The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-09 00:00:00

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM VAN

DIENIAN'S LAND.

Take the climate of Italy, the mountain
scenery of Wales, the fertility of England,—
combine these, and you have Van Dieman's
Land. Of fruits and other productions of- the
earth, there is a constant succession, for in this
place there is no winter, unless about two months
of rain and wind in June and July may deserve
the name of that season. All fruit, grain, and
vegetables, have a finer flavour, and grow to
much greater perfection, than in England. I
think, if Dr. Gall had examined the cranium of
the world, he would have discovered the bump
of philo• progenitiveness on this spot ; for posi-
tively, cattle, sheep, kangaroos, hogs, dogs,
children, and other animals, increase so fast as to
become a nuisance. The cattle brought by the
early settlers strayed away and have bred among
the mountains. The stock of timber is most
beautiful, and apparently inexhaustible. Pine,
oak, stringy bark, peppermint-wattle, cedar, gum-
wood, rose-wood, and light wood, abound in
trees of majestic growth inconceivable to an
Englishman. The heaths, wild-flowers, and
fruits, are exquisitely delicate and delightful.
The air is impregnated with the perfumes of
odoriferous plants. The peppermint, which
gives a cinnamon scent, the camphor plant,
musk plant, geraniums, myrtles, and honey-
suckles, grow spontaneously to the size of trees.
There is only one native wild beast, a small kind
of panther, which is timid, and avoids the ap-
proach of man. The most 'formidable animals
are of the insect and reptile tribes. Of the ta-
rantula spider, as large as a walnut in the body, I
have destroyed many in the sitting-rooms; these,
with the horrible centipedes, arc very poisonous.
There are 16 species of snakes of deadly venom.
Cultivation and industry will remove these an-
noyances. From the plenty of horned cattle,
their prices are lower at Hobart TOM') than at
Smithfield, according to the last quotations in
the London Lawspapers that have come out :
you shall judge—a live ox, or a cow and calf,
may be had for W. sterling ; good fat sheep
alive, are from 2s. 6d. to ss. a head ; pigs, just
now, are dear, 6d. per lb. ; kangaroos, which all
the frequenters of the Zoological Garden, in the
Regent's Park, may not know is equal to veni-
son, any body may have for the shooting. I must
add of butchers' meat, that beef and mutton are
finer flavoured than in England, which may he
ascribed to the rich and odoriferous herbage the
animals feed upon, and to the state of repose
they uninterruptedly enjoy. Flour is lid. to lid.
per lb., which is deemed a fair average price,
neither cheap nor dear. Potatoes are ss. a
cwt., and beauties they are. Peaches are a penny
a dozen ; and apples are in such quantities that
they lie and rot. I wish you could see and en-
joy your old friend 's garden, at New
Town ; the trees are breaking down with fruit
of every kind ; there are not half hands enough
to pluck it, cr mouths to eat it. Grapes are
fine and abundant, but as yet not much culti-
vated. We have capital French wines very
cheap. Good Burgundy at 4s. 6d. per gallon.
Flops grow luxuriantly, and malt is begun to be
made. Of fish, you may readily catch almost
every known and delicious kind in any of the
noble bays which abound in this country, or buy
them in the town for a mere trifle. They are of
all sizes from the whale to the minnow. There are
no Game Laws ; the possession of a gun is the
only qualification, and your ability to walk and
take good aim the only certificates required
for shooting, when, where, and what you
please. We have eagles, hawks, and almost
every variety of the feathered race. Wild ducks
are fine and fat, and amazingly numerous.
They abound in the extensive rushy lagoons.
Poultry is plentiful, and all birds thrive well. I
was struck with amazement by the improvement
in colour of the domestic kinds, such as fowls
and pigeons. In the woods, the parrots and
parroquets are social, and almost tame. I have
had at one time fifty flying around me, sparkling
in the sun-beams like precious gems. Of that li
creature with which you and I arc more Inti-
mately acquainted,thmeaont,hewre
jet
tave here two spe-
cies The for-
;aroenienu"c'ill'itetire same as in England ; if any-
thing, less social. The white subdivides into
the free settler, who migrates hither as I do,
from the law of necessity—the pressure of cir-
cumstances in the mother-country ; and the con-
vict, to whom a more stern necessity forbids a
home in his native land. The convict popula-
tion are all well fed, well clothed, very indolent,
and very miserable—trading, cheating, canting,
lying, praying, swearing, drinking, dissipating ;
being every thing but what they might be in this
land of abundance—virtuous and happy. My
friend, you see no want here, for there is none
of those pallid, care-worn, anxious faces, that
looked upon me from every corner and street in
London. There is no misery but what results
from idleness, debauchery, or unwarrantable spe-
culation. Plenty abounds in Van Dieman's
Land, because nature governs and administers to
man in spite of himself. Misery and want pre-
vail in England, because man would govern na-
ture
by enactments. The black population is
not very numerous, but utterly insensible to the
blessings of civilization. They are such arrant
idiots as to prefer nakedness in a climate where
clothes are not requisite, to being incased with
woollens proffered to them in exchange for
liberty ; and they prefer a life of ease and inde-
pendence to one of labour and restraint. The
whites, wisely disgusted by such brutal folly, ex-
press their difference of opinion by arguing upon
them from the mouth of the musket, and the
blacks acknowledge these appeals to their under-
standing by spearing the whites at all convenient
opportunities; the controversy will not terminate,
until one colour has extinguished the other.
The blacks have great muscular strength, and
are what you and I should imagine to be the
most deformed and ugly of the human species ;
they go in herds, but from all that can be col-
lected, they have no chiefs, nor any idea of a
form of government ; young ones have been
taken and brought up in families, but at puberty
they have invariably returned to the woods.
What we heard in England concerning the re-
formation of convicts in this colony was—fudge.
They are as profligate and idle as the thieves
and vagabonds of the United Kingdom. All
that I can observe or learn upon the subject
amounts to this :—the temptation to crime is
lessened by the comparative absence of want ; its
commission is rendered more difficult by local
regulations ; the punishments are more dread-
fully severe, and more certainly inflicted ; and
hence, as I conceive, it is that robberies and
such offences are less frequent than in England.
To those who will not be at the pains of select-
; ing their associations, the pulation is a draw-
! back upon the abundance of this beautiful di-
' mate ; to those who will, a settlement here is
easy. It is a country in which farmers and men PRINTED and PUBLISHED
of handicraft trades must succeed, and in which
OFFICE, 112,

