be introduced into this country except at such a heavy
duty as amounts almost to a prohibition. We can
buy it for 22s. 6d. per hundredweight, but being
loaded with 63s. of duty, we are compelled to purchase
that West India sugar which you see on the table,
at 54s. 3d., which, with 25s. 3d. of duty, is raised to
79s. 6d."
In the compass of a few words, here was delivered
one of the most striking lectures on political economy
which it had ever been my fortune to hear. A single
instant had served to explain that very incomprehen-
sible affair, the high price of sugar, of which Mrs
Balderstone had latterly been making such doleful
complainings. This high price, it seems, had arisen
from no general scarcity of the article; there had been
only a shortcoming in the West India colonies, and
the people of Great Britain had been such extraordi-
nary simpletons as to continue buying bad sugar in
limited quantities from that quarter, at 54s. per hun-
dredweight, rather than buy a better article from
Brazil, or any where else, at 22s. 6d. Did ever any
one hear of such a piece of absurdity?

Before leaving the establishment, my friend enlightened me with a few more details respecting the sugar trade. It was a subject I had never before known any thing of, and therefore the information had all the effect of novelty. Perhaps the reader may allow me to retail a few particulars for his advantage.

Up till the year 1839, there was no material reduction in the quantity of sugar imported from the West Indies, East Indies, and Mauritius, but in that year quite a new state of things arose; there was a falling off in the imports from thence to the extent of from 8000 to 9000 tons; the usual imports of 210,000 tons

received a great impulse during the last few years in
France, and other parts of the continent. In the year
1838, in France alone, the quantity of sugar yielded
from this source was 80,000 tons, and since then, es-
tablishments in this branch of industry have grown
up in various districts of Prussia and central Germany.
The effect of this augmented supply among our neigh-
bours has been to check British exports, and to reduce
the price of sugar on the continent to much below
what it is in England. We believe, that in most Eu-
ropean countries, the best lump sugar is now to be
obtained at 4d. per pound, exclusive of any duty which
may be chargeable upon it. As the people of Great
Britain, from a regard for their colonies, will neither
cultivate beet-root sugar, nor import sugar of any
kind from foreign countries for home consumption,
they accordingly must endure the pecuniary loss and
privations which such acts of self-denial impose upon
them.

RECENT PROCEEDINGS IN AND RESPECTING

NEW ZEALAND.

THE public at large have probably a very vague and
imperfect idea of the recent proceedings in and respect
ing New Zealand. We shall endeavour to bring to-
gether such particulars of these proceedings as may
form an historical outline of what we cannot but con-
sider as among the most important transactions in the
way of colonial settlement that have taken place in
our time.

having fallen to 201,900 in one year. We are at the
same time informed that there will be a much greater
deficiency this present year. Fortunately, while there
has been a decrease in the production of West India
sugar, there has been an increase in that of Siam, Java,
and the Phillipine Islands, where the culture is carried
on by free labourers. Lately, there were 10,000 tons of
this sugar lying in bond in London; but being foreign,
and not from a British colony, it could not be bought,
except, as above mentioned, at a prohibitive duty.
Foreign grown sugars, whether raised by free or com-
pulsory labour, being thus practically excluded from
the home market, while the scarcity of colonial sugars
continues to increase, the result is that we are volun-
When this company started into existence sixteen
tarily paying more than double price for all the sugar
we use. In other words, if the people thought proper months ago, the minds of many individuals of all
to buy and consume foreign sugar, paying upon it the orders were ripe for affording it encouragement; and
same duty as is laid upon the West India product, to this circumstance, in some measure, we may attri-
they would have it for 47s. 9d. per hundredweight, bute the remarkable success it met with. From the
instead of 85s. 6d.-in plain terms, every poor man
might have for 7d. that for which he now pays 1s. It Colonisation Company, merged in it, it inherited
appears that by this our fancy for buying from a dear an extensive territory adjoining the Kaipara and
instead of a cheap shop, we are absolutely giving Hokianga harbours in the northern island; which
away about L.4,000,000-some say L.5,000,000-an- territory had been recently purchased by the Coloni-
nually. We are assured that if the present self-im-sation Company, but not surveyed. While as yet the
posed dearth continues, the loss will not be less than
1.6,000,000.

This magnificent self-denial on the part of John Bull is only equalled by his generosity to other nations. Though he will not buy cheap foreign sugar for his own use, he has no objection whatever to supply others with it to their heart's content. Foreign sugars the produce of free or compulsory labour, it is all the same which are imported in large quantities to be manufactured into refined loaves in bonded warehouses. London is the great seat of this trade. The sugar is brought in ships up the Thames, landed on wharfs which are secluded by lock and key from the public, and, after being refined by those processes of art which I have already described, is again put on board ship, and sent abroad to any country which will buy it. By this arrangement, fine lump sugar, such as we are buying here for 112s. per hundredweight, or 18. per pound, is exported to the continent or elsewhere at 37s. or 38s., or something like 4s. or 5s. below what we are paying for common treacle!!!

