enable us to regard these Colonies as one of the means of relieving our over numerous population.

The other great labour-market is in a far worse state. The United States are overstocked with good labour; and can we wonder at it? In eighteen years, 504,944 persons have been sent from the United Kingdom to the States. For the last few years the unhealthy state of American commerce has produced a general stagnation throughout the country; confidence seems gone, and public works have long since come to a stand-still. Sixty-three thousand, however, emigrated to the United States last year; and what was their fate? Before the year was out; more than 6,000 had passed over into Canada, in search of employment, more than nine thousand had re-embarked at the one port of New York for this country. And mark! it was not from caprice, or for idleness sake, that this extensive re-emigration took place. The replies of the Government Emigration Agents agree in assigning want of employment as the only reason.

"Lieut. Lean, London: I understand that the reason assigned by the general body of the emigrants, when questioned as to the cause of their return to this country, (whether they were agriculturists or mechanics,) was, that they could not obtain any employment in the United States.

"Lieut. Hodder, Dublin: From the only sources of information accessible to me, namely, persons variously engaged in, or connected with, emigration, and the individuals themselves who have returned, I have, on personal communication, ascertained that the following reasons are assigned for their return; and having travelled five or six hundred miles up the country, and after pursuing the route to Philadelphia, crossing the Alleghany Mountains to Pittsburgh, and beyond it, in search of employment, they have altogether

that company, or this or that land speculation, have issued certain cheap pamphlets, called Colonization Circulars, replete with the latest government information, from the first of which the following Table of Emigration is derived:

1839 12,658 33,536

15,786

227

failed, and that no reasonable prospect of obtaining a livelihood presented itself, and that they attributed their failure to the following causes:-1st. Cessation to the progress of all public works. 2ndly. A general stagnation of business. 3dly. A total want of confidence, which existed to such an extent, that it would appear the ordinary routine of life had come to a stand-still.

"Lieut. Friend, Cork: In reply, I beg to state, that the ship 'Roscoe,' from New York, bound to Liverpool, with returned emigrants, put into Cork harbour in want of water on the 2nd of October last, and landed about 100 persons in great distress, who stated that they had been unable to obtain employment in consequence of the general commercial depression in the United States. Two other vessels, the 'Henrietta,' and 'Mary Anne,' also landed about forty passengers under similar circumstances; some of whom had been induced to emigrate to the United States from the misrepresentations of friends there, which they found totally unfounded.*

From such replies as these, which the Commissioners very properly make public, in order that the people may not be made the prey of designing puffers, it is evident that the United States can no longer assist us as a drain for the surplus of our population. The consequence is, that the quarter's emigration to the States has fallen from about 5,000 to 3,000, and that to Canada to less than a thousand. Where, then, are we to look for our necessary outlet, but to our Australian colonies? The West Indies, the Falkland Isles, the Cape, the Mauritius, all labour under the disadvantages of climate. But to compensate for this loss Australia becomes every day more able and more anxious to take from us our good surplus labour. Sydney, Port Phillip, Van Diemen's Land, Western and Southern Australia, and the thriving colony of New Zealand, can one and all consume our surplus labour, can borrow our living capital, with the certainty of repaying it to us in an increased demand for those productions, by the making or raising of which our country exists. With the view of counteracting the effects which the late depression of business in New South Wales has undoubtedly had on the emigration to that country, we propose to enter, in some detail, into the rise, progress, and present prospects and demands of New South Wales and its dependencies and neighbouring Colonies.

Until the rebellion of our American colonies compelled us to look abroad for some new spot whither the worst portion of our population might be sent, some new outlet for the convicts of the mother-country, the land of New Holland remained unnoticed since its first discovery by Cook in 1770. Sixteen years after the great Navigator's discovery, the government sent out the first convict colony to Botany Bay. A small fleet of eleven vessels carried between seven to eight hundred convicts, the marines necessary to guard them, provisions for two years, and such tools and agricultural instruments as were deemed necessary for the foundation of the new colony. Including every person in the fleet, Captain Phillip, the first governor of the new colony, led little more than a thousand persons as its primary colonists.

