is ever to become that great and powerful country, which, some centuries hence-(much sooner its sanguine inhabitants predict) is destined to overawe and to conquer the eastern world, this grand result will certainly be less owing to the labour of the plough, than to the rearing of sheep and cattle, the prosecution of the fisheries, and the pursuits of commerce. We trust, however, that instead of indulging in dreams of conquest, the enlightened inhabitants of New South Wales will use their best efforts to civilise the wretched natives of the numerous fertile and beautiful islands of Australasia, now in the lowest stage of savage barbarity. Hitherto the progress of the colony has certainly been flourishing far beyond what the most sanguine projector or settler could have imagined, when, thirty-eight years ago,' a few huts and solitary tents were the only indications of the existence of human society. We are not much edified by the landmarks which Mr. Cunningham has set up to note the stages of this progressive improvement; we will nevertheless cursorily run over what he calls a brief medley of their first deeds and their first fruits, in chronological sequence.'

The first landing, he observes, was on the 26th of January, 1788; in 1789, the first harvest was reaped at Paramatta; in 1790, the first settler, James Reese, took possession of his land; twelve prisoners located in 1791, upon the Hawkesbury, supplied, in 1793, twelve hundred bushels of corn; in 1796, the first play was performed; in 1803, the first newspaper was printed; and in the same year the first suicide occurred that of a man who hung himself in jail; in 1805, the first colonial vessel was built; in 1806, the first great Hawkesbury flood happened; in 1810, the first census of the population, stock, and cultivated land was made; the first toll-gates were built; caterpillars first made their appearance; the streets of Sidney received names; weekly markets were established, and the first public races instituted; in 1813, the first fair was held, at Paramatta; in 1817, the first bank was established; in 1818, the first crim. con. case was tried (a great advance this in civilization); in 1820, the first colonial tobacco was sold; in 1825, the first book was reviewed (this, we think, was beginning at the wrong end); in the same year the first breach of promise of marriage came before the criminal courts; and in 1826, the first public concert was held.

'When,' says our author, we seriously contemplate the wonderful revolution wrought in the colony since its formation, we cannot but be proud of the energies displayed by our enterprising community. Here, where, thirty-eight years ago, not one civilized being disputed the dominion of the woods with their savage inhabitants, now forty thousand such exist, spread over an extent of country of two hundred square miles,

having justice administered by civil and criminal courts ;-six separate courts of quarter-sessions, and eleven separate benches of magistrates being instituted among them. Where, thirty-eight years ago, not a single European animal breathed, now upwards of 200,000 sheep, upwards of 100,000 head of cattle, and many thousand horses and other animals destined for the support and pleasure of man, are peacefully grazing. Where, thirty-eight years ago, not an ear of grain was cultivated, we now see fifty thousand bushels advertised for-for the mere annual consumption of one of our distilleries;-while four steammills, ten water-mills, eighteen windmills, and two horse-mills, furnish us with an abundance of excellent flour from our own wheat; two very extensive distilleries, with several hundred thousand gallons annually of a pure spirit from our barley and maize; and thirteen breweries, with ale and beer from our various descriptions of colonial grain,-eight thousand hogsheads being the average yearly amount of this wholesome beverage supplied to the public.

On the site of Sydney alone what a change has been effected! Where, thirty-eight years ago, not a human hut was to be counted, nor the slightest hum of commerce heard, we have now a city occupying a mile square, crowded with industrious citizens, and teeming with vehicles wheeling along the varied productions of the soil,-the market-dues for this traffic renting, the present year, at 840l., and the toll-gate dues at 1000/.:-the town containing twenty-two agents for the management of shipping affairs; eleven auctioneers for expeditiously disposing of colonial and foreign wares; a chamber of commerce to push forward and watch over colonial enterprise, effect insurances, and arbitrate in matters relating to shipping; two flourishing banks, dividing forty per cent. on their advances; and three newspapers, (one weekly, and two printed twice a week,) in one of which I counted one day 124 advertisements.'-vol. ii. p. 73–75.

