imitations of the customs and habits of home,
the love of newspapers, and the number of these published, deserve a
passing notice. The state of the public press in England, especially
with regard to its Sunday publications, is grievous and lamentable
enough to justify the assertion, that printing is a bane as well as a
blessing to our native country. And as for those persons who are weak
enough to talk as though newspapers were the great or sole means of
diffusing _truth_ and _knowledge_ among the people, they are not less
mistaken than others would be, who might affirm that newspapers were the
chief or only means of spreading _lies_ and _ignorance_ among them. But
if so much evil is mingled with the good produced by the public press in
Great Britain, how must the case stand with the same mighty agent of
benefit or mischief in a colony like that of New South Wales? To this
question let Dr. Lang,--himself a newspaper editor in Sydney for many
years, a man of what are called "Liberal principles," and a Presbyterian
teacher,--furnish a reply. His words are stronger than another person, a
stranger to the colony, would like to use, or could be justified in
using; and if exceptions against his authority be made in certain
quarters, care must be taken by them not to quote that same authority
too implicitly on other subjects. Dr. Lang, in the following passage,
speaks disparagingly of one of the great idols of his party; their
favourite toast has always been, "The Liberty of the Press; it is like
the air we breathe, if we have it not, we die,"--although it is true
they have occasionally forgotten that other parties want "air to
breathe," as much as themselves. Bearing these things in mind, we may
listen with a smile to the character which Dr. Lang gives of the
colonial press in New South Wales:--"It has, with only few exceptions,
been an instrument of evil instead of good; while, in many instances, it
has been a mere receptacle and propagator of downright blackguardism."
Accordingly, it is reckoned, (too justly, we may fear,) among the
_sources of colonial demoralization_ in the very paragraph from which
the above statement is borrowed.

[141] This is flourishing, for the deposits are stated in recent
accounts from Sydney to have increased, between June 30, 1840, and the
same date in 1842, from 143,000_l._ to 178,000_l._, and the number of
accounts opened was much greater than in former years.

[142] Extract from a