think that he must leave Susan at the very moment when their intercourse was becoming such a source of happiness-that he must encounter all the uncertainties of a long and difficult journey, when it would have been so sweet to stay in his now happy home! The young man was almost ready to curse the millions which he must go so far to seek. Since the time when he had gained a new object of interest in life, his desire for riches had gradually lost its hold upon his mind. What use was there in seeking for wealth to purchase happiness?-he had found it already. He did not, however, express these thoughts to his uncle, but merely declared himself ready to accompany him at an hour's notice. The old soldier reminded him that age was less hasty than youth in its movements, and asked for a few days' delay previous to their departure. Meanwhile, I wish, Charles,' said the old man, that you would borrow from our neighbours those old newspapers which tell of the famous depôt on the banks of the Douro; we can look over them carefully together, and may perhaps find some information that shall be useful to us on our arrival there.' The young man having made the desired application, they were, in the course of half an hour, seated side by side, poring over some well-thumbed papers. Charles at first found only the details with which he was already familiar-the refusal of the Spanish government-the fruitless researches of some Barcelona merchants. He thought that every document had been read, when his glance rested upon a letter signed by a certain P. Dufour. 'Peter Dufour!' repeated Vincent; that was the name of the quarter-master of the company.' 'So he is called here,' replied Charles. 'Heaven save me! I thought the brave old boy was in the other world long ago; he was the confederate of the captain. Let us see what he has to say for himself.' Instead of answering, Charles uttered a cry of disappointment; he had looked over the letter, and on perusing its contents, had turned deadly pale. 'What on earth is the matter?' inquired Vincent. The matter indeed!' repeated the young workman. The matter is, that if Dufour speaks truth, we may as well stay at home.' 'Why?' 'Because the tumbrils were filled with powder instead of silver!' Vincent clapped his hand to his forehead with an exclamation of surprise and disappointment. Susan laid down her work, and fixed her eyes mournfully on her cousin. The latter was the first to recover from the stupor occasioned by this unexpected discovery. After a few moments, he rose up with a look of cheerful animation, and approaching Susan, seized her hand, exclaiming, After all, here is my best treasure-one I would not give up for all the silver that may be buried in Spain and France too! So cheer up, good uncle, and let us make the best use of what is left to us. With true hearts and strong hands we can never be poor. Can we, Susan ?' 'Never,' she replied; and her eyes expressed even more unbounded confidence than was implied in the single word uttered by her lips. The old man slowly raised his head, and repeated the well-known proverb, L'homme propose mais Dieu dispose. Then, after a moment's thought, he continued, I hoped to have seen you both wealthy before I died; but perhaps it is best as it is. Don't let us forget, however, your savings, Charles-Peter Dufour's letter cannot rob us of the two thousand francs; and,' added he, smiling, 'I have some savings of my own, thanks to the management of this good girl: we will see what can be done with it all.' So saying, he rested his head on his elbow, and seemed for a while lost in meditation. At last he raised his head, and cried out joyously, 'I have it-I have it!' What have you, good uncle?' exclaimed the young people simultaneously. 'Patience, patience,' replied the veteran with a knowing smile; 'you shall know it all in good time. Will you call a hackney-coach for me, Charles? I have some business out, and it is still early in the day. Susan, child, I shall want you to come with me.' His desire was obeyed; and as he drove through the streets, he acquainted her that his heart was set upon establishing them both in the business which had been just relinquished by Charles's former master. And,' added he, Mr Lebrun is an honest man, and will lend me a helping hand in the business. What say you to my plan, child?' Oh it would only make me too happy, dear uncle,' she gratefully replied. They called on Mr Lebrun, and were so successful in their negotiations, that on being again seated in the coach, the old man knocked his stick with vehemence on the floor, exclaiming, By the ashes of the Little Corporal he shall have it!' Susan kissed his hand with joyful affection. Only let me see you settled in your own ménage, and I shall die happy," said the old man with some emotion. But remember, Charles is to know nothing about all this yet,' he continued, looking earnestly at the young girl. 'It will be very hard to keep it from him, uncle,' 'But it must be kept,' rejoined Vincent in a decided and somewhat grave tone. Susan was silent; for she knew there was no appeal from such a decision. It was very difficult, however, for her to keep this secret from her lover; and it would have been still more so, but that Charles was so fully occupied at this moment, that he had little leisure for conversation. About a fortnight afterwards, on a fine holiday, Vincent proposed to the young people that he should treat them to a drive. 