productions to the exhibition which took place at Paris last year. Neither is Hobarton deficient in those ancient institutions with which we are perhaps too abundantly furnished in the mother-country. For instance, there are boards without number, departments without end, and, of course, a legal system of respectable amplitude, at which twenty hybrids discharge the associated duties of barrister, attorney, and solicitor, though we learn that some of the more eminent practitioners are beginning to see the propriety of separating these professions, and actually confine themselves to the higher functions of the advocate and pleader. We are glad to learn that the separation is likely to become general, as we entertain no doubt that it will conduce to the respectability and efficiency of each profession, as well as to the advantage of the public, to keep them distinct. We need scarcely say there are institutes, societies, and clubs innumerable, and educational and religious establishments commensurate with the requirements of a civilized people. We may here mention that a college-Christ's Church-has been established in the neighbourhood of Bishopsbourne, not far from Norfolk Plains. It is a Church of England establishment, endowed with large grants of land, and has founded several scholarships, and would seem to us to be established very much upon the model of our colleges in Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin. There are also in Tasmania no less than forty-one public schools in con nexion with the Church of England, and receiving grants from government. The next city in point of importance is Launceston, which we shall let Captain Stoney describe. In the valley beneath is Launceston, very remarkable for the order and regularity of its streets. Beyond is the extensive vale of the Tamar, through which the meandering river is seen winding its way, until, lost in the woody hills in the distance, it hurries on to the sea. Launceston is an exceedingly pretty place, situated at the confluence of the North and South Esk, which here form the Tamar. On one side a bold craggy hill hangs over the city, down which, through a deep gorge, rushes the impetuous South Esk. From this height is a very splendid view of the whole city and neighbourhood, which Descend well repays the toil of the ascent. ing the other side, the busy haunts of man are hidden, and the eye is charmed by the very beautiful miniature lake before you, the wild crag and forest around, and the dashing torrent beneath, forming a very pretty cas cade it is one of the most enchanting scenes possible. From the summit, on the one side, is seen a large and busy town: hundreds of vessels crowding the wharves; steamers and ships hastening to and hurrying from the port: all is life and bustle, the crowded streets exhibiting all the turmoil of daily toil and traffic. A few steps, and the scene is changed: you are in a wild desert, surrounded with the primeval rock and native forest, with nought save the sound of the cataract rushing over to disturb you. In contrast in point of style with this, and to complete the picture, we quote a few lines from Mr. Howitt. At Launceston I climbed to the cataract of the South Esk, to the westward of the town. I found it, not a cascade, but what the Americans call a rapid. The river has broken its way through the hills of trap rock of 700 or 800 feet high; and a rapid shows itself bursting from the gorge of these cliffs, and descending a fine stony glen into a large pool. It then cuts through other intervening rocks, sweeping to the left, and thence descending a more precipitous declination, foaming and roaring down towards the level plain, when it falls into the Tamar. The hills around these rapids are boldly and finely thrown up, with various wooded glens running up between them, the trees everywhere striking their roots amongst the rude crags that everywhere project. If you climb a ridge of rocks close upon the cataract, you have it directly under your feet, and the scene there is truly fine, especially of the steep, craggy hill opposite, and the deep defile through which the river escapes to the harbour below. Some cottages are scattered in the glens near the falls, apparently the abodes of washerwomen, whose linen is plentifully hanging out; and their gardens and enclosures run along the steep hill-sides. A quiet spot! Launceston, we may observe, is rising rapidly, and bids fair to equal in many respects her sister, Hobarton. Both are municipal cities upon the ancient British model, having each its council, consisting of a mayor with a salary of £600 a-year; six aldermen, a town clerk, town surveyor, city inspector, and collector. Tasmania has a very English air, and in that respect presents a striking contrast to Victoria, This has not escaped the keen eye of Mr. Howitt ; in his journey from Launceston to Hobarton, he observes, The valleys were rich, and, for the most part, as well cultivated as in England. Owing to the difference of tenure here and in Victoria, a very different state of things has been the result. Here the occupiers of the land are the owners-not mere squatters, who have no sure tenure of the