natural basins upon a hill to hold water "ladies" with him. I suppose, that a to turn eternal manufactories; here beds pretty many thousands of pounds will be of salt; there beds of coal; so that, if laid out on the press to get this delusion I had not known what the roguery was, I should have been lost in wonder, that any people in their senses could remain in a beggarly country like England. into wide circulation. I cannot destroy the delusion; but I can do this; I can prevent it from ruining the greater part of those industrious and good people, who would be totally ruined by it were I to hold my tongue. Here follows the puff; preceding the meeting at EXETER HALL. "Lord Bacon calls the plantation of a colony ' an heroic work.' He may "be supposed, with his wonderful fore"sight, to have had a prophetic eye to Now, though I do not believe that the projectors of this scheme, amongst whom there are nineteen members of Parliament it seems; though I do not believe that any one of them is a rogue to this extent; and do not believe in fact, that any one of them has a roguish view; I have not the smallest scruple to say, that, as far as relates to this mat- "that great and happy nation on the ter, a set of greater fools never were "other side of the Atlantic, which has assembled together under the sun. I will accuse none of them of an endeavour to delude people; to get their money out of their pockets and to send ⚫ them to perish, or at the very least to ruin; but in whatever degree they shall succeed in their project I am sure they will effect these ends; and I know it to be my duty, however reluctant I am to do it, to warn people against the delusion. This is the more necessary to be done without loss of time, because there are places to be kept for "the ladies" at EXETER HALL! What the " ladies" can have to do with clearing lands I do not know. They have influence however, when money is to be got out of their husbands' pockets; and many of them have a taste for those "parks," those " extensive grounds," those numerous natural Virginia - waters," which will be found in "Southern Australia"; more properly called, New Botany Bay. Therefore the presence of the "ladies" may be appro priate enough. 66 As a specimen of the newspaper puffs, which are coming forth to further the views of this society, I take the following from the "True Sun"; the author of which puff pleads hard in favour of the delusion. I insert it as a specimen, though it is only a little beginning in the great work, it is, indeed, this puff which has brought me forth upon the subject. The author of the puff is extremely anxious to have the "furnished Europe with the first, nay, "the sole example of cheap and equal government. Without emigration, the United States could not have ex"isted. The names of Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson, are English. It was amongst a people, the immediate "offspring of English emigrants, that Lafayette, to use the words of Washington, 'served an apprenticeship to liberty, till he had learned enough "" to go home and set up for himself." "The out-going of Englishmen to "settle in America has had an immense, "and most beneficial influence on the 66 : "vernment. And here we must do Mr. "next (the room will hold four thousand "Spring Rice the justice to acknow- "persons), they may at least satisfy "ledge that he deserves praise for " their curiosity on a subject in which "readily promoting a useful and na- "none have a deeper interest. And we "tional undertaking, which was bitterly " would say, further, to heads of fami" opposed by Lord Ripon, and regarded "lics and to young men, who may wish "with indifference by the ignorant and " to learn more concerning the objects "conceited ex-secretary for the colonies. " and plan of the new colony, that "With the details of the measure we " are not at all acquainted; nor could " "their wives and daughters, their "sisters and sweethearts, may also have we, in the space of a daily paper, give "some curiosity on the subject. In " a satisfactory explanation of the ge- "colonization the women are of quite as "neral principles on which the scheme " much importance at least as the men, " is based. But an opportunity of " and in deciding a question of emigra" learning both the principles and detion, their voice has often more "tails of the measure will be presented "weight. To hear religious discussion " on Monday next, when the South "Exeter Hall is often crowded with "Australian Association will explain "females. Why not to hear about a "their objects to a public meeting, in "the great room Exeter Hall. This "looks well. Those who seek publicity "cannot intend much wrong, but must, "we may almost say, be actuated by "good intentions. The great job of the "petty Swan River affair