it is impossible for any honest man to starve wh
is willing and able to work.
As far as in you lies, let your country friend 9
know that the surplus honest labourers, who 'have
wives and families of sons and daughters, if they
can be got out, will certainly succeed.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, SEPT. 8.

Robert Fearman was indicted for assaulting a
Mrs. Lilley, with intent to commit a rape.
The prosecutrix was the wife of a hairdresser,
and lived next door to the defendant, who carried on
the business of a butcher and milkman. She went
to his house early on the morning in question to buy
some milk, and the defendant pressed her to pur-
chase some meat which he showed her. She said
she would go and consult her husband, and went
away for that purpose. On her return the defendant
invited her into a back room, and upon her declin-
ing to go, he forced her into it, threw her into a
a chair, and took a gross liberty with her person,
saying at the same time he should like to take omit
still grosser. The prosecutrix resisted him, and
threatened to tell her husband, on which she got
away.

The defendant denied acting in the manner itn-.
puted to him, and asked if it was possible be would
attempt to commit such an offence upon his neigh"
hour's wife, inside an open shop, where. he was ex-
posed to detection by any person who might enter it 2,

The CHAIRMAN left the question of probability to
the Jury; who returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
George Caudle was indicted for an assault upon
John Bird Wearing.
The prosecutor, who is a sworn broker and op-
praiser, was employed by the defendant's landlord
to distrain on his premi&!s for rent. The defendant
resisted the execution of the warrant, and collected
a mob of weavers outside the house, who called out
to him to turn out the broker, or kill him. The de•;
fendant shut the front door to prevent the prose!.
cutor getting away, upon which the latter got out
at the back door and went for assistance. On his
return the defendant struck him a violent blow on
the breast. He succeeded, however, in taking awl
a part of the distrained goods, the remainder having
been carried off by the defendant. Although the
persons who collected outside the house were for the
most part weavers, the defendant himself was not a•
weaver, but a marble paper-stainer.
On the part of the defendant, several witnesses•
came forward to swear that they did not see hits
strike the prosecutor; but it did not appear that.
they had witnessed the whole of the transaction.

The Jury, after some hesitation, returned 3
verdict of Not Guilty.

SUMMER ASSIZES.

OXFORD CIRCUIT-GLOUCESTER, SErr. 5.
ROE, DEM. HART, ESQ., V. WYNNE, ESQ.

This was an action of ejectment, by which 00-
lessor of the plaintiff sought to establish his claim to
the freehold of the soil of a considerable tract 04
land in the county of Denbigh. The property in
question consists of extensive sheep-walks over S'
barren mountainous part of the county of Denbigh,'
and has been some time in dispute, the question
having been tried twice before—once at Shrews'
bury, and once at Ruthin.