'And afterwards,' continued he, 'you can go out together, and enjoy more of what is going on.' This they joyfully acceded to. At the end of a few minutes' drive, to Charles's great surprise the carriage stopped at the door of the magasin which had formerly belonged to his old master. 'What is the man about?' he inquired rather impatiently. 'We shall see, we shall see,' replied the old man smiling. The steps were let down. Vincent, leaning upon Susan, got out, and entered the shop. Charles was about to follow them, when the name of 'CHARLES VINCENT,' in large gold letters, placed above the entrance, arrested his eye. For one moment he stood petrified; the next he hastened into the shop, and embracing his uncle and cousin in a transport of joy, exclaimed, 'Ah, this is your secret! and you have kept it from me all this time,' said he reproachfully to Susan. 'It is the last I will ever keep from you,' she replied, looking somewhat confused. 'Yes, yes; it was all my fault; so don't scold her. No scolding to-day,' repeated the old soldier, hobbling into the back room, where a huge block of wood was burning brightly on the hearth, and a small table was laid for dinner. The furniture was plain, but neat, and the tablecloth white as snow. Vincent, shaking his nephew by the hand, said, 'Charles, you are welcome as the master of this house.' 'Thank you, thank you a thousand times, uncle; but," turning to his cousin, I do not care to be the master of it, unless Susan promises to be its mistress.' 'And so she will,' interrupted the old man. 'Don't you remember her promise?' 'Yes, but I wish her to repeat it once more.' Susan blushed, and gave him her hand. Need we say what a happy and joyous evening followed this explanation. Before many days had elapsed, Mr and Mrs Charles Vincent were installed in the formal possession of their new habitation. Susan carried the same cheerful and elastic spirit into her married life which had sustained her in her earlier and more trying course; and even in her busiest moments, she found leisure to talk with the old soldier, as he sat by the fireside in a comfortable arm-chair, with his beloved pipe and pouch placed conveniently at his side. A year passed away, and the first anniversary of their wedding-day found this happy trio still happier than on the eventful day which fixed them in their present comfortable dwelling. At supper, the old man drank to the health and prosperity of the young couple. Thank you, good uncle,' said Charles; and whatever share of enjoyment may be mine, I have to thank you for much of it, as it was you who first taught me that happiness does not lie in wealth or distinction, but in a life of honest industry, and a mind at peace with itself. You, too, I have partly to thank,' continued he, smiling and looking at his wife, for having given me here a greater treasure than ever I hoped to have possessed, had our expedition into Spain been crowned with the most entire success.' THE OPPROBRIUM OF MILTON. OUR readers may remember the famous controversy on the alleged expulsion of Milton from his college, and its termination by a sort of compromise on the part of his defenders. They will perhaps be glad to hear that another belligerent has now appeared on the side of the poet, with the standard of No surrender !' and that he seems to have finally set the question at rest. It is no wonder that the great poet-whose prose would have immortalised him, even if the Paradise Lost' had never been written-was the object of every kind of scurrility and calumny. Some of his works were ordered by proclamation of Charles II. to be burned by the common hangman; and his fellowChristians were called upon by a private assailant to 'stone the miscreant to death.' One of his contemporaries, Winstanley, declared of him that, notwithstanding his possession of some small poetical merits, 'his fame is got out like the snuff of a candle, and will continue to stink to all posterity, for having so infamously belied that glorious martyr and king, Charles I.' Another of them, Aubrey, who was seventeen years younger than Milton, brought against him the specific charge of having been vomited, after an inordinate and riotous youth, out of the university;' and even Johnson, in a new generation, suffered his church-and-state feelings to influence his judgment both of the poet and the man. I am ashamed,' says he, to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was one of the last students in either university that suffered the public indignity of corporal correction.' To prove these charges, there were no college entries, and no contemporary reminiscences brought forward. The sole evidence was some words in a Latin elegy of his own; and yet this elegy he himself republished, with all its supposed damnatory proof, not more than two or three years after the charge by Aubrey, to which he replies as follows:-'I must be thought, if this libeller (for now he shows himself to be so) can find belief, after an inordinate and riotous youth spent at the university, to have been at length "vomited out thence;" for which commodious lie, that he may be encouraged in the trade another time, I thank him; for it hath given me an apt occasion to acknowledge publicly, with all grateful mind, that more than ordinary favour and respect which I found, above any of my equals, at the hands of those courteous and learned men, the fellows of that college wherein I spent some years; who, at my parting, after I had taken two degrees, as the manner is, signified many ways how much better it would content them that I would stay; as by many letters full of kindness and loving respect, both before that time and long after, I was assured of their singular good