adapting her work to the wants of the several classes intended to be benefited. "Shepherds would leave their work, and walk thirty or forty miles to the place where she camped in order to choose a wife, bringing with them certificates of character and their saving-bank books." Mrs. Chisholm afterward visited England and established a system of emigration, in which domestic ties were respected, and by which family groups were transplanted to the other side of the globe.

The land system of Australia is different from that of the United States. It has been one of the great drawbacks on the prosperity of the country. At first all the government lands were disposed of by grant. Officers, civil and military, were furnished with extensive tracts. Free laboring settlers and discharged convicts received smaller grants in proportion to their wants and their means. In time, as the pastoral advantages of the country became evident, and fortunes began to be made from the raising of wool and tallow, the lands were regarded as of more importance. Grants were discontinued, and the public lands were put up at a moderate upset price after survey, and in lots to suit purchasers. But the great wool-growing squatters and capitalists did not like the arrangement, as we shall see, and got it changed for the worse. Vast speculative schemes connected themselves with the new system, and wide-spread disasters ensued.

The settlement of South Australia was concomitant with the formation of one of those immense bubbles which the British people are in the habit of getting up occasionally for their own diversion and the amusement of the rest of mankind. We have the same schemes here in miniature, though perhaps we make up in number what we lack in magnificence. A Mr. Wakefield, who had given some attention to the subject of colonization, came out with a plan for the settlement of the new territory, which he thought vastly superior to anything else, and which appeared plausible to the English mind. It was also very successful on paper. The principal features of this scheme were the fixing of a high upset price on the government lands, and the appropriation of the proceeds of the sales to the securing of free emigration. The object was to form a class of large landholders, to whom there should always be plenty of cheap labor. If a few men who had capital could

buy large tracts, those without capital would be precluded by the high price from obtaining small farms, and thus, by the importation of multitudes of the poorer classes, there would always be abundance of labor at prices so low that there was no danger the laborers would ever become independent proprietors. It was a rule working both ways, and a poor rule at that, always resulting, whichever way it worked, in perpetuating poverty where it existed, and in enriching the rich. Of course, in a new country it was impossible to enforce it wholly, except by such arbitrary and despotic measures as no modern government would dare to adopt. The whole scheme, as looked at from a democratic or American point of view, has the appearance of a piece of impudent injustice. But some of our stolid cousins regarded it as a very nice arrangement, and proceeded to put it in practice. A company was formed with a large capital. By the usual arts it was brought into great public prominence. Large tracts of land were secured. A ship-load of adventurers embarked for Australia; they planted themselves in the wilderness, laid out a city on the banks of a swamp; sent home glowing accounts of the prospects of the colony, received great additions to their number, and went to speculating in town-lots and other real estate. Vast fortunes were made and lost; but no productive business was organized. The people imported all their sustenance and lived on their capital; and when the bubble burst and the appalling crash came, the only elements of society that escaped and were able to succor the suffering were the small farmers, which it had been the policy of the colony to proscribe, and in the way of whose existence every obstacle had been thrown.

There have been great changes in the system of government in the several colonies since the foundation of New South Wales. At first it was a military despotism of the most arbitrary kind. Then the powers of the governor were limited. Then came a council appointed by the crown; afterward modified so as to be partly or wholly elected by the colony; and finally a colonial parliament and a constitution, with the extension of suffrage and substantially the power of self-government. There have been political excitements, social disturbances, riot and insurrection by the convicts, troubles with the natives, financial disaster, and such other experiences as might naturally

be expected in a new country, as well as many that could not have been anticipated. There have been absurd schemes of government, abuses in fixing the relations of labor to capital, much artificial tinkering of social laws which nothing but nature or native good sense is competent to regulate; and deplorable consequences from all these antecedents.

But for all this, the several colonies have grown apace, agriculture and the industrial arts have been developed, sources of wealth unusual and prolific have discovered themselves to such as sought them, an increasing acquaintance with the character of the country has wonderfully improved its reputation; and where the refuse of English jails had at first been emptied, with every prospect of deepening its depravity till the whole mass perished of its own corruption, a great, free, self-supporting community is coming into existence.

