I was very occasionally changed; that the lace and fine linen are carefully washed, mangled and ironed, and that their jewels be burnished and polished for high days and holidays. These good Creoles rack their brains and drain their purses, for the purpose of dressing up these wooden dolls, each boasting that their Madonna has the most costly wardrobe. This money, if spent partly upon the poor and partly for educating the people, would, in my humble opinion, be far more acceptable in the eyes of the Almighty, than squandered in dressing up of dolls or graven images in purple and fine linen; but there is no reasoning with bigoted and superstitious people, nor accounting for taste, as Mrs. Smith said. much struck with the vast concourse of white and coloured people, mixiug promiscuously without distinction of rank and station. Grandees and slaves knelt side by side without fear of contamination, and whatever might have been the pride of the one, and the humility of the other class, without the walls of the Lord's temple, it was evident that master and slave were equals in the House of God. There were no pews to keep the poor man from touching the coat of the noble, or the rich merchants-there was no line of demarcation between the high and the low as in our churches. Every one, whether slave or free, had a right to the few circles of ground he occupied, and none dared say to the half-clad slaves---" get out and make room for me!" Does this exist in England where slavery is held in abhorrence? Does the rich man offer a seat in his pew to the poor widow of some journeyman mechanic, or would a Dowager Countess offer a seat to her tradesman's wife? Alas, no! for there is a great distinction between man and man, even in the Lord's temples in England. It was vanity, pomp, and pride, that invented pews, whereas meekness and humility contented themselves with the prie-dieus, which are at the disposal of the rich and poor. We dislike the superstition and mummery displayed in Roman Catholic churches, but we admire the equality established in those churches subject to the Holy See, where the beggar and the aristocrat have equal rights and claims. During the ceremony I requested my friends to take up their station in front of the altar, and mark the ceremony, which was very imposing. The tingling of the bells, the going and coming of priests and other functionaries in surplices and scarlet robes, the flickering of wax lights, the scattering of incense, which rose majestically in dense clouds to the very roof of the pile; the sound of sacred music-all tended to elevate the mind. At my request, my companions bowed whenever the shrill bell at the altar denoted some peculiarity in the service, which was new to them, whereby we avoided the gaze of those who might have put us down as heretics. It was not the fear of its being known that we were Protestants which induced me to advise my friends to imitate the example of others as I respect every religion invented by man, I expect every man to respect the one we profess, and in which we were brought up. Religious forms are mere moonshine; in our actions alone are we accountable to the Most High. VOL. VI.---NO. 24. DECEMBER, 1845. 2 M When the ceremony was concluded, we found ourselves at liberty to survey the cathedral. We saw none of those fine pictures of immortal masters, which adorn the walls of European churches; but there were numerous collections of saints' banners, and relics. Having examined the principal altar, my eye fell upon a plain marble slab, solidly fixed on the right hand side of the altar. It bore the rude lineaments of a man, clad in the costume in vogue at the period when Spain was in her glory. It was the resting-place and the portrait of Columbus. The following is the modest epitaph of the man who served Spain so faithfully, but who was so shamefully rewarded :— "O restos e imagen del gran Colon! Mil siglos durad, guardados en la urna Y en la remembranza de nuestra nacion." For the edification of the reader we have versified the foregoing epitaph, which we confess was done without the assistance of the poet MacGuinness, who was lost in reverie before the effigy of that man who was a wanderer during life, and whose bones like those of Napoleon, were destined to make long voyages after death :— Stranger behold this little urn contains Of famed Columbus, nought but his remains. Oh, Time! respect the spot where Christoph lies, We left the spot filled with disgust at the base treatment Columbus received from those his vast discoveries enriched. None can forget how shamefully he was treated by the villain Bobadilla, who loaded him with chains in lieu of heaping honours upon his head, and thus a weak monarch listened to his enemies, base calumniators, who were jealous of his reputation and the immortality he had acquired by his unmatched courage and perseverance. Alas! the discoverer died broken-hearted at Valladolid, the victim of intrigue and calumny, and the only honour conferred on his memory was the sending his remains to that spot, where he landed amid the acclamations of those who would have deterred him from pursuing his great work of discovery. If we peruse the biography of Christopher Columbus, we cannot but admit the truth of the proverb "Put not thy trust in Princes." ON THE ABOLITION OF TRANSPORTATION TO VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. [WE have much pleasure in publishing the following important Petition, which came to hand by the last arrivals, praying for the abolition of further convict deportation to Van Diemen's Land. The injury to the best interests of the Colony, by making this the sole penal settlement, the heavy expenses incurred, the great prevalence of crime, and the bad repute in which the Island is now held—having tended to deter free emigration and the outlay of capital-and are all so many strong arguments in favour of the prayer of the Petition.