to the Governor from the settlers in different parts of the colony, purporting that the wages demanded by the free labouring people whom they had occasion to hire was so exorbitant as to run away with the greatest part of the profit of their farms, it was recommended to them to appoint quarterly meetings among themselves, to be held in each district, for the purpose of settling the rate of wages to labourers in every different kind of work; that, to this end, a written agreement should be entered into, and subscribed by each settler, a breach of which should be punished by a penalty, to be fixed by the general opinion, and made recoverable in a court of civil judicature. It was recommended to them to apply this forfeiture to the common benefit; and they were to transmit to the head-quarters a copy of their agreement, with the rate of wages which they should from time to time establish, for the Governor's information, holding their first meeting as early as possible." And again, at p. 24, the following arrangements on that head enacted: are "In pursuance of the order which was issued in January last, recommending the settlers to appoint meetings, at which they should fix the rate of wages that it might be proper to pay for the different kinds of labour which their farms should require, the settlers had submitted to the Governor the several resolutions that they had entered into, by which he was enabled to fix a rate that he conceived to be fair and equitable between the farmer and the labourer. "The following prices of labour were now established, viz. per hundred ditto £ s. d. 0 10 6 1 5 0 "The settlers were reminded, that, in order to prevent any kind of dispute between the master and servant, when they should have occasion to hire a man for any length of time, they would find it most convenient to engage him for a quarter, halfyear, or year, and to make their agreement in writing; on which, should any dispute arise, an appeal to the magistrates would settle it." This is all very bad; and if the Governor had cherished the intention of destroying the colony, he could have done nothing more detrimental to its interests. The high price of labour is the very corner-stone on which the prosperity of a new colony depends. It enables the poor man to live with ease; and is the strongest incitement to population, by rendering children rather a source of riches than of poverty. If the same difficulty of subsistence existed in new countries as in old, it is plain that the progress of 0 12 3 population would be equally slow in 070 each. The very circumstances which cause the difference are, that, in the 070 latter, there is a competition among the 070 labourers to be employed; and, in the former, a competition among the occupiers of land to obtain labourers. In the one, land is scarce, and men plenty; in the other, men are scarce, and land is plenty. To disturb this natural 1 10 0 0 16 8 0 10 0 06 030 070 Ditto of five feet long, per hundred 0 1 6 order of things (a practice injurious at Sawing plank, all times) must be particularly so where the predominant disposition of the 0 0 10 colonists is an aversion to labour, pro Ditching per rod, three feet wide and three feet deep To evince the increasing commerce of the settlement, a list is subjoined of 140 ships, which have arrived there since its first foundation, forty only of which were from England. The colony at Norfolk Island is represented to be in a very deplorable situation, and will most probably be abandoned for one about to be formed on Van Diemen's Land, though the capital defect of the former settlement has been partly obviated, by a discovery of the harbour for small craft. duced by a long course of dissolute | only by the progressive refinement of habits. In such cases the high prices manners. of labour, which the Governor was so desirous of abating, bid fair not only to increase the agricultural prosperity, but to effect the moral reformation of the colony. We observe the same unfortunate ignorance of the elementary principles of commerce in the attempts of the Governor to reduce the prices of the European commodities, by bulletins and authoritative interference, as if there were any other mode of lowering the price of an article (while the demand continues the same) but by increasing its quantity. The avaricious The most important and curious inforlove of gain, which is so feelingly mation contained in this volume, is the deplored, appears to us a principle discovery of straits which separate Van which, in able hands, might be guided Diemen's Land (hitherto considered as to the most salutary purposes. The its southern extremity) from New object is to encourage the love of Holland. For this discovery we are labour, which is best encouraged by the love of money. We have very great doubts on the policy of reserving the best timber on the estates as government timber. Such a reservation would probably operate as a check upon the clearing of lands, without attaining the