affection towards me.' In his Second Defence, he says still more distinctly, that his father sent him to college, where he studied for seven years with the approbation of the good, and without any stain upon his character, till he took the degree of master of arts. The elegy, however, according even to the more friendly commentators, was not entirely to be got over. They absolved him from expulsion, but consented to a verdict of rustication: in the Irish fashion, they split the difference. The verses that bear upon the question are as follow, with the criminatory words in italics : 'Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ, We now give the literal and obvious translation of these verses: The city which the Thames laves with refluent wave detains me, And my sweet native place possesses me not against my will; Now I have neither a desire to revisit the reedy Cam, Nor does the love of a domestic hearth, lately forbidden, torment me. If this be exile-to have visited my father's household gods, And, free from cares, to follow charming leisure— The commentators could not bear entirely up against this evidence. The poem refuted the charge of expulsion, because the author, towards the close, talks of returning to Cambridge; but Warton declared that the italicised words would not suffer us to determine otherwise than that Milton had suffered sentence of rustication, or temporary removal from college; and Johnson thought that no other meaning could be given, even by kindness and reverence, to the term vetiti laris, 'a habitation from which he is excluded.' Succeeding writers followed on the same side; and thus it was settled that the great poet had suffered at least a temporary banishment from his alma mater, in punishment of some transgression of the rules, or some offence he might have given to the governors of the college. This may seem at first sight a small question, but in reality it is a very important one. The rustication of Milton has often served as an excuse to meaner spirits, and perhaps it may before now have been pleaded successfully with some silly parents. The cause was wholly unknown, but the authors of the original charge of expulsion accused him of profligacy of every kind. Here was an example and apology for all succeeding roués; and the youth of spirit,' who scorned the decencies of collegiate life, fancied himself a kindred soul with the handsomest of men, the most elegant of scholars, and the most gifted of poets. But as regards Milton himself the question is still more serious. The charge is not confined to rustication-it involves deliberate falsehood. His temporary exile from college might have been caused by some very venial trespass, perhaps by a praiseworthy, even a religious scruple; but his solemn denial, if the fact were true, would throw a stigma upon his character, which the brilliance of his genius would only render more conspicuous. But Milton did not merely deny the fact; he collected for publication, in less than three years afterwards, his Latin poems, and placed the elegy Ad Carolum Deodatum (the one referred to above) the first in the series. It is strange that this unconsciousness should have struck even the more friendly commentators as something merely tending to disprove the charge of actual expulsion, while they still considered that of rustication as completely established! But so it was; and thus the matter rested, till the appearance of an article in the last number of the Classical Museum,' in which Dr Maclure, one of the classical masters in the Edinburgh Academy, shows that the meaning of the ode has been mistaken from first to last, and explains the otherwise unaccountable unconsciousness of Milton by the simple fact, that it does not contain one word which can justify the interpretation affixed to it by the learned and adopted by the ignorant. now that the thing is pointed out, the translation Johnson gives of vetiti laris seems little less than absurd. The word lar is one of the most expressive in the language. It is not merely a habitation:' it is a home in the deepest meaning of the term-a hearth hallowed by the spiritual presence of the household god. It is quite beyond belief that an accomplished Latinist like Milton could apply such a name to his solitary room, at a college of which he takes so little pains to conceal his dislike and contempt. Dr Maclure is entitled to our thanks for the light he has thrown upon this interesting point in literary history. Himself a Schoolmaster, he has proved to be so far more au fait of the trade than his brother schoolmasters Warton and Johnson; and he has relieved fromunmerited obloquy the character of the illustrious schoolmaster Milton. BYRNE ON SOUTH AUSTRALIA. MR J. C. BYRNE presents a general work on the Australasian colonies, the result, as he informs us, of several years' personal acquaintance with them. The book, as a whole, does not come up to the expectations excited by the title; but understanding that titles are generally dictated by publishers, under views of their own-shortsighted ones generally-we are willing to believe that this is not the author's blame. Not having space wherein to follow him over the whole of the colonies which he describes, we deem it best to concentrate attention upon that one which is at present the subject of greatest interest at home. It is surprising,' says Dr Maclure, that in the face of these remarkable passages, which could not have been penned by one who was conscious of having incurred disgrace at college, the expressions in the elegy should ever have been