These things appear so inconsistent with ordinary principles of action, that the mind can hardly be brought to that point of credulity to believe them. Unfortunately, they are but too true, as the excessive dearth of an important article of daily food, not to speak of other evidence, amply testifies. As a question of legislation, we have no wish to intrude either an opinion or observation on the subject. We only take the liberty of laying before our readers a few facts intimately connected with their domestic expenditure and comforts.

It has been observed as a feature in social life, that the state of civilisation and physical comfort of a people are generally proportionate to their use of sugar; the condition, at least, of most European nations, might be guessed with tolerable accuracy from this fact in statistics. Should there be any truth in the remark, we are brought to the melancholy conclusion that the condition of the people of this country is suffering a deterioration. Although the population increases 14 per cent. annually, the quantity of sugar consumed remains the same, or, strictly speaking, is falling of. The mass of the population evidently cannot keep up to the sugar pitch of domestic comfort they fall back upon food less pleasing to the palate, and, we fear, less nourishing to the system. While the allowance of sugar is gradually diminishing to the less opulent class of persons in England, it is increasing in a greater ratio in almost every other European country. As is generally known, the cultivation of the beet-root has

nity considerably advanced in civilisation. Not only was the ground of the first settlement paid for before it had a cognisable existence, but, before its existence was yet known in Britain, nine ships, containing 1125 emigrants, had been dispatched to it. There was first the Tory, of 382 tons, which sailed on the 5th of May 1839, with only six emigrants, but containing Colonel Wakefield, the company's principal agent for the arrangement of settlements, and a great store of articles designed to be employed in bartering for land with the native chiefs. Colonel Wakefield, it may be remarked, had distinguished himself in the Spanish service, and is brother of the author of the well-known plan of colonisation followed on this occasion. On August 1st, followed the Cuba of 373 tons, with eight first-class emigrants, and twenty-two labourers, and containing also the surveying staff, under Captain W. M. Smith of the royal artillery. In the middle of September, the Oriental, Aurora, and Adelaide, respectively of 506, 550, and 640 tons, proceeded on the classes. All of these were from London. On October same voyage, with a large body of emigrants of both 5th, the Duke of Roxburghe sailed from Plymouth with 167 settlers. Three other vessels, one of which was from Glasgow, and two from London, sailed before the end of the year. Besides these, there were three ships containing stores, designed to guard against the possibility of any deficiency of necessaries being felt during the early days of the settlement.

Behold, then, nine vessels proceeding on their voyage to this distant clime, the last ignorant of the fate of the first, and all of them unknowing of a particular destination-the rudiments of a new state all afloat at It may be mentioned, in the first place, that the once in search of ground on which it might be set up! New Zealand Association, of whose designs we gave monly quick. In ninety-six days from Plymouth, The voyage of the Tory was prosperous, and uncomsome account in the Journal for December 9, 1837, namely, on the 16th of August, she hove in sight of ceased to have a distinct existence soon after that Cape Farewell, the northern point of the Southern period. That association, as well as an earlier one Island, and which forms one side of the opening, named called the New Zealand Company, and a private coCook's Straits, between the two islands. She lost no partnery named the New Zealand Colonisation Com-time in standing through the Straits, and on the 18th she anchored in Ship Cove, as nearly as possible in pany, which was established in August 1838, may be the same spot that Captain Cook occupied in his three said to have merged in a " NEW ZEALAND COMPANY," visits to the island. Colonel Wakefield, in his journal, which was organised in May 1839, and is now the most describes the Southern Island as forbidding in its apconspicuous association of individuals for promoting pearance at a distance-"a succession of apparently emigration to that part of the world. barren mountains stretching away from the coast till But, "on nearing the land, you find that the whole is they reach those covered with snow in the interior." covered to the very highest points with timber and brushwood, which not till then betray their perpetual verdure." Ship Cove, in the northern island, was a beautiful place. "The water, tranquil as an inland lake, has ten fathoms' depth within a ship's length of the shore, which is covered to the water's edge with an evergreen forest, consisting of every variety of indigenous tree and shrub, so thick as to be scarcely penetrable, and presenting to the eye an undulating carpet of verdure reaching to the summit of the sur1200 to 1500 feet. The birds, as in the time of the rounding mountains, the highest of which is from immortal English navigator, fill the air with their notes, the mingling of which he has aptly likened to the tinkling of small bells; and the sea teems with fish, of which we caught enough with hooks and lines consisted of hake, cole-fish, spotted dog-fish, gurnet, for the whole ship, before we dropped anchor. These flounder, and joe-fish, all of which are eatable.

new company had formed no other connexion what-
ever with New Zealand, but entirely upon the faith
of being able to purchase land and effect settlements,
it issued proposals to sell, to intending colonists, what
it might be said as yet not to possess, namely, 990
sections of land in what was to be the principal settle-
ment of the company, wherever that might be pitched,
each section to consist of 100 acres of country land,
and one acre of town land; 110 similar sections being
reserved for the use of native settlers. Thus, the first
principal settlement was to consist of 1100 sections in
all, or 111,100 acres. Let the reader mark, these
sections had as yet no geographical situation; the
whole settlement was as yet, we might say, in the
clouds. Nevertheless, within seven weeks from the
issue of the proposals, purchasers had come forward
for all the disposable sections, and the company had
in its treasury, as the purchase-money, L.99,990. Of
this sum, however, they professed to have a right to
only a fourth part. The remainder, L.74,992, 10s.,
was reserved to be employed in carrying out labourers
to the settlement, according to what we may call the
Wakefield plan of colonisation, already followed in South
Australia. It is important to add, that priority in the
choice of sections was determined by lot.

