The Press. — London, England, 1853-11-19 00:00:00

reformation before the prisoner is restored to his liberty deserve to be stigmatised as mere sentimentalists, whi,se feelings are so absorbed in sympathy fur the guilty that they have no care for the security and welfare of the inns cent ? A Lolly's Visit to the Gold Plyyings qf 'Natrona is 1m52-3. By Mrs. Charles Claey. IN April, 1851, Mrs. Claey, who was then Miss —she does not mention her maiden name— embarked with her brother at Gravesend On a voyage to the land of gold. The usual inci dents—" intense misery on losing sight of " England," phosphoric light on the water, ex citement produced by meeting a homeward bound ship, a sailor's funeral, and a calm within the tropics—break the monotony of the voyage. On the 2-Ith of dune Vic* .or.a.s reached. Three and sixpence a head for a party of twelve was eherged by the water men for taking them on shore, and at Liardet's hotel sherry— " vile trash"—was served in a well-furnished room at eight shillings the bottle. Front Liardet's to Melbourne is between two and three miles, and thither they proceeded in a " tunable-down" omnibus, for which the fare was half-a-crown each person and one shilling each package. Their first object was to pro cure lodgings, and of course all the hotels, &e., are full, and—equally as a matter of course— just when they arc about to pass the night in the open air, they succeed in procuring board and lodging, certainly of an indifferent kind, at thirty shillings a week each. The first night in Melbourne " dogs (it is full of them) I. kept up an incessant barking, revolvers were "clucking in all directions until daybreak, " anal " within the bed there was an " annoy " mace which would alone have sufficed" to de prive Mrs. Claey of sleep. The first few days she was confined to the house, bemuse in June the weather is so variable that the sky may be blue and the earth dry one hour, and the street be impassable the next. Mrs. Claey's brother, who had before chiefly directed has attention to Homer and Euclid, now energetically com menced a commercial life by a successful stroke of business : he sold a revolver, which cost him 31., for 161., " and the parting with it " at that price was looked upon us a great " favour." Melbourne is very well laid out ; the streets (which are all straight, running parallel with and across one another) are very wide, hut are incomplete, not lighted, and many are unpaved. Owing to the want of lamps, few, except when full moon, dare stir out after dark. Some of the short are very fair; lint the good% all partake too largely of the dash order, fin the purpose of stating the tastes of Nue cesitftd digger, their waves and f 'lire ;It IS IttlllienODl to *et , them in the shops—men who, before the gold-mines were discovered, toiled hard fir their tinily bread, taking off lialfwillizen thick gold rings from their fingers, and trying to pull tin to their rough, well-hardened hands the best white kids, to he worn at some wedding party ; whilst the wiGi, prowl of the novel ornament , descents on the folly of hiding thou beneath such useless solely% as gloves. Churches and chapels are numerous, " but " the Established Church hits of all the worst " provision for its members ;" numbers are obliged, Sunday after Sunday, to return from the two small churches which alone are yet completed, because they are unable to find room. " The weather was still very cold and " wet," coals could not be procured, and wood was " fifty shillings for a good-sized barrow fill." The colonists " forget everything in the '• glitter of their own mines, and all comfort " ies laid aside ; money is the idol, mud making " it is the mania which absorbs every other " thought." Sometimes Men half mad are seen flinging sovereigns about the streets. Once Mrs. Clary saw a digger examine a roll of bank notes and deliberately take out and destroy every tune that was torn or soiled, swearing that " he wouldn't carry dirt in his pocket." There are many Jews and only two pawn brokers in Melbourne. On the tart September Mrs. (lacy and her brother, with about ten others, accompanied by two dray., each drawn by a pair of stout horses, and three packhorses. started for the diggings, From Melbourne to litundigo is 100 miles, and the mice of carriage per ton varied from 701. to 1:)0/. Mrs. (lacy, however, was allowed to travel on a dray—her seat was a sack of flour, her footstool a cheese ; her attire a dress of "common dark blue serge, a " felt wide-awake, and a waterproof coat." Thus seated at her case, with her feet on the THE PRESS. cheese. Mrs. Clacy enjoyed facilities for no ticing the objects of interest she passed ; nor did she neglect her opportunities, for seeing a public-house