construed, I need not say by "kindness and reverence," but even by malevolence and contempt, so as to lend support to a slander thus indignantly repelled by the object of it! To me it seems clear as day, that when properly interpreted, they afford not a shadow of countenance to the injurious calumny. They occur in an elegy written in London during a vacation, in the poet's eighteenth year, and addressed to his schoolfellow and friend Charles Deodate. This gentleman, after leaving Oxford, had established himself in Cheshire, whence, as appears from the poem, he addressed an epistle to Milton, probably a poetical one, in which it would seem, ignorant of the feelings with which his friend had come to regard the university, he condoled with him on his absence from it during the vacation, and spoke of this temporary separation as a state of exile. This view of his position in London Milton repudiates in terms not very complimentary, I grant, to his alma mater, but which most assuredly do not support the imputation that has been founded on them. But it will be said, admitting that in this way the use of the words exilium and profugus is explained, how do you account South Australia is about three times the size of Great for the phrase dudum vetiti laris? Nothing is easier: Britain and Ireland, the extent of land within its limits indeed I am filled with surprise that its true meaning exceeding 300,000 square miles. Though during the has so long escaped discovery. The commentators have summer months hot winds, which blow from the northhitherto understood these words as if they referred to ward, occasionally prevail, yet the climate is extremely the poet's cheerless apartments in Christ College, Cam- salubrious, and the air exhilarating, buoyant, and light. bridge! Milton was too good a Latinist ever to employ Nor do these winds, which appear to pass over vast arid the word lar for a purpose so unsuitable. He uses it regions, where moisture is unknown, last long, giving here in its only proper sense-to denote his home, his place to cool, refreshing, southerly breezes, which soon father's fireside, to revisit which during term-time had, reinvigorate the constitution, and dissipate the effects of by the discipline of his college, been lately forbidden him. the parching gales.' Copious, too, and frequent are the In short, he enumerates amongst the delights of his rains which visit this favoured colony, whose soil is in present situation, freedom from the home - sickness general admirably suited for cultivation, and produces with which he used to be tormented at Cambridge. the most abundant crops.' 'Scattered,' says Mr Byrne, When read in this light, the passage assumes consist-over the vast area of South Australia, there are acres of ency with itself, with other portions of Milton's writ-rich land on which millions of an industrious population ings, and with the register of his college; and what is perhaps of higher importance, while it rescues the memory of the greatest poet and one of the ripest scholars of England from a shade that has long rested on it, it deprives giddy and thoughtless youth of a precedent they are fond of quoting for their own irregularities and contumacy.' In order to show at a glance the effect of this new reading, we will slightly paraphrase, in the points referred to, the literal translation given above : The city which the Thames laves with refluent wave detains me, And my sweet native place possesses me not against my will; Now I have neither a desire to revisit the reedy Cam, Nor does the love of my father's fireside, lately forbidden me during term-time, torment me. If this be what you call exile-to have visited my father's And, free from cares, to follow charming leisure- The correctness of this construction of the last four might be settled. Besides wheat, oats, barley, and Indian corn, the soil produces hops, tobacco, the vine, and indeed all tropical fruits and plants, with a very few exceptions. The mulberry is now successfully cultivated, whilst the sive wine-producing country. Nor is this all. South colony bids fair, at no distant date, to become an extenAustralia has proved itself to be well adapted for the growth of the finest wool; and the boundless acres of natural pasturage, not calculated for agriculture, present an extent of country which, even at the rapid rate of increase observed by Australian flocks, it will take many long years to occupy. Amongst the population of the colony there are a considerable number of German agriculturists, who have mostly succeeded in acquiring small farms.' Their disposition inclining them to acquire a homestead and farm of their own, they dislike remaining in a state of servitude and dependence on others for their daily bread; and to this is attributable the extent of cultivation in South Australia, and the cheapness of grain-these small cultivators being able to produce at a much lower rate than large landholders, who rely solely on the labour of others. This formation of a yeoman class must greatly tend to promote the prosperity of the colony; and in this class of its population South Australia excels both New South Wales and Australia Felix, where there seems to be a desire that only two classes should exist-the great landholder *Twelve Years' Rambling in the British Colonies, from 1835 to 1847. By J. C. Byrne. 2 vols. London: Bentley. 