People who are accustomed to sit half the day with their hands folded,
over a bright November fire, talking of hard times and other standing
grievances, will do well to read "_A Letter from Sydney, the principal
town of Australasia, edited by Robert Ganger_;" and study an annexed
system of colonization as a remedy for their distress. The Letter is
written by a plain-sailing, plain-dealing man of the world, and though
on a foreign topic, is in a homely style. We are therefore persuaded
that a few extracts will be useful to the above class of thinkers and
readers, as well as to others who do not, like the great man of
antiquity, sigh for new worlds.
_Climate and Soil_.
All that you read in the works of Wentworth and Cunningham, as to the
healthfulness and beauty of the climate, is strictly true. There are
scarcely any diseases but what result immediately from intemperance.
Dropsy, palsy, and the whole train of nervous complaints, are common
enough; but then, drunkenness is the vice _par excellence_ of the
lower orders; and the better class of settlers have not learned those
habits of temperance which are suited to the climate of Naples. The
two classes often remind me of English squires and their grooms, as I
used to see them at Florence, just after the peace; masters drinking
at dinner, because they were abroad, and after dinner because they
were Englishmen; the servants drinking always, because wine and brandy
were cheap. Perhaps a generation must pass away before the people here
will accommodate their habits to the climate, which is that of Italy,
without either malaria or the sirocco.
The soil of New South Wales is not particularly fertile. The plains of
the Granges, and of the great rivers of China, the lowlands of the West
India islands, the swamps of the Gulf of Mexico, and even the marshes
of Essex, produce crops of which the people here have no conception;
but then, as we are without great masses of alluvial deposit, so are
agues and intermittent fevers absolutely unknown. In point of natural
fertility, I am inclined to compare this soil to that of France; and I
have no doubt that, if the same quantity of agricultural labour as is
employed in France, were here bestowed upon an area equal to the French
territory, the quantity of produce would fully equal that of France.
Timber, coal, iron, and other useful minerals, abound; the harbours and
rivers teem with fish; cattle of all sorts thrive and multiply with
astonishing rapidity; every fruit that flourishes in Spain and Italy
comes to the highest perfection; and Nature fully performs her part in
bestowing upon man the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life.
_Value of Land, &c._
I was told that an estate of 10,000 acres might be obtained for a mere
trifle. This was true. I have got 20,000 acres, and they did not cost
me more than 2s. per acre. But I imagined that a domain of that extent
would be very valuable. In this I was wholly mistaken. As my estate
cost me next to nothing, so it is worth next to nothing. It is a noble
property to look at; and "20,000 acres in a ring fence," sounds very
well in England; but here, such a property possesses no exchangeable
value. The reason is plain: there are millions upon millions of acres,
as fertile as mine, to be had for nothing; and, what is more, there
are not people to take them. Of my 20,000 acres I reckon about 5,000
to be woodland, though, indeed, there are trees scattered over the
whole property, as in an English park. For my amusement, I had a rough
estimate made of the money that I could obtain for all this timber,
were it growing in any part of England. The valuation amounts to above
£150,000.
_Building_.
Having fortune enough for all my wants, I proposed to get a large
domain, to build a good house, to keep enough land in my own hands for
pleasure-grounds, park, and game preserves; and to let the rest, after
erecting farm-houses in the most suitable spots. My mansion, park,
preserves, and tenants, were all a mere dream. I have not one of them.
When, upon my first arrival, I talked of these things to some sensible
men, to whom I was recommended, they laughed in my face. I soon found
that a house would, though the stone and timber were to be had for
nothing, cost three times as much as in England. This was on account
of the very high wages required by mechanics; but this was not all.
None of the materials of a house, except stone and timber, are
produced in the colony. Every pane of glass, every nail, every grain
of paint, and every piece of furniture, from the kitchen copper to the
drawing-room curtains, must have come from England. My property is at
a distance of nearly seventy miles from the sea, and there is no road,
but a track through the forest, for two-thirds of that distance. The
whole colony did not contain as many masons, carpenters, glaziers,
painters, black and whitesmiths, and other mechanics, as I should have
required. Of course, I soon abandoned all thought of building a
mansion. As for a park, my whole property was a park, and a preserve
for kangaroos and emus.
* * * * *
A friend of ours, a free emigrant, has more than once facetiously
wished for our company in the colony; but judging from the following,
we had rather "let well alone," and stay at home, than play the
schoolmaster or march-of-intellect-man at Sydney:--
As for mental wants, talking and reading are out of the question,
except it be to scold your servants, and to con over a Sydney
newspaper, which contains little else but the miserable party politics
of this speck upon the globe, reports of crime and punishment, and
low-lived slang and flash, such as fill the pothouse Sunday papers of
London.