This company has had to contend at its outset with
one great difficulty. The British government refused
to afford its plan of settlement any countenance, so
that no provision for maintaining order in the new
colony could be had, besides what was afforded by a
gentleman who possessed an old commission as a jus-
tice of peace in New Zealand, derived from General
Macquarie, governor of New South Wales. The
company, nevertheless, proceeded with their scheme,
and the government soon after found it advisable to
send out a Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand,
whose proceedings we shall have occasion to notice
hereafter.

The whole procedure of the company, and of those dealing with it, forms a singular and striking example of that confidence between parties which is only to be expected in even its simplest forms amidst a commu

It being Sunday, after the ship was moored and the decks cleared, I dismissed the natives, with a request that they would come early to-morrow with what they had for sale, and went on shore with the naturalist and other gentlemen of the expedition. The little beach, with its springs and rivulets, retains, at the distance of nearly seventy years, vestiges of Cook's visits, in the timber cut down but not used by him, the wild radishes and cabbages, and the space cleared for his forge and workshop.

The wood is almost impenetrable on the sides of the hills from the web of supplejacks and creepers; but for a hundred yards from the beach there is a swampy flat, through which run three rivulets of delicious water, which, flowing from the heights, here assume a shape before mixing with the water of the bay.

The soil here and on the hills is very rich, being, in fact, the decayed vegetation of centuries, and in the flat producing a thick carpet of weeds and herbage; but even were the land cleared higher up, which would be a work of time, it is doubtful whether the great acclivity would not prevent cultivation for the purposes of husbandry, though there can be little doubt that the vine and Indian corn might be grown up to the summit."

It was at this time winter in New Zealand; and the thermometer ranged between 40 and 56 in the shade. "The climate," says Wakefield, "very much resembles that of the north of Portugal; the most lovely days bursting out in the middle of winter." Cook's Straits, where the Tory now was, lies chiefly between the 40th and 41st parallels of latitude. Colonel Wakefield found no difficulty in communicating with the native chiefs; but it was not so easy to acquire lands, not owing to any disinclination of the natives to sell them at a moderate price, but because it was difficult to ascertain who were the proper owners, or the owners who could convey a sound title. British settlements. They have tasted the benefits of The general feeling of the natives is in favour of civilisation sufficiently, to be very anxious for increased intercourse with the English, and for this

reason they appeared to Colonel Wakefield as if they would have willingly allowed the soil to be appropriated to a large extent, without looking for any remuneration. But the company was anxious that a reasonable, and, considering the circumstances, a liberal price, should be given for lands; and the main difficulty, as just stated, was to discover the parties who were entitled to part with the soil. An immense quantity of land had already been appropriated by private persons or by the missionary societies, without much ceremony.

Colonel Wakefield sent home a journal brought down to the 2d of September, and not long after, he dispatched another section of it, containing not less interesting intelligence. The second section of his journal commences on the 6th of September with a description of the trade carried on in Queen Charlotte's Sound, and other bays connected with Cook's Straits. He describes whalers in the pay of Sydney capitalists as being the chief followers of this hazardous but profitable commerce. It is estimated that the whale-fishery produces 1200 tons of oil per annum, and that the number of British who compose "shoreparties" in Cook's Straits and the stations on Banks's Peninsula, are about 500. They are a lawless set of people, quarrelling with the natives and among themselves. There are, however, some respectable persons among them.

On the 6th of September, Colonel Wakefield started with a small party on an expedition to explore the river Oyeroi or Pelorus, where he found the mountain forest scenery magnificent, but was not tempted to purchase land, finding it less fertile than it had been represented. Returning on the 11th, after a very difficult navigation, the party disembarked on Guard's Island, where they found a native settlement, with "excellent houses, and stores of pigs, potatoes, and flax," and where the people appeared "more independent, free from alarm, and happier" than any natives the party had yet seen.

arts and intimacy of Great Britain; appreciating the
protection from their hostile and still savage enemies
that British settlers would afford, and anxiously desir-
ing to assist them in their first labours in a new coun-
try. I found that these people, mustering, upon the
slightest call, three hundred armed men, and quite
capable, as they have repeatedly proved themselves,
of retaining their possessions, and never having parted
with a single acre of land in their district, by sale or
otherwise, now, for the first time, disposed to make
over their country to me, as the representative of a
body of my countrymen, in consideration of the pro-
mises of remuneration and advantage I had held out
to them. Under these circumstances, and following
out the spirit of my instructions, I determined to act
in the most liberal manner in the transaction. More-
over, I was most anxious to distinguish this bargain
from all others that have been made in New Zealand,
that none of the haggling and petty trading which
usually take place between the Europeans and natives
of this country should enter into any operations be-
tween the latter and the company's agents; and that
the value of this property should not be regulated by
what has hitherto been considered the standard of ex-
change in similar transactions."

