ate sales took place about the same
time. There was not a sheep, cow, or horse in the Colony, too old or too
bad to find a purchaser! Any thing would sell, provided only that _time_
was given to find the money. Nothing could exceed the madness of the
people, buying, selling, and exchanging accommodation-paper from end to
end of the land. Then came the land-jobbers, a set of sharks who did
great harm. It was a common practice with those jobbers, or rather
robbers, to apply to the Surveyor-General's department, to have lots of
land put up for sale, which they were aware that certain landed
proprietors could never allow to fall into the hands of strangers, and
then to go to the party whose estate the sale of the land in question
would injure, and demand a bribe to stop their bidding against him. If
this quietus was refused, these scamps would attend the sale, and bid
the land up to some exorbitant price, knowing that their victim must be
the buyer. Land once advertised by Government must be put up to auction;
and the jobber's victim was obliged either to purchase, or to run the
risk of having a stranger sit down as the proprietor of a few hundred
acres in the midst of his thousands. Another class of scamps used to
attend land-sales, who would conspire to keep down the prices of lots
they wanted, by not bidding against each other, and by playing various
other tricks, to the detriment of the revenue. The Attorney-General got
hold of half a dozen of those gentry in 1839, and prosecuted them for
conspiracy. He obtained a verdict of guilty against them, but assented
to their petition for a new trial. Again they were convicted, and they
were fined a hundred pounds each; the Court telling them, that the
penalty would have been much heavier, had not the judge taken into
consideration their humble petition for mercy, and the heavy expenses
they had incurred in standing two trials.

This system of selling by auction and by private sale, large herds of
cattle and flocks of sheep at high prices, went on till some of the
twelve-month's paper became due. Cash not being then forthcoming,
renewals were asked for in many instances, which somewhat damped the
ardour of speculation; but the wild career did not receive any very
serious check, till the two-years' paper began to come into play. Very
little cash could be got from the drawers, who were, in many cases,
obliged to bring a large portion of their stock to the hammer, in order
to meet