Where civilisation gives birth to new

confer a lasting and important benefit upon the world. If man be destined comparisons unfavourable to savage for perpetual activity, and if the proper life, with the information that a greater objects of that activity be the subjuga- good is possible, it generally connects tion of physical difficulties, and of his the means of attaining it. The savage own dangerous passions, how absurd no sooner becomes ashamed of his are those systems which proscribe the nakedness, than the loom is ready to acquisitions of science and the re- clothe him; the forge prepares for him straints of law, and would arrest the more perfect tools, when he is disgusted progress of man in the rudest and with the awkwardness of his own: his earliest stages of his existence! In- weakness is strengthened, and his wants deed, opinions so very extravagant in supplied, as soon as they are discovered; their nature must be attributed rather and the use of the discovery is, that it to the wantonness of paradox than to enables him to derive from comparison sober reflection, and extended inquiry. the best proofs of present happiness. To suppose the savage state perma- A man born blind is ignorant of the nent, we must suppose the numbers of pleasures of which he is deprived. those who compose it to be stationary, After the restoration of his sight, his and the various passions by which men happiness will be increased from two have actually emerged from it to be causes; - from the delight he exextinct; and this is to suppose man a periences at the novel accession of very different being from what he power, and from the contrast he will really is. To prove such a permanence always be enabled to make between beneficial (if it were possible), we his two situations, long after the pleamust have recourse to matter of fact, sure of novelty has ceased. For these and judge of the rude state of society, reasons, it is humane to restore him to not from the praises of tranquil literati, sight. but from the narratives of those who have seen it through a nearer and better medium than that of imagination. There is an argument, however, for the continuation of evil, drawn from the ignorance of good; by which it is contended, that to teach men their situation can be better, is to teach them that it is bad, and to destroy that hap-meddle. Why we are to erect penipiness which always results from an tentiary-houses and prisons at the ignorance that any greater happiness distance of half the diameter of the is within our reach. All pains and globe, and to incur the enormous expleasures are clearly by comparison; pense of feeding and transporting their but the most deplorable savage enjoys inhabitants to and at such a distance, a sufficient contrast of good, to know it is extremely difficult to discover. It that the grosser evils from which civi- certainly is not from any deficiency of lisation rescues him are evils. A New barren islands near our own coast, nor Hollander seldom passes a year with- of uncultivated wastes in the interior; out suffering from famine; the small- and if we were sufficiently fortunate to pox falls upon him like a plague; he be wanting in such species of accommodreads those calamities, though he does dation, we might discover in Canada, not know how to avert them; but, or the West Indies, or on the coast of doubtless, would find his happiness in- Africa, a climate malignant enough, or creased, if they were averted. To deny a soil sufficiently sterile, to revenge all this, is to suppose that men are recon- the injuries which have been inflicted eiled to evils, because they are inevit-on society by pickpockets, larcenists, able; and yet hurricanes, earthquakes, and petty felons. Upon the foundabodily decay, and death, stand highest tion of a new colony, and especially in the catalogue of human calamities. one peopled by criminals, there is a

But, however beneficial to the general interests of mankind the civilisation of barbarous countries may be considered to be, in this particular instance of it, the interest of Great Britain would seem to have been very little consulted. With fanciful schemes of universal good we have no business to

disposition in Government (where any circumstance in the commission of the crime affords the least pretence for the commutation) to convert capital punishments into transportation; and by these means to hold forth a very dangerous, though certainly a very unin-old tiger, we are breeding up a young tentional, encouragement to offences. cub, whom we cannot render less feroAnd when the history of the colony cious, or more secure. If we are has been attentively perused in the gradually to manumit the colony, as it parish of St. Giles, the ancient avoca- is more and more capable of protecting tion of picking pockets will certainly itself, the degrees of emancipation, and not become more discreditable from the the periods at which they are to take knowledge that it may eventually lead place, will be judged of very differently to the possession of a farm of a thou- by the two nations. But we confess sand acres on the river Hawkesbury. ourselves not to be so sanguine as to Since the benevolent Howard attacked suppose, that a spirited and commercial our prisons, incarceration has become people would, in spite of the example not only healthy but elegant; and a of America, ever consent to abandon county-jail is precisely the place to their sovereignty over an important which any pauper might wish to retire, colony, without a struggle. Endless to gratify his taste for magnificence, as blood and treasure will be exhausted well as for comfort. Upon the same to support a tax on kangaroos' skins; principle there is some risk that trans- faithful Commons will go on voting portation will be considered as one of fresh supplies to support a just and the surest roads to honour and to necessary war; and Newgate, then bewealth; and that no felon will hear a come a quarter of the world, will evince verdict of "not guilty" without con- a heroism, not unworthy of the great sidering himself as cut off in the fairest characters by whom she was originally career of prosperity. It is foolishly peopled. believed, that the colony of Botany Bay unites our moral and commercial interests, and that we shall receive hereafter an ample equivalent, in bales of goods, for all the vices we export. Unfortunately, the expense we have in-nation subjected to our examination; curred in founding the colony, will not retard the natural progress of its emancipation, or prevent the attacks of , other nations, who will be as desirous of reaping the fruit, as if they had sown the seed. It is a colony, besides, begun under every possible disadvantage; it is too distant to be long governed, or well defended; it is undertaken, not by the voluntary association of individuals, but by Government, and by means of compulsory labour. A nation must, indeed, be redundant in capital, that will expend it where the hopes of a just return are so very