she proceeds to describe In " front of the principal entrance is a thunder " ing large lamp." And here once for all we may observe that the book before us, though containing many interesting facts, told in a plain unaffected way, is disfigured by slang and strange expressions colonialisms the authoress calls them. At an inn (Gregory's) at whieh they stopped " a capital cold dinner of meat, bread, cheese, " eotree, tea, &e.," cost three shillings each. Thus refreshed, they proceed, and the follow ing is a favourable specimen of Mrs. Claey's style : As we advanced, the thickly•wooded sides of Mount Macedon became more distinct. and our proximity to a part of the country which we knew to be auriferous exer eiseil an unaceountable yet pleasurable influence over our spirits, which was perhaps increased by the loveliness of the spot where we now pitched our tents for the evening. It was at the foot of the tiap. The stately gumtree, the shea oak, with its gracefully drooping foliage, the perfumed yellow blossom of the mimosa, the richly-wooded mountain in the background, milted 1.1 florin &picture too magnificent to deseribe. The ground was carpeted with wild flowers; the sarsaparilla blossoms creeping cverywhare; below ns slowly rippled a clear streamlet, reflecting a thousand times the deepening tints which the last nivs of the setting sun flung over the summialing scenery ; the air rang with the cawing of the numerous cockatoos and parrots of all hues and eolours. who made the woods resound with their tunes, whilst their restless movements and gay plumage gave life and piquancy to the scene. _ _ On the I ith September they perceived indiea tions that diggers had been at work, and in the neighbourhood they discovered that there was a hole " out of which five people cleared " 18,0001. (?)" worth of gold each, in a few hours. As Dendigo is approached, the scenery resembles part of the lowlands of Wales. " here we first beheld the majestic iron bark, " the trunks of which are fluted with the " exquisite regularity of a Doric column." At last the veritable Biggins themselves burst upon the view:— _ Never shall 1 forgt•t that scene : it well repaid a journey even of sixteen thousand miles. The trees had been all cut down ; it hooked like a sandy plain, or one vast unbroken ant eetiSitlll of conntlems gravel-pits—the earth was every. where turned up—metes heads in every direction were !bopping lip and down from their holes. \•t•11 might an Australian writer, in speaking of liendigo, term it " The Carthage of tin 'lyre tof Forest Creek." The rattle of the cradle, as it swayed to and fro, the sounds of the pick and shovel, the busy hunt of so many thousands, the i iiii tinter. able tents, the stores with large Hags hoisted above them, Hags of every shape, col •' m and nation, fru the lion anti •orn of England to the Russian eagle, the stnutge vet picturesque costume of the diggers themselves, a ll contri buted to render the scene novel in the extreme. The gulleys or ravines where the gold is found have names which preserve the origin of its ►liscovery. White Horse Gulley is so called because a plunging horse of that colour flung up the earth and uncovered the treasure. At one place (Moonlight Flat) it was ealealated that in the wet season one man a day was buried alive by the earth falling into his hole. Artisans at the diggings, •• in the long run." make fortunes quicker than the diggers them selves : Night at the diggings is the characteristic time: murder here—murder there—reviolvers cracking—blunder busses lbooming—rifles going off—balls w hi s tling—o ne man groaning with *broken leg—smother shouting because he couldn't find the way to his hole. and a thi r d equa lly vocifrnms because he bras tumbled into one—this man swearing—another raying—a party of bacchanals chanting various ditties to difVercut time anti tune. or rather minus both. Here is one Mail grumbling because he has brought his wife with him, another ditto because he has left his or sold her for an ounce of gold or a bottle of rum. Donnybrook Fair is not to be compstmil to an evening at ltcndigo. One of their female neighbours " (tunnelled " with two doctors because they would not give "her a written certificate that the state of her " health required the constant use of spirits." The party to which Mrs. Ciders brother be longed met with moderate success and the usual adventures, that is to say, they lost their way. were caught in a storm, and on their return to Melbourne were attacked by bushrangers and over' - cred,but were speedily rescued by other travellers. Some romantic tales are told of a nature which, as truth is stranger than fiction, must be rife in a popula tion gathered from all classes and all countries, all