was managed " in secret. There was no publicity " until after Mr. Peel, the cousin of Sir "ours, but that of the association, who "Robert, had secured his own grant of "announce that 'seats will be reserved "500,000 acres of land; which grant, "for ladies." "new country, which cannot be peopled as it ought to be, unless nearly as many women as men shall decide to "make it their future home? There are some who will smile at this suggestion. We wish them joy of their "ignorance and want of good feeling; "adding, that the suggestion is not " by the way, and other profuse grants This is at once as audacious and as " which were made to meet the charge silly a puff, as I ever set my eyes on. " of partiality, proved ruinous to the Puffs are seldom very delicate things; "colony. In this case, where the chief but this is the grossest, silliest, meanest, "actors themselves call for a public that I ever saw; the writer, in a sort of " examination of their doings, there preface which I have not inserted, con"cannot well be any jobbing. The fesses, or rather, says, that he has al" names of the committee are a further ways been inimical to emigration, and "guarantee, not only of good intentions, he forgets to tell us precisely what it is " but of sound judgment and earnest that has made him in favour of this " carefulness in the preparation of the project: what it is that has converted " enterprise. Mr.. WHITMORE, Mr. him all at once! Something of won"GROTE, Mr. CLAY, and several others, drous power no doubt; that we must " are not the sort of men to engage in a conclude; but still one would have liked " wild or crude scheme. One part of to know precisely what it was, pre" the measure contemplates, we under- cisely the amount of it. As to what " stand, the providing of a passage cost Lord Bacon says upon the subject; "free, for a large body of the working and as to WASHINGTON, FRANKLIN, and "class. Sympathizing deeply with that JEFFERSON, having grown out of a " class, and rejoicing in the prospect of colony; all that this public-spirited and " a road whereby many of them may " find their way to the high wages and "cheap land, which are the attributes " of well-managed colonies, we are " anxious to point out to them that by "attending the meeting on Monday disinterested editor knew, and still he was hostile to emigration, until, all at once, this new association appeared : and then the gentleman changes his mind in the twinkling of an eye. He even finds it becoming him to praise Mr. SPRING RICE, for lending selves, they will be a set of the most the powers of the Government to aid miserable wretches under the sun. the brilliant schemes of this joint-stock This writer wants a large body of the association. He "must do justice to working classes to go, he "sympathizMr. SPRING RICE," and he must do jus-ing deeply with that class." And he tice to Mr. STANLEY and Lord RIPON, understands that passages, cost free, are by hinting that the latter was an ob- to be provided for a large body of perstinate fool, and by calling Mr. STAN- sons of this description. Oh, oh! Now LEY ignorant and conceited. He must who will bet me two to one, that the do justice; and as he must do justice money taken from the parishes to be to others, why not do justice to him- paid for the emigration of the working self; and tell us at once what it is, people will not be paid over to this and how much there was of it, that coinpany? Who will bet me two to converted him from an anti-emigrator, one of that; and who will tell, or can to call upon the ladies, even upon the tell, how far the poor-law project was daughters, sisters, and sweethearts, to go originally connected with this project? to Exeter-Hall to give countenance to When I heard Mr. WHITMORE detailing this most delusive project. Why not the wondrous gains of new settlements tell us at once, how much of that same all over the world, and saying, (accordsort of thing would induce him to turn ing to his explanation), that the present from Southern Australia to the swamps system of poor-laws had the malignity of Canada, the rocks of NovA SCOTIA, of a fiend; and especially when I heard or the bottomless sands of PRINCE ED- him go into details of the vast gains of WARD'S ISLAND; to make him exclaim, new settlements, I could not help won"Come, ladies, to enable you to lead dering what all that had to do with the "happy lives and roll about in your Poor-law Bill. I now understand it carriages, believe me, upon my sa-all. It all had a great deal to do with the "cred honour, there is nothing like Poor-law Bill; and, as I said before, it "sand"! would be curious to know what each of He tells us "that Messrs. WHITMORE, these projects had to do in giving rise GROTE, and Clay, are not the sort of to the other. The South-Sea