hundred millions of money in discovering its strength, and to humble ourselves again before a fresh set of Washingtons and Franklins ? The moment after we have suffered such serious mischief from the escape of the

small.

It may be a curious consideration, to reflect what we are to do with this colony when it comes to years of discretion. Are we to spend another

The experiment, however, is not less interesting in a moral, because it is objectionable in a commercial point of view. It is an object of the highest curiosity, thus to have the growth of a

to trace it by such faithful records, from the first day of its existence; and to gather that knowledge of the progress of human affairs, from actual experience, which is considered to be only accessible to the conjectural reflections of enlightened minds.

Human nature, under very old governments, is so trimmed, and pruned, and ornamented, and led into such a variety of factitious shapes, that we are almost ignorant of the appearance it would assume, if it were left more to itself. From such an experiment as that now before us, we shall be better able to appreciate what circumstances of our situation are owing to those permanent laws by which all men are influenced, and what to the accidental positions in which we have been placed.

New circumstances will throw new the creed of a barbarous people. In light upon the effects of our religious, politics, they appear to have scarcely political, and economical institutions, advanced beyond family-government. if we cause them to be adopted as models in our rising empire; and if we do not, we shall estimate the effects of their presence, by observing those which are produced by their non-existence.

It is remarkable, that the same paucity of numbers has been observed The natives in the vicinity of Port in every part of New Holland which has Jackson stand extremely low, in point hitherto been explored; and yet there of civilisation, when compared with is not the smallest reason to conjecture many other savages, with whom the that the population of it has been very discoveries of Captain Cook have made recent; nor do the people bear any us acquainted. Their notions of re-marks of descent from the inhabitants ligion exceed even that degree of ab- of the numerous islands by which surdity which we are led to expect in this great continent is surrounded.

The force of population can only be | North of Port Jackson evince a conresisted by some great physical evils; siderable degree of ingenuity and conand many of the causes of this scarcity trivance in the structure of their houses, of human beings, which Mr. Collins which are rendered quite impervious refers to the ferocity of the natives, are to the weather, while the inhabitants at ultimately referrible to the difficulty of Port Jackson have no houses at all. support. We have always considered At Port Dalrymple, in Van Diemen's this phenomenon as a symptom ex- Land, there was every reason to believe tremely unfavourable to the future the natives were unacquainted with the destinies of this country. It is easy use of canoes; a fact extremely emto launch out into eulogiums of the barrassing to those who indulge themfertility of nature in particular spots; selves in speculating on the genealogy but the most probable reason why a of nations; because it reduces them to country that has been long inhabited, the necessity of supposing that the is not well inhabited, is, that it is not progenitors of this insular people swam calculated to support many inhabitants over from the main land, or that they without great labour. It is difficult to were aboriginal; a species of dilemma suppose any other causes powerful which effectually bars all conjecture enough to resist the impetuous tendency upon the intermixture of nations. It of man to obey that mandate for in- is painful to learn, that the natives crease and multiplication, which has have begun to plunder and rob in so certainly been better observed than any very alarming a manner, that it has other declaration of the Divine will been repeatedly found necessary to fire ever revealed to us. upon them; and many have, in consequence, fallen victims to their rashness.

