terpillars, as are whole districts of grass, and the corn is subject to the weevil, so that it cannot be preserved for any time either in ricks or in granaries.

Cabbages, carrots, turnips, onions, in short almost all kinds of European vegetables, succeed in low situations and good soils. Although potatoes thrive tolerably, they are much inferior to those of New Zealand and Van Diemen's Land, whence large quantities are imported to Sydney. Gooseberries and currants thrive only in the colder and more elevated parts. Apples and pears are in general exceedingly fine. Peaches, apricots, oranges, cherries, almonds, and numberless other fruits, attain the greatest degree of perfection in the open air. Grapes prosper in most situations, as do raspberries, strawberries, and melons. In short, no country could be better supplied with fruit.

Attempts have been made to cultivate the English grasses, but only with limited success. Clovers shoot up luxuriantly the first spring, disappear in summer, and revive partially in autumn; but two or three dry seasons are sufficient to extirpate them entirely. The same may be said of the cultivated gramineæ. Lucerne and tares, however, produce abundant crops in wet seasons, and turnips thrive sufficiently. But it were absurd to assert, as some have done, that New South Wales is inferior in productiveness to our own country, because it does not always produce the same species of plants in equal perfection.

The open forests and rich pastures of New South Wales are admirably adapted for the rearing of cattle. In the more populous districts they are followed during the day by a herdsman, and confined in yards at night; but in the more remote parts, are permitted to roam at large, although still under the charge of a herdsman. The breeds of cattle are mixtures of almost every kind produced in Britain, crossed by others from India and the Cape of Good Hope. They have increased in an astonishing degree, and the great stock-breeders, finding themselves obliged to retreat westward, as civilization encroaches upon them, are the natural explorers of the transmontane regions.

Horses are also becoming abundant in the colony, which appears equally congenial to them as to cattle, the original breeds

were chiefly from India and the Cape, and have been improved by samples of the best English blood horses.

But the most important species of stock for the colony is sheep, of which prodigious numbers already exist. As the future prosperity of the colonists will in a great measure depend upon the quality of the wool exported by them, the management of their flocks is a subject of vital importance to them. Owing to the astonishing increase of black cattle, which thrive in the woods without any care, sheep cannot be of much benefit as supplying an article of food. It is for wool, therefore, that they ought to be reared, and, of course, the breeds preferred ought to be those which are known to produce that article of the finest quality. The climate of New South Wales seems to be well adapted for this purpose, and the natural pastures are in general healthy and luxuriant, although, after continued droughts, they are liable to be burnt up, when the young grass which subsequently shoots up is too juicy and tender, and is apt to induce disease. Sheep are liable to the same disorders as in England, especially the rot, the scab, and the foot-rot; and it is only by proper attention to the breeding, rearing, and feeding of them, that there can be procured, in sufficient quantity, the fine wool which already forms a staple article of exportation. Besides the care which sheep require in leading them to proper pasture, they need the protection of the shepherd and his dogs, from the great number of dingos, or native wild dogs, which, in many districts, roam the woods, and often commit ravages among the flocks.

Farm servants are obtained from among the convicts, who are assigned to applicants, after a selection has been made for the public service. They are required to work ten hours a day, and are plentifully supplied with food by their employers. Should a convict conduct himself well during a certain period, he obtains a ticket of leave, and may settle wherever he pleases, and occupy himself to his own liking. Free servants taken out from Britain usually leave their masters before they have been of much benefit to them.

Various manufactures have been established in the colony, such as soap, candles, salt, woollen cloth, hats, earthenware, ropes, &c. Seal-skins, fish-oil, sandal wood, and other articles

collected from the adjacent seas and shores, are exported in large quantities. Beef, mutton, horns, hides, tallow, and live stock, are also articles of export; but the principal one, that in fact on which the commercial prosperity of New South Wales must chiefly depend, is wool, of which immense quantities make their way to England and other countries.

As may easily be imagined, the state of society in New South Wales, and especially in its capital, is not of the most pleasant kind. Where the mass of a population consists of persons expelled from their native land for the commission of flagrant crimes, it requires years, perhaps ages, before it can settle. Additional discord is produced by the violence of party-feeling, the colonists being divided into several political sects, which hold each other in abhorrence. A large proportion of the convicts exhibit little indication of reform. Many of them have at various times run off with vessels, betaken themselves to the woods, and committed acts of murder and robbery; but, as the forests are incapable of furnishing the means of subsistence, they have usually been glad to return in a few weeks.