-EDITOR.] To Her Most Gracious Majesty VICTORIA, Queen of the United The humble Petition of the undersigned Free Colonists of Van SHEWETH, That in approaching your Majesty to pray your gracious protection, we desire to express our sincere loyalty to your Majesty, and our firm attachment to the constitution of the British empire. That in making our present application, we entreat your Majesty to believe that we are actuated by no factious feeling, by no unreasonable discontent, nor by any motive but such as ought to influence us as men and as Christians. That we appeal to Sir Eardley Wilmot, our Lieutenant-Governor, to testify that what we state as matter of fact in this Petition is in no degree erroneous or exaggerated; and, as a considerable number of your Petitioners are personally known to his Excellency, and also to our late Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Franklin (who is now in England), we further appeal to them both for their testimony as to the general position and character as colonists of many of those who now address your Majesty. That we remind your Majesty that from the year 1824, the British government promoted and encouraged the emigration of free settlers to Van Diemen's Land, by public notices issued, from the ColonialOffice, the Horse-Guards, and the Admiralty, and offered as inducements to such emigration, at first free grants of land, and latterly allowances to naval and military officers in the purchase of crown lands. That the obtaining of free grants of land was conditional upon the settlers investing a considerable capital in the Colony, and being persons of character and respectability; and that all those who obtained such grants, and all military and naval officers obtaining the allowance in purchasing land, were required to become permanent residents in the Colony. That under these inducements, and upon these conditions, a large body of your Majesty's free subjects became settlers in Van Diemen's Land as farmers and merchants. That up to the year 1831, a considerable number of your Majesty's free subjects had also emigrated to Van Diemen's Land as mechanics and farming men; and after that year, the number of these emigrants was increased under the system of bounties sanctioned both by the British and Colonial governments. That by the industry and capital of these various colonists, an extensive commerce has been created, two considerable sea-port towns, besides several inland townships (or villages) and numerous houses and farm buildings have been erected, and a vast quantity of the waste land in the colony has been cleared from the forest and brought into cultivation. That from the year 1824, to the year 1840, the population of the colony increased from 12,700 to upwards of 40,000-the number of acres in cultivation from 25,000 to 124,000-the colonial shipping from one vessel of 42 tons to one hundred and forty one vessels comprising 12,491 tons-the imports (chiefly of English goods carried in English ships) from £62,000 to £988,356-the exports from £14,500 to £867,007, in which the wool alone amounted to £223,000-the colonial fixed revenue from £16,863 to £118,541-and that the sum of £218,790 was between the year 1828 and the year 1840 (inclusive) invested by the colonists in the purchase of crown lands. That during the same period, the number of places of worship increased from four to forty-four, and that there was a corresponding increase in the number of schools and other establishments for education. That from the year 1824 to 1840, the greater part of the convicts transported from England were sent to New South Wales, and only a small proportion to this island, who immediately upon their landing were dispersed over the colony as labourers and servants. That from the rapid increase of the free colonists, and the limited number of convicts sent to Van Diemen's Land, those among the latter who became free, or who by their good conduct were allowed to work on their own account, obtained full employment at high wages, thus having the strongest stimulus to good behaviour; and from this circumstance, but especially from each convict being at once separated from his associates, and accustomed to regular labour, and from the facility with which a moderate number could be kept in order, the majority of the convicts in Van Diemen's Land were industrious and useful members of society, and the security of life and property was as complete in this island as in any county in England. That from 1824 Van Diemen's Land was therefore no longer merely a penal settlement, as in 1804 when it was first occupied, but a colony established under the sanction and encouragement of the English government, and supplied with a certain amount of convict labour which the settlers could readily employ, and for which they paid by defraying the whole expense of the convicts after their arrival. That during the sixteen years in which the prosperity of the colony was so remarkable, the proportion of convicts to that of free inhabitants constantly and regularly decreased, so that in 1840 the number of convicts as compared to the number of free inhabitants was little more than one half the number in 1824. That in the year 1840 the home government discontinued sending convicts to New South Wales, and this small island was converted into the sole penal settlement of the British empire, the sole receptacle for all criminals transported from every part of your Majesty's vast dominions from England, Ireland, and Scotland-from Canada, India, and Africa and latterly also for all criminals transported from your Majesty's recent possessions in China. That in thus converting a flourishing British colony into an immense gaol, the free inhabitants had no voice-that their consent to an alteration so fatal to their interests was never obtained nor ever asked, and that they had not even the option given them, of selling their property to the government and leaving the island-a measure which your Petitioners do not deny the British government had a right to subject us to, if the change had been for the general benefit of the empire. That in none of the notices issued by the government, either to free settlers or to free mechanics and labourers, is there a single intimation given that at any time, or under any circumstances, this colony would be placed under the present system; that we believe it was never thought of until 1840-that not a single colonist ever anticipated it— that on the contrary the increase of the population and the whole system of our government led us to look forward to the time when transportation to this colony would altogether cease-that many circumstances induced us to entertain this view, and we especially refer to the Petition from this Colony for a free Representative Assembly in the year 1838, to which your Majesty was pleased to return a very favourable answer, it being obvious that to a merely penal colony a free assembly could not be granted, or, if granted, that it would be useless. That your petitioners were in total ignorance of the details of the new transportation system until within the last few months, when part of the instructions sent by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Lieutenant Governor was published in the colonial newspapers. That from these instructions we learn that all male convicts sentenced to transportation for life, and a portion of those transported for fifteen years, are first to be sent to Norfolk Island, where they are to be kept not less than two years, and to be then transferred to Van Diemen's Land, that the number of criminals to be thus disposed of is estimated at one thousand a year-that these convicts, and also all those transported in the first instance to Van Diemen's Land are to be kept in probation gangs each consisting of from 250 to 300 men, in which each convict was to remain not less than eleven years, in which he may remain not less than one year, but in which he may remain seve |