There appears to be some tendency to civilisation, and some tolerable notions of justice, in a practice very similar to our custom of duelling; for duelling, though barbarous in civilised, is a highly civilised institution among barbarous people; and when compared to assassination, is a prodigious victory gained over human passions. Whoever kills another in the neighbourhood of Botany Bay, is compelled to appear at an appointed day before the friends of the deceased, and to sustain the attacks of their missile weapons. If he is killed, he is deemed to have met with a deserved death; if not, he is considered to have expiated the crime for the commission of which he was exposed to the danger. There is in this institution a command over present impulses, a prevention of secrecy in the gratification of revenge, and a wholesome correction of that passion, by the effects of public observation, which evince such a superiority to the mere animal passions of ordinary savages, and form such a contrast to the rest of the history of this people, that it may be considered as altogether an anomalous and inexplicable fact. The natives differ very much in the progress they have made in the arts of economy. Those to the

The soil is found to produce coal in vast abundance, salt, lime, very fine iron ore, timber fit for all purposes, excellent flax, and a tree, the bark of which is admirably adapted for cordage. The discovery of coal (which, by the by, we do not believe was ever before discovered so near the Line) is probably rather a disadvantage than an advantage; because, as it lies extremely favourable for sea carriage, it may prove to be a cheaper fuel than wood, and thus operate as a discouragement to the clearing of lands. The soil upon the sea-coast has not been found to be very productive, though it improves in partial spots in the interior. The climate is healthy, in spite of the prodigious heat of the summer months, at which period the thermometer has been observed to stand in the shade at 107, and the leaves of garden vegetables to fall into dust, as if they had been consumed with fire. But one of the most insuperable defects in New Holland, considered as the future country of a great people, is the want of large rivers penetrating very far into the interior, and navigable for small craft. The Hawkesbury, the largest river yet dis

covered, is not accessible to boats for | 350; horses, 100; hogs, 4,300; acres more than twenty miles. This same of land in cultivation, 4,000. The river occasionally rises above its natural temptation to salt pork, and to sell it level, to the astonishing height of fifty for Government store, is probably the feet; and has swept away, more than reason why the breed of hogs has been once, the labours and the hopes of the so much kept under. The increase new people exiled to its banks. of cultivated lands between the two periods is prodigious. It appears (p. 319) that the whole number of convicts imported between January 1788 and June 1801 (a period of thirteen years and a half), has been about 5,000, of whom 1,157 were females. The total amount of the population on the continent, as well as at Norfolk Island, amounted, June, 1801, to 6,500 persons; of these, 766 were children born at Port Jackson. In the returns from Norfolk Island, children are not dis. criminated from adults. Let us add to the imported population of 5,000 con

The laborious acquisition of any good we have long enjoyed is apt to be forgotten. We walk and talk, and run and read, without remembering the long and severe labour dedicated to the cultivation of these powers, the formidable obstacles opposed to our progress, or the infinite satisfaction with which we overcame them. He who lives among a civilised people may estimate the labour by which society has been brought into such a state, by reading in these annals of Botany Bay, the account of a whole nation exerting itself to new floor the government-victs, 500 free people, which (if we house, repair the hospital, or build a consider that a regiment of soldiers has wooden receptacle for stores. Yet the been kept up there) is certainly a very time may come when some Botany Bay small allowance; then, in thirteen years Tacitus shall record the crimes of an and a half, the imported population has emperor lineally descended from a increased only by two-thirteenths. If London pick-pocket, or paint the valour we suppose that something more than with which he has led his New Hol- a fifth of the free people were women, landers into the heart of China. At this will make the total of women that period, when the Grand Lahma is 1,270; of whom we may fairly presume sending to supplicate alliance; when that 800 were capable of child-bearing; the spice islands are purchasing peace and if we suppose the children of Norwith nutmegs; when enormous tributes folk Island to bear the same proportion of green tea and nankeen are wafted to the adults as at Port Jackson, their into Port Jackson, and landed on the total number at both settlements will quays of Sydney, who will ever re-be 913;-a state of infantine population member that the sawing of a few planks, which certainly does not justify the very and the knocking together of a few high eulogiums which have been made nails, were such a serious trial of the on the fertility of the female sex in the energies and resources of the nation? climate of New Holland.

The government of the colony, after The Governor, who appears on all enjoying some little respite from this occasions to be an extremely well-diskind of labour, has begun to turn its posed man, is not quite so conversant attention to the coarsest and most neces-in the best writings on political economy sary species of manufactures, for which as we could wish: and indeed (though their wool appears to be extremely well such knowledge would be extremely adapted. The state of stock in the serviceable to the interests which this whole settlement, in June 1801, was Romulus of the Southern Pole is superabout 7,000 sheep, 1,300 head of cattle, intending), it is rather unfair to exact 230 horses, and 5,000 hogs. There from a superintendent of pickpockets, were under cultivation at the same that he should be a philosopher. In time, between 9 and 10,000 acres of the 18th page we have the following corn. Three years and a half before information respecting the price of this, in December 1797, the numbers labour:were as follows: Sheep, 2,500; cattle,| "Some representations having been made