Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-12-23

Miscellaneous
THE BRITISH Ell R

letter of our correspondent at Sydney. Here is
the very thing mankind has imagined and de-
sired for nges--thc Ophir Of solomon, the golden
fleece Of Jason, the golden apples of Atalanta. the
Pactolus and Tagus, the lamp of Aladdin oad the
cap OF Fortunatus, and the inexhaustiblc idea Of
the thousand golden legends. Who would have
thought that poverty struckA Australia, good for moth
ing but to take our thieves off our hands, and supply
us with a little tallow and wool, would ever send us
twenty millions Il year in pure gold? That is the
change which has come over the scene in four or
live years. Australia is no longer a set Of penal
settlements, but n fountain of wealth in its most
condensed and most coveted form. Every year it
brings to the surface, and actually sends to the
mother country, II quantity of gold much more than
has ever lam IN the vaults OF the Bank of England.
"A few years back there was n considerable school
of hnanciers and economists who thought the coun.
try ruined if II n million or t 20 of the precious met
ais went out of it, and resusitated if they returned.
Yet, in these days, nobody remarks on the fact of
half a million or SO having entered the port of Lon
don in one day from Australia. Raleigh promised
his sovereign IL gold mine, and led his band of dis
coverers against n Spanish fortress. We have turn
cd n paradise into "A purgatory of rogues, and ma
ture, in her caprice has made it Il land Of gold.
We ought to be happy. We possess that which
men have always most wished for, and what VIC, as
u nation, are supposed to care for more than any
thing else in the world. Yet, strange to say, Aus
tralia, bad as we made it, has become worse still
by the discovery of its riches; worse still, because
TeaIiy pOOTer Stlil, more destitute OF comforts und
luxuries; more uncomfortable, neglected, slovenly,
idle, pauperized, and vicious; a worse place for a
man to live IN, a more difficult place For II man to
make his way in, unless he be very strong and heal
thy, or very rich, or very clever. The result was
credible enough to those who thought about it., for.
after all, that is the moral of Midas, and our
school-books tell us that Spain was impoverished
and ruined ny tho gold she drew frum the new
world. Yet, when all men are toiling, plotting,
pining, and dying for gold, it takes a great effort of
reason to be convinced that gold can ever be Il
curse.
Let it be remembered that our correspondent
writes from Sydney, the oldest, and hitherto the
most pros porous and most thoroughly organized
city in Australia. lie describes the condition of a
province which, four or five years ago, had no 9TH
er drawback than the convict population, year by
year becoming less in proportion, and even less
noxious and intolerable to the sound portion of So
ciety. OF this colony we are now told that all regu-
lar industry is suspended. On II moderate compu-
tation, half the sheep in the province are infected
with a disease which spoils both the flesh and the
wool, and, though an effectual cure has been dis
covered, there are not hands to apply it, and no
one knows how far the pest will go. Hay is sold
by weight at the price of lump sugar. Vegetables
of all kinds are II luxury confined to the rich
Wheat is very dear. There is no milk to be got.
The rising generation are sickening and pining on
a diet Of beef and brandy and water. The hospi-
tails are as ill off as the nurseries, aud appeals are
made to the charitable public to send a few vegeta-
bles for the patients who most require them. y
railway, of which Only sixteen miles have been
attempted, can scarcely be finished So far from the
difficulty of obtaining sufficient funds in the pres
ent high price of labor. The carriage of goods
one hundred and thirty miles to the diggings-costs
eight times as much us their freight from London
to Sydney. There are found in the country, at very
accessible distances, coal, iron and copper, and
vines and olives will flourish there but Goals are
from seven pounds to eight pounds ten shillings a
tnn-ar rina thnt nutS medication, 4r,u, Sul- 2
ney to England out of the question and all the
other Australian products mentioned exist only in
name. They are not actually extracted from the
soil, or grown upon it for want of hands. The
garden vegetables and fruit consumed in the coun-
try are in cases, marked Pavement, Finsburv."
Meanwhile the difficulties created by gold reach
the diggers themselves. The majority are unsuc-
c%esstul, and starve under the dearth produced by
the abundance of the metal. Hence there is ac-
tually pauperism at the d~iggings, and a poor-rate
will soon have to be collected from the very mouths
of the pits. In the midst of fabulous wealth there
is the direst destitution, and Bendigo and Ballarat
contain as much misery as our own union work.
houses. There is to be II grand display of Austria
liam produce at the forthcoming Paris Exhibition
but the Parisians are warned against concluding
that Australia actually does what it can do. 1t
can do everything but the only thing it does, is
finding gold, and that in a manner so clumsy and
rough, that the Chinese mmigrants-of whom
there are an immense number-make their fortunes
out Of the refuse thrown aside by British diggers.
This is worse even than anything that has
reached us Of California. In that State there was
no existing industry to be destroyed, nc hocks
and herds to be neglected, no gardens to be left
untitled. On the contrary. so promptly have the
Americans met the high prices caused by the dis
covery of gold, that it is now said California would
stand and flourish even if the gold should wholly
fail. But is it possible such a state of things
should last as that described by our correspondent?
AT all events, we do our best to mend it, by giving
it the widest and fullest notoriety at home. What
are our own gardeners, and golfers, and carpent-
ers, and masons, and blacksmiths, and all other
a%rtifcers about, not to save theis money and go
out to q place where garden-stuff cannot be got
for love or money, where coal is four or five times
the price it is in London, where house room, and
therefore building, is so costly th"t sliplOads OF
goods are left to rot rather than pay for their
warehousing? The only thing wanted is not
extraordinary strength and skill, but simply the
power of abstaining from ardent spirits in a dry
and thirsty climate. If n man cannot do this he
had better stay at home, and what with the crowd,
ed state Of the market, the consequent low wages,
and the damp character of the atmosphere, he may
hope to prolong his days, even with an occasional
extra ~potation. But in Australia strong drink il
poison, and every man who goes out with this era
wing in his blood only rushes to his doom. The
laborer or artisan who can command his appetite
in this country may hope to be equally successful
under somewhat more nnfayorable circumstances,
in Australia and if he goes there not to work in
the diggings but TO exercise his own calling, he will
reap the harvest of gold which thousands have
toiled for in vain. There is no longer that selfish
reason for that advice that there used to be. 1t is
no longer an object to reduce the population, and
get rid of the people anyhow, anywhere. England
at this moment has not a man too many--certain
ly not a good laborer or good workman too many.
But it is our duty TO look To our colonies as we'll as
TO ourselves, and cOnfessedly they are much more
in want of hands than we are. They contribute to