The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-20 00:00:00

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The,following observations by Mr. Commissions
Fane on proposed reforms in the Bankruptcy am
Insolvency Laws have been forwarded to us :
" 1. I do not think that any legislative assistant,
should be given to enable any majority of creditor.
socking what is • called liquidation' (which, 1.
nothing but a plausible word for secrecy ' )
Control any minority of creditors, however small.
I would not allow even 99 creditors to control th,.
hundredth creditor. The hundredth man who in-
sists on publicity is the friend of the public.
" There is nothing so agreeable to an insolvent
and his creditors as secrecy, nothing so disagreeable
as publicity. The debtor is only too often a knave,
the creditors are almost all victims of their own
readiness to give credit without inquiry. The debtor
hates to have his knavery, the creditor hates to have
his folly, exposed. They are in a conspiracyagainst
honest men, and their engine is secrecy.'
" The usual course is this. When the debtor
cannot longer delay the evil day, he calls his cre-
ditors together to hear his statement of debts and
assets, and he submits a proposition which is always
to pay so many shillings in the pound. Generally►
he offers about as much as he can pay. The credi-
tors consider his proposition, and almost always
stipulate for something more. The debtor is so
anxious for secrecy that he generally undertakes to
pay the something more, but he proposes to pay it
by acceptances, at three, six, nine, and 12 months.
Having thus bought secrecy, he obtains during the
12 months, of tradesmen who have not heard of his
insolvency, the means of paying his existing credi-
tors ; and thus Peter is robbed to pay Paul, and the
result is that a knave is turned loose on the world
unexposed. The existing creditors do not trust him.
during the 12 months, because they know him ;
new creditors do trust him, because they do not
know him. Is this a system which the law should
encourage P •
" If I could make the law, I would not only not
give the smallest power to the majority of credi-
tors to bind the minority, I would go further, and
would even enact that the creditor who established
the bankruptcy should receive some advantage
as a reward for having been the first to denounce
the insolvent, and so stop his mischievous career.
In a bankruptcy before me a short time ago, two
eminent banking houses in the City lost, one £5,000,
the other £1,1500, by not knowing that a person
who put his name to a bill as a second security had
privately arranged with his creditors a year before.
" I, for one, will never lift a finger to assist pri-
vate arrangements. The true policy is publicity.
"2. I think there ought not to be two laws--a
law of bankruptcy and a law of insolvency.
" I think that there should be but one law, and
that law should be the existing law of bankruptcy.
The principle of the law of bankruptcy is right. It
is this—take possession of the bankrupt's property,
realise it, and after paying expenses distribute it
among the creditors. Inquire into the conduct of the
bankrupt before and pending his bankruptcy, and
treat him accordingly, so far as punishment goes ;
but, in any event, return him sooner or later to the
world of industry, entirely free from all former
debts. Let him recommence the struggle to main-
tain himself and family ; do not impede, or, it might
bo said, neutralise his exertions by weighing him
down with old debts. Creditors are nearly as much
to blame as debtors, and ought not to be permitted
to oppress those whom they have misled by. the
carelessness with which they have given credit.
" Assuming there ought not to be two laws, a
law of bankruptcy and a law of insolvency, and as-
suming that the main principles of the law of bank-
ruptcy are right, it follows that the insolvent law
should be dropped, and the bankrupt law substituted
with such amendments as should be approved of.
" It is proposed to consolidate the Bankrupt and
Insolvency Courts, and have only one court, the
judges of which should be called judges, not
commissioners. This seems right. I think that
the word bankruptcy should be dropped. The pro-
per word is insolvency. The consolidated Court
should, therefore, be called the Court of Insolvency.
But it would be inexpedient to have all cases of in-
solvency managed in the same court, as there is
great inconvenience in mixing the lowest of the low
with persons who have always moved in a higher
sphere. The proposal, therefore, to retain the court-
house and establishment in Portugal-street, as well
as the building and establishment in Basinghail-
street, and use the former for the lower class of in-
solvents and the creditors and the latter for the
higher classes seems judicious. It is a great advan-
tage that they are a mile and more from each other.
Insolvents should be divided into two classes—say
class A and class B. Class A should consist cf those
insolvents whose available assets would probably
exceed £2OO ; class B should consist of those whose
available assets would probably not exceed that sum.
Class A should be dealt with by the judges sitting
in Basinghall-street and the Bankruptcy Courts in
the country • class B by the judges sitting in Portu-
gal-street and the insolvency judges in the country.
" 3. The law which now enables a creditor who
has got judgment to take the property of his
debtor in execution for his own private use
should be abolished. He ought to have 20s. in
the pound on the cost he has incurred, but should
come in with the other creditors for a dividend
on his debt. Under the existing system, the debtor
is constantly in league with the execution creditor,
and the two contrive to cheat all the other creditors.
Even if the demand of the creditor is an honest de-
mand, it is most unjust that he should get 20s. in
the pound upon his debt, when the other creditors
get little or nothing; but if it is not an honest de-
mand (and it is very difficult to find out whether it
is or is not) it is a most revolting piece of knavery,
because it is turning the law, which ought to be a
protection to honest men, into an instrument to
cheat them.