object desired; for the timber, instead of being immediately cleared, would be slowly destroyed, by the neglect or malice of the settlers whose lands it encumbered. Timber is such a drug in new countries, that it is at any time to be purchased for little more than the labour of cutting. To secure a supply of it by vexatious and invidious laws, is surely a work of supererogation and danger. The greatest evil which the Government has yet had to contend with is, the inordinate use of spirituous liquors; a passion which puts the interests of agriculture at variance with those of morals for a dram-drinker will consume as much corn, in the form of alcohol, in one day, as would sup ply him with bread for three; and thus, by his vices, opens an admirable market to the industry of a new settlement. The only mode, we believe, of encountering this evil, is by deriving from it such a revenue as will not admit of smuggling. Beyond this it is almost invincible by authority; and is probably to be cured VOL. I. indebted to Mr. Bass, a surgeon, after whom the straits have been named, and who was led to a suspicion of their existence by a prodigious swell which he observed to set in from the westward, at the mouth of the opening which he had reached on a voyage of discovery, prosecuted in a common whale-boat. To verify this suspicion, he proceeded afterwards in a vessel of 25 tons, accompanied by Mr. Flinders, a naval gentleman; and, entering the straits between the latitudes of 39 and 40° south, actually circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land. Mr. Bass's ideas of the importance of this discovery we shall give from his narrative, as reported by Mr. Collins. "The most prominent advantage which seemed likely to accrue to the settlement from this discovery was, the expediting of the passage from the Cape of Good Hope to Port Jackson: for, although a line drawn from the Cape to 44° of south latitude, and to the longitude of the South Cape of Van from one drawn to the latitude of 40° to Diemen's Land, would not sensibly differ the same longitude; yet it must be allowed, It is singular that Government are not more desirous of pushing their settlements rather to the north than the south of Port Jackson. The soil and climate would probably improve, in the latitude nearer the equator; and settlements in that position would be more contiguous to our Indian colonies. D that a ship will be four degrees nearer to Port Jackson in the latter situation than it would be in the former. But there is, perhaps, a greater advantage to be gained by making a passage through the strait, than the mere saving of four degrees of latitude along the coast. The major part of the ships that have arrived at Port Jackson have met with N. E. winds, on opening the sea round the South Cape and Cape Pillar; and have been so much retarded by them, that a fourteen days' passage to the port is reckoned to be a fair one, although the difference of latitude is but ten degrees, and the most prevailing winds at the latter place are from S. E. to S. in summer, and from W. S. W. to S. in winter. If, by going through Bass Strait, these N. E. winds can be avoided, which in many cases would probably be the case, there is no doubt but a week or more would be gained by it; and the expense, Iwith the wear and tear of a ship for one week, are objects to most owners, more especially when freighted with convicts by the run. "This strait likewise presents another advantage. From the prevalence of the N. E. and easterly winds off the South Cape, many suppose that a passage may be made from thence to the westward, either to the Cape of Good Hope, or to India; but the fear of the great unknown bight between the South Cape and the S. W. Cape of Lewen's Land, lying in about 35° south and 113° east, has hitherto prevented the trial being made. Now, the strait removes a part of this danger, by presenting a certain place of retreat, should a gale oppose itself to the ship in the first part of the essay: and should the wind come at S. W. she need not fear making a good stretch to the W. N. W., which course, if made good, is within a few degrees of going clear of all. There is, besides, King George the Third's Sound, discovered by Captain Vancouver, situate in the latitude of 35° 30 south, and longitude 118° 12′ east; and it is to be hoped, that a few years will disclose many others upon the coast, as well as the confirmation or futility of the conjecture, that a still larger than Bass Strait dismembers New Holland." (p. 192, 193.) We learn from a note subjoined to this passage, that in order to verify or refute this conjecture, of the existence of other important inlets on the west coast of New Holland, Captain Flinders has sailed with two ships under his command, and is said to be accompanied by several professional men of considerable ability. Such are the most important contents of Mr. Collins's book, the style of which we very much approve, because it appears to be written