The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — 1826-09-07 (London, England)

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 intelligence 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 contracts 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 enables the proprietors to go on. My opinion of the Tasmanian 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 winter in ONI Scotland ?"  In perusing the above letter, those who have relations or friends in Van Diemen's Land must be much relieved, because 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 distressed manufacturers and others to Van Diemen's Land and New Seuth Wales. That would encourage our shipping, 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 Providence, enjoying a mild and salubrious winter, and a sumlater 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 remain 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.