Literary men, men of science, philosophers, do not emigrate to new
countries where their acquirements would be neither rewarded nor
admired. Sir Walter Scott, Sir Humphry Davy, and Mr. Malthus, would
not earn as much in this colony as three brawny experienced ploughmen;
and though the inordinate vanity of a new people might be gratified by
the possession of them, they would be considered as mere ornaments,
and would often be wholly neglected for things of greater utility.
* * * * *
House-rent, that great bugbear of certain economists, is indeed a
grievous affair at Sydney, as page 20 proves:--
Behold me established at Sydney, in a small house, a poor vamped-up
building, more inconvenient, and far more ugly, than you can imagine,
for which I pay a rent of £250 a year. For half the money you could
get twice as good a house in any English country town. This excessive
house-rent is caused by the dearness of labour, which enhances
the cost of building; for, either the builder will exact a rent
proportioned to his outlay, or (if he cannot obtain such a rent)
he will not build.
_Free Emigrants_.
Of what class then, you ask, have been the great mass of emigrants from
England, not convicts? Excellent people in their way, most of them;
farmers, army and navy surgeons, subalterns on half-pay, and a number
of indescribable adventurers, from about the twentieth rank in England.
They came here to live, not to enjoy; to eat and drink, not to refine;
"to settle"--that is, to roll in a gross plenty for the body, but to
starve their minds. To these must be added convicts, many of whom are
become rich and influential; and some, not exactly convicts, to whom
England ceased to be a convenient residence. The English who live at
Boulogne, some for cheapness, some from misfortune, and some from fear,
would offer, I should think, a fair sample of the materials which
compose the best society in New South Wales; though, I must admit, that
the bustling, thriving settler of New South Wales is a companion, rather
ignorant though he be--far away preferable to the not more enlightened,
but melancholy English sluggard of Boulogne. To form a due conception of
the "upper classes" here, suppose all the natives of France annihilated,
and the whole country belonging to the English residents of Boulogne.
In that case, there would be an almost perfect resemblance between those
Englishmen who, across a narrow channel, can see their own country, and
those who, at its antipodes look upon the Pacific Ocean.
_Society and Manners_.
As in France, the first class call themselves "gens comme il faut;" and
in England, "people of fashion," or "the world"--so here, the leaders
of society are distinguished by a peculiar term. They are called
"respectable." Not to speak of France, it is difficult to say what in
England constitutes "fashion." Not high birth, certainly--for some of
the despots of English society are sprung from the dunghill. Our epithet
to express exclusiveness is, I think better chosen--for, though strictly
speaking, it means worthy of respect, it is claimed, here, only by those
to whom respect is paid. In England, the _Quarterly Review_ tells us,
"respectability" sometimes means keeping a gig--here it always means
dining with the governor.
Our manners set the fashion. Those whom we exclude, exclude others.
Free emigrants claim to be of a nature superior to convicts; convicts,
whose terms of punishment have expired, behave as if their flesh and
blood were wholly unlike that of convicts still in durance; convicts,
who have not been convicted south of the line, scorn those who have;
and these several classes, except the last, are as proud and tenacious
of their privileges as is every distinctive class in England, except
the unhappy lowest; or, as is every shade of colour in the West Indies
except the perfect black.
_The Population_
Of the settlement may amount in round numbers to 45,000. Of these only
14,000, including women and children, have not been convicted of
felony; and two-thirds of the remainder, seven-eights being grown men,
are galley-slaves, still in chains!
_Influence of Convict Labour_.
Little more than forty years ago this country was an absolute waste.
By way of contrast, behold, in the parts first settled, the following
proofs of wealth: a thriving capital, and several interior towns, the
latter being larger and better constructed than the capitals of some
English settlements in America, a hundred years after their foundation;
excellent roads; productive turnpikes; crowded market-places; public
hotels, superior to the best in North America, even at this late hour;
warehouses, through which there is a constant flow of luxuries from all
parts of the world; public carriages, almost as well managed as those of
England; an astonishing number of private carriages, built in Long Acre;
several newspapers, and other periodical works; booksellers' shops, well
supplied from Europe; two banks of deposit and discount; many churches
and chapels; very good schools for rich and poor; scientific, literary,
and philanthropic societies; a botanical garden; a turf club; packs of
hounds; dinner parties, concerts and balls; fine furniture, plate, and
jewels; and though last, not least, many gradations in society, being
so many gradations in wealth.
Whence have come all those things, over and above mere subsistence,
which astonish the beholder, when he reflects that this colony has
been planted little more than forty years?