The Court was engaged with the trial of this cage:
five days, when a verdict was found for the defendant.
The trial finished about five o'clock this afteracroo:
(Monday.)
Upwards of sixty Welsh witnesses for the lessor
of the plaintiff arrived here on Saturday last, and
were quartered at the Booth-hall. On the part of
the defendant about 50 were billetted at the Bell
Inn. This formidable retinue of the contending
parties almost filled the Court, and some of those
who appeared by their habiliments only fresh caught
(though somewhat old in the horn), presented s
grotesque appearance. The general move that took
place about their usual dinner hour, showed then
not unmindful of the creature comforts, tiotwitk-
standing the novelty of the scene; but it is only jos'
tice to state thut their egress and regress wets
marked by the most decorous slowness and soleor
nity, the brigade extending in orderly time through
the spacious avenues of the Shire Hall to the respev;
tive inns, with all the gravity that the distinction 0"
a strange people in a strange land could afford.

CHESTER CIRCUIT-CPIESTER, &Err. 7.

William Pollitt, (22), Thomas Wyatt (19), Irts,;
Wyatt (20), and limy Wyatt (21), were charged
the first-named with cutting and stabbing James
Burgess, and the others with aiding and abetting.'
The prosecutor lives at Bradbury, and on the 24411!
of August went with his brother into the employ:°
Mr. Jesse Howard, a cotton-spinner, at StockpOr4
from which the prisoners had turned out for an jo"
crease of wages. On the evening of that day thel
left work half an hour earlier than the regular tiMei
at the request of the manager of the works, wb°
feared an attack upon them by the refractory spin'
ners. The prosecutor saw a man, who appeared °
if he was watching them run into a public-house!!
After they had got a short distance, they looke
back and saw a number of men following them from
the public-house. The prisoners were amongst the
viv
number, and one of them came up and asked
he worked for Jesse Howard, and what he evil
him? The prosecutor told him, and then they 'ln
fell on him and his brother. The prosecutor ran jot,'
a house opposite, and Henry and William WyattP9
lowed him. William 'Wyatt called to the owner of the
house, " - your eyes, will you harbour Jena
Howard's knobsticks ?" Prosecutor said he woe's
go out if they would let him quietly. Thief
consented, and just as he got to the door,
Pollitt struck him over the right eye with a shall
knife. The blood spouted out from his eye, until
others fell on him, saying, " - his eyeidc"
him ; he's nothing but a knobstick." The blows be
received nearly closed his left eye.
The Jurylfound the whole of the prisoners Guip)4
and the Learned Judge immediately passed the awful
sentence of death upon Pollitt, telling him that 0e
5
circumstances of the part of the country from
he came, rendered it imperative that he should ll'
executed as a warning to others, and bidding hi
°
riot to entertain the slightest hope of mercy.
_A
The Wyatts were sentenced to be transported
for life.

RUMOURED MURDER OF THE BORRI
o'KANn POLICEMEN.—A rumour has just reached to, s°
through a native of Borris-o'kane, that the policemen
that place, who were lately acquitted at the Clonmel
sizes, were treacherously murdered on Sunday last, itornee'j
diately on their return home. Our informant has lOW
us, that a letter to the above effect has been received frill
Borris-o'kane. We do not, however, take upon us to trutic
for the accuracy of this report.—Warder.

---

BIRTHS. a$
On the 6th inst. the lady of R. Wake, Esq. of Ore
Marlborough-street, of a daughter.
On the 4th inst. at Antwerp, the lady of J. Macdot
Esq. of a son.
On the 4th inst. the lady of W. Wayte,
.of Highl3l°`
Wi;ts,son.
On the sq
7th inst. Mrs. E. Willoughby, :of Lanc:an•ier
place, of a son.
In Dublin, the lady of Sir J. Frazer, That. Lieute;sllS.
Colonel of llussars, of a son.
On the sth inst. at Hempstead-court, Gloueester4r*
Lady John Somerset, of a son. , •

DIED. • ;
On the Gth inst. at Islivgton, Elizi, the wife.-01
Athill, Esq. of Antigua. •
On the 7th inst. at Grantchester, near Cambridge,
-
Hawkes, of Long-acre.
of she
On the 6th inst. at Clapton, Mr. F. Nailer, late
Secretary's-office, Chelsea-college.
On the 4111 inst. at Dulcott, near Wells, Somerset,
John Snelgrove.
At Fork-hill Lodge, James Dawson, Esq. A""tan
Barrister of the county Armagh, aged 84.

by 111.7RD0 YOUNG,,,. at a.,
STAANIN • LON-MON,