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ment on which the heavy substance attached to it was resting, put it under the seat on which he took a seat, and trotted off as unconcerned as if the property had been his own; and whether the horse had been converted into dogs' meat, and the waggon into fire-wood, was not ascertained at the period of our departure.

CHAPTER VI.

GOLD

THE YELLOW FEVER AND ITS VICTIMS-AN IMPORTANT 'ISM-
CLEARING OUT OF A WHOLE COUNTRY-AMERICAN
GOING ΤΟ BUY UP ALL ENGLAND-THE ISLE OF WIGHT
CARRIED AWAY UPON WHEELS, AND A RAPE COMMITTED
ON THE GREAT EXHIBITION-TURNING THE TABLES—“ HOME,
SWEET HOME," SUNG VERY FAR AWAY FROM IT-WHERE A

MAN GOES TO WHEN HE GOES OUT-TWO SIDES TO A QUESTION
-SHAKSPEARE'S OPINION TO BE PREFERRED TO ANY OTHER
PERSON'S-AN EMIGRANT'S DUTIES-WHAT HE HAS "TO EAT,
DRINK, AND AVOID"-SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF EMI-

GRATION-AUTOGRAPHS AND THEIR COLLECTORS-CAPTAIN SUTTER AND MR. HARGREAVES-THE REWARD OF MERIT NOT ALWAYS MERIT REWARDED-WHAT TO DO WITH ONE'S MONEY-MADEIRA WRETCHEDNESS AND MADEIRA WINEEXTRAORDINARY VALUE OF A GLASS OF IT-CALLING THINGS

BY THEIR RIGHT NAMES, WITHOUT

CHARYBDIS-GOLD

FEAR OF SCYLLA

OR

YOUR ONLY MULTIPLIER-EXHIBITION

OF CASTLE GARDENS AND HYDE PARK COMPARED-JULLIEN'S BATON, AND JONATHAN'S BAND-A PLAYER ON THE HORN APT TO BLOW HIS OWN HEAD off.

THE yellow fever!

These are ominous words to

begin a chapter with

that has any relation to

America, at a moment when there is some chance of her southern and western shores being ravaged with this frightful epidemic; but we mean to apply them to a very different kind of disease, which has nothing to do with the other, beyond its colour. We have elsewhere introduced some important Californian statistics, but we have reserved a brief space for more general* remark, both with reference to England and America, than we have there indulged in.

A comparatively short time has elapsed since the climax of American superiority over everything English was reached, by the discovery of gold on Sutter's farm in California, which, amongst other events, led to the annexation of that land to the existing thirty of the United States. The whole world, including of course our little snack of it, was to be demolished at once, as far as regarded their being independencies, and to be brought within the compass of American legislation. The matter

*This is sometimes a very convenient term to use. In speaking of a professor, of very doubtful tenets, we observed to a gentleman we were conversing with, that the gentleman's doctrine seemed to us a mixture of mormonism and spiritualism, when our friend replied, "Oh, no; he goes in for general-ism."

at first was looked upon as chimerical, for John Bull is not in the habit of giving credence to everything that comes across the Atlantic; but Jonathan knew very well what he was about, and to settle the question, he speedily dispatched a sensible lump of his new-found treasure to undergo the process of British alchymy, the result of which was, its being finally deposited in the vaults of the Bank of England as genuine ore.

The fact of this El Dorado being suddenly pounced upon, and its extension over a vast tract of territory being undoubted, operated upon the mind as a flash of lightning now and then does upon the eye, which blinds and mystifies for the moment, then clears up, and enables the orb to see plainer than ever. The word "diggings" was the first dissyllable uttered in the morning, and the last pronounced at night. The youth of respectable parentage, who had been plodding his way for some considerable time in hopes of reaching his father's eminence in commerce, was suddenly missed at the family breakfast-table, and not making his appearance at any subsequent meal, the apprehensions which would naturally arise from such an occurrence were appeased by an intimation

that, ensconced amongst piles of spades, pickaxes, crowbars, and other necessary implements, the young gentleman had been seen on the deck of a vessel sailing out of the harbour, bound to California.

The banker, who had entrusted thousands upon thousands of dollars to a confidential clerk, found, on reaching his office some particularly fine morning, that his notes were where they were, but his cashier was 66 nowhere." He had gone off to that fertile spot which, unlike the one he left, does not "promise to pay" a trumpery dollar on demand, but actually does pay in the shape of a substantial nugget, at a digging! Works, both public and private, were suspended, because the operatives who had been employed upon them soon got sick of breaking up granite, the moment a prospect presented itself of taking up gold. Ships were commissioned as rapidly as crews could be found for them; and the very rogues who had worked them to their outward destiny, ran away from them the instant they came to anchor, because they happened to hanker, themselves, after something much more to their fancies. The whole country became revolutionised, for the whole country was on the move,

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