land, and, therefore, do nothing to it. Here, then, instead of mere isolated wooden huts, standing in the unappropriated forest, we have a constant succession of towns and villages, bearing the singular medley of names which colonists delight in, Ross, Oatlands, Green Ponds, Brighton, Bagdad, Jericho, Jerusalem, and, of course, the river Jordan. All round these villages, which consist of substantial and even elegant houses, extend the richest fields all enclosed, with hedges generally of sweet briar, or furze, or broom, but also a good many of honest English hawthorn. There you see cattle, sheep, pigs enormously fat, and abundance of poultry of all kinds, feeding and flourishing in their several resorts, the meadows, the woodland slopes, or the farm-yards. It is England all over. Everywhere you descry lovely country houses, with all the earthly blessings of fine gardens, well walled in, with their conservatories and forcing-houses, their extensive shrubberies, verdant parks and lawns, fields in pasture or under the plough, and woods peeping down solemnly from the hills with a very tempting aspect. To complete the illusion, let the reader fancy the tourist seated upon the top of a well appointed mail-coach, such as were to be seen everywhere in England ere the steam carriages and the iron rail drove them off the main trunks into the bye-ways of travel: At this early hour of departure, I was vividly reminded of the old coach times of England. At the inn door stood a wellappointed and well-horsed stage coach, with coachee and guard all in orthodox costume, and with the genuine old smack about them. Crack went the whip, and off we started along as finely a macadamized road as England can present, and which runs with the directness of a Roman road all the way across the island to Hobart Town-120 miles-the product of convict-labour. Victoria, with all its gold, has nothing of the kind to show. Tasmania, like Victoria, has got her charter of independence. In October, 155, the new constitution was proclaimed there; but some political dis putes having arisen, it became necessary to refer the matter for the Royal decision. The governor was in the meantime compelled to prorogue the Houses, and thus the operation of the act remains in abeyance. The new constitution is in its mean features similar to that conferred on Victoria. There are to be two chambers, the Upper and the LowerHouse. The upper is to consist of fifteen members including a president, elected by the country generally, divided into districts; the qualification of voters for members of the upper house is a freehold of the value of £50. lower house is to consist of thirty members in proportion to the population of the electoral districts, the qualification of the electors to be £10 and £50 freeholds. The officers of the crown, viz., the colonial secretary, the attorney-general, the solicitorgeneral, and the colonial treasurer, must have seats in the lower house. The Captain Stoney visited almost every part of Tasmania of importance, and travelled a good deal in the interior. He appears to have had his share of personal adventures and some narrow escapes. Both of our travellers were witnesses of the important operation of sheep-shearing-Mr. Howitt in Victoria, and Captain Stoney in Tasmania. The contrast between the two descriptions is very great. In Victoria, the great scarcity of labourers induces higher prices, while those who condescend to shear are very lordly and independent in their demeanour ; they demand and they get thirty shillings per hundred sheep, and one man contrives to shear seventy sheep in the day, easily earning £6 a week besides rations, which these gentlemen take care shall be the very best that the establishment affords. And it is no uncommon thing for them to intercept and appropriate to themselves, without apology or scruple, the dishes that are on their way to the table of their employer. By way, however, of making amends for these exactions, they shear the sheep in such a reckless and hurried manner, that they slash, and hack, and snip them in a grievous way; and Mr. Howitt tells us that one of the overseers had to stitch up the skin of two sheep's stomachs that these fellows had actually cut right across. monstrance would be unavailing, or worse; the shearer would in all probability reply to his employer, "Do your work yourself," and then take his departure. Matters are much better than this in Tasmania-labourers are not so scarce there, and consequently the prices are not so high nor the shearers so saucy, and the work is all the better done. There a man will not shear more than fifty sheep in the day, and the day's wages range from fifteen shillings to a pound. A stand, however, is always made at the beginning of the shearing season for the price, and the unlucky sheep-owner who is the first ready has sometimes the mortification of seeing all his shearers troop off for higher wages just as he is preparing to commence operations. There is, we are convinced, a great and a prosperous future in reserve for Tasmania, and we believe that future is not far distant. At the present moment she is in a state that augurs the very best, if we can trust