1848. [The colonies actually noticed are those of Australia and New Zealand.] and stock-proprietor, and the mechanic and labourer. Let us begin at the beginning.' South Australia, though This is much to be deprecated; and it speaks well for as a British colony not yet in her teens,' has already, South Australia that the principle is not enforced there. after struggling through dangers and difficulties almost It is a striking fact,' adds Mr Byrne, that although incredible, suddenly merged into affluence, prosperity, the population of South Australia has not doubled within and fame. She was made a British province in 1834the last seven years, yet the extent of land actually under her only inhabitants being at the time a few runaway cultivation has increased nearly fifteenfold within the convicts and the cannibal aborigines-and became a Brisame period. In 1840,' he next assures us, 'the population tish colony in 1836; so that, as such, she is not older yet were about 14,000 in number, the number of acres under than eleven and a half years. It is needless to specify cultivation being then only 2503; whereas in 1846 the all the causes which induced the difficulties in which the number of inhabitants amounted to 22,390, and the num- infant colony got most foolishly involved: they are matber of cultivated acres to 33,292. The repeal of the corn- ter of history; and it need only be specified that a recklaws,' he proceeds, has opened the home markets, and less spirit of speculation ruined everything. From this at present, South Australian wheat is represented as sus- lamentable state of affairs, repeatedly noticed in these taining a very high character with the corn-dealers of pages, the colony at length revived, and latterly it has London, being quoted at the same price as the best become the wealthiest of all the colonies of Britain. This Dantzic, which, on an average, is fully ten per cent. has arisen from a discovery, made in 1844, that Australia, higher than the best home-grown wheat. The Mauritius in many of its districts, possesses vast mineral riches. and Cape of Good Hope also present a near and goodThe mineral discoveries of 1844,' says Mr Byrne, 'atmarket for Australian wheat.' tracted attention, raised all from despondency, and threw a bright gleam of hope over the future.' And now the ultimate effects of its mining operations on British commerce and mineral property in England are at present inconceivable, and must be left to time to develop. · Having given a table of the import and export returns of South Australia from 1841 to 1846, the export return for 1841 being as low as L.40,561, and that for 1846 as high as L.287,059-What,' proceeds Mr Byrne, the exports of South Australia will be in the course of a very few years, it would be folly to attempt to predict.' Copper has become a grand article of export; but this trade is only in its infancy. There is no country on the face of the globe possessed of such rich copper mines, or so accessible to water carriage, as those of South Australia. The Cornwall mines can bear no comparison with them. Their value may be said to be three times as great as those of Cornwall, and yet many of the Cornwall mines pay 100 per cent. on the capital embarked in them; of what, therefore, might not the South Australian mines be capable, if their working were encouraged? It is not only the mine-owners and population of the colony who would be benefited by the development of its mining resources; a market also would be created for the consumption of British manufactures, for which the colonists could pay by an exportation of copper required in the To sheep-farmers it may be important to state, that in South Australia there has, within the last five years, been a rapid and important increase in the growth of wool. In 1842, the wool exported to Great Britain yielded only a return of L.29,749; while in 1846 the returns amounted to L.105,941. We are about shortly to refer to the second great source of Australian wealth namely, her rich copper mines; but we cannot dismiss the agricultural part of our notice before we have called the attention of the class interested to the following extract:- One great advantage to the farming class of South Australia lies in the employment afforded them at all seasons, when otherwise unengaged, in carting ores from the mines to the seaport. In the year 1846, the amount paid for cartage by the Burra Burra Mine alone exceeded L.30,000; and as the produce of this mine is largely increasing, and numerous others are being opened, it would be difficult to calculate the amount that will be annually distributed for carriage amongst the South Australian farmers. Already the mine owners have found it impossible to procure in the colony sufficient carriage, so they have resorted to the expedient of advertising in the neighbouring colonies, in order to induce persons to proceed to South Australia and become carriers.' South Australia, Mr Byrne thinks, is eminently and especially the country best calculated for the labour-home market.' If the mines of South Australia beat ing emigrant. The dark feature is the character of the aborigines. Inoffensive enough in the neighbourhood of Adelaide and the more settled country, on the frontiers of the colony, and especially towards the Murray River, they are fierce and ruthless, exhibiting great hostility to the whites. They are, however, rapidly vanishing from the land- the firearms of the whites doing the work of annihilation! This is bad; but, according to Mr Byrne, there is no remedy; for we are told that, though philanthropists have used many efforts to civilise the natives, all attempts to do so have as yet proved failures. Fierce savages they still are, and continue practising cannibalism from a horrible fondness for