Colonization Circular, No. I. p. 16.

"Some live stock was obtained at the Cape of Good Hope, and plants and seeds, likely to be useful, were procured likewise at that place and Rio Janeiro. In eight months and a week the voyage was, with the Divine blessing, completed; and after having sailed 5,021 leagues, and touched at both the American and African continents, they came to anchor on January the 20th, 1788, within a few days' sail of the antipodes of their native country, having had, upon the whole, a very healthy and prosperous voyage. Botany Bay did not offer much that was promising for a settlement, since it was mostly surrounded by poor land, and water was scarce. The governor accordingly went in person to examine the two neighbouring harbours of Port Jackson and Broken Bay, and upon drawing near to the entrance of the former, the coast looked as unpromising as elsewhere, and the natives on shore continued to shout Warra-warra'-' go away-go away.' Captain Cook, passing by the heads of Port Jackson, thought there might be found shelter within for a boat; but Captain Phillip was agreeably surprised at finding one of the finest harbours in the world: and since the goodness of the soil and the supply of water appeared to be sufficient, it was resolved to fix the new settlement in one of the coves of this large and beautiful inlet. The spot chosen was near a run of fresh water, which stole silently through a very thick wood, the stillness of which was then for the first time interrupted by the rude sound of the labourer's axe; and, fifty years after, so great a change had taken place here, that the lowest price of crown land was then 1,000l. an acre, and in eligible situations sometimes a great deal more."-Pridden's Australia, pp. 188, 189.

The earliest efforts of the colonists were divided between clearing the ground for the first farm, and punishing the refractory ones among the convicts, who made the conduct of the neighbouring natives a constant excuse for depredations on the property of the colony. Within four months after their arrival, it was found necessary to resort to capital punishment, in the hopes of checking the violence of the worst among the convicts; whilst the improvidence and recklessness with which they would consume their week's rations on the day they were served out to them, and then beg, starve, or steal for the other six days, was, in a manner, checked by a more frequent delivery of rations. Can we now believe that between seven and eight hundred wretched beings were proposed to be sent to the other side of the globe, without a chance of receiving the consolations of religion? Yes, it was so. When the expedition was on the point of sailing; when governor, and guard, and sailors, and provisions were all ready, and the fleet prepared for its departure, the government had not thought of sending out a chaplain; not only not thought of so doing, but actually resisted for some time the strenuous appeal of one who deserves high meed of praise for his labours, Wilberforce; and only yielded at last when his appeal was aided by the interest of Porteus and Sir Joseph Bankes. Then one chaplain was sent. Four years after, a chaplain came out with the New South Wales corps, and in 1794 a third clergyman was added to the colony, as a second chaplain from the home government.*

For six years after the foundation of the colony, no church was provided for the people, and the service was performed in the open air, exposed alike to the wind, the rain, and the sun's heat. Among such a population as the majority of the colonists consisted of, it is not to be wondered that, with so many disadvantages to contend with, the labours of the chaplain were far from successful, and his weekly congregation by no means numerous. In the year 1790, the chaplain, Mr. Johnson, complained to the government of the negligent attention to religious duties, and thereupon the authorities, instead of thinking of building a church, or lending some temporary erection for religious worship, ordered every convict who failed to attend service to be mulcted of a portion of his rations. Two years more elapsed, and then a church was built; a humble wooden building with a thatched roof, at the expense of forty pounds; not by the government, but by an individual-by the chaplain himself. How truthfully severe was the reproach of the Spanish priest, whom a chance visit of some ships of his country brought to the young colony but a few months before the church was raised, when en he saw the chaplain seeking for a shady place for his Sunday service, he lifted up his eyes with astonishment, and declared, that, had the place been settled by his nation, a house of God would have been erected before any house for man! In this small building did the chaplain educate between 150 and 200 children during the week, and under his own immediate inspection, for the government could not afford to build even a school.*