THE SUN, LONDON, THLTRSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 20, 1859.

THE NAVY.

BRITISH COLUMBIA,

lication in San Francisco, who, in speaking of the
climate of Victoria, reports that—" This year we
have had one entire rainy day in July, and two
thus far in August, besides several showers. These
rains keep the grass green, and all kinds of vegeta-
, tion fresh and growing throughout the summer.
The meadows and pastures now look as verdant
here as in California. From May until the
middle of July the wind blows fresh every day.
After this it ceases, and until the winter rains set
in the weather is delightfully calm, and the tem-
perature subject to very little variation, the ther-
mometer not changing more than 15 or 16 degrees
night or day during this period. From April to
Nov. it rarely ever falls below 50 or goes above 75.
In.this respect. it is the most even climate I have
ever seen.' To this testimony I will only add, that
apple and peach trees are at present partially in
blossom, after having delivered themselves of abun-
dant crops of fruit within the past few weeks. I
prefer this climate myself to that of California, sim-
ply because it is not so enervating. With more
streams meandering through the meadows and
prairies than they have, the country could be culti-
vated into one grand garden for many miles all
round Victoria.

A court-martial was held on Tuesday, in Ham oaze,
Plymouth, on board the flagship Impregnable, to
try Mr. John Foster, assistant engineer of the third
class. The charge was that " he, being in active
service, and belonging to her Majesty's ship Leopard,
did on the evening of the 15th October quit the
ship without leave, after being refused permission
by the first lieutenant." Sir Thos. Pasley, Under
Superintendent of the Dockyard, presided ; Mr.
John Eastlake officiated as Judge Advocate, and
Capt. Wainwright (Leopard) prosecuted. The first
lieutenant, Mr. Webb E. Stone, having proved the
fact, which occurred at Greytown, and the prisoner
having submitted that at the timehe was labouring
under great mental depression, sentenced him to
six months' imprisonment in the county gaol, and
to be dismissed from her Majesty's service.
Her Majesty's screw line of battle ship Agamem-
non, of 91 guns, was taken out of No. 7 dock at
Portsmouth, yesterday, and placed iu the steam
basin.
The Ariadne, 32, screw steam frigate, of 800
horse power, building at Deptford, is fast progress-
ing towards completion, and will, we understand,
be launched about July next.
Her Majesty's steam frigate Termagant, of 25
guns, commenced masting yesterday under the
sheers of the Portsmouth dockyard jetty. She will
shortly be commissioned.
Her Majesty's screw frigate Mersey, of 40 guns,
sent up topmasts yesterday, and is to be brought
forward with all possible despatch. She rates as
a first class, being only 27 tons less than the Duke
of Wellington, three-decker.
It has been announced to the friends of the officers
and men belonging to her Majesty's sloop of war
Sappho, 12, Capt. F. Moresby, that in the event of
the Admiralty receiving no further information re-
lative to that ship, the name of the vessel is to be
removed from the next edition of the " Navy List."
Her Majesty's paddleship Argils, of six guns, is
at Spithead.
The Queen's regulation, similar in all its bearings
to that issued in 1858, relative to the grade and uni-
form of the corps of military store•officers, has been
issued to the Royal Engineer department. Accord-
ingly, the clerk of the works and other established
clerks attached to that office at Woolwich yester-
day appeared in uniforms precisely similar to those
of the Military Store department. They are to