As the greater part of the more fertile district of the central portion of the east coast of New Holland has already been located, we cannot but wonder that neither the colonial nor the home government has made any strenuous exertions in exploring other parts of this vast continent, the total occupation of which by British subjects would evidently be desirable, both for the benefit of the mother country and of the colonies. The failure of the recent settlement at Swan River, on the west coast, ought not to deter us from similar enterprizes in more suitable situations. Were colonies placed at intervals round the whole coast, they would in time coalesce, and would for the present prevent the occupation of eligible ground by other powers. The public attention should also be directed to the wants of the already existing colonies, at least so far as to ensure the transportation of an adequate supply of women, the want of whom is productive of the greatest inconveniences, as well as of the greatest moral turpitude, in New South Wales. It has been calculated that 50,000 female outcasts walk the streets of London, and were these removed to situations favourable to reform, there can be no doubt that they might be converted into useful members of society. But what

VOL. III. NO. XV.

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ever method may be devised for obviating its inconveniences, this fact is certain, that female society is the great desideratum of the English colony of New South Wales.

To those who may think of settling in this interesting and highly salubrious colony, we would recommend the perusal of the following works, as particularly calculated to afford the necessary information :-Wentworth's Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales, 1819; Field's Geographical Memoirs on New South Wales, 1825; Atkinson's Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales, 1826; and Dawson's Australia, 1830.

STATE OF THE LABOURING CLASS IN ENGLAND-EMIGRATION.

A Bill (as amended by the Committee) to facilitate voluntary Emigration to his Majesty's Possessions abroad.-Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 13th April 1831.

PERHAPS

ERHAPS it can never be expected, in a country like Britain, —with her agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing interests, and the various ramifications into which these diverge,— that there will not at times be some branches of industry much depressed. The state of the labouring class, both in the south of England and in Ireland, is becoming every day of more pressing importance. The turbulent spirit of incendiarism and discord which not long ago broke out with such alarming impetuosity in Kent and other counties in the south of England, —where barns and the precious fruits which they contained were converted into embers,-indicated a degree of insubordination, and a state of society, which loudly call for a change.

The labouring class is perhaps more than any other subject to distress of a permanent character, by a glut in the market for labour, and other operating causes. The various circumstances connected both with the deficient returns of produce, and the inadequate prices of produce, influence materially the demand for labour. Even the fluctuations or cessation of any particular branch of commerce or trade has ultimately an injurious effect, by throwing artisans or mechanics out of employment; and as many of the operations of common labour can be performed without any previous apprenticeship, all who are so

thrown out fall under the class of labourers. The transition is thus instantaneous; but the reverse-the change of labourers into these trades-must be slow and gradual; and hence when the market for labour is once glutted, an immediate relief can seldom be looked for.

Though our manufacturing and agricultural interests are not at the present period in a flourishing state, still matters with these glide on tolerably smoothly; and yet the labouring class in many districts is in a state of extreme distress and destitution. Much of this distress and destitution has been attributed to the maladministration of the poor laws. It was once a favourite theme with a certain class of political economists, to decry the whole system of poor laws as injurious in its nature and tendency. But even these individuals have latterly made a recantation of such opinions; and it is now universally admitted, that poor laws, under a judicious system, are indispensable, and for the benefit of the nation.

These laws were at first organized for the best of purposes. The changes in the state of the country under the Tudor dynasty-which enfeebled the feudal system, and caused the barons to evacuate their castles and halls of able-bodied men and sturdy vagrants, and thus threw these upon their own resources-called for a provision for the poor so early as the year 1288. And subsequently the demolition of the monasteries, which were an asylum for vagrants, let loose another tide of beggars.

The foundation of the existing code of poor laws, was the act of the 43d of Elizabeth in 1601. From that period to the commencement of the late war, there was little advancement in the poor-rates. At the termination of the American war, indeed, when the crops were deficient and the prices high, with most kinds of trades depressed, the poor-rates had considerably increased; but when the increase of population and other circumstances regarding the state of the country at that period are taken into account, the increase of poor-rates cannot be held to have been great. The following table, taken from a parliamentary paper, will show the amount of money expended for the relief of the poor in England and Wales at the several periods for which returns have been required by parliament from 1748 to 1829, and the average price of wheat at every such period.