Learning that the church missionaries were_endeavouring to frustrate their views respecting Port Nicholson, a fine harbour and country in the Northern Island, about the centre of Cook's Straits, Colonel Wakefield now made haste thither. He met with a very hearty reception from the chiefs. "Epuri, an old chief, eagerly inquired the motives of our visit, and betrayed the most lively satisfaction at being informed that we wished to buy the place, and bring white men to it. He was followed by Warepori, his nephew, who is about thirty-five years old, and has for some years superseded the older chiefs in in-proceeded along the coast of the Northern Island fluence, by his prowess in war and skill in the rude arts cultivated by these people. He also in fine words expressed his desire to see white people here, and his willingness to sell the land, which was solemnly made over to him by the natives of this place five years ago, when the greater portion of them emigrated to one of the Chatham Islands in an English vessel, whose master they partly obliged to carry them.

The two chiefs remained on board at night. They informed us that the schooner had left some native missionaries here, who were instructed to have houses and chapels built by the time Mr W- —was expected, with which orders they had complied. In discussing the merits of the missionary labours as opposed to the former practices of the natives, namely, those of war and cannibalism, they deprecated the constant occupation of praying and singing, which took people off from their potato-grounds and their canoes; the younger one declaring that the incessant worship had nearly driven him mad, whilst they at the same time warmly denounced any further fighting. What we want,' they said, 'is to live in peace, and to have white people come amongst us. We are growing old,' alluding to the numerous aged chiefs on shore, 'and want our children to have protectors in Europeans; but we do not wish for the missionaries from the north. They are natives. We have been long told of vessels coming from Europe. One has at length arrived; and we will sell our land and harbour, and live with the white people when they come to us."

Colonel Wakefield ascended the principal river which falls into the bay, and was well satisfied with the capabilities of the district. The soil is a rich black loam; the timber excellent in quality and of various descriptions; and the navigation of the river, which was obstructed by heaps of stones and trees thrown across, susceptible of great improvement at slight

expense.

Colonel Wakefield determined to fix upon this part of the island for the first and principal settlement of the company; and he lost no time in coming to terms with the natives. A very amusing and graphic account is given of the debates, in a sort of ambulatory parliament of the different tribes owning the territory, on the question of sale or no sale. There was an opposition, but not a formidable one; and after a large majority had agreed to sell the land, the minority was acquiescent. Colonel Wakefield thus describes his purchase :

"I found a territory of forty or fifty miles in length by twenty-five or thirty in breadth, containing a noble harbour, accessible at all times, and in the very highway between New Holland and the Western world, and land exceeding in fertility any I have seen in these islands, and equalling that of an English garden. I found a race of people of warlike habits, and but little used to intercourse with Europeans, just emerging from their barbarism, and inclined to cultivate the

upon a (supposed) newly-formed sand-bank in going into Kaipara bay or harbour, and, though got off in twenty-four hours, sustained such damage that Colonel Wakefield judged it prudent to leave her for repairs, and proceed with his land-buying operations. Having therefore secured all important papers, he walked across the continent to the Bay of Islands, and there chartered a small brig to go to Kaipara, to take charge of the cargo and passengers. He likewise engaged another small vessel to take him to Port Hardy in D'Urville's Island (Cook's Straits), the place of rendezvous for the emigrant ships. He reached Port Hardy on the 11th January; but finding none of the emigrant vessels arrived, he judged it best to cross the straits to Port Nicholson, which he did in a whale boat, leaving an Englishman to direct these vessels to follow him thither. Port Nicholson was the place of all others which he thought suitable for the first settlement, and he was now anxious to prepare matters as far as possible for the arrival of the settlers. It is gratifying to state, that all the vessels dispatched last year had reached the port in safety before the 7th of last March.

Meanwhile the government had deemed it necessary to take some step regarding the colonisation of New Zealand. In August 1839, it dispatched Captain Hobson, R. N., as Lieutenant-Governor of New Zea land. He arrived at the Bay of Islands on the 30th of January, and on that day issued a proclamation, intimating that the queen did not deem it expedient for the interests either of her British subjects resorting to New Zealand, or for those of the native tribes, to recognise as valid any titles to land not derived from or confirmed by her majesty, but yet, "to dispel any apprehension that it was designed to dispossess the owners of land acquired on equitable conditions, and not in extent or otherwise prejudicial to the present or prospective interests of the community," declaring "that her majesty had been pleased to direct that a commission should be appointed, with certain powers to be derived from a Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales, to inquire into and to report on all claims to such lands," and further intimating that "purchases of land in any part of New Zealand which may be made from any of the chiefs or native tribes after the date of these presents [January 30, 1840], will be considered as null and void, and will not be confirmed, or in any way recognised, by her majesty."