be entitled to honorary grades in the army as non-
combatant officers equivalent to lieutenants, cap-
tains, &e., and when in uniform are to be saluted as
commissioned officers of her Majesty's service, and
take precedence in the usual manner as officers.
Regulations to that effect have been printed for the
information of the garrison.
The Standard gun foundry at Woolwich arsenal
having completed the stipulated number of 130
heavy siege guns, yesterday commenced turning
out a number of 32-pounders, a couple of which
will be cast each alternate day, amounting to six
guns per week.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
VICTORIA, VANCOUVER'S ISLAND, Nov. 11.
Had my time permitted I would have made some
remarks on the agriculture and on the capabilities of
the soil of this island in my last letter.
Here is the experience of a gentleman who was for
years a farmer in Essex, in England, and who has
farmed a tract of land about two miles from Victoria
for the last six years. The notes which I have taken
of his operations. will convey to the agricultural
mind abroad an id of the quality of the soil; the
character of the sea Ans, and the results of farming
operations conducted with skill in Vancouver's
Island.
This farmer has not established, as yet, any fixed
rotation. His general course has been, when he first
breaks up the land; to sow it with peas, which tend
to clean and open the ground : next year wheat,
next oats, and the fourth year peas again, or tur-
nips. The virgin soil is too rich to require or to
bear manure for a few years, unless on poor stony
spots not yet cultivated. The essential point is to
keep:the laud clean from brakes and weeds. In a
state of nature the best of the land is covered with a
thick crop of ferns, which attain an enormous size—
five, six, and seven feet in height, strong in stem
and tough in roots. This is the system, and its
results :
Wheat, sown after turnips fed off by sheep, or
after potatoes ; sows 1 bushels to the acre, broad-
cast. Return, 28 to 35 bushels to the acretaecord-
ing to quality of, soil : but the prodade depends
chiefly on the freedom of the soil from weeds.
Cleaning makes the heavy crop. His wheat averages
641 b. to the bushel. Considers the quality very
good. Wheat may, of course, be sown after potatoes;
but after turnips gives the best crop.
Oats—Sows 2 bushels, broadcast, to the acre.
Return, from 50 to 70 bushels to the acre ; not
heavy; grain rather small. None yet made into
meal. An oatmeal mill is on the way out for the
use of the farmers in the neighbourhood.
Barley—Sows very little. Market hitherto
limited; now increasing with the advent of troops
of mules and horses for " packing" in the adjacent
mining country of British Columbia. The soil is
well adapted for growing barley.
Peas—Sows 2 bushels to the acre. Return, 30 to
40 bushels to the acre from the dun pea and the
scimitar (blue) pea ; seeds sent from England. They
grow larger than in the old country, but he can't
give the weight.
Potatoes—The ground prepared by two or three
ploughings and well cleaned, and (such fields as
Dave been already cropped) manured by about 20
cartloads of farmyard dung to an acre ; plants about
three-fourths of a ton to the acre in rows, three feet
apart. Return, Bto 10 tons an acre ; the produce
large in size, mealy, and well-flavoured ; the quality
of all kinds good, but the white oval-shaped kidney
excellent. This last fact I can vouch for. They
are smaller in size, but superior in flavour to the
California potato. In some few instances the pro-
duce is enormous,-56 tubers from one seedling, of
which number 40 were large-sized potatoes, choice
and fit for market.

