NOTES ON MEN AND THINGS IN THE NEW WORLD OF AUSTRALIA.

A second "New World" is fast arising into importance-the British plantations in Australia; whose early story is adorned by no romantic adventures like those of a Raleigh, nor dignified by the pious patriotism of another race of Pilgrim Fathers, but which were simply discovered seventy years ago by stout old Captain Cook, of the Royal Navy, and were until very recently stigmatised as "Botany Bay.' Yet they now occupy no mean position in the politics and commerce of the Mother Country. I am, therefore, led to think that a few pages of the New Monthly devoted to some account of those settlements may find favour and acceptance. It must be understood that I propose not to impose upon my readers, one of those very useful narrations, by which the trade, the population, and the morals of British Colonies are arithmetically developed, to the complete satisfaction of the commercial or religious statist. Nor do I aim at the historical or the geographical, the botanical or the geological; but leaving those severer topics to other pens, be it mine to offer the mere impressions of the tourist on men and manners, and only so much of external nature as may form the scene whereon they are to be exhibited. Briefly, I would endeavour to show what sort of places those Australian Colonies are.

And yet I must crave indulgence for one preliminary flourish! I must take the liberty to say that the rising condition of the Australian Colonies should be a subject of high interest to the mind of every reflecting Englishman. To see the foundation of one nation more of his countrymen laid in the remotest quarter of the globe-the Terra Incognita of our grandfathers-where, but scarcely sixty years ago, the only inhabitants were a few thinly scattered tribes of savages, whose condition almost sanctioned the philosophy of the connecting link between man and brute to see, in such a quarter, the literature, the arts, the religion, the love of rational liberty of the English nation, taking vital root, and thus spreading to the uttermost parts of the earth the name and fame of that insular people, should be an animating contemplation to every Englishman not insensible to patriotic emotions, or not indifferent to the future happiness and welfare of the human race.

It is in the populous and handsome town of Sydney, which, from the convict encampment of 1788, the capital of Australia has now become, that the stranger is most struck with wonder at the rapidity with which the Australian settlements have reached their present advanced condition. Harbours thronged with shipping from England, India, the islands of the Pacific, and North and South America, indicate a large amount of external traffic; while numerous coasters and steam-vessels bespeak the extent to which trade and personal intercourse are carried on between Sydney and other colonial ports.

In the town itself, notwithstanding that the larger portion of the existing edifices have, as I understand, been built within the last eighteen years, there is little to strike the spectator with the extreme modernness

of the world around him. Long lines of well-built private residences; numerous and elegantly fitted-up shops-resplendent at night with plateglass and gas; extensive warehouses and commodious wharves; cathedrals, churches, chapels, and meeting-houses; club-houses and theatres ; busy crowds in the streets, and carriages and vehicles of all descriptions, give to this metropolis of the south all the appearance of a town of centuries.

The harbour of Port Jackson, on the southern shore of which the capital of New South Wales is situated, is one of the finest in the world. It is not the embouchure of any thing worthy the name of a river, but is a large inlet of the sea. It has a bold entrance between lofty cliffs of freestone, of about a mile in width; and once in, and turning to your left, you suddenly find yourself, from the heaving swell of the Pacific, in one of the most perfectly land-locked harbours that can be conceived. It extends about twenty miles inland, and for some fourteen miles (not pretending to speak with the accuracy of an hydrographer) there is anchorage for vessels of considerable burthen. It branches off, right and left, through nearly its whole length, into a succession of coves or natural docks, affording accommodation for shipping unequalled in any other harbour not improved by artificial means. From the indentations in the land formed by these coves, and the numerous handsome country mansions which are now seen on the more moderately elevated hills around, the scenery of Port Jackson is rendered highly picturesque. It is scenery of its own kind, however. The land all around rises into rocky eminences of considerable elevation, which, even so near to the capital, have forbidden very extensive cultivation or "clearing ;" and you thus see handsome modern edifices, immediately surrounded with a few acres of plantation or garden ground, but otherwise in the midst of the primeval bush" of the country.

It is on four of the promontories abutting into the main harbour, and forming the sides of different coves-" Sydney Cove" being one-that a great portion of the town and suburbs may be said to stand. The most thickly populated parts are west and south of Sydney Cove; spreading thence into the main land. As the town extends into suburbs, it becomes straggling, and begins to assume more of the characteristics of a new place.

