townships; and
indeed, every measure of the Colonial Government of late years, has had
for its object to assimilate its internal arrangements as nearly as
possible, to those of the mother country. Whether we are to attribute
the present flourishing state of the colony to the beneficial influence
of that system of government which has been exercised over it for the
last seven years it is not for me to say. That the prosperity of a
country depends, however, in a great measure, on the wisdom of its
legislature, is as undoubted, as that within the period I have
mentioned the colony of N. S. Wales has risen unprecedentedly in
importance and in wealth, and has advanced to a state of improvement at
which it could not have arrived had its energies been cramped or its
interests neglected.

ITS ADVANCES IN PROSPERITY.

There is a period in the history of every country, during which it will
appear to have been more prosperous than at any other. I allude not to
the period of great martial achievements, should any such adorn its
pages, but to that in which the enterprise of its merchants was roused
into action, and when all classes of its community seem to have put
forth their strength towards the attainment of wealth and power.

ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS.

In this eventful period the colony of New South Wales is already far
advanced. The conduct of its merchants is marked by the boldest
speculations and the most gigantic projects. Their storehouses are
built on the most magnificent scale, and with the best and most
substantial materials. Few persons in England have even a remote idea
of its present flourishing condition, or of the improvements that are
daily taking place both in its commerce and in its agriculture. I am
aware that many object to it as a place of residence, and I can easily
enter into their feelings from the recollection of what my own were
before I visited it. I cannot but remark, however, that I found my
prejudices had arisen from a natural objection to the character of a
part of its population; from the circumstance of its being a penal
colony, and from my total ignorance of its actual state, and not from
any substantial or permanent cause. On the contrary I speedily became
convinced of the exaggerated nature of the reports I had heard in
England, on some of the points just adverted to; nor did any thing fall
under my observation during a residence in it of more than six years to
justify the opinion I had been p