the accounts of writers or the figures of statisticians. We find from recent tables that the number of immigrants for the year 1855 was 9,525; and of these 3,900 were British. Thus we may count on an abundance of hands and heads for every kind of labour and skill, and feel the assurance that English principles of liberty, perseverance, and integrity will diffuse and maintain their influences socially and politically throughout the colony. The value of imports in 1855 was upwards of £3,000,000, and of exports £2,000,000. The number of vessels entered inwards 1,220, with 298,612 tons. The number cleared outwards 1,200, with 296,612 tons. The return of ships engaged in the fisheries is 10 vessels, 3,700 tons; the number built and registered, 10 of 400 tons and upwards, and 90 with a total of 11,340 tons; the number of steamers 14, with a total of 1,760 horse power. The revenue of the colony amounted to £298,784, the expenditure £276,650; the return of land revenue £113,335, expenditure £86,620. Return of land sold and rented during the year 1855: 2,804,183 acres sold, and 2,284,214 rented; remaining still unsold in the colony 12,482,214 acres. In 1855, there were in crop upwards of 50,000 acres of wheat, 10,000 of barley, 40,000 of oats, and 12,000 of potatoes; producing, wheat 990,500 bushels, barley 225,000 ditto, oats 610,240 ditto, potatoes 43,000 tons, hay 23,860 tons. The live stock in the colony was-horses 17,450, horned cattle 105,420, sheep 1,941,308, pigs 24,598. A return of public schools shows 54 male teachers and 10 female. Children on the books, 2,300 males and 2,126 females, for which was voted by the council £10,000. Here, as in Victoria, every year will work changes of great magnitude. Towns will spring up in the solitary forests; railroads will bring every place of importance into communication the one with the other; and steam vessels will navigate rivers whose existence is now little more than known, diffusing wealth, civilization, and enlightenment in a healthful current of life-blood through her whole body. And it is not too much to expect, seeing what wonders Mr. Cyrus Field is about to work in a telegraphic communication between America and Ireland, that ere the lapse of many years, we, in this city of Dublin, may gossip with our good friends in Victoria and Tasmania at the rate of question and answer in half an hour; and thus shall they be come in reality, what we have called them somewhat paradoxically, “Our ANTIPODEAN NEIGHBOURS." We need scarcely say that the works which we have noticed are valuable accessions to our knowledge of these our Australian colonies. Mr. Howitt's character as an author is well established; and his volumes, though we see occasionally marks of haste that show them to be in truth what they profess to be, written at the moment, yet are full of good, strong, common-sense, and show large views as well as acuteness and sagacity, and have the great advantage of the vividness and true coloring of first impressions. Captain Stoney is not altogether without literary experience; and though his views of great political and social questions are somewhat superficial, he makes up for his deficiencies in this respect by accuracy and painstaking in his delineations of the external features of the country and the people. His books are very elegantly brought out and well illustrated, and the last of them has the additional recommendation for us that it bears the imprint of our own University press. Bacon's Essays, with annotations by Richard Barter, W.G.T., Adventures of a Summer Eve, Belgium and Old Brabant, A King's Tour, 454. Border Lands of Spain and France, 616. Brougham, Lord, Contributions to the Edinburgh Burt, Rev. John T., Results of the System of Caesar, by Thomas Irwin, 603. Chemistry of Common Life, by J. F. W. John.. Cloak and Feather Ballads, by G. W. Thornbury, the Moon, 112; Footmarks of Faith, 238; Crampton, Mr. and The American Question, 1. iii. 184; Chap. iv. 329; Chap. v. 335; Davis, Francis, Our Coast, 106; Faith, 139; Darragh, The, Chap. v. 15; Chap. vi. 22; De Foe, Daniel, noticed, 57. Doctor of Philosophy, The, a Tale, see Philosophy. Education, Position and Prospects of Popular Faith, by Francis Davis, 139. Ferguson, Robert, The Northmen in Cumberland Fight in the Inn Yard, The, by G. W. Thorn- Footmarks of Faith, by Mortimer Collins, 238. France, on the State of Society in France before 442. French Versions of Shakespeare, 203. Gainsborough, Thomas, R.A. Life of, by the late Galbraith and Haughton, Professors, The Scien- Gerrard, C., Grace and Remembrance, noticed, Glaciers, The Retreat of the, 549. The Life they led at Massa, 278; Chap. xxxi. the Garden, 382; Chap. xxxiii. Night Gosse, Philip Henry, A.L.S. Marine Zoology, Gurney, Rev. Archer, Songs of Early Summer, Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George Memoirs of the Regency, by the Duke of Buck- Merivale's History of the Romans, reviewed, 30. Modern English Latin Verse, 189. Montgomerie, Robert, A.M., The Rose of Ros- Montgomery, James, Memoirs of the Life of, re- My Own Funeral, A Tale; by the author of 1 Navy, Progress of the British, 159. The, by Robert Ferguson, reviewed, 594. |