Under the head of Public Buildings, we may note that Sydney has five churches belonging to the Church of England, two of them very fine edifices; a couple of spacious Presbyterian churches; and several large Wesleyan chapels, including a stupendous fabric with a Greek portico, raised in commemoration of the recent Wesleyan Centenary. There are also several Protestant dissenting places of worship, one very elegant building, belonging to the Congregationalists, being capable of accommodating 1500 people; while the Catholics have a large and somewhat imposing Gothic cathedral, with campanile detached, and a large group of collegiate buildings contiguous-all thrown together with an evident design to give a Catholic and mediaval air to the ensemble. The Catholies have another large church just completed, in a more florid style of Gothic architecture. I should mention that there is an incomplete English cathedral, which promises, some day or other, to be a very fine structure. There is a large court-house, and a criminal sessions-house;

barracks (old and new) extensive enough for several thousands of men ; a large "Government House," a handsome castellated pile of buildings, recently constructed; and various other public edifices belonging either to the Government or societies, but which do not claim particular notice. Sydney is built over a great bed of free-stone, which has afforded excellent building material; and both the public and private buildings being chiefly constructed of it constitutes one of the features of the

town.

These things premised, with a population of nearly 50,000, and the reader has some data out of which his fancy may construct the existing city of Sydney, New South Wales.

And a busy, bustling, debating, gossiping, go-a-head city it is. I think (when, after being a year or two away, one can better appreciate the general effect which, in a social point of view, the place leaves on the mind) I may safely depose to Sydney being the most self-satisfied town in her Majesty's dominions! I am persuaded it conceives that the eyes of all Europe are constantly occupied with its concerns. This leaves plenty to admire,-much to be extolled; and perhaps this very inflation may be diagnostic of its meritorious qualities ;-but so the fact is.

In approaching Sydney, which is seven or eight miles from "the Heads," and sailing up the broad harbour, the chances are, if the day is fine, that you meet fleets of pleasure boats, for the Sydney gentry are much given to aquatics, led thereto by the beauty of the harbour and the genial climate. The anniversary of the foundation of the colony is always kept as a great fête, and for many years the Sydney Regatta" has formed the most prominent of the festive ceremonies of the day. Then there is a great turn out of small craft, some of which approach the dignity of yachts, and the whole place is seized with a nautical fever. Loud and confident are the predictions that New South Wales will hereafter be a maritime power, and that her sons will make a gallant race of seamen.

of

Nearing the town you see the turrets of Government House on one side of Sydney Cove, and lofty stone buildings rising step by step over each other on the opposite side, all reflected with a cloudless blue sky in the still water of the cove. Then you will, likely, see two gallant frigates reposing after the buffeting and wear and tear of a long sea voyage; one shall be English, the other French; for the French, for some wise purpose their own, have for years had a fancy for keeping a greatly disproportionate naval force in these seas, which we all know they can ill afford. That large 1000 ton ship is just bound for New Zealand, chartered to convey there a regiment of soldiers to fight against the Maories, for we have our expensive hobbies as well as the French.

Within the last few years New South Wales has had its representative assembly-called here the "Legislative Council," whereas that designation, in other colonies furnished with representative legislatures, has been allotted to the Upper Chamber. But in New South Wales, our Solons of Downing Street determined that their first constitutional experiment should consist of but a single chamber--a house of peers and a house of commons rolled into one. The rumour, however, goes that all this is to be changed next year, and the plan of two chambers reverted to.

But this free legislature has given a great character to Sydney. It has now its regular legislative season, when members come to town, and

the newspapers are filled with debates, and the accidents are postponed until after the prorogation. Let us enter the chamber. Here we have a goodly room-say eighty feet by thirty-a miniature house of commons. There are the members' seats on either side, a table along the centre, the speaker's chair in its due place, and on one side, becomingly elevated and decorated, the vice-regal throne. The exact position of this latter commodity was matter of grave deliberation. It was thought not proper that his excellency should intrude upon Mr. Speaker's exclusive domain, and yet he must be the chief personage present when addressing the conscript fathers of Australia. After much subtle disquisition on the subject, the arrangement I have mentioned was carried into effect, and no abatement of dignity considered to be experienced in any quarter. Then there is the Reporters' Gallery, behind the chair, in which you see the Gentlemen of the Press, and the Strangers' gallery at the opposite end, all according to precedent.