In our author's opinion the commerce of the colony can only be considered as dating its existence six years ago. Since that time the trade with England has increased from three to twentyfour vessels, importing emigrants of property and cargoes valued at 200,000l., while the exports in seventeen ships, consisting of wool, skins, oil, timber, pearl-shells, trenails and hides, exceed in value 100,000l. The foreign trade with India and China, six years ago, did not require above six or seven vessels; last year they amounted to twenty-six, with import cargoes worth 200,000l., a great part of which consisted of tea, sugar, wine, and tobaccoarticles all of which, Mr. Cunningham supposes, may, in time, be produced in the colony itself. On the banks of the Hastings, which discharges its waters into Port Macquarie, the sugar cane,' he says, thrives well, and a good quantity of fine sugar and fair samples of rum have been produced here of late, ninety acres of cane being this year (1826) in cultivation.' But though wine,

sugar,

sugar, and tobacco will, we doubt not, be speedily reckoned among the valuable products of the colony, we are pretty sure that tea will never be included among its staple commodities. The labour that is required for the preparation of this plant can only be undertaken with advantage in countries like India and China, where population is abundant, and food cheap. Besides this, there is something in the nature of this plant that requires a peculiar climate, or soil, or mode of cultivation, or all of them. It has been tried in various countries and failed, and no treatment, that we have heard of, by our nurserymen, has yet succeeded in producing free and healthy plants either within doors or without.

Whatever products, however, the colony is or may be capable of yielding, it is agreed on all hands that, for some years to come, its progressive prosperity must depend mainly on the cultivation of the fine-woolled sheep, for the introduction of which it is indebted to a gentleman of the name of Mac Arthur. From three ewes and a ram, with which it appears he began the breed, his stock of pure merinos is now said to exceed two thousand; and from the produce of these he has of late years sold upwards of forty rams annually, at an average of 177. per head. His property in the colony, by grants and purchases, is said to exceed thirty thousand acres, constituting a square of seven miles nearly each side, all lying contiguous, and consisting chiefly of undulating, thinly-wooded hills, covered with a sward of fine dry native pasture, with the addition of extensive plains stretching from each bank of the river, of the most fertile quality, producing excellent wheat, and maize of the most luxuriant growth. His breed of horses and horned cattle are of the first description. He has succeeded in introducing most of the European fruits; has a spacious vineyard, from which he annually makes an increasing quantity of wine, said to be not unlike the sauterne; cultivates the English grasses, which are found to thrive well; and this first of Australian squires keeps a pack of fox-hounds, with which he hunts the native dog and kangaroo.

On the banks of Hunter's river, and its branches, and on the fine neighbouring plains bordering on the Goulburn river, Mr. Cunningham enumerates about twenty gentlemen who, though comparatively speaking, they have but recently settled there, cannot, he thinks, reckon among them fewer than twenty thousand fine-woolled sheep. Bathurst plains, however, or, more properly speaking, downs, are, of all other parts of the colony yet discovered, the best adapted for sheep husbandry. These fine open downs, consisting of a succession of gently-swelling hills, clear of timber, and covered with luxuriant herbage, extend along the banks of the Macquarie River, on both sides, full a hundred and

twenty

twenty miles. The discovery of this transalpine region, and of the practicable passes across the Blue Mountains to it, was at the time hailed, and is still looked upon, as the most happy event for the benefit of the colonists, that could have befallen them, as, in fact, the cisalpine stripe of land had become too closely occupied to afford subsistence to the rapidly increasing live stock. The superabundant population,' says Mr. Cunningham, and the superabundant flocks and herds poured like a torrent over the dividing barrier-ridge, inundating the fine plains and downs beyond its western base. The quantity of sheep and cattle in this territory is now immense, the greater proportion of the wool exported from the colony being furnished therefrom.'

