208 COLONIAL SELF-GO VEllNMENT — SHARPERS. 



societaiy organization lier subjects are urged on to 

 evil; and therefore they say, as such, they have 

 neither regard nor respect for her. I noticed that the 

 military band were continually playing, God save the 

 Queen ; but I saw nothing of that affection for the 

 sovereign, which the English papers are forever re- 

 liearsing, as being an inherent principle in the British 

 composition, Eespect for her virtues, as a woman, 

 they readily yield ; but these people have a vague 

 idea of republicanism, that will eventually cost 

 Great Britain her Australian colonies ; although self- 

 government among such a people will undoubtedly 

 be productive of little else than anarchy and disorder. 

 The discordant elements composing the population 

 need a thorough alterative, ere they can hope to form 

 a government in any way resembling our Union of 

 the West; and from my own impressions, drawn 

 from an observation of both the higher and lower 

 classes of society, I should say that it would require 

 all the abattoirs of Paris, — which extend, I forget 

 how many miles, and render it the most thoroughly 

 drained city in the world, — as an outlet for the 

 moral corruption of this country. 



And now I must touch briefly on Van Dieman's 

 Land business-operations. Yankee cuteness in bar- 

 gaining has became a proverb, but I doubt whether 

 the sharpest of the speculators from the land of 

 wooden nutmegs could outdo the sharpers found 

 here. Long before we passed the L'on Pot light, 

 a boat, containing a couple of speculators, came 

 alongside, and her passengers jumped aboard of us. 

 (One of their names, by the way, was Smart, and he 

 sustained the aptitude of his cognomen to the best 



