gles him with traps; and the supra-fine country gentleman only detains him in machines, which prevent his escape, but do not lacerate their captive. Of the gross illegality of such proceedings, there can be no reasonable doubt. Their immorality and cruelty are equally clear. If they are not put down by some declaratory law, it will be absolutely necessary that the judges, in their invaluable circuits of Oyer and Terminer, should leave two or three of his majesty's squires to a fate too vulgar and indelicate to be alluded to in this journal.

Men have certainly a clear right to defend their property; but then it must be by such means as the law allows :-their houses by pistols, their fields by actions for trespass, their game by information. There is an end of law, if every man is to measure out his punishment for his own wrong. Nor are we able to distinguish between the guilt of two persons,the one of whom deliberately shoots a man whom he sees in his fields the other of whom purposely places such instruments as he knows will shoot trespassers upon his fields. Better that it should be lawful to kill a trespasser face to face, than to place engines which will kill him. The trespasser may be a child—a woman—a son or friend. The spring-gun cannot accommodate itself to circumstances,-the squire or the gamekeeper may.

These, then, are our opinions respecting the alterations in the game laws, which, as they now stand, are perhaps the only system which could possibly render the possession of game so very insecure as it now is. We would give to every man an absolute property in the game upon his land, with full power to kill to permit others to kill-and to sell;-we would punish any violation of that property by summary conviction, and pecuniary penalties-rising in value according to the number of offences. This would of course abolish all qualifications; and we sincerely believe it would lessen the profits of selling game illegally, so as very materially to lessen the number of poachers. It would make game, as an article of food, accessible to all classes, without infringing the laws. It would limit the amusements of country gentlemen within the boundaries of justice-and would enable the magistrate cheerfully and conscientiously to execute laws, of the moderation and justice of which he must be thoroughly convinced. To this conclusion, too, we have no doubt we shall come at the

last. After many years of scutigeral folly-loaded prisons*nightly battles-poachers tempted-and families ruined, these principles will finally prevail, and make law once more coincident with reason and justice.

* In the course of the last year, no fewer than twelve hundred persons were committed for offences against the game; besides those who ran away from their families for the fear of commitment. This is no slight quantity of misery.

BOTANY BAY. (EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1819.)

1. A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales, and its dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land: with a particular Enumeration of the Advantages which these Colonies offer for Emigration, and their Superiority in many respects over those possessed by the United States of America. By W. C. Wentworth, Esq., a Native of the Colony. Whittaker. London, 1819. 2. Letter to Viscount Sidmouth, Secretary of State for the Home Department, on the Transportation Laws, the State of the Hulks, and of the Colonies in New South Wales. By the Hon. Henry Grey Bennet, M. P. Ridgway. London, 1819.

3. O'Hara's History of New South Wales. Hatchard. London, 1818.

THIS land of convicts and kangaroos is beginning to rise into. a very fine and flourishing settlement: And great indeed must be the natural resources, and splendid the endowments of that land that has been able to survive the system of neglect* and oppression experienced from the mother country, and the series of ignorant and absurd governors that have been selected for the administration of its affairs. But mankind live and flourish not only in spite of storms and tempests, but (which could not have been anticipated previous to experience) in spite of colonial secretaries expressly paid to watch over their interests. The supineness and profligacy of public officers cannot always overcome the amazing energy with which human beings pursue their happiness, nor the sagacity with which they determine on the means by which that end is to be promoted. it our care, however, to record for the future inhabitants of Australasia, the political sufferings of their larcenous forefathers; and let them appreciate, as they ought, that energy

Be

* One and no small excuse for the misconduct of colonial secretaries is, the enormous quantity of business by which they are distracted. There should be two or three colonial secretaries instead of one: the office is dreadfully overweighted. The government of the colonies is commonly a series of blunders.

VOL. I.-19

which founded a mighty empire in spite of the afflicting blunders and marvellous cacœconomy of their government.

Botany Bay is situated in a fine climate, rather Asiatic than European, with a great variety of temperature, but favourable on the whole to health and life. It, conjointly with Van Diemen's Land, produces coal in great abundance, fossil salt, slate, lime, plumbago, potter's clay; iron; white, yellow, and brilliant topazes; alum and copper. These are all the important fossil productions which have been hitherto discovered: but the epidermis of the country has hardly as yet been scratched; and it is most probable that the immense mountains which divide the eastern and western settlements, Bathurst and Sydney, must abound with every species of mineral wealth. The harbours are admirable; and the whole world, perhaps, cannot produce two such as those of Port Jackson and Derwent. The former of these is land-locked for fourteen miles in length, and of the most irregular form: its soundings are more than sufficient for the largest ships; and all the navies of the world might ride in safety within it. In the harbour of Derwent there is a road-stead forty-eight miles in length, completely land-locked ;-varying in breadth from eight to two miles,in depth from thirty to four fathoms,-and affording the best anchorage the whole way.

The mean heat, during the three summer months, December, January, and February, is about 80° at noon. The heat which such a degree of the thermometer would seem to indicate, is considerably tempered by the sea-breeze, which blows with considerable force from nine in the morning till seven in the evening. The three autumn months are March, April, and May, in which the thermometer varies from 55° at night to 75° at noon. The three winter months are June, July, and August. During this interval, the mornings and evenings are very chilly, and the nights excessively cold; hoar-frosts are frequent; ice, half an inch thick, is found twenty miles from the coast; the mean temperature, at daylight, is from 40° to 45°, and at noon from 55° to 60°. In the three months of spring, the thermometer varies from 60° to 70°. The climate to the westward of the mountains is colder. Heavy falls of

snow take place during the winter; the frosts are more severe, and the winters of longer duration. All the seasons are much more distinctly marked, and resemble much more those of this country.

Such is the climate of Botany Bay; and, in this remote part of the earth, Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions for the rest of the world), seems determined to have a bit of play, and to amuse herself as she pleases. Accordingly, she makes cherries with the stone on the outside; and a monstrous animal, as tall as a grenadier, with the head of a rabbit, a tail as big as a bed-post, hopping along at the rate of five hops. to a mile, with three or four young kangaroos looking out of its false uterus to see what is passing. Then comes a quadruped as big as a large cat, with the eyes, colour, and skin of a mole, and the bill and web-feet of a duck-puzzling Dr. Shaw, and rendering the latter half of his life miserable, from his utter inability to determine whether it was a bird or a beast. Add to this a parrot, with the legs of a sea-gull; a skate with the head of a shark; and a bird of such monstrous dimensions, that a side bone of it will dine three real carnivorous Englishmen;-together with many other productions that agitate Sir Joseph, and fill him with mingled emotions of distress and delight.

The colony has made the following progress :

The colony has a bank, with a capital of 20,000.; a newspaper; and a capital (the town of Sydney) containing about 7000 persons. There is also a Van Diemen's Land Gazette. The perusal of these newspapers, which are regularly transmitted to England, and may be purchased in London, has afforded us considerable amusement. Nothing can paint in a more lively manner the state of the settlement, its disadvantages, and prosperities, and the opinions and manners which prevail there.

'On Friday, Mr. James Squires, settler and brewer, waited on his excellency at Government House, with two vines of hops taken from his own grounds, &c.-As a public recompense for the unremitted attention shown by the grower in bringing this valuable plant to such a high degree of perfection, his excellency has directed a cow to be given to Mr. Squires from the government herd.'-O'Hara, p. 255.