The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-10 00:00:00

STATE OF SYDNEY.

A geqtleman in Brighton has lately received a letter
from the above town, giving a melancholy description of
the state of the colony. The following extracts will be
read with interest .

"Sydney, January 15, 1844.
. ,'?lf you were to witness the alteration thais taken
plaie in the circumstances of the inhabitants of this
colOny since the short. time back of my arrival, you
would be thankful that you were yet in Old England ;
many, almost starving now, were then in affluence, and
would be glad to get home again, but have not the means
of paying their passage, for they. cannot get any em.
ployment here, as, in most of the warehouses and offices
still in existence, clerks, &c., are being reduced to the
lowest number, and the masters, instead of lolling in
their carriages and giving grand entertainments, are
at their own de,sks, and trotting upon a horse's back, or
on their own feet to their homes, divested of the
supernumerary domestics, who once behaved as if they
honoured their employers by condescending to eat, drink,
and waste what the house afforded. In consequence of the
number of insolvent estates, the tradespeople are afraid
to give credit ; they are all advertising goods at ruinously
low prices, butfor cash, no more credit. I have bought
-sundry articles lately, whieh I ant eertain I could not
have obtained in England for two or three times the.
price. A large ironmonger's stock has been advertised
at one quarter of the ,cost price.' I bought a handsome
penknife with pearl and silver handle, for one shilling ;
scissors I bought at the same reduction. A young gen-
tleman I know is going, to work his passage as a com-
mon sailor, not, being able to procure his living in any
way ; he is steady, a good penman, a clever architect
and surveyor, yet can get no employment ; his master
having become insolvent, he has lost both his home and
the salary due to him. Mr. A'B. receives numbers of
letters, requesting his recommendation to offices with
the smallest salary, some of the applicants having taken
degrees at the universities; but .he has not, and not even
.the judges, the power to help them. The income you
mention as still your own is perfect affluence, corn-
' pared with that of many who were born to
large , expectations. Ido not pity some of our
grntry, who came hither to make much more •
they should have remained at home satisfied, and left
the ground open to those who, with aIL their' talent tir.d '
perseverance, could not provide for those dependent On
their exertions. , The mischief has been that, when a
member of any profession has met with success here,
their friends at home have so published and exaggerated
their success, that numbers, expecting equal good for-
tut e, have inundated the colony, to their own disappoint-
ment and the injury of those already established. Doc-
tors, lawyers, and tutors surround you wherever you go;
many, I believe, wish they had been bred carpenters,
shoemakers, or some other trade that people cannot dis-
pense with. A gentleman told me be had received more
than fifty answers to an advertisement for a tutor at a
small salary, some of them from M.A.'s, and one from an
M.D., for 201."—Brighton Herald.

ESCAPE OF A LUNATlC.—Yesterday information
was conveyed to the metropolitan police of the escape of a
lunatic patient from thg Asylum of High Beach, Essex, of
whom some curious 'particulars are given. His name is'
Francis John Smith, twenty-eight years of age, and he is •
very respectably connected. He is about five feet six inches
in height, of a slender form, stoops a little, dark hair and
eyes, and of a pale and sallow complexion. He contrived to
elude the vigilance of his keeper on Saturday morning, at
which time he was attired in a dress black coat, vest of the
same colour, and brown or grey trousers, and blue cloak. His
hat was an old one, brown and broken. The lunatic is la-
bouring
under a poetical delusion. He fancies himself a great
poet, and. up to the time he left Dr. Allen's asylum he was
engaged in the composition 9f a monaty on the death of the
poet CaMpbell. He also talks of being destined to deliver I
tde Polish nation from" Russian tyranny."_,