by himself; and we must repeat again, that nothing can be more injurious to the opinion the public will form of the authenticity of a book of this kind, than the suspicion that it has been tricked out and embellished by other hands. Such men, to be sure, have existed as Julius Cæsar; but, in general, a correct and elegant style is hardly attainable by those who have passed their lives in action: and no one has such a pedantic love of good writing, as to prefer mendacious finery to rough and ungrammatical truth. The events which Mr. Collins's book records, we There have read with great interest. is a charm in thus seeing villages, and churches, and farms, rising from a wilderness, where civilised man has never set his foot since the creation of the world. The contrast between fertility and barrenness, population and solitude, activity and indolence, fill the mind with the pleasing images of happiness and increase. Man seems to move in his proper sphere, while he is thus dedicating the powers of his mind and body to reap those rewards which the bountiful Author of all things has assigned to his industry. Neither is it any common enjoyment, to turn for a while from the memory of those distractions which have so recently agitated the Old World; and to reflect, that its very horrors and crimes may have thus prepared a long æra of opulence and peace for a people yet involved in the womb of time. J. FIEVÉE. (E. Review, 1803.) Lettres sur l'Angleterre. Par J. Fievée. 1802. Or all the species of travels, that which has moral observation for its object is the most liable to error, and has the greatest difficulties to overcome, before it can arrive at excellence. Stones, and roots, and leaves, are subjects which may exercise the understanding without rousing the passions. A mineralogical traveller will hardly fall foul upon the granite and the feldspar of other countries than his own; a botanist will not conceal its nondescripts; and an agricultural tourist will faithfully detail the average crop per acre: but the traveller who observes on the manners, habits, and institutions of other countries, must have emancipated his mind from the extensive and powerful dominion of association, must have extinguished the agreeable and deceitful feelings of national vanity, and cultivated that patient humility which builds general inferences only upon the repetition of individual facts. Everything he sees shocks some passion or flatters it; and he is perpetually seduced to distort facts, so as to render them agreeable to his system and his feelings. Books of travels are now published in such vast abundance, that it may not be useless, perhaps, to state a few of the reasons why their value so commonly happens to be in the inverse ratio of their number. different effects, that a judgment of foreign nations, founded on rapid observation, is almost certainly a mere tissue of ludicrous and disgraceful mistakes; and yet a residence of a month or two seems to entitle a traveller to present the world with a picture of manners in London, Paris, or Vienna, and even to dogmatise upon the political, religious, and legal institutions, as if it were one and the same thing to speak of abstract effects of such institutions, and of their effects combined with all the peculiar circumstances in which any nation may be placed. 2ndly. An affectation of quickness in observation, an intuitive glance that requires only a moment, and a part, to judge of a perpetuity, and a whole. The late Mr. Petion, who was sent over into this country to acquire a knowledge of our criminal law, is said to have declared himself thoroughly informed upon the subject, after remaining precisely two and thirty minutes in the Old Bailey. 3rdly. The tendency to found observation on a system, rather than a system upon observation. The fact is, there are very few original eyes and ears. The great mass see and hear as they are directed by others, and bring back from a residence in foreign countries nothing but the vague and customary notions concerning it, which are carried and brought back for half a century, without verification or change. The most ordinary shape in which this tendency to prejudge makes its appearance among travellers, is by a disposition to exalt, or, a still more absurd disposition, to depreciate their native country. They are incapable of considering a foreign people but under one single point of view-the relation in which they stand to their own; and the whole narrative is frequently nothing more than a mere triumph of national vanity, or the ostentation of superiority to so common 1st. Travels are bad, from a want of opportunity for observation in those who write them. If the sides of a building are to be measured, and the number of its windows to be counted, a very short space of time may suffice for these operations; but to gain such a knowledge of their prevalent opinions and propensities, as will enable a stranger to comprehend (what is commonly called) the genius