The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

antipodes, I ventured to inquire his motives for eniigra.
ting, when he informed me with the most perfect Hang
froid that he had come out to Australia with the intention
of making '200,0001. or so in a few years, and then return-
ing and giving the British House of Commons a better
idea of their Australian colonies than they hitherto pos.
messed. I suggested that by far the most speedy way of
making a fortune I had heard of was by keeping an inn
or public-house. He immediately replied, that he had not
landed in Melbourne twenty four hours without taking
measures to secure an establishment of that description
He had also despatched his yacht ( a cutter of ninety tons)
with a crew of Kentish men known to himself, and sho
had arrived safe at Port Philip, where he had sold her to
the Government for a considerable sum. These men, he
toll me, he had equipped with everything necessary for a
gold digging expedition, upon the understanding that they
were to pay him one-half or one-quarter (I do not exactly
remember which) of their gains. In addition to these
two speculations, both of which were managed by deputy,
he had purchased, on credit and otherwise, several Ameri-
can waggons, and upwards of fifty horses, at an average
cost of 50/. each, which were now performing the stage-
coach service already mentioned. He had also to keep up
an extensive staff of coachmen, ostlers, conductors, ctc.,
at very high wages, and the cost of forage was immense.
He hail accompanied the chief com..nissioner to Ballarat
with a floating idea of building sawmills, speculating in
land, and establishing market-gardens, merely as a pre-
liminary step to other and Imre important undertakings
It might suggest itself to ordinary mortals, that a
capital of between two and three thousand pounds (nearly
all he possessed on his arrival), and which arose from the
sale of the vessel, was hardly sufficient for such gigantic
speculations; and in a country where the value of every.
thing is subject to such extraordinary and rapid changes;
but my friend's confidence in his own infallibility was
never shaken, and his egotism was so great, and his so-
phistry so cool and persuasive, that he possessed a great
facility of talking round others to the point he aimed at.
The hotel and restaurant that he had started in Mel-
bourne, when his projected improvements were effected,
would involve an annual rent of about 0,0001.! and Ito
paid his head cook two guineas per diem ! He installed as
manager of this establishment a Polish Jew, who had
formerly acted in the capacity of courier to him in Europe,
and who hail accompanied him from Marseilles, and whose
character he depicted as a fellow who would cheat all the
world, with the exception of himself!
The upshot of this speculation was, that in a few months
Monsieur Louis unhappily forgot to make this exception
in favour of his master, and not only filled his own pockets,
but brought an action against his patron for alleged mone}s
due, which he succeeded in gaining.

The author's personal misadventures we
shall not record. In the two hundred last
pages of his volume he " does " the Friendly
Islands, the Navigator Islands, New Zealand,
China, and Java! His work give us just such
a sensation as we might receive from the de-
scriber of one of Mr. Burford's panoramas.
Ho is well qualified for a light, fl►ppant writer,
and he is not entirely unsuited for beemning
a writer of popular fiction, as, from his ex-
perience of life, and his peculiar temperament,
he has many of the qualities which make a
popular• novelist.