ITS ADVANCES IN PROSPERITY. 
XVll 
provement at which it could not have auived 
had its energies been cramped or its interests 
neglected. 
There is a period in the history of every country , 
during which it will appear to have been more 
prosperous than at any other. I allude not to 
the period of great martial achievements, 
should any such adorn its pages, but to that in 
which the enterprise of its merchants was roused 
into action, and when all classes of its community 
seem to have put forth their strength towards 
the attainment of wealth and power. 
In this eventful period the colony of New 
South Wales is already far advanced. The con- 
duct of its merchants is marked by the boldest 
speculations and the most gigantic projects. 
Their storehouses are built on the most magni- 
ficent scale, and with the best and most sub- 
stantial materials. Few persons in England 
have even a remote idea of its present flou- 
rishing condition, or of the improvements that 
are daily taking place both in its commerce 
and in its agriculture. I am aware that many 
object to it as a place of residence, and I can 
easily enter into their feelings from the recollec- 
