686 



Monthli) Review of Literature, 



[Dkc. 



this ileficiency has been supplied by attach- 

 ing a little bell to his neck. When he is 

 once instructed to conduct chickens in this 

 way, he always remains capable of doing 

 it ; or, at all events, it is very easy to bring 

 him back to the habit of it when required, 

 &c. The capon has also been taught to 

 hatch eggs — every thing, indeed, except to 

 lay them. 



The plates are excellent, and on a good 

 scale. 



A Letter from Sydney ; 1829.— The 

 object of this letter, the production of an in- 

 telligent and independent man, apjmrenthi 

 on the spot, is to describe the condition of 

 the colony, its prosperity, its prospects, its 

 wants, and remedies. The writer speaks of 

 himself as a man of competent property, 

 who migrated to New Holland, because he 

 had a fancy to be lord of 20,000 acres. 

 Twenty thousand acres he accordingly ob- 

 tained for a trifle, some seventy miles from 

 the coast, and, for the country, of the most 

 favourable kind. His scheme had been to 

 build a splendid mansion, impark a consi- 

 siderable space for pleasure-grounds and 

 game preserves, and let the remainder, after 

 erecting farm-houses, on the good old plan 

 of an English lord. This, of course, proved 

 all moonshine — tlie very materials, wood 

 excepted, were wanting, and the whole set- 

 tlement would not have supplied workmen 

 for his magnificent projects. Tenants, 

 again, were not to be had ; for who would 

 be tenants when all might be owners ? 

 The alternative seemed to be farming him- 

 self; and, not liking convicts, he imported 

 a cargo of labourers from his own neigh- 

 bourhood, in England, by whom he was 

 speedily deserted — the mechanics never join- 

 ing him because they did better at Sydney, 

 and a couple of years enabling his labourers 

 to take land for themselves. Convicts were 

 tiow of necessity recurred to. These, he 

 soon found, were beyond lux management ; 

 and he finally made over the whole of his 

 20,000 acres to a tough Scotchman, on con- 

 ■dition of receiving a third of the profits, 

 which returned about three per cent, on his 

 own actual outlay. He now established 

 himself at Sydney, and not choosing to be 

 quite inactive, and earnestly desirous of 

 contributing to the prosperity of the colony, 

 he laboiu-ed hard to bring about the cvdti- 

 vation of silk, tobacco, sugar, wine, &c. ; 

 but all in vain — his proposals were cooUy 

 received, for the want of labour was incura- 

 ble; and he finally settled down into an 

 idler — an observer of events, and a specula- 

 tor on their consequences. 



The progress of the colony in one short 

 forty years has been prodigious ; and this he 

 assigns wholly to that which some think the 

 only check to much greater prosperity— the 

 convicts. Its being a penal settlement is, 

 in his opinion, notwithstanding his personal 

 experience of their inefficiency, the source of 

 all its wealth. Without forced labour no- 



thing could be done, where land was to be 

 had almost for asking. Nobody would 

 work for another an hour, when he could 

 get land of his own. As cultivation spreads, 

 the specific source of its amazing progress 

 is more distinctly understood, and the failure 

 of adequate supplies of this labour is propor- 

 tionally felt. There are more settlers, and 

 not more convicts. By an increased impor- 

 tation of convicts alone can the further cul- 

 tivation of the colony be prosecuted with 

 advantage. If these do not midtiply, the 

 colony will gradually go back ; for every 

 cultivator must cultivate less — freelabour can- 

 not be retained. The writer calls for the in- 

 terjjosition of the government — there must 

 be more convicts, or further grants of 

 land must be withheld ; or the introduc- 

 tion of negro slaves must be allowed — 

 otherwise, the whole colony will speedily sink 

 into a Tartar state, and tillage be abandoned. 

 The population of the colony is taken at 

 45,000, of which more than two-thirds are 

 or have been convict-labourers, and 20,000 

 are actually labouring in fetters. The peril, 

 therefore, notwithstanding the supposed in- 

 dispensableness of any considerable augmen- 

 tation, is obvious. The writer inclines, 

 without much hesitation, to the emplo)anent 

 of slaves, and doubts not, if the settlers get 

 the power into their hands, slaves will be 

 instantly imported. The opposition to the 

 government receives an accession in every 

 emancipated convict; and nothing, of course, 

 but an early and a premature independence 

 can be anticipated. 



Tliis very spirited and well-wi-itten book 

 comes professedly from a resident at Sydney, 

 with the name of Robert Gouger, as editor, 

 by way of warrant for its authenticity. 

 This is, no doubt, a literary ruse — the book 

 is the manufacture of London, though the 

 raw material is manifestly the growth of the 

 colony. 



The Bijou ; 1030 — The publisher pro- 

 tests his ambition is not to outstrip his com- 

 petitors, but to excel himself — to outdo his 

 former doings ; and he feels the proud con- 

 sciousness of indisputable success. The 

 " extraordinary labour and expense" of 

 which he speaks, is referable, it must be 

 supposed, to the same self-competition ; for 

 in what other respect either is likely to have 

 been greater than those of others is very far 

 from obvious. Truly, the less these prefaces 

 say the better — profession and explanation 

 are equally useless ; for at last the appeal 

 must be made to the performance itself. 

 "Mlth the ornamental part, the publisher's 

 satisfaction has no alloy, especially with a 

 portrait of the King, which exhibits his 

 majesty, now a venerable old gentleman, 

 not far short of seventy, with the vigour of 

 forty. Sirs. Arbuthnot we have had in 

 La Belle Assemblee, withm these 

 few months, and, of course, scarcely expected 

 to meet with it here. Lady Jane Grey, as 

 an engraving, is a very superior thing ; but 