Nor is the dairy neglected; for we are told that a Mrs. Rankin, from Ayrshire, makes cheese at Bathurst little inferior to our Cheshire, and is amassing a large fortune by selling it at ninepence to a shilling a pound.

The town of Bathurst would appear, indeed, to be fast rivalling Sydney. It has already its Literary Society,' its Classical and Mercantile Academy,' and its hunt.' The members of this association, we are told, wear green jackets, turned up with velvet, gilt buttons, with "Bathurst Hunt" engraved upon them, and a native dog embroidered in gold upon the collar.' To such a pitch of luxury and prosperity is Bathurst grown, though six short years ago it did not possess a single respectable resident settler; the district now abounds in a wealthy population, in possession of all the comforts and luxuries of life, and of a healthy climate to enable it to enjoy them.

No better proof,' says our author, 'can be given of the healthfulness of Bathurst, than the fact that the only death, owing to natural causes, from the period of its first settlement, took place in 1826, after a space of twelve years.'

Many other regions, not inferior to Bathurst plains, are yet, we cannot doubt, to be discovered in this extensive and salubrious country; and we perceive with pleasure that new settlements are forming on the southern coast, by which a short and speedy communication will be maintained with the sister colonies on Van Diemen's land. Port Western has recently been occupied, and though the land in the immediate vicinity of the bay may not be of the first quality, yet as it has been ascertained to improve in advancing to the interior, there is little doubt that, in a short space of time, the intervening country between this port and Sydney will be planted with inhabitants. Already Jarvis and Bateman's bays have been occupied by respectable emigrants; and King George's Sound, near the south-west corner, or Cape Leuwin, commanding the entrance of Bass's Strait, has also been settled. This we consider as

a most

a most important station; the land about it is of good quality, and continues so the whole way to Swan river on the western coast, abounding with extensive plains of the finest grass, not inferior to Bathurst plains, with the additional advantage of hilly ranges, clothed with the finest timber for building, of the same species which occurs on the eastern coast, but of much finer growth. On this latter coast the settlers, in proceeding northerly, will speedily get within the tropic, and communicate with the new settlement on Melville Island on the northern coast, which we find is to be augmented by a corresponding settlement on some of the islands to the eastward of it. We are not aware whether these northern colonies are likely to answer the expectations of those (merchants trading to India, we believe) who strongly recommended them, with the view of drawing the Malays concerned in the extensive fishery of the Trepang on this coast, to exchange that article of consumption in China for British manufactures, instead of dealing, as at present, with the Dutch settlements. As the Malays are a cautious and suspicious people, it would be desirable, if possible, to induce some of them, with their families, and also of the Chinese, who mix with them freely at Singapore, to remove to the northern coast of New Holland, as the best means of securing the trade, and also of improving the new settlements on that coast.

The Australian agricultural company will, in no great length of time, give a new aspect to that part of the eastern coast on which they have received a grant of one million of acres, intersected by several fine streams falling into Port Stephens.

The fertile spot,' says the Report, on which Mr. Dawson landed, was estimated to contain about eight hundred acres, fit to grow corn of first, second, and third rate quality; surrounded by fine sheep-hills, with fresh water in abundance. In the immediate neighbourhood adjoining the shore, are beds of oyster-shells, convertible into the finest lime, both for building and agriculture, and in such inexhaustible quantity, that in one instance they are said to cover above an acre, to the depth of several feet. The whole district is bounded on the south by a harbour, into which ships of any tonnage may enter at all seasons, and anchor in safety; it abounds with numerous kinds of excellent fish, and communicates, through the medium of its rivers and creeks, with a country well qualified to form a large and important portion of the grant.

Port Stephens is situate in latitude 32° 40', one degree north of Sydney, and appears to consist of an outer and an inner harbour, the outer entrance being a mile in width, with a depth of thirty-six feet at low water. After passing the two headlands, the harbour expands considerably; but at the distance of ten miles from the entrance, it is contracted, and divided by an island into two channels, each about four hundred yards wide, which lead into the inner harbour: the depth

of