every year.
The shipping of Sydney now amounts to 224 vessels of the aggregate
burden of 25,000 tons, of which 15 are steamers, of an aggregate burden
of 1635 tons. This statement may give some idea of the rapidity with
which the ports of the Southern world are rising into an almost European
importance.[140] Since the year 1817 several large banks have been
established, and, from the high rate of interest which money has always
borne in the colony, it is not surprising that some of these concerns
have been very profitable. It is only to be hoped that the spirit of
speculation may not be carried out, till it ends, as it too frequently
does in the mother country, in fraud and dishonesty.

[140] See the Morning Herald, July 5, 1842.

There is a well-managed post-office in Sydney, and a twopenny post, with
delivery twice a day, in the town itself. There is, likewise, a Savings'
Bank,[141] a Mechanics' Institute, several large schools or colleges;
and, in short, so far as is possible, the usages and institutions of
England, whether good or bad, are, in most instances, transferred and
copied with amazing accuracy by the inhabitants of New South Wales.
"Nothing surprises a stranger in an English colony more than the
pertinacity with which our ways, manners, and dress are spread in these
outlandish spots. All smells of home."[142] Accordingly, in complete
agreement with the manners of the mother country, though not in harmony
with that Word of Truth which commands Christians "with one mind and one
mouth to glorify God," (Rom. xv. 6,) the capital of New South Wales is
adorned with several buildings for various parties in the _Christian
world_, as it is called, to meet in public worship. There is a large and
handsome Roman Catholic chapel, "a Scotch church, built after the _neat
and pleasing style_ (?) adopted by the disciples of John Knox; and the
Methodist chapel, an humble and lowly structure;" and, therefore,
according to Mr. Montgomery Martin's opinion, from whom this account is
borrowed, all the better fitted to lead men to admire, love, and worship
their Creator. How different are these modern notions from those of King
David, who, although he was blessed with quite as exalted ideas of God's
omnipresence as most men have, nevertheless deemed it wrong for himself
to "dwell in a house of cedar," while "the ark of God dwelt within
curtains," even the costly and beautifully-wrought curtains of the
tabernacle. And among the