of a people, requires a long residence among them, a familiar acquaintance with their language, and an easy cir culation among their various societies. The society into which a transient stranger gains the most easy access in any country, is not often that which ought to stamp the national character; and no criterion can be no more fallible, in a people so reserved and inaccessible as the British, who (even when they open their doors to letters of introduction) cannot for years over- a failing. come the awkward timidity of their But we are wasting our time in nature. The same expressions are of giving a theory of the faults of traso different a value in different coun- vellers, when we have such ample tries, the same actions proceed from means of exemplifying them all from such different causes, and produce such the publication now before us, in which Mr. Jacob Fievée, with the most sur-the English.-That they do not underprising talents for doing wrong, has stand fireworks as well as the French; contrived to condense and agglomerate that they charge a shilling for admisevery species of absurdity that has hitherto been made known, and even to launch out occasionally into new regions of nonsense, with a boldness which well entitles him to the merit of originality in folly, and discovery in impertinence. We consider Mr. Fievée's book as extremely valuable in one point of view. It affords a sort of limit or mindmark, beyond which we conceive it to be impossible in future that pertness and petulance should pass. It is well to be acquainted with the boundaries of our nature on both sides; and to Mr. Fievée we are indebted for this valuable approach to pessimism. The height of knowledge no man has yet scanned; but we have now pretty well fathomed the gulf of ignorance. sion to the exhibition; that they have the misfortune of being incommoded by a certain disgraceful privilege, called the liberty of the press; that the opera band plays out of tune; that the English are so fond of drinking, that they get drunk with a certain air called the gas of l'aradise; that the privilege of electing members of Parliament is so burthensome, that cities sometimes petition to be exempted from it; that the great obstacle to a parliamentary reform is the mob; that women sometimes have titles distinct from those of their husbands, although, in England, anybody can sell his wife at market, with a rope about her neck. To these complaints he adds-that the English are so far from enjoying that equality of which their partisans boast, that one but the servants of the higher nobility can carry canes behind a We must, however, do justice to Mr. Fievée when he deserves it. He evinces, in his preface, a lurking un-carriage; that the power which the easiness at the apprehension of ex- French Kings had of pardoning before citing war between the two countries, trial, is much the same thing as the from the anger to which his letters will English mode of pardoning after trial; give birth in England. He pretends to that he should conceive it to be a good deny that they will occasion a war; but reason for rejecting any measure in it is very easy to see he is not convinced France, that it was imitated from the by his own arguments; and we confess English, who have no family affections, ourselves extremely pleased by this and who love money so much, that amiable solicitude at the probable effu- their first question, in an inquiry consion of human blood. We hope Mr. cerning the character of any man, is, Fievée is deceived by his philanthropy, as to his degree of fortune. Lastly, and that no such unhappy consequences Mr. Fievée alleges against the English, will ensue, as he really believes, though that they have great pleasure in conhe affects to deny them. We dare to templating the spectacle of men desay the dignity of this country will be prived of their reason. And indeed satisfied, if the publication in question we must have the candour to allow, is disowned by the French government, that the hospitality which Mr. Fievée or, at most, if the author is given up. experienced seems to afford some preAt all events, we have no scruple to text for this assertion. say, that to sacrifice 20,000 lives, and One of the principal objects of Mr. a hundred millions of money, to resent Fievée's book, is to combat the AngloMr. Fievée's book, would be an un-mania, which has raged so long among justifiable waste of blood and treasure; his countrymen, and which prevailed and that to take him off privately by at Paris, to such an excess, that even assassination would be an undertaking Mr. Neckar, a foreigner (incredible as hardly compatible with the dignity of it may seem), after having been twice a great empire. minister of France, retained a considerTo show, however, the magnitude of able share of admiration for the English the provocation, we shall specify a few government. This is quite inexplicable. of the charges which he makes against | But this is nothing to the treason of |