L On the other hand, the climate of British Colum-
bia, the new colony, on the mainland, is hotter in
summer and much colder in winter than that of this
island. The-climate of the mainland, as I learn from
old residents in the Hudson's Bay Company's ser-
vice,,is, however, quite healthy, and certainly, from
my/experience of it during the month of Sept. last,
the whole of which I passed in the open air and
under canvass, nothing can be more delightful.
Among the thousands of miners and others all
exposed by day and by night, with whom I for-
gathered, I did not meet a sick person, and only
one man who complained of a headache. The
winter is cold and frosty, but the air is clear and
bracing.
I now come to speak of the town of Victoria, as
it has grown since I last noticed it. Situated on a
rocky plateau, which rises from the bay, it runs
along the top of the bank fronting the water in a
north-easterly direction till it embraces a portion
of the Victoria Arm, which runs up to Esquimalt,
and the principal portion runs back from the water
till it joins the open prairie and forest country
which forms the south-eastern portion of the island,
bounded by Cadboro Bay and the Straits of De
Haro. The south-western portion of the town is
divided from the inhabited and business part by
James's Bay, a small arm of the harbour, running
inland in a south-easterly direction for about a ,
quarter of a mile, or less. The town extends, on
paper, south and west of this bay, following the
sinuosities of Victoria Bay towards the Straits of
Fuca, so as to embrace the whole of the northern

and eastern side of the harbour, and to which side

the town is confined. The situation is extremely
fine, commanding, as I before stated, extensive
views of sea and mountain at a distance, and pictu-
resque glimpses of forest scenery close at hand, with
charming peeps of the innumerable little bays and
inlets indenting the shores of the waters which wash
the base of the plateau on which the town is laid
out.

Her- Majesty's paddlewheel steam-sloop Alecto,
late from the West Coast of Africa, having been
dismasted and stripped, was yesterday paid off at
Woolwich. A large proportion of her crew, con-
sisting of service men, were granted one month's
leave of absence, and the remainder were dis-
charged.
Her Majesty's steam storeship Rhadamanthus,
in dock at Woolwich, has been newly rigged and.
caulked, and completely overhauled. Her timbers,
in various places decayed and rotten, have been re-
placed, and she is likewise in progress of being
newly coppered. The Rhadamanthus has been
employed for many years as a transport in the
conveyance of steam gear, and has seldom required
repairs of any importance. The copper now re-
moved, it is ascertained, has been in place 174
years.
ACCIDENT TO CAPTAIN TATHAM, H.M.S. EAGLE.
—On Wednesday last, while this officer was riding
in full cry after the hounds in the neighbourhood
of Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, his horse stum-
bled in takinc, one of the fences, -Which are of no
ordinary height, and precipitated his rider with
such violence, that very serious apprehensions were
entertained'as to the result. We arc glad, however,
to be able to say that the gallant officer has slightly
recovered the shock, but will, it is feared, be con-
fined to his house for some weeks.—Plyinoteth,
The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty :
Master.—C. J. Polkingham, to the Hannibal.
Second Masters—Silas Vicary (confirmed), to the Perse-
verance ; John S. Compton, to the Calcutta.
Assistant-Paymaster—Charles E. Phillips to the Russell;
Francis Braddon to the Leopard.
Clerk—Charles Royle, to tho Victory.

Talking of potatoes, let a successor worthy of the
immortal Soyer, ambitious of fame in culinary
science, come out here and learn from the Indians
their method of cooking them, carry home the art,
and his fortune is made. Considering that the
savages have neither pot nor pan nor oven, the
result is marvellous. It is attained by steam, gene-
rated by heated stones from a little water in a
wooden box, sewed (or held together) by withcs.
But to resume my friend's story of his turnips,
which he sows in fallowed land, sometimes mann red
and sometimes not. Gets good crops from a variety
of seeds, hybrids, &c. Cannot give the produce per
acre ; but the crops are quite as good as he ever
saw in England. I saw very large ones the other
day grown in rather a thin soil on a hill close to
Victoria.