bubble men to, or crude was not more mischievous, than the scheme." Not wild or crude for South-Sand bubble would be, if it could themselves, I will engage. I will be possibly succeed. Succeed it cannot; bound for them that they will lose for the ruined and broken-hearted creanothing by the scheme. The two former tures will write home to their relations are bankers, I believe; and I think the and friends, as they do from Canada, latter is a shipowner, or something of and then the scheme is at an end; but that sort. I dare say that they have before they can do that, those who now made their calculations very accurately, put their names to the project will, I as to the gain or loss which they shall dare say, have had the prudence to quit experience in this affair. As far as they the concern, as we have seen it happen are concerned, the scheme may not be in so many hundreds of instances, leav " in a wild engage ing the wretches that have been deluded by it, to all those sufferings which they, indeed, will richly merit; because, in nine cases out of ten, they will be the wild or crude; they must be bunglers, indeed, if they do not take care not to lose by it; but, it may be a very wild, a very crude affair to those who take shares under them; and, as to those victims of their own obstinacy, perverse who actually expend their money to ness, or greediness; of their own lazy purchase lands of this company, or to ambition, seeking for parks, without those who go in order to get a living by working there, the scheme will be very wild, indeed. Those who go there for the purpose of robbing the settlers may There are some few who may be good get money; but as to the settlers them-and industrious people; who find it very the genius, the industry, or any other of those means by which parks ought to be acquired. one difficult to get a livelihood and to pro-" the water off from that land, as it vide for children in England, and who "will be for you to clear the wood off will be deluded with the thought, that "the land which these villanous landthis is to be done in Australia; and par-"jobbers have deluded you to seek ticularly there may be some labouring "after. There," said I, "GODWIN, men or citizens, who will listen to the "take you your hundred acres there, "Australian lie. These I wish to remind " and take possession directly; and you that land covered with trees, or with "will kill a calf (he was a sort of rocks, or which is a swamp, is of no "butcher) upon that land below us, more use to them than just the same "sooner than you will kill quantity of sea. I sailed to Long "from the miserable lands which Island in 1817, with about twenty you will buy with your little bit of farming men, who came from the neigh-"money," which was two hundred bourhood of WISBEACH in Cambridge- pounds. 1 then explained to them the shire. None of them had less than a impossibility of their doing anything hundred pounds; some of them had a with new land; and that it would, in good deal more. They were steerage fact, be of no more use to them than so passengers; and, therefore, by the much sea; I told them that they must habits observed in such cases, they were be utterly ruined and destroyed, if they separated as society from me, who went did not go to work for somebody else. in the cabin; but, one evening, as ten They heard me, but nothing could beat or a dozen of them were ranged leaning them out of the idea, that as land was upon the rail by the side of the ship, to be got for a dollar an acre, they could I heard them calculating upon the num- make shift to live upon it, at the least. ber of acres of land that each of them When they landed, however, they saw could buy, the infernal villains of land- many of their countrymen who had prejobbers having kindly furnished them ceded them. The result was, that with a printed account of prices, to- thirteen out of the twenty went to work gether with animated descriptions of at NEW YORK and the neighbourhood. the streams and meadows and mines The other seven, after losing all their and fruit trees, and the like. I went money, and worrying themselves half to and wedged myself in amongst them, death, came back beggars to NEW and leaned upon the rail, too; and, YORK; and the very last day that I taking out a pencil and a bit of paper, was in that city, I saw Godwin in a asked them how much land they wanted, famously dirty dress, banging along the because I had sonie to dispose of. The High-street of NEW YORK in a butcher's sea was perfectly calm and smooth, and cart, just in the style of the "old we were upon the great bank of New- country," and to the great amazement of foundland, which, I believe, is rather the beholders. I saw his mother at bigger than England. Having got the CROWLAND about four years ago, and