The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-09-07 00:00:00

VAN DIEM/WS LAXU.

Letters were received in Edinburgh on Friday last, from
Van Diemen's Land, by the ship Medway, which came
home in about four months, dated 9th of April last. TM y
are front a respectable proprietor, who is not at all guilty of
exaggerating the state of the country, but who writes its
real situation with perfect truth. It gives ua, therefore,
much pleasure in laying before our readers the latest intel-
ligence from that interesting colony. Ile proceeds—
" In my former letters I informed you of the miserable
state of the Colony, from the robberies and murders of
the bush-rangers, which made every one tremble. lam
now glad to acquaint you, that they have all, except two,
been overtaken by justice, and forfeited their lives to the
twice offended laws of their country. It is to be hoped
that these two will also soon be got, as Givernor Arthur is
using his utmost diligence to take them, and has offered
very high rewards.
The Judges at home ought to have a discretionary
power of fixing the place of banishment as they see just,
and none but the least offending criminals should be sent
to these fine countries. The worst of the convicts ought to
be sent to repair forts, &c. at Sierra Leone; the second
class to Bermuda ; the third to public works in Britain ;
and to such as deserve lenity, their punishment should be
Australia.
" We have just had an abundant harvest (January last)
of every kind of grain ; and prices are consequently low.
IVhcat is 6s. 6d. per bushel, barley 5s , oats 53., potatoes
6s. per cwt. Cattle are very cheap, and can scarcely be
sold. Fine milch cows M. and 61. The Government con-
tracts for meat are made at 3d. and 2111. per lb. This is
owing to the over care of Government sending us out so
much It ish cured pork, and has caused us to have a large
surplus of meat, which we cannot dispose of nor consume,
the population being only 13,000; and we have 230,000
sheep, and 20,000 head of cattle. The colony, thank God,
can now maintain itself.
"The Tasmanian Company from London have arrived,
but hitherto we have heard little about them. The Leith
Australian Company are very limited in their trade • they
neither buy our wool nor wheat, but seem solely to aevote
themselves to freights. The other merchants in the island,
however, putchase our wool and raw material, which en-
ables the proprietors to go on. My opinion of the Tasma-
nian Company is, that they should become bankers and
merchants with their large capital, and not farmers and
graziers.
" The fine wool is in great demand, and those who have
large estates and good stock make large profits.
" Last summer it was very hot ; pray, how was the win-
ter in ONI Scotland ?"

In perusing the above letter, those who have relations or
friends in Van Diemen's Land must be much relieved, be-
cause of the very distressing accounts of the proceedings of
the bush-rangers (or runaway convicts) lately published.
We have often thought that if Government grant any sum
for the purposes of emigration, as recommended by the
Parliamentary Committee, the money could not be better
expended than in conveying some thousands of our dis-
tressed manufacturers and others to Van Diemen's Land
and New Seuth Wales. That would encourage our ship-
ping, and at the same time be an immediate and permanent
relief to the emigrants themselves ; for the instant they
landed, they would find themselves in a most healthy and
congenial climate, abounding with all the fulness of Pro-
vidence, enjoying a mild and salubrious winter, and a sum-
later equally fitted for a British constitution.

PLAGUE Tuna ty.—A letter from Tarsons of the 30th
May, 1826, says, the plague has made dreadful havoc at
Adana. The dead are no longer buried. Many quarters
of the town are put under quarantine, and the few who re-
main alive in them, without being attacked, die from the
infection of the bodies which are allowed to putrify in the
houses. As for Tarsons, the l'acha, who arrived there
only 4 days ago, has communicated it to it. From 15 to 20
persons (lie daily, and there were 50 attacked. At Adana
it is still worse; out of 50 attacked, 49 die. Hitherto
'farms has been the boundary of this scourge on the
South.
POLITICAL. PROPHECY OF THE LATE JOHN ADAMS, 71
YEARS AGO.—The following is an extract of a letter writ-
ten by John Adams, dated at Worcester, Massachutets,
Oct. 12, 1755.—" Soon after the Reformation, a few people
came over into this new world, for conscience sake. Per-
haps this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great
seat of empire into America. It looks likely to me; for, if
we can remove the turbulent Gallica, our people, according
to the exactest computations, will, in another cuntury, be-
come more numerous than England itself. Should this be
the case (since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of
the nation in our hands), it will be easy to get mastery of
the setts; and then the united force of all Europe will not
be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from
Betting up for ourselves is to disunite us. He not surprised
that lam turned politician. 'fhis whole town is immersed
in politics. The interests of nations, and all the din of
war, make the subject of every conversation. I sit and
hear, and after having bean led through a man of sage
observations, I sometimes retire, and, laying things together,
form some reflections pleasing to myself. The produce of
one of these reveries you have read above."