The ground laid off for the town is about one and
a half square miles, subdivided into blocks and lots;
the lots measure 60 by 120 feet each, and 20 of these
compose one block, except in one suburb, where the
blocks contain only 18 lots, and in other parts
forming narrow strips and angles which did not
afford sufficient space to form blocks of such large
size. These exceptional parts are made into smaller
blocks. The width of the streets varies from 60
feet to 100 feet, and the principal thoroughfares
are at present being graded and macadamised, for
which there is abundance of rock in the neighbour-
hood. The total number of lots in the whole town
is 1,552, a few of them, on the outside, being a
little larger in area than 60 by 120 feet, and the
total number sold is 1,142, leaving only 140 lots un-
sold, and of this remainder several lots are already
bespoken. This quick sale is a remarkable instance
of the avidity displayed for the acquisition of town
property in so remote a part of the world, and it is
fair to assume that it shows great public confidence

Clover does well. Not much land yet laid down
in clover. The land, when freed. from growing
timber, is laid down often in timothy for pasture,
to save the great labour and expense of clearing
out the stumps of the trees—an arduous task, until
machinery is had to wrench them out of the earth.
I hear of such a machine being in use in America,
and it is to be hoped it will travel to Vancover's
Island.
The sowing and reaping seasons are, for wheat,the
latter part of October and in November; also, in
spring, as soon after February as the weather per-
mits ; all to be in the ground before the end of
March, harvested in August. Oats, barley, and
peas sown in March and. April, harvested about
August to middle of September. Potatoes planted
as early in May as can be. None should be put in
later than May, and they would do better if planted
earlier, so as to be ripe before the early frosts set
in, taken up in October. Turnips sown in June,
July, and August. The swedes in June ; the white
sorts will do to be sown down to the end of August.

in the future growth and prosperity of Victoria as
well as in the prospects of the couutry generally.
Another cause of the eagerness to invest here is the
confidence placed in the ,security of the title, and
in the protection of life and property afforded by
the administratiov. of English law, and, in short, a
reliance upon everything real and personal placed
under the guardianship of the British flag.
The subdivision into such small lots has been
keenly objected to by speculators whose operations
were defeated by the entirety of the blocks having
been broken by the purchase of single lots by per-
sons of small means, who bought their lots for
actual occupation. In no case of any other new town
do I know of so many small proprietors who own
their own houses on their own land. Victoria is
emphatically a town laid out for the benefit of the
poor man.

The soil of this farm I should take to be a fair
sample of that of the island generally, although I
do know some much better soil, scattered about,
within a few miles of Victoria, than any yet culti-
vated on this farm.

The objection to the smallness of the lots fronting
on the water is well founded. The size is too small
for shipping and general commercial purposes, and
the few traders in the place are cramped for room
in their waterside premises. A wharf cannot be
erecter: to any useful purpose on a frontage of 60
feet. A few frontages of greater width than this
do exist in the hands of two or three of the older
settlers, but the greater portion is dribbled away
in lots of only 60 fee t.wide, and there is not a single
property on the bay fit to build a capacious and
convenient wharf upon.
Another objection is the paucity of streets. Each
of the blocks should have been intersected in the
middle by cross streets, or at least by alleys, both
for convenience and for easy and prompt access in
cases of fire.