The amount paid, of course, is not published; but the natives were highly pleased with their bargain, and eager to sell more of their land. The chiefs carefully examined the articles given in barter, and then signed a formal deed, alienating the land for ever. The war-dance, the hoisting of the New Zealand flag, and the formal ceremony of taking possession of the territory, are vividly described. Colonel Wakefield left a person in charge of his newly-acquired territory. "I had brought with me a person from Queen Charlotte's Sound, a trustworthy man, well qualified, by his knowledge of the language and habits of the people, for the purpose. I left with him saws, tools, garden seeds, and various articles of trade, in which to pay for native labour, and to supply himself with food. Warepori undertook to put him up in a new house at his village, and render him every assistance. I had landed also a sow which had littered on our voyage from England, and her progeny, the goats, and the poultry. I left Mr Sample instructions to encourage the natives to build temporary houses at Thorndon, to plant potatoes, and to keep their pigs for their expected visiters; and supplied him with boards to place on the most prominent spots, on which In terms of this proclamation, it will be necessary is painted New Zealand Land Company." for all who have purchased land in New Zealand to This important business being settled, the Tory prove their rights before the commission. Captain Hobson left the Bay of Islands on the 17th February, towards the north, and on the 16th October came to declaring it an unfit place to be the seat of governan anchor off Kapiti, near Evans's Island. A smart ment for New Zealand, being distant from the more battle had just then taken place between the two fertile parts of the country, and cut off from all easy chief tribes in those parts, the Ngatirocowas and communication with the southward. He had preNgatiawas, the latter of whom, a comparatively civi-viously had some conferences with the native chiefs lised and pacific race, had acted on the defensive, and relative to the acquisitions of land by the missionaries. been victorious. Colonel Wakefield had some inter- But unfortunately the proceedings of this officer were course with Raupero, a corrupt chief of the Kafia brought to a sudden and unexpected stand on the 1st tribe, who had aided and instigated the Ngatirocowas, of March, by his having sustained a paralytic shock and with Hiho, an amiable young chief of the Nga- when on board H.M.S. Herald, at Waimate. In tiawas; and, after some deliberations, and one some- consequence of this calamity, he at first proposed to what wild scene, purchased the extensive tracts of resign his duty; but when the last accounts left New land on both sides of Cook's Straits, forming "the Zealand, he had resumed his functions, and was nearly commanding portions of the two islands." The goods recovered. He had appointed magistrates of the disgiven in exchange were upon the same liberal scale tricts, and fixed on the shores of the River and Bay as in the case of Port Nicholson, and ultimately all of Waitemata as the seat of his future government; the natives expressed themselves as quite satisfied. while the surveying department were engaged in With regard to some portions of the ground pur- selecting the fittest site for the capital of the colony. chased, it was known that there were other tribes, now dispossessed, who had claims upon them; but from these parties Colonel Wakefield apprehended no trouble of any consequence. In all cases he took care to have deeds of cession formally executed on the spot-a precaution the more necessary, as already speculators were sending emissaries from Sydney to buy up land in New Zealand, on a supposition of its soon acquiring a marketable value. For the next two or three weeks, Colonel Wakefield employed himself in sailing to different points in Cook's Straits, in order to buy up the claims of as many parties as possible. In concluding his survey of both sides of these straits, he gives a table of the native population of the principal districts, which he estimates as amounting in all to 6650.

Colonel Wakefield now proceeded to Hokianga, a deep inlet near the farther extremity of the Northern Island, leaving Mr Barrett, a whaling merchant, to arrange with the natives for the purchase of the lands more immediately to the north of Cook's Straits. He reached Hokianga on the 2d December, and entered into negotiations for the purchase of lands there and in the Bay of Islands, on the opposite or east side of the country. Private settlers are here numerous, some of them possessed of considerable tracts of land. Amongst others is a Baron Thierry, a Frenchman, whose right, however, to the land he professed to have bought, was disputed. The natives are not here so fine a people, physically or morally, as in the south, and not so ready to cede their lands. Colonel Wakefield obtained possession of a tract at Herd's Point, being the land purchased by Captain Herd in 1826, for the old company-reserved by the natives since that time-and now scrupulously made over to their successors. This done, he left Hokianga on the 13th December for Kaipara, another important inlet, a little farther to the south. At this point, he completed his third dispatch.

According to subsequent dispatches, the Tory struck

Other companies besides that represented by Colonel Wakefield have in the mean time been taking steps for promoting the colonisation of New Zealand. One of these, the Plymouth Company of New Zealand, advertised on the 18th July that it had secured an extensive purchase of land, and had sent out orders for the selection of a settlement. A thousand sections of town and rural land were in the way of being engaged, on the understanding that, out of the L.70 of purchase-money of each section, L.40 was to be expended in carrying out labourers. The New Zealand Manakou and Waitemata Company acquired valuable tracts on those harbours (in Northern Island) in 1838, and sent out a clever young officer, Captain W. C. Symonds, H.M.S., to survey the same and report, before taking any further step. A report from Captain Symonds, dated in February last, and of a highly favourable nature, was received in July, and the company then proceeded to receive applications for 200 sections, of 1 town acre and 100 country acres each, at L.101 each, 65 per cent. of the purchase-money to be expended in taking out labourers. In last July, the Paisley New Zealand Emigration Society was formed in connexion with the London company, for the purpose of promoting an extensive emigration of handloom weavers from the west of Scotland to New Zealand. This scheme is creditable to the parties concerned, as it is certainly time that hand-loom labour were deserted. We heartily wish that the scheme may meet with that encouragement from the government and the wealthy part of the community, which appears to be necessary for its success. It is at the same time worthy of remark, that symptoms have appeared of an extensive emigration from South Australia to New Zealand.