the revolting food! nor is there the least hope that the practice will be abolished among them as long as they continue to exist as a race. Let us hope there is a slight portion here of unintentional exaggeration. Mr Byrne had on one or two occasions the misfortune of falling in with several bands of these savages, and of enduring no inconsiderable amount of suffering from their hands. But if the natives in the neighbourhood of Adelaide are gentle and timid, making capital catchers of strayed sheep,' why should we despair of the Border rascals becoming also, as population increases in their neighbourhood, well-bred, decent, nay, even useful members of society? That we may not be accused of concealment of facts, let us out, too, with another well-authenticated disclosure of Mr Byrne's: there are at least eighteen different species of snakes, many of them beautiful, and almost all of them dangerous, in the settled Australian colonies! Having thus considered Australia as a merely agricultural colony, we shall next consider what are the other elements of wealth of which she is actually in possession. those of Cornwall, they also excel the Chilian. "The working of the Chilian mines is attended with great difficulty and expense, and is mainly carried on by British capital, on which only a small dividend is paid. Situated amidst the Andes, where it is impossible to form carriage roads, the ore has to be conveyed from these mines by strings of mules with wicker panniers slung across them, to distant ports of shipment. The depth of the workings and the length of the galleries are also extreme, and necessitate the employment of thousands of men, whose sole duty it is to convey the ore on their backs in baskets to the outlets of the mine. All this adds to the expense; and the cost of the Chilian ores must very much exceed that of the South Australian ores by the time they arrive at a shipping port; and yet they do not, on an average, exceed, or even equal, much of the colonial ore that has already been imported into England within the year.' After this, we scarcely wonder at hearing Mr Byrne assert that 'under the crown there is no colony that presents such bright prospects for the future as South Australia.' Adelaide, the capital of the colony, occupies the very centre of the immense circle around which her mineral wealth extends. A range of hills, which run north, and nearly parallel to the Gulf of St Vincent, border on this beautiful town; 'mineral specimens have been discovered in every part of this range; but the mines chiefly worked, and which have given such a reputation to the colony, lie to the northward of Adelaide: the chief of these is the Burra Burra Mine,' of which the author gives the following description in a quotation from the letter of a friend: In the morning we took an early walk, and obtained a glimpse of the mine from the summit of an intervening hill, but were closely immured for the re 66 66 mainder of the day, in consequence of excessive rain. Early on the following morning our breakfast was cut short by the announcement that Captain Lawson was waiting to accompany us under ground," at the principal workings; and having provided ourselves with subterranean toggery," we made a hasty but becoming toilet, and hastened to attend our kind conductor in his descent. The huge cargoes which have been shipped, the piles of ore we had seen at the port, the hundreds of draught oxen and laden drays we met in their progress to the wharf, the thousands of tons of ore around the workings and near the intended smelting-house, their daily accumulations, and the reports of credible, unbiassed witnesses, had prepared us to expect much; but before we had passed through a single gallery, as the larger horizontal diverges or levels are very properly called, we saw enough to convince us that we had commenced the exa-mination of a mine incomparably richer and more productive than any mine of any kind we had ever seen in the United Kingdom. 'We passed through a succession of galleries and chambers, as the larger excavations are justly termed; one of them being large enough to hold a congregation of a hundred or two persecuted Covenanters, and sufficiently lofty for the pulpit and desk, which those simple but devout worshippers managed to dispense with. In our progress we had to ascend successive perpendicular ladders, with a lighted candle retained between the forefinger and thumb; afterwards to make our descent by similar contrivances, and others much more rude; until, in divers wendings, prostrations, twistings, turnings, clamberings, and examinations, we had spent nearly three hours under-ground, and passed through or looked through the greater part, if not all the extensive subsoil operations.' In addition to the Burra Burra, Mr Byrne enumerates a number of. copper mines already opened, which, for richness and variety, are almost its rivals-such as the Princess Royal, the Kapunda, the Montacute, the Rapid Bay, and the Wakefield: to all this prosperity we find two drawbacks and as we have already advised intending agricultural emigrants of the existence in these lands of snakes and anthropophagi, so to those who may think of purchasing mineral ground we also exhibit the worst, as we have done the best view of the matter. The want of coal is therefore, we say, stated to be a considerable barrier, as it renders the smelting of the ore on the spot where it is dug to a great extent impossible; but the matter is far less hopeless, in Mr Byrne's estimation, than the reformation of the aborigines for hear how the difficulty