneer dray, unseen. "As there appeared no likelihood of the dray moving on with those spies after it, our scouts rode on to some distance to explore the country, and on returning found the original dray, the cart, another bullock-dray which had come up also, and the two Yankees, all camping for the night near each other. The original dray people declared that they had provisions for three months, and would not move a step further while the others remained. There they lay watching each other, and endeavoring to tire each other out; the followers declaring their determination to follow, and the leading party protesting that it would not lead, and that even were |