part of the British, a French expedition has sailed for While these proceedings have been going on on the the same country, designing to appropriate land for a settlement, but chiefly to all appearance with a view to the whale-fishery. Penal settlements by both France

We have only to add, that our sole purpose in preparing this article is to present a connected and comprehensive view of the late proceedings respecting the colonisation of New Zealand, and this solely upon a consideration that these proceedings are of a generally interesting character. As to the eligibility of New Zealand as a place of settlement for individuals desirous of emigrating from their own country, we are totally unprepared to say one word; and therefore not one word shall be said.

and England have been spoken of, but, we would | There was another celebrated piece, enacted some
hope, without the least chance of any such monstro-years since, upon the subject of Queen Caroline,
sity being accomplished. Disputes between France where our late sovereign, George, was made to play a
and England respecting the sovereignty of New Zea- most despicable part; and where Signor Bergami
land, have also been foreboded; but we have no fear fought a duel with Lord Londonderry. In the last
that any thing of the kind, to an extent at all trouble- act of this play, the House of Lords was represented,
some, will take place.
and Sir Brougham made an eloquent speech in the
queen's favour. Presently the shouts of the mob were
heard without; from shouting they proceed to pelting;
and pasteboard-brickbats and cabbages came flying
among the representatives of our hereditary legisla- |
ture. At this unpleasant juncture, Sir Hardinge, the |
Secretary-at-War, rises and calls in the military; the
act ends in a general row, and the ignominious fall of
Lord Liverpool, laid low by a brickbat from the mob!
The description of these scenes is, of course, quite
incapable of conveying any notion of their general
effect. You must have the solemnity of the actors,
as they meess and milor one another, and the perfect
"THE PARIS SKETCH-BOOK."*
gravity and good faith with which the audience listen
THE "Paris Sketch-Book," as its author Mr Titmarsh to them. Our stage Frenchman is the old marquis,
has chosen to name it, is a dashing, off-hand work, with sword and pig-tail, and spangled court coat.
The Englishman of the French theatre has invariably
consisting of a variety of sketches of French manners
a red wig, and almost always leather gaiters, and a
and character, which, we dare say, come pretty near long white upper Benjamin; he remains as he was
the truth. Papers on such personages as Robert Ma- represented in the old caricatures, after the peace.
caire, Cartouche, and George Sand, are intermingled And to conclude this catalogue of blunders: in the
with accounts of the French school of painting, Napo-famous piece of the 'Shipwreck of the Medusa,' the
first act is laid on board an English ship-of-war, all the
leon and his system, the drama, and other matters officers of which appeared in light blue or green coats
of lesser importance. A considerable portion of the (the lamp-light prevented our distinguishing the colour
volumes, we understand, has already appeared in pe-accurately), in little blue coats, and TOP BOOTS!"
riodical works. A few scraps which we select will All this is certainly very ridiculous, but how, it
convey an idea of the author's style of treating subjects. may be asked, are Frenchman represented on the stage
A traveller's first impression of the streets of Paris in England? They are made to appear as thin shiver-
is conveyed in the following passage :-" But, beholding old men, or in some other guise equally unlike the

reality.

ness is there in the composition of mankind, that histories like these should be found to interest and awe them!"

Passing on to some gossip about a later period of French history, the author proceeds: If any man is curious, and can get permission, he may mount to the roofs of the palace, and see where Louis XVI. used, royally, to amuse himself, by gazing upon the doings of all the town's-people below with a telescope. Louis is said to have been such a smart journeyman blacksmith, that he might, if Fate had not perversely placed a crown on his head, have earned a couple of louis every week, by the making of locks and keys. Those who will, may see the workshop, where he employed many useful hours; Madame Elizabeth was at prayers; meanwhile, the queen was making pleasant parties with her ladies; monsieur, the Count d'Artois, was learning to dance on the tight-rope; and Monsieur de Provence was cultivating l'eloquence du billet, and studying his favourite Horace. It is said that each member of the august family succeeded remarkably well in his or her pursuits; big monsieur's little notes are still cited. At a minuet, or sillabub, poor Antoinette was unrivalled; and Charles, on the tightrope, was so graceful and so gentil, that Madame Saqui might envy him. The time only was out of joint."

M'CULLOCH, THE MECHANICIAN.