is got over: A recent discovery of the application of electricity to smelting copper will create a complete revolution both in the intentions and prospects of the mining interest of South Australia.' Again: The island of Van Diemen's Land is at the distance of only a few days' sail from Port Adelaide, and there coal abounds in most available situations for shipping. This coal could be imported at an average price of from ten to twelve shillings per ton on an extensive scale; and then the question would arise, whether it were better to bring the coal to the copper ore, or the latter to the former? Some of the inhabitants of the colony did propose to erect smelting-houses on a small island composed almost exclusively of coal, which lies off the coast of Van Diemen's Land, and where there is good anchorage; but the scheme does not appear to have been followed up, on account of the lethargy of the authorities and mercantile classes of the island. Although we do not intend to hazard an opinion on the merits of the question, we must remind the reader of the existence of what is called the 'royalty tax. So soon as specimens of the copper ores of Australia reached England, they were pronounced by the most eminent judges to be amongst the richest imported into this country from any part of the globe. Alarmed lest the working of mines should withdraw agriculturists and others from their field labours, and regarding it as but reasonable that mining property should contribute somewhat, in proportion to the amount of labour it absorbs, to the fund by which the expense of introducing emigrants of the labouring class is pro vided for, Earl Grey, on the 30th December 1846, confirmed a royalty tax imposed by the governor of the colony, with the consent of his council, in the March of the same year, of one-fifteenth upon all minerals raised from lands thenceforward to be alienated from the crown.' When this tax was first announced, the colonists were, we are told, highly indignant, and its total repeal is still demanded. Notwithstanding all this, Mr Byrne, addressing the numerous families in England possessed of a small competence, but who are anxious about the future maintenance of their children, does not hesitate to say most emphatically, transfer yourselves to South Australia; you will there obtain three times the interest of your money, and you will be able to live at less than half the cost, whilst to the younger branches of your families many sources of employment will be opened, for there is no such excessive competition as exists at home." All kinds of labourers, mechanics, and domestic servants earn capital wages in South Australia. Professional men are not in requisition, there being too many of that class already there. In the constitution of its society,' we are told, South Australia has been especially favoured; comparatively few persons who have been convicts have crossed to this colony, and among her original colonists were a large number of men previously occupying most respectable positions in England-men of intellect, talent, and perseverance; and even her emigrants were originally chosen with a care seldom exercised in the case of any other colony.... Much good society is to be met with in Adelaide: ladies bright, fair, educated, and accomplished; and gentlemen who would not suffer by a comparison with any other colonists in the world. We regret to learn, however, that at the mines the large wages earned by the men generally promote intoxication; and indeed over all the colony drinking too much prevails." Adelaide possesses a theatre, a savings' bank for the lower classes, besides three or four lodges of freemasons, half-a-dozen of the Odd Fellows, and an abstinence society. There are also four newspapers published in Adelaide, two of them twice a-week, the others weekly; not to mention a subscription library supported by the more respectable inhabitants. But we must now draw to a close. Before doing so, however, it is but fair to say that, in order to render our article useful to the general reader, we have scarcely, by our extracts, done justice to the work of Mr Byrne. STRUGGLES FOR LIFE IN THE METROPOLIS.* The Garret Master.-This is not a title assumed by any particular class, but rather a sobriquet bestowed upon one who cannot correctly be said to belong to any. He is operative and manufacturer, merchant and labourer, combined in one person; and has dealings both wholesale and retail, after a fashion of his own. No man can rightly accuse him of sapping our commercial system by an undue extension of credit, seeing that it is very rarely that he trusts anybody, and still more rarely is anybody found who will trust him. He works at any easy trade, and manufactures articles of every sort or description that may be wanted, which he has wit or ingenuity enough to turn out of hand. Two things are essential to a man's becoming a garret master: in the first place, he must be able to practise some occupation which requires but little capital to set him up in business; and in the second place, he must be unwilling, either from a spirit of insubordination, a love of idleness, or a feeling of independence, or else incapable, from want of average skill in his calling, to work as a journeyman. Whatever be his motive, it can hardly be the love of gain, since his profits, so far at least as one can judge from his personal appearance and domestic surroundings, must fall far short of those of an average workman. There may be some few exceptions to whom this general character is not appli *Continued from No. 238. |