754 COL 



<Viojr. from their woof, and ordered by the governor to work 

 *" "*"** on Mine publk undertaking. A proportion of them are 

 succcMlvely removed from public work, to be employed in 

 the country under the free settlers. The number of go- 

 vrrment labourers is farther diminished, as well by deaths 

 as by emancipation for good behaviour, and by expiration 

 of the term of servitude. Those who have been brought 

 up to a mechanical profession, generally find it expedient 

 to practise it here. The noted Barrington belonged to 

 the number, unfortunately not large, of penitent sinner*. 

 His conduct latterly became exemplary, and he dischar- 

 ged the duty of chief constable with great propriety. 

 To those couvicts who persist in a course of depravity, 

 no mode of punishment has greater terrors, than that of 

 lemovil to a solitary branch of the settlement. The ap- 

 prehension of separation from old connections, is, on such 

 minds, of much more powerful operation than the pros- 

 pect of bodily suffering. Repeated examples have oc- 

 curred, of criminals returning to their iniquitous course, 

 after a second and a third punishment of the latter de- 

 scription ; and the case of one Samuels, (Mann's New 

 South Wales, p. 12.) seems to imply, that, in certain in 

 dividuals, a recurrence to guilty practices is unavoidable. 



During several years after the first arrival, the colony 

 was occasionally in danger of famine, from obstacles to 

 the receipt of supplies rrom home. After progress had 

 been made in clearing the neighbouring district, and the 

 cattle brought over had begun to multiply, this appre- 

 hension of course disappeared. At present, the price 

 of corn seems nearly the same as in this country, and the 

 price of butcher meat not much higher. The chief en- 

 hancement is experienced in whatever requires manual 

 dexterity and the use of implements. Butter, from the 

 scarcity of dairy accommodations, is twice, or rather 

 thrice, its price in this country. Some progress, bow- 

 ever, has been tnade in manufactures, particularly in the 

 tanning of leather. Malt liquor being an article in ge- 

 neral demand, and difficult of importation, the colony 

 contains already four extensive breweries. The total 

 population now approaches 12,000, of whom about a 

 third are victualled and clothed at the public expence, 

 while the others find means to earn their own support. 

 The free settlers, who embarked for so unpromising a 

 region, were not likely to belong to a meritorious class 

 of society, and many of them have accordingly proved a 

 burden on government. No branch of trade is carried 

 on with more activity than the sale of female dresses and 

 ornaments. The avidity to purchase these, in this re- 

 mote quarter, seems not inferior to the passion for dress 

 in spheres of greater splendour ; and the shops are alrea- 

 dy fitted up with a degree of taste beyond our ordinary 

 ideas of Botany Bay. 



We shall conclude our remarks on this colony, by a 

 notice of the principal things which remain to be done 

 for its amelioration. The first of these, recommended 

 as it is both by policy and humanity, is the determina- 

 tion of some specific limit to the state of durance in the 

 case* of transportation for life. Whatever may have 

 been the guilt of these persons, an ultimate prospect of 

 relief, at some time or other, should be allowed to visit 

 their imagination. Without such a prospect, they must 

 continue unprofitable servants to the public, as they 

 must be almost wholly hopeless in regard to their future 

 fate. Another point of some consequence, is the intro- 

 duction of bankrupt laws. There cannot be a more 

 mistaken humanity, than to prevent the concerns of an 

 embarrassed man from being brought to a decisive termi- 

 nation ; as it often happens, that he is induced to cling 

 :o a hopeless business, and to pass the best years of his 



ON Y. 



life, without benefit either to himself or his creditors. Colony. 

 A third improvement in this colony, would consist in S ""Y" P ' 

 the appointment of a civil governor, the questions of in- 

 ternal regulation becoming now too numerous for a mi- 

 litary tribunal. A fourth object of attention, should be 

 the nomination of a chief justice, who, whether he take 

 law or equity as the rule of his decisions, should be a 

 man of ascertained ability and experience. The colony 

 supplies few persons fitted to act as justices of the 

 peace ; and not many, perhaps, qualified to discharge 

 with impartiality the functions of a juror. Hence the 

 necessity of a judge going out from Britain, and of a 

 form of procedure sufficiently simple and expeditious, to 

 enable him to transact the judicial business of the settle- 

 ment, as well as to save to the colonists a great part of 

 the ordinary expences of law. 



Dutch Colonies The settlements of the Dutch in Dutch c*. 

 Amtrica have not been proportioned to the greatness lonie*. 

 of their maritime means. After conquering, in the seven, 

 teenth century, a great part of Brazil, they found it im- 

 practicable to retain it against the will of its Portu- 

 guese population. In the north, their colony of Nova 

 B-.lgia was conquered by us in the reign of Charles II. 

 and became an English province under the name of New 

 York. The cause of so lukewarm a disposition to- 

 wards America on the part of the Dutch, in this their 

 era of power and vigour, is to be sought in their predi- 

 lection for their possessions in the East. These posses- 

 sions embraced the Ca,.e, Java, the spice islands, part 

 of Ceylon, and several maritime stations on the conti- 

 nent of India. The commerce carried on between them 

 and the mother country was very considerable, and pass- 

 ed, in the eyes of most men, for the pillar of the na- 

 tional wealth. In that age, the superiority, in produc- 

 tive power, of inland over foreign industry, was un- 

 known. The notion, that home traffic is an unprofit- 

 able transfer from hand to hand, and that national gains 

 are obtained only from abroad, was then still more ge- 

 neral than at present. From the imposing magnitude 

 of the India ships, and the long catalogue of Dutch 

 stations and provinces, it was natural to infer, that an 

 extraordinary amount of profit must arise from such a 

 source. The writers of the last age went the length of 

 pronouncing the Dutch possessions in the East much 

 more valuable than the mother country : a notion a good 

 deal similar to that of the French of the present day, 

 who believe Bengal to be the main spring of British 

 revenue. These considerations, partly well partly ill 

 founded, had the practical effect of inducing the Dutch 

 to keep up with great care their eastern acquisitions, 

 while, in the We?t, they aimed at nothing beyond the 

 small islands of St Etistatia and Curacoa, along with a 

 continental track in Guiana, which, in recent times, has 

 owed much to British improvement, and has become fa- 

 miliar to us by the names of its subdivisions, Surinam, 

 Demarara, Essequibo, and Berbice. 



As the Spaniards have been accounted the mildest of 

 European taskmasters of negroes, the Dutch have bceR 

 accused of falling into the opposite extreme. These 

 contrasts, however, are generally exaggerated, and, on 

 analysing the matter, we should probably find that the 

 character attributed to the Spaniard arose from his be- 

 ing too indolent to keep his people at work, while the 

 Dutchman, accustomed to labour himself, made a point 

 that his servants should follow his example. The Dutch 

 West India company was incorporated in 1621, a bril- 

 liant zra in the long struggle of the Hollanders for na- 

 tional independence. Spanish America, as well as Bra- 

 sil, were open to the aggressive warfare of the Dutch.. 