IN the Scots Magazine for May 1789, there is a report by Captain Philip d'Auvergne, of the Narcissus frigate, on the practical utility of Kenneth M'Culloch's sea compasses. The captain, after an eighteen months" trial of their merits, compared with those of all the other kinds in use at the time, describes them as immensely superior, and earnestly recommends to the admiralty their general introduction into the navy. The author does not like to travel by railways, be- In passing, on one occasion, through the Race of cause the rate of speed destroys all romance, a reason Alderney in the winter of 1787, there broke out a too fanciful and poetic to be worth combating. Of frightful storm, and so violent was the opposition of the journey from the French capital to Versailles, the wind and tide, that while his vessel was sailing at journey, then, from Paris to Versailles, that used to now performed by steam, he observes :-"This little the rate of eleven miles on the surface, she was making scarce any headway by the land. The sea rose trebe so merry of old, has lost its pleasures since the dis-mendously-at once short, high, and irregular; and appearance of the cuckoos; and I would as lief have the motions of the vessel were so fearfully abrupt and for companions the statues that lately took a coach violent, that scarce a seaman aboard could stand on from the bridge opposite the Chamber of Deputies, deck. At a time so critical, when none of the comand stepped out in the court of Versailles, as the most passes supplied from his majesty's stores would stand, part of the people who now travel on the railroad. but vacillated more than three points on each side of The stone figures are not a whit more cold and silent the pole, "it commanded," says the captain, "the than these persons, who used to be, in the old cuckoos, admiration of the whole crew, winning the confidence so talkative and merry. The prattling grisette, and of even the most timorous, to see how quickly and her swain from the Ecole de Droit; the huge Alsatian readily M'Culloch's steering compass recovered the carabinier, grim smiling under his sandy noustaches, vacillations communicated to it by the motion of the and glittering brazen helmet; the jolly nurse, in red ship and the shocks of the sea, and how truly, in every calico, who had been to Paris, to show mamma her brief interval of rest, it pointed to the pole." It is darling Lolo, or Guguste; what merry companions further added, that on the captain's recommendation one used to find squeezed into the crazy old vehicles these compasses were tried on board the Andromeda, that formerly performed the journey! commanded at the time by Prince William Henry, our late king; and so satisfied was the prince of the utility of the invention, that he too became a strenu ous advocate for their general introduction, and testified his regard for the ingenious inventor, by appointing him his compass-maker. M'Culloch, however, did not long survive the honour, dying a few years after, and we have been unable to trace with any degree of certainty the further history of his improved compasses. But though only imperfectly informed regarding his various inventions and they are said to have been many, and singularly practical-we are tolerably well acquainted with the story of his early life; and as it furnishes a striking illustration of that instinct of genius, if we may so express ourselves, which leads the possessor to exactly the place in which his services may be of most value to the community, by rendering him useless and unhappy in every other, we think we cannot do better than communicate it to the reader.

us at Paris! The diligence has reached a rude-look-
ing gate, or grille, flanked by two lodges; the French
kings of old made their entry by this gate; some of
the hottest battles of the late revolution were fought
before it. At present it is blocked by carts and pea-
sants, and a busy crowd of men, in green, examining
the packages before they enter, probing the straw
with long needles. It is the Barrier of St Denis, and
the green men are the customs' men of the city of
Paris. If you are a countryman, who would introduce
a cow into the metropolis, the city demands twenty-
four francs for such a privilege: if you have a hun-
dredweight of tallow candles, you must previously
disburse three francs: if a drove of hogs, nine francs
per whole hog. In the present instance, after a mo-
mentary pause, one of the men in green mounts by
the side of the conductor, and the ponderous vehicle
pursues its journey. The street which we enter, that
of the Faubourg St Denis, presents a strange contrast
to the dark uniformity of a London street, where
every thing, in the dingy and smoky atmosphere, looks
as though it were painted in India-ink-black houses,
black passengers, and black sky. Here, on the con-
trary, is a thousand times more life and colour. Be-
fore you, shining in the sun, is a long glistening line
of gutter-not a very pleasing object in a city, but in
a picture invaluable. On each side are houses of all
dimensions and hues; some but of one storey; some
as high as the Tower of Babel. From these the haber-
dashers (and this is their favourite street) flaunt long
strips of gaudy calicoes, which give a strange air of
rude gaiety to the looks. Milkwomen, with a little
crowd of gossips round each, are, at this early hour of
the morning, selling the chief material of the Parisian
café-au-lait. Gay wine-shops, paited red, and smartly
decorated with vines and gilded railings, are filled
with workmen taking their morning's draught. That
gloomy looking prison on your right is a prison for
women; once it was a convent for Lazarists: a thou-
sand unfortunate individuals of the softer sex now
occupy that mansion: they bake, as we find in the
guide-books, the bread of all the other prisons; they
mend and wash the shirts and stockings of all the
other prisoners; they make hooks and eyes, and phos-in the erection of Versailles. "In the year 1681,
phorus boxes, and they attend chapel every Sunday-
if occupation can help them, sure they have enough
of it.
But we have passed the prison long ago,
and are at the Porte St Denis itself. Passing round
the gate, and not under it (after the general custom,
in respect of triumphal arches), you cross the Boule-
vard, which gives a glimpse of trees and sunshine, and
gleaming white buildings; then, dashing down the
Rue de Bourbon Villeneuve, a dirty street, which
seems interminable, and the Rue St Eustache, the
conductor gives a last blast on his horn, and the great
vehicle clatters into the court-yard, where its journey
is destined to conclude."

With respect to the French mode of representing the English and English manners on the stage, we have the following graphic picture. "I don't know whether the great Dumas has passed any time in England, but his plays show any thing but an intimate knowledge of our habits, Thus, in the play styled Kean,' the stage-manager is made to come forward and address the pit, with a speech beginning, My lords and gentlemen and a company of English women are introduced, and they all wear pinafores; as if British females were in the invariable habit of wearing this outer garment, or slobbering their gowns without it. *The Paris Sketch-Book," by Mr Titmarsh. London: John Macrone. Two vols, with engravings. 1840.