The "house" took to business very kindly. Its members displayed uncommon diligence in their new functions; and, it must be owned, very considerable ability too. According to temperament or interest they divided, some on the ministerial, some on the opposition side of the house. The government members spoke with customary caution-the opposition, less responsible, giving a fuller swing to their patriotism. I was amused, happening to be present a few days after the new legislature had been first started, at the rather evident effort to use parliamentary phraseology without effort, as though it should seem they had been accustomed to it all their lives.

Sydney was also made into a corporate town five or six years ago; and now glories in the true old English "Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council." I believe the institution has not quite answered expectation; the day being perhaps gone for such a cumbersome machinery to be now for the first time called into existence. It has served the purpose, however, for good or evil, of creating a class of civic dignitaries, the Sydney tradesmen being in nowise indisposed to the style of alderman. The right worshipful the Mayor, indeed, besides a certain place and precedence given to him on all public occasions, has assumed a skyblue gown, lined with ermine; so the Mayor is a very considerable personage. The aldermen are merely distinguishable by "peculiar coats" -not unlike those described as decorating the persons of members of the Pickwick Club. But why note these trifles? They are an index of one great peculiarity in the colonies-the avidity with which any extra-personal distinction is grasped at; a point I doubt not I shall have occasion

to revert to.

Let us take a turn into the Court House. It is the first day of Term. There is a full muster of gentlemen of the bar, all wigged and gowned. In come the three judges, in full judicial costume-the bar rise, the judges bow, and there is the Supreme Court in banco. And there, I promise you, you shall hear as clever mystification, I had almost said, as in Westminster Hall.

The "domain" is the Hyde Park of Sydney. It is a very beautifully laid out place, occupying a promontory which runs into Port Jackson, and some considerable ground behind. Here play the regimental bands, and the fashion of Sydney exhibits itself. A goodly number of equi

pages are seen; and this reminds me that flunkeyism flourishes more in Sydney than in any colonial town of her Majesty's dominions. I remember a shrewd tradesman advertising that he had imported buttons bearing the crests of "all the first families in the colony.' That tailor

was a man of observation, and I can fancy his speculation a profitable

one.

The horse-soldiers you see about, in light-dragoon uniform, are the "Mounted Police," a well-disciplined good-looking set of fellows, taken from the troops of the line; and who, in Sydney, bear the same relation to the rest of society, which, in London, is so creditably occupied by her majesty's Life-Guards; that is to say, they furnish escorts to his excellency the Governor, and gallants to the Sydney nursery-maids. When in the up-country, they doff their gay uniforms, and are rough, bold bushmen, famed for their daring encounters with the Bushrangers.

To a stranger, Sydney might seem to be a Catholic town. The Catholic places of worship are by far the most imposing in appearance in the place. The cathedral of Saint Mary's has a fine chime of bells, and the occasions for ringing them appear to be of frequent occurrence: at all events, they are rung very frequently, day and night. Then you see Catholic ecclesiastics a good deal about town, in appropriate tenue de ville; and, about the cathedral, you see them in regular seminary costume, looking mysteriously Catholic and theological. Then you have processional ceremonies, in the open street. I saw the archbishop-" his Grace," as he is jealously called by the faithful-proceeding to embark upon some mission to the Holy See. All the Catholic clergy of the colony, of all orders, seemed to have gathered for the occasion, and a body of laymen, who, I think, called themselves "the holy guild of St. Mary's," with crosses, and wands, and sashes, followed in the long train. And here I must obtrude a remark-all these priests were burly, blackhaired, black-bearded men. Now what I desire to observe is, that I do not remember, in the many Catholic countries I have happened to sojourn in, to have seen a single priest, whose full, round, shaven chin, was not of the dark blue which indicates the black beard. This may be all accidental in my case; but a priest with red hair, for example (though such may no doubt exist), would almost appear a monstrosity in my

eyes.

There has been declared war between the English bishop and the Catholic hierarch. The latter in the state of the colonial law having no fears of pains and penalties before him-assumed as "of Sydney' for his territorial style; whereupon the English prelate made public protest against the Romanist usurpation.

In the Church of England the colony has had the same Puseyite controversy as the Mother Country-the same scandals of the offertory and the preaching in surplices. The Church of Scotland, again, has had its "Free Church" secession; and the consequent controversy has settled into a standing one. Indeed, the remark may be made, that in the colonies we have regularly reproduced all the vexed questions of Church and State which embitter or benefit society at home. There are your Tories, your Whigs, and your Radicals; your men of the people and your contemners of popularity: your advocates of sectarian and of "national" education; all as in England.