28 
than by the longest sword. In fine, it 
would be most advantageous to every 
great and populous country to insti- 
tute a permanent and constantly- 
operative plan of colonization, suffi- 
cient funds being regularly dedicated 
to the purpose, as a part of the neces- 
sary expenses of thestate. This would 
both immediately and ultimately turn 
to a better and more national account, 
and would require an infinitely smaller 
outlay of money than the enormousand 
lavish expenditure absorbed in the 
wages of corruption, in pandering to 
the contemptible and tinsel luxury of a 
court, or in missions for the dissemina- 
tion of unintelligible, useless, and bale- 
fal, nonsense throughout the world. 
Colonization, compared with war 
and conquest, possesses a similar in- 
trinsic character of superiority with 
good over evil. Every part of the 
common earth, whether desolate, or 
occupied by savage and insufficiently- 
numerous tribes, is the fair and lawlul 
object of colonization. It is irrational 
and incongruous to suppose, that a 
handful of men, in a state of nature, 
can possess the exclusive right to an 
extensive country capable of the sup- 
port, and susceptible of the improve- 
ments, to be made by millions. All 
that justice requires, that justice, how- 
ever, thathas slept during somany ages, 
is the assurance of their full rights as 
fellow-men to the aboriginal natives. 
Van Diemen’s Land, New Holland, 
now New South Wales, the most dis- 
tant colonies of Britain, now running 
rapidly the career of improvement and 
civilization; and forming, probably, 
the embryo of great and mighty inde- 
pendent states, were, scarcely more 
than a century since, noted on the 
charts of our navigators, as spots of 
earth upon the globe, of which geogra- 
phy knew nothing, and to which they 
could not positively assign either a 
continental or insular character. Little 
more than the quarter of a century 
under the fostering vare of Britain, the 
modern emporium of civilization, has 
worked this miracle. The climate of 
New South Wales; as of the island of 
Van Diemen, a short voyage from 
the former, is mild, free from excess of 
heat in the summer, and having 
nothing of the rigours of winter, and 
may be compared, with perhaps 
something in its favour, with that of 
Cornwall and the more southern parts 
of Devonshire. The land, with those 
exceptions which every land. presents, 
On Colonization and the Australian Colonies. 
(Aug. 1, 
is generally fertile, much of it a fine’ 
black mould, very deep and produc- 
tive, yielding great crops of wheat of a 
fine quality, and potatoes, barley, 
oats, and pulse, in abundance. There 
are lawns and meadows of immense 
extent, covered with the most beauti- 
ful and verdant herbage ; the quality of 
which is also excellent. These are 
relieved by vast forests, affording 
various species of excellent timber. 
There are mountainous tracks. The 
country is well calculated for English 
cultivation, and the climate so favour- 
able to the European constitution, 
that women breed at threescore, and | 
even the prostitutes imported, are said 
to recover their native fertility! A: 
peculiarity séems to inhere in the soil, 
which produces in abundance the 
superior European fruits, peaches, 
nectarines, and apricots, but rejects 
the ordinary gooseberries and currants. 
The country is well watered. Atmo- 
spheric excesses are: seldom experi- 
enced; but, in January 1814, a tremen- 
dous hail-storm occurred, which broke 
the windows, and did great mischiefin 
the town of Sidney, and throughout 
the country, where cattle and birds 
were struck dead, and many perished 
for want of water. All the domestic 
animals of Europe find the climate 
perfectly congenial, more especially 
the Merino sheep, the fine wool of 
which, equal in quality to the native 
Spanish, has become an Australian 
staple. English horses and cattle are 
imported at a great price, from one to 
five hundred guineas for a horse, and 
sixty to eighty foracow. The stock of 
cattle, however, in such a country, 
must soon be abundant. ‘There seem 
to be no venomous reptiles, but‘a small 
number of tygers, or native wild dogs, 
of considerable size, of a rufous brown, 
or fox-colour, which will be eradicated 
as population advances. The peculiar 
Australian animal, the kangaroo, is 
familiar among us, but it is not so 
generally known that the animal’s 
flesh affords both rump-steaks and 
venison. They have four usual kinds 
of fish in moderate plenty. There is 
no annoyance from insects, either 
without or-within doors; and our bed- 
fellow in Europe, the fragrant scented 
house-bug, is not yet an Australian 
denizen. I should have observed be- 
fore, that the locust, or acacia tree, 
has not proved useful in that country, 
more than in this. My friend had 
already a moderate estate in Van 
Diemen, 