numbers, I added them up. "Oh!" told her of the prosperous condition in exclaimed I, "why here are less than which I had left her son. "five thousand acres in the whole! It is impossible for any man ade"I will give it you, without a farthing quately to describe the endless priva"in payment!" "Thank ye, sir!" tions, the mortifying sufferings of a new they exclaimed. "But can we go to it settlement. In short, it is savage-life, as soon as we land at NEW YORK." without its absence of care. No sooner "Oh!" said I, "you can go to it this do you arrive at the land, than you per"minute, if you like; for here it is: ceive that you are ruined, unless you "that's it," giving my hand a sweep can retreat from it at once. But what round over the sea. "Ah!" said they, do we want more than the settlement " but that's water; that a'nt land." of the ILLINOIS? All England did not "Oh, oh!" said I, "but there is land contain two much more clever men "under, at only sixty fathoms off; and than MORRIS BIRKBECK and RICHARD ** it will be full as easy for you to get FLOWER. They carried to the ILLINOIS not much less than forty thousand farm. I saw Mr. RICHARD FLOWER in pounds between them. BIRKBECK took, a house in Hertfordshire, with a beautias his valuation out of WANBOROUGH ful farm around it, and a homestead so farm, the hilly part of which I now see complete, that niceness itself could have suggested nothing to add or to alter. His wife and son are now in a miserable log, or boarded house, sitting down at table with persons, such as their yearly servants in Hertfordshire would not have sitten down with. And the money all gone! The infatuation which pervades men's minds when they are promised parks is quite surprising. A draper in the STRAND, whose name I have forgotten, went, about six years ago, to Van Diemen's Land. He was a very worthy man, as they told me; had saved ten or fifteen thousand pounds; and was bent upon a park in Van Diemen's Land. He took his passage in a ship, which, in the first place, rejected three-fourths of his luggage, which was to follow by another ship; two servants that he had hired to go with him, and had received part of their wages beforehand, had the cunning from the window at which I am sitting; he was valued out of that farm at seventeen thousand pounds. All was sunk at the ILLINOIS. Well, but he raised a mansion there, to be sure, and became a great man in that country. He never had a dwelling there so good as the worst of the cottages belonging to WANBOROUGH farm, a farm on which he grew annually about two hundred acres of wheat, and on which he kept a flock of sheep, worth more than the feesimple of the ILLINOIS. And what was the final result with regard to him? He never lived to have a decent room to sit down in: he lived to see his son a common labourer; and lived to see his daughters married to men, whom he would have thought worthy of punish ment, if they had offered their addresses to them in England. His death was accidental, to be sure; but he met it in and the villany to fall fast asleep and to crossing a river in the ILLINOIS. His lose their passage; his wife, who was two amiable daughters have had to en- pregnant, died on the passage, in childdure tribulation upon tribulation; one being now, I am told, at NEW ORLEANS, and the other somewhere in the north of America. RICHARD FLOWER is dead; and his son leading the life of a rough back-woodsman. birth, her heart broken and her frame wasted beforehand. What more happened to him, I never heard, but I would pledge my existence, that all he now possesses in the world, if he be alive, is not worth five years' interest of the fortune which he took away. This man I If I had been praying for the salvation of my soul, I could not have been more met accidentally at the house of a friend; earnest in my entreaties to these people and I implored him not to go. They not to go to that accursed country. I were worthy people; they had the fruits saw Mr. BIRKBECK in London, before of twenty years of great industry; and he went at all. I saw Mr. FLOWER and I thought it my duty to warn them of their danger. This man had actually gone so far as to draw a plan of a castle that he intended to build; and he actually took out a swivel gun or two, to his family at NEW YORK. I used every possible means within my power to prevail on them not to go. I told them all the consequences, precisely as those consequences have come to pass; ex- be fired occasionally from the top of the cept, indeed, that my imagination never castle. "Oh!" you will say, "the man extended to the calamities that have be- was mad." As to this matter he was fallen Mr. BIRKBECK and his family. In mad; but not more mad than every one a pecuniary point of view he was totally is who spends his money, or employs A |