There are now five separate colonies in Australia, besides those of New Zealand, Tasmania, and other neighboring islands. New South Wales is the oldest of these, and occupies a large territory in the south-eastern quarter of the continent. Victoria is the smallest in size but the largest in population, owing to the mighty influx of immigration seeking the gold mines, which are principally in its territory. Southern Australia lies next west of Victoria, but extends much further into the interior, and abounds in mineral, agricultural, and pastoral wealth. Western Australia has the largest territory, embracing nearly a million square miles, and is the most sparsely populated and least successful hitherto of all the colonies. Queensland is the youngest of the family, so far as heard from; for in Australia, as in our own country, the march of improvement is so rapid, and the -development so swift, that new governments are established without much premonition. The last was separated from New South Wales only four or five years ago. It occupies a large space in the north-eastern part of the continent, extending from Moreton Bay to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and appears to be clearly the most promising portion of the country. There is a likelihood that it may itself soon be divided, and a new colony organized out of its northern district, embracing the peninsula of Cape York. Settlements, too, we believe, have already been made on the north-western coast, where a large rich region will probably be taken from Western Australia and set up for itself.

The colonies together had, in 1860, a population of 1,061,406. It is, of course, much increased by this time. They raise a revenue of more than £6,000,000 annually, and enjoy sufficient credit to have a nucleus of debt to the amount of £10,000,000. Their imports are valued at £26,000,000 a year, and their exports, chiefly gold and wool, at £23,000,000. It is said that, taking the whole of Australia, each colonist has already reclaimed and cultivated twenty acres of land.

The exploration of the Australian interior furnishes a topic of exceeding interest. For twenty-five years after the founding of Sydney, the only known territory of the colony was a few square miles in the vicinity of Port Jackson. Going back from the coast from thirty to fifty miles, one was met everywhere by the impassable barrier of the Blue Mountains. Many perilous and some fatal attempts were made to discover a practicable pass over their craggy sides and among their yawning caverns. We have noted the discovery at last of the long-sought opening, and seen how the sheep and cattle owners pressed through to ovine and bovine paradise of Bathurst Plains.

The spirit of enterprise was now fully aroused, and numerous expeditions succeeded each other, going to the north and west. Cunningham, Leichardt, Strzelecki, Eyre, Sturt, Mitchell, Oxley, Howell, and Hume, are some of the more noted names of heroic pioneers in this important but dangerous work. Almost every expedition, though encountering huge difficulties, brought back news of rich and beautiful lands discovered. Those going north had determined the existence of an immense platean, situated almost within the tropics, where were boundless waving pastures, perennial streams, and the cooling breezes. so long sighed for by the flock-owners of New South Wales. The Darling Downs, Fitzroy Downs, Mantuan Downs, etc., were names designating these "fresh fields and pastures new."

It must be remarked, however, that these early discoveries were not always what they at first promised to be. The rivers of Australia were found to have the most capricious characteristics. They ran inland, away from the ocean instead of toward it. This fact gave rise to conjectures of a vast inland sea, which some apparently authentic reports tended to confirm. But on further investigation, the sea was indiscoverable. Some of the

rivers which, when, first seen, appeared competent for all that pertains to the functions of their order, on being traced downward suddenly came to an end, being drunk up by the desert. Others terminated in chains of pools or mud lakes. Some of them were found, to the dismay of the thirsty explorer, to be as salt as the ocean. They not only in these respects violated the usages of all well-behaved rivers, but sometimes, without the least apparent cause, they suddenly overflowed their banks and deluged the contiguous plains, carrying away whole herds and flocks, with their keepers, and such habitations and other products of industry as were in their neighborhood. It was a long time, even in the partially occupied region, before the inhabitants became acquainted with the ways of the gods of this new strange land.

With the exception of nautical surveys along the coast, all the explorations and discoveries, previous to 1840, were confined to the south-eastern section of Australia, comprising perhaps less than one sixth of the whole island-continent. The interior was still a great mysterious unknown, to which fancy attributed a dubious and rather unearthly character. It was full of perils, and impenetrable to any but braver or better furnished men than had yet appeared in the colonies. But the spirit of adventure was by this time pretty thoroughly aroused, and the desire to penetrate the interior and to possess its secrets, was becoming more intense.

In 1844 Captain Sturt, whose former efforts we have seen crowned with the most profitable results, organized an expedition to seek the center. It consisted of sixteen men, with the requisite animals, provisions, and implements. He went from Adelaide, taking the eastern side of Lake Torrens, and passing up the Murray and Darling rivers. Leaving the latter at its junction with what is now known as the Menindie, he struck off toward the north. The country soon began to assume an inhospitable appearance. The party toiled painfully across a hot sandy desert. "The iron yokes of the bullocks became so hot that they could not be placed on the animals for fear of buruing them. When a breeze sprang up, it felt like the scorching blaze of a mighty furnace." But this direful desert had its limits, or, at least, its interruptions. They reached a well watered, fertile, and picturesque spot, which was named Rocky Glen. They stopped a few days to recruit the men and horses. In the mean time, Sturt explored the country beyond,