bent upon amassing gold. As it was only on the vith of October when Mrs. Clacy reached Melbourne, the could sca reely have been a SATLIIDAY, month at the diggings. Somewhere about this time the authoress became Mrs. Clio•, and, in making her wedding purchases, she had further opportunities of observing the Melbourne shops:— Tho• must significant advertisement was one I saw in a window in Collins•street. In the middle was a skull per• (orated by a bullet, which lay at a little distance as if coolly exam • gor speculating on the mischief it had done. on one side of the skull was a revolver, and on the other a quantity of nuggets. Above all was the emphatic inscrip tion, " Beware in time." Mrs. Chisholm 's emigrants are in great re quest, and do well ; Mr. Sidney Herbert's " bear a bad Hanle, and the worst reeommen " dation a young girl applying for a situation " can give is to say she came out in that " manner." On the 15th November Mrs. Clacy and her husband embarked to return to Eng land, which they reached on the 27th of February, 114:i3. She had been absent less than a year, and the fruits of her trip has been this volume, which, though as a literary corn• position it is open to much improvement, as a repertory of amusing and curious miscella neous information connected with the gold colonies is a welcome addition to the library. Irillich's Income Tax Table*. London: Longman and Co. Tins is a set of tables showing at a glance tit, amount of duty payable under the act for continuing the income tax, and progressively diminishing its rate. As those rates are 7d., lid., 34d., ad., 24d., 20., and 11(1., extending from the present time down to 114611, without some assistance, to calculate the sum due would be troublesome. Whether the tax will meet with ready payers is one question, but these tables are indisputably a ready reckoner. Mr. licit is of opinion that the amount of income tax under Mr. Gladstone's act will be six millions and a half. Some interesting statistical information is added. The tax of lot per cent., which in IWO pm. awed 0,244,438/., in 114110 produced 1.2,►322,0541?. l fill this difference arise from a fluctuation in national wealth, or from the roguery of the payers ? if the latter, then in IsOU the tables were turned on them with a vengeance. Diveorery. A Poem. By Eilward Ahlam Leathern, M.A. Lond. London : Walton and Moberly. Tuts little book contains sixty-six pages, and is di vided into three parts ; each part is preceded by an analysis, which is indeed of great use, for it helps to the meaning of the poem. Discovery is personi fied, and treated as the active agent in every event and relation of life. The verse is generally smooth, the rhyme faultless, and, in the days of Addison and Queen Anne, this would have been thought a per formance of promise. In the days of Queen 'Victoria it would be a good prize poem, of which, indeed, it forcibly reminds us, only it is too long. When the author forgets his learning, and meals "the sunny heath and scenes of childhood," if his lines are less " correct," his images are more like poetry•. This is very like it : " - Thy shady limes, which, priests among the tree•. Waved their sweet cense►s in the grateful breeze." But this is neither poetical nor even smooth—a stream, " And, a it rolled in languid eddies by, Settned cooling itself there ao leiatuely." Er►►►enyerde Syd►►'y ; or, Home Sketches. London : - - Hope and Co. Tins little volume is dedicated "to those at whose request it was written ;" and, as the author concludes with an allusion to the persons whose characters are sketched in it, we believe the work to be a record of realities and not a fiction. Chapter 1., of five pages, introduces us to an orphan, Mande Lyle. Chapter 11. opens with the same orphan, walking with a lady up and down a terraced walk in front of an old, grey stone, gable-ended, and window-mullioned country house. " After a silence of some minutes, the elder " lady spoke Then, Maude, you have quite de " termineil upon accepting Lord Chetaynd's offer "" Who would not suppose that we had plunged its media* rep. at once, and that. the tale commenced with a marriage' But the "otter" is only for a horse. A number of ordinary ladies and gentlemen, who bear aristocratic names—Bouverie, Stanley, Herbert, Vavasoor, Everard, Lyle, dc. ke., with corresponding Christian names—Boland, Basil, de., with Edith, Ennengarde, Evelyn, AT. .(c., now appear, and the rest of tht4book is made up of their very ordinary conversaf . They seem to have plenty of money, carriages, horses, servants, .(e. de., and no doubt spent their time pleasantly ; but the author appears to suspect that their sayings and doings will be inte resting only to themselves. This suspicion is Or'