A writer in a Californian paper, who visited se-
veral portions of this island, reports that " the soil
throughout consists of a warm vegetable mould,
resting on a substratum of sandy or gravelly Clay.
This mould is generally not more than three or
four inches deep, except on the bottoms, where the
depth is much greater." He is mistaken as to the
depth of the mould. In all the land thought worth
the trouble of being cultivated the mould is deeper
than three or four inches. It is deeper than the
depth of an ordinary furrow; but in some situations
is thin as he says. The writer proceeds to describe
the quality :—" This soil is very quick and fertile,
but not durable, so after a few ploughings the land
begins to show signs of impoverishment, the upper
and more productive stratum of earth becoming
mixed with the poorer material below ; hence, after
three or four crops the yield is sensibly diminished,
unless manure be meantime applied." As to pro-
ductiveness, from actual results, he says, " Wheat,
barley, and oats generally give what would be con-
sidered two-thirds of an average crop in California,"
but " peas do even better here than there." The
comparison with California may be correct, for,
except the delta of the Nile, I have not heard of any
soil yielding such large returns of grain as that of
California.

" 4. The law should declare that it is the duty of
every person, when unable to meet his engagements,
to record the fact in the Court of Insolvency. 'rho
mode of proceeding should be for the debtor to go
before the registrar of the day, accompanied by an
attorney of the Court to identify him, and declare
himself unable to meet his engagements. The
Court upon this ought to cause the insolvency to be
gazetted, and the usual proceedings should take
place. If the insolvent did not originate proceed-
ings against himself, any unpaid creditor should be
at liberty to go before the proper Court, and state
upon oath a prima facie case of debt due. There
should not be any specific amount required. The
smaller the debt due and unpaid, the stronger would
be the proof it afforded of the insolvency of the
debtor. He who cannot pay £5 cannot pay £5O.
The judge should immediately issue his summons to
the alleged debtor, calling upon him to attend the
court on a fixed day, and show cause why heshould
not be adjudged insolvent. When the insolvent
attended, the Court would deal with the case as
justice required. If the insolvency was declared,
everything would pass as now till the insolvent had
passed his last examination. He would then ask for
his certificate, which would be granted as of course,
unless opposed, the Court granting a first, second,
or third class, according to the circumstances of
the case ; but I think that no certificate but a third
class certificate should be given, unless the Court
should be of opinion that the insolvent had pro-
duced assets which, if they had been sold according
to the usual course of business would have amounted
to 50 per cent. upon his debts. •
" There ought to be a code of commercial crimes
or offences and punishment. The punishment sh uld
err on the side of mercy, not severity. A law con-
structed on these principles would, I think, win
public favour. lam very apprehensive that the
bill, if passed as proposed, will throw us all into
confusion, from which we shall not recover for a
great length of time.
" June 25, 1858."

Three spaces have been reserved for public uses,
one of them for the church, one for a school, and
the third for a park. The latter is a fine rising
round, running southerly and westerly from near
the inner angle of James's Bay to the sea, and con-
tains Beacon-hill, a prominent object by which ma-
riners steer to make the south of the harbour, and
from which it is not far distant, The ground is a
natural park, interspersed with oaks of the true
" ancestral" aspect, their jagged bark and gnarled
branches bearing sufficient evidences of their anti-
quity, while two sides of the space are beautified
and protected by thick belts of the Douglas pine
and other trees and shrubs. The sward is good; and
when the ferns are removed, and the shrubbery
trimmed, theground needs only roads and walks to
be made to perfect the park. The view from Bea-
con-hill is magnificent, embracing an immense semi•
circle of snowy mountains in Washington territory,
on the opposite coast, the whole length and breadth
of the Straits of Fuca, and the entrance to the in-
land sea now called Puget Sound.
The increase of buildings is astonishing ; it ex-
cites my surprise even, although I have seen the
speedy rebuilding of San Francisco five different
times. Houses, small and rude, most of them, it is
true, are continually going up. The sounds of the
hammer and the saw are never out of my ears ex-
cept when I escape for a few hours into the coun-
try. The houses are all of wood.