The town is certainly the most moral of towns. You pass, from the railroad station, through a long, lonely suburb, with dusty rows of stunted trees on either side, and some few miserable beggars, idle boys, and ragged old women, under them. Behind the trees are gaunt, mouldy houses, palaces once, where the cheap defence of nations gambled, ogled, swindled, intrigued; whence mighty princes rolled away, in gilt careches, hot for the honour of lighting his majesty to bed, or of presenting his stockings when he rose, or of holding his napkin when he dined. Tailors, chandlers, tinmen, wretched hucksters, and greengrocers, are now established in the mansions of the old peers; small children are yelling at the doors, with mouths besmeared with bread and treacle; damp rags are hanging out of every one of the windows, steaming in the sun; oyster-shells, cabbage-stalks, broken crockery, old papers, lie basking in the same cheerful light. A solitary water-cart goes jingling down the wide pavement, and spirts a feeble refreshment over the dusty thirsty stones."

Louis XIV. expended a thousand million of francs then, the great king, with bag and baggage, with guards, cooks, chamberlains, jesuits, gentlemen, lackeys, Fenelons, Molières, Lazuns, Bossuets, Villars, Villeroys, Louvois, Colberts, transported himself to his new palace; the old one being left for James of England, and Jaquette his wife, when their time should come. And when the time did come, and James sought his brother's kingdom, it is on record that Louis hastened to receive and console him, and promised to restore, incontinently, those islands from which the canaille had turned him. Between brothers such a gift was a trifle.

There stood, about forty years ago, on the northern side of the parish of Cromarty, an old farm-house--one of those low, long, dark-looking erections of turf and stone, which still survive in the remoter districts of Scotland, as if to show how little man may sometimes improve, in even a civilised country, on the first rude shelter which his necessities owed to his ingenuity. Such was the farm-house of Woodside, in which Kenneth M'Culloch, the son of the farmer, was born some time in the early half of the last century. The family from which he sprung-a race of honest, plodding tenants had held the place from the proprietor of Cromarty for more than a hundred years before, and it was deemed quite a matter of course that Kenneth, the eldest son, should succeed his father in the farm. Never was there a time, in at least this part of the Out of the window the king's august head was one country, in which agriculture stood more in need of day thrust, when old Condé was painfully toiling up the services of original and inventive minds. There the steps of the court below. Don't hurry yourself, was not a wheeled cart in the parish, nor a plough my cousin,' cries magnanimity; one who has to carry constructed on the modern principle. There was no so many laurels cannot walk fast. At which all the changing of seed to suit the varieties of soil, no green courtiers, lackeys, chamberlains, jesuits, and scullions, cropping, no rotatory system of production; and it clasp their hands, and burst into tears. Men are seemed as if the main object of the farmer had been to affected by the tale to this very day. For a century raise the least possible amount of grain at the greatest and three-quarters, have not all the books that speak possible expense of labour. There was the single-stilted of Versailles, or Louis Quatorze, told the story-plough, that did little more than scratch the surface; Don't hurry yourself, my cousin! Oh, admirable king and christian! what a pitch of condescension is here, that the greatest king of all the world should go for to say any thing so kind, and really tell a tottering old gentleman, worn out with gout, age, and wounds, not to walk too fast! What a proper fund of slavish

the wooden-toothed harrow, that did hardly so much; the cumbrous sledge-no inconsiderable load of itself

for carrying home the corn in harvest; and the basket-woven conical cart, with its rollers of wood, for bearing out the manure in spring. And yet, now that a singularly inventive mind had come into existence

It was remarked that Kenneth acquired more in the last year of his apprenticeship than in all the others. His skill as a workman still ranked a little below the average ability; but then it was only a little below it he seemed, too, to enjoy more, and become less bashful and awkward. His master on one occasion brought him aboard a vessel in the harbour, to repair some injury which her bulwarks had sustained in a storm; and Kenneth, for the first time in his life, was introduced to the mariner's compass. The master in after days, when his apprentice had become a great man, used to relate the circumstance with much complacency, and compare him, as he bent over the instrument in wonder and admiration, to a negro of the Kanga tribe worshipping the elephant's tooth. On the close of his apprenticeship, he left this part of the country for London, accompanied by his master's eldest son, a lad of a rather thoughtless disposition, but, like his father, a first-rate workman.

Kenneth soon began to experience the straits and hardships of the inferior mechanic. His companion found little difficulty in procuring employment, and none at all in retaining it when once procured. Kenneth, on the contrary, was tossed about from shop to shop, and from one establishment to another; and for a full twelvemonth, during the half of which he was wholly unemployed, he did not work for more than a fortnight together with any one master. It would have fared worse with him than it did, were it not for his companion, Willie Sandison, who generously shared his earnings with him every time he stood in need of his assistance. In about a year after they had gone to London, however, Willie, an honest and warmhearted but thoughtless lad, was inveigled into a diɛ

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE," "CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE," &c.