and half by the colonists; but it is essential that such a commission should sit in Australia, and have power to decide on every question without reference to the Colonial Office.

The Australian "Grand Remonstrance" also complains of Colonial Government patronage being in the hands of the home Government instead of the colonists, and of the very large proportion of their revenue which, under the name of civil-list, is withdrawn from the control of the colonial legislature. If the people of this country took the interest in the colonies that they ought to do, these grievances would be redressed without a moment's hesitation. Australia demands little or nothing more than what has been already conceded to Canada.

It is scarcely necessary now to speak of transportation. That question, which was not long ago the absorbing subject of Australian politics, has been practically solved by the gold discoveries: we cannot much longer continue the outrageous absurdity of sending criminals to a country where, at the expiration of their sentence, they will find themselves in the neighbourhood of the richest gold mines in the world; and the immense tide of free and honest industry which is now flowing into Australia will soon wash the taint of "convictism" out of the colony.

One of the wants of Australia is a mint to coin its own gold. A commuuity circumstanced like that which has been gathered at the Australian mines requires a large quantity of currency; and, for want of a mint of their own, the Australians have to pay freight, commission, and insurance on their gold to England, and back again after being coined, besides loss of interest, which is always high in new and prosperous countries. In permitting the establishment of a mint in Australia, we should only do what the Americans are doing in the case of California. Gold is coined into money for the public convenience, and it ought to be coined in the most convenient locality. There seems to be a dislike in influential quarters to letting the colonists have a mint, but we cannot think that such a feeling has any rational foundation. In former times, the exclusive privilege of coining money was highly prized by Governments, because depreciating the currency was a

favourite way of cheating their creditors; but this motive does not operate now-civilised states, like England and New York, pay their debts in honest money, and uncivilised ones, like Austria and Mississippi, have invented better methods of swindling.

It is probable that the gold mines, though at present the most remarkable, are, in reality, the smallest part of the wealth of Australia. The remark of the ancient Greek, that iron wins gold, is true now, though in a different sense; and Australia is one of the richest regions of the world, not only in gold, but in the "baser" and more useful minerals. It is celebrated as a pastoral country, and its agricultural capabilities are known to be very great, though they have never been properly tried. The climate of Australia resembles that of the South of Europe, and is favourable to the culture of the vine, and all species of fruit-trees that flourish on the shores of the Mediterranean; the colonists have already made some successful experiments in vine-growing, and when population increases, and a free and rational land system is introduced, there can be no doubt that Australia will be equal to any wine-producing and fruitgrowing country in the world. Much has been lately said on the subject of cultivating cotton in that part of Australia which lies north of Sydney, and there seems every reason to hope for the success of the project. The climate is warm enough, and appears to be in all respects favourable, bearing much more resemblance to that of the countries round the Levant, where cotton has been grown from time immemorial, than does the climate of the cotton-growing country of America; and Australia has this advantage over America in cotton-growing, that the absence of frost in Northern Australia enables the cotton plant to live and bear for three, four, or five years; while in America it is an annual, being killed every winter by the frost, and a great quantity of cotton is sometimes prevented from ripening by the same cause. The coast, north of Sydney, is already beginning to be colonised, and the climate, notwithstanding its heat, appears to be quite healthy for Europeans, owing to the complete exemption of Australia from those marsh fevers which are the curse of many of the

are

most fertile parts of America. The chief disadvantage of the Australian climate is its liability to drought, but this may probably be hereafter remedied, in a great degree, by making artificial reservoirs, like those which so beneficial to the agriculture of India. The common notion of Australia, that it is a parched and arid country, is applicable only to the south ern part, which has been the most colonised; the coast north of Sydney, and the regions of the interior on the Victoria river, are much more luxuriant. The deficiency of rain, or perhaps, we should rather say, its irregularity in falling, is probably the cause of another peculiarity of the Australian continent the absence of great navigable rivers. This want would formerly have been a very serious hindrance to its colonisation, but it need not be regarded, now that we have so good a substitute in railways. The success of the coal trade of the Great Northern Railway proves that railways are as well adapted to heavy goods as to passenger traffic; and the Americans are showing us how to make railways through a thinly inhabited country, by a government grant of all the unoccupied lands for a certain distance on each side of the line to the company that constructs it. But for any such liberal and rational use of the colonial public lands, they must be administered by some authority within the colony, not at Downing Street.

Until lately, the common notion of Australia was that of a land of sheepwalks, varied with mines of copper. Now, in every one's mind, as well as in the advertisements of emigrant ships, Australia is associated with gold diggings. It will yet be known, however, as a land of wheat and maize, of fruit, wine, and olive-oil, and perhaps of cot ton and sugar; not a mere Eldorado, but a country uniting all the substantial wealth and prosperity of the United States, with a milder and healthier climate, free trade, and British law. Neither sheep-farming nor gold-mining can form the basis of a great nation's industry and subsistence-but agriculture in Australia can and will. Australia will yet be as valuable, perhaps more valuable, to us than America; its growth, even before the gold discoveries, was much more rapid than that of

America for nearly two centuries after the first colonies were founded; and with the present impulse to emigration, its progress will probably be henceforward more rapid than that of any colony since colonisation began. The surprising extension of ocean steam navigation which is now going on, comes at exactly the right time for facilitating intercourse between the mother country and the Australian colonies, now so immensely increased in importance; and Government ought to perform its part in this work of promoting intercourse, in the only way that a Government can beneficially do so, by reducing the rates of postage. There is nothing impracticable in the project of reducing the postage from an English to an Australian port to a penny; indeed, the difficulties that at first stood in the way of our inland penny-postage were beyond comparison greater. Men are still living who remember when the United States were but a small power, and the American cotton trade was in its infancy; and some of us may live to see the time when Australia may number millions of inhabitants, and Australian cotton may be beating the slave grown cotton of the United States out of the markets of the world-when Australia shall think of rivalling America in greatness, yet remain united to us by mutual freedom of trade and mutual affection. But, for this purpose, the colonists must obtain the control they demand over their revenue and their Government patronage, and, at least, an equal voice with the home Government in the administration of their public lands. They are attached to the mother country, but they hate the despotism of the Colonial Office; and if any ministry is so mad as to drive them to open hostility, the result cannot be doubtful. Australia contains men, horses, and gold; and America will supply any number of rifles and revolvers, and " sympathy" more substantial than that which welcomed Kossuth. In such a case, before we know what we are about, we may see an American ambassador at Sydney, an American army at Montreal, and an American fleet in the British Channel, while our army in Australia melts away beneath the influence of gold, among a people speaking the same language. We do not, however, anticipate such a result. The