An example has just passed my window, in the shape of a dashing English
landau. It contains a "lady," who married a poor half-pay lieutenant,
and who now drinks tea that would cost in England twenty shillings
the pound. They emigrated to New South Wales in 1815. But how did she
get that carriage, and how does she manage to send to China for the
gunpowder? Thus:--Her husband is both landowner and merchant. Being
constantly supplied with a number of convict labourers, he breeds cattle
and cultivates grain; and as he gives to his labourers but just enough
for their subsistence, he has a large surplus produce. Having sold
to the local government wheat and beef for the supply of prisons,
hospitals, and barracks, he is paid partly with bills upon the English
treasury, and partly with dollars, sent from England for the support of
the great penitentiary. He remits one of those bills to his London
agent, and desires him to purchase, with the proceeds thereof, a superb
landau. In less than a year, his wife "rides in her coach." He sends
some of the dollars to Canton, and purchases therewith a cargo of tea,
of which he gives to his wife as much as she likes, and sells the rest
to the wives of other men, who pay him with bills or dollars, received
again from the government for wheat and beef. Thus, you see, Mrs. ----
is indebted for two decided proofs of wealth to the prevalence of crime
in England. Even the coat of arms on her landau was found by your
Herald's College, in return for a part of the proceeds of that bill,
which was drawn _to pay for the food of the soldiers who drove the
convicts, who produced the food_. Our old friend Sir George Nayler would
no doubt start at being told of his obligation to the pickpockets of
London. And the rogues are little aware of their influence in political
economy; but I have stated a plain fact, which, if you have any doubts
about it, pray submit both to Sir George himself, and to Mr. M'Culloch.
That is, indeed, an ill-wind which blows no good. We owe every thing,
over and above mere subsistence, to the wickedness of the people of
England. Who built Sydney? Convicts. Who made the excellent roads from
Sydney to Parramatta, Windsor, and Liverpool? Convicts. By whom is the
land made to produce? By convicts. Why do not all our labourers exact
high wages, and, by taking a large share of the produce of labour,
prevent their employers from becoming rich? Because most of them are
convicts. What has enabled the landowner readily to dispose of his
surplus produce? The demand of the keepers of convicts. What has
brought so many ships to Port Jackson, and occasioned a further demand
for agricultural produce? The transportation of convicts. What has
tempted free emigrants to bring capital into the settlement? The true
stories that they heard of fortunes made by employing the cheap labour
of convicts. But here are questions and answers enough. The case is
plain. Nearly all that we possess has arisen from the happy influence
of penal emigration and discipline, on production, distribution, and
consumption. Thanks to the system of transportation, we have had cheap
labour and a ready market; production, consequently, has exceeded
consumption; and the degree of that excess is the measure of our
accumulation--that is, of our wealth.
The transportation of at least ten males for one female, maintains a
great disproportion between the sexes. This is the greatest evil of
all.
_A Rover_.
On the banks of the Illinois, I met with a labouring man, who was always
tipsy without ever being drunk. Enervated by dram-drinking, he had not
the courage to obtain a bit of forest and settle; but he could earn
seven shillings a day by his labour. When I spoke to him, he complained
of low wages. "At New York, friend," said I, "five shillings a day are
thought quite enough." "I know that," he answered; "I was born there,
and came here to get eight shillings a day, which, I was told, was the
lowest rate hereabouts." It turned out that he never worked more than
three days in the week, and that, in order to obtain twenty-four
shillings a week by three days' labour, he had made a circuitous voyage
of some thousand miles from the place where he was born, and where he
could have earned thirty shillings a week by working every day.
_Slang_.
The base language of English thieves is becoming the established
language of the colony. Terms of slang and flash are used, as a matter
of course, every where, from the gaols to the Viceroy's palace, not
excepting the Bar and the Bench. No doubt they will be reckoned quite
parliamentary, as soon as we obtain a parliament.
_Bush-ranging_
Is a dreadful evil, being a kind of land piracy. None but back settlers,
it is true, are exposed to its burnings, rapes, and massacres; but these
are as much British subjects as the inhabitants of Sydney or of Downing
Street. And, if the inhabitants of towns escape those horrors, they are
liable to be murdered in a quiet way, and their property is exposed to
every kind of depredation. Their actual losses by robbery, including the
expense and loss of time occasioned by prosecutions, are very great.
* * * * *
The concluding observations on "the extension of Britain," and her
colonial interests, are in a forcible and liberal tone, but as they
take rather too political a turn for our pages, we recommend the
anxious reader to the volume itself, which is altogether the
production of an original thinker and an impartial writer.
* * * * *