The two years' provisions brought out by the expedition began to fail towards the end of the year 1789, and the long-expected supply from the mother-country was looked for with the greatest anxiety. In November in that year the first harvest was gathered in the colony; about two hundred and twenty-five bushels of wheat, some thirty-five more of barley, and a trifling quantity of oats and Indian corn were the sole products of the first colonial harvest in New South Wales. With the new year came no new supply of provisions, and, notwithstanding the reduction of the men's rations during the last three months, the original supply from England was at an end; and all that the colony had to subsist on was a scant supply providentially brought by the "Sirius" from the Cape. Distress seemed now most imminent, and intense was the anxiety with which the flag-staff at the heads was watched in hopes of the much-wished-for signal of a " sail." Every remedy possible was devised; great quantities of fish were caught; part of the people were sent off to Norfolk Island, as more able to support its colonists than the less fertile Port Jackson; and it

was proposed to send the "Sirius" to China for supplies, after landing the convicts at Norfolk Island. This last resource failed, the "Sirius" had hardly landed her living cargo before she was wrecked on a reef off the island. The other-only other vessel-the "Supply," was then despatched to Batavia, and the colonists sat down to watch for her return, hoping, by further reductions and the sacrifices of the greater part of their seedcorn, to hold out until relieved by her return, or by the arrival of the fleet from England. At last, after six months of anxiety, a sail was signaled, and the "Lady Juliana," ten months on her voyage, brought a slight addition to their provisions; but, at the same time, an increase of 200 convicts to their population: added to this, the newly-arrived ship brought the unwelcome intelligence of the total loss of the provision-ship, which ought to have arrived half a year before, and on the stores of which the new supply of convicts had been calculated. All was now increased anxiety, and it was not until the end of June that the arrival of another provision-ship caused the anxiety and scarcity to cease. This was their first, but far from their last, trial arising from the want of provisions.

"In 1794, on the very day when the doors of the provision-store were closed, and the convicts had received their last allowance which remained, the signal for a "sail" was made; and it was the third day before the two vessels then in sight could be got into the harbour, but their arrival brought comparative abundance to the starving population of 3000 people, who were beginning seriously to reckon up how far their live-stock would go towards the supply of their necessities. Several other similar seasons of famine have been recorded, and it is curious and instructive to look back upon the day of small things in a country abundant as New South Wales at present is in the necessaries, comforts, and even luxuries of life." - Pridden's Australia, pp. 200, 201.

The arrival of what is called the Second Fleet, towards the close of the year 1791, gave an additional air of bustle and life to the infant town of Sydney; a few public works were begun, and reservoirs were cut in the rocks as a defence against the droughts which afflicted the colony. At that date small indeed were the flocks and herds, in no long time to be the wealth and glory of the land. One ram, fifty ewes, and six lambs formed the nucleus of those extensive flocks that now supply nearly one-third of our annual consumption of foreign wool. The wonderful rise of New South Wales as a wool-producing colony is thus described by a late writer:

"Thirty-three years have passed since Australia sent her first contribution to the wool-market of this country. In 1810 we received from her about a hundred weight and a half of wool; and at that time our imports of that article exceeded eleven millions of pounds. Five years after, when our imports were 13,600,000 lbs., New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land contributed 73,000 lbs., about the 186th part of our consumption of foreign wool. In 1820, the great fall of our imports to 10,000,000 lbs., and the gradual rise of the exports of our colony to about 100,000 lbs., made her a contributor to the amount of a hundredth part of our imports. Five years after, and our imports had nearly quadrupled themselves, whilst the exports of the colony had been tripled. But again, in 1830, whilst our imports had sunk a third-to about 32,000,000-the colony sent wool to the amount of nearly 2,000,000, and sud