The quality of the crops pleased him better than
the quantity. " The straw, which generally looks
clean and healthy, is short and slender, and stands
thin on the ground; but the berry of the grain is
much larger and heavier than with us; in truth, I
have in no part of the United States seen such
plumpness of kernel as the wheat and oats here
exhibit, and I doubt not most er.cellent crops of
these cereals will always be grown on the alluvial
bottoms, and also on the wood and uplands, when
the latter shall receive the benefits of careful hus-
bandry." I think this gentleman is correct in his
conclusions. He has travelled over a considerable
portion of the south and easterly districts, and made
good use of his time. The only drawback to the
cultivation of the soil is the scarcity and high price
of labour. There is a ready market for all produce.
I cannot afford space in this letter to pursue the
subject farther ; but in my next I will give a sketch
of the quantity of agricultural land already sold,
its present market value, and the quantity still dis-
posable on the public domain fit for cultivation and
for grazing.
I may here remark that I find from several letters
which I have of late received from England there
is great misconception abroad on the subject of the
climate of this island, which it is as well to remove,.
The farmer whose report of his farming operations
I have given above tells me—" The seasons arc
very much the same as in England as to general
character, wet in winter, but decidedly milder.
The fact is, there is no better or healthier climate
in the world. It is just an English climate tempered,
modified, and improved ; the east wind being soft
and genial, instead of cold and cutting as in -Eng-
land. The only cold winds here are the northerly
winds, and they are merely bracing—a little sharp,
but without the sting so trying in England and in
Scotland. They only prevail in the winter season."
The summer is drier and more steady, only a few
showers of rain falling during the hct season, and
the winter milder. The climate, in short, is safe
for the delicate and invigorating for the robust in
health. These remarks apply more strictly to the
soulhern portion of the island. At the north, about
Fort Rupert, the climate is moister, and somewhat
colder.

✓The population is about 3,000 residents, and I
should think 500 more are constantly floating about
on the way to and from the mines and various parts
of the coast. This looks like Falstaff's commissa-
riat, a small quantity of bread for so much sack ;
but small things and great things are relative terms.
An old colonist told me the other day that at this
time last year there were not 300 inhabitants in
Victoria.

These 3,000 inhabitants are kept in order by 20
policemen, regularly organised under the authority
of a commissioner, who is also police magistrate and
a justice of the peace. The policemen are clothed
and provided with batons, and perambulate the
streets much after the fashion of your London po-
lice ; the peace and good order of the town is per-
fectly preserved. The other day an inspector was
added to the force ; and, with some drilling, I have
no doubt it will become efficient in detective service.
The administration of justice is carried on in this
wise. There is only one court of law professionally
speaking—the Supreme Court of Civil Justice of
the Colony, established by an order in Council in
1856 ; and one judge, who tries all civil cases.
Criminal cases are tried by three magistrates, ap-
pointed by commission issuing from the Governor,
who always have a jury. The plan adopted is quite
constitutional, and, as a temporary expedient, ren-
dered absolutely necessary by unhooked for circum-
stances, works very well. The magistrates are gen-
tlemen of known respectability of character, who
try prisoners with fairness and impartiality, and
whose sentences are more tinged with mercy than
with severity, and who are guided by the rules of
natural justice rather than by strict principles of
law. Bar there is none, there 'tieing only one gentle.
man in the colony who is eligible for its privileges,
and he, being but a visitor, has been compelled to
decline the very kind and courteous offer of the
Chief Justice to admit him.

As a proof of the genial effects of the climate, I
may mention that the rains which fell occasionally
during the last month have caijsed the grass to
spring up with such vigour that at present
the meadows are fresher and greener than they
were in June and July. In fact, a lawn or grass
field preserved from cattle is now, on the 11th of
Nov., just as green as our best kept lawns in Eng-
land are at any season. This is seen under the walls
of the fort ,at Victoria, in an enclosed paddock,
and in confirmation of my own assertions I may
quote the experience of a Californian gentleman—
a hostile critic too—writing of this place for a pub-

I have • visited a great many places, great and
small, but this is the first place I remember to have
found without a member of the long robe. Is the
privation a blessing or an evil ? Lawyers are often
considered great evils, and I am ready to admit that
the charge is sometimes well founded ; but I fear

r'E P.
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