GLOVES AND PENKNIVES-PERSONS UNFITTED FOR THE DIGGINGS-GOVERNMENT CLERKS-THEY OF THE BETTER CLASSES WHO WILL GO TO THE MINES COUNT FIRST THE COST-MANY START FOR THE GOLD FIELDS WITHOUT MEANS-HALF-PAY OFFICERS-THEIR DISAPPOINTMENTHON. KEITH STUART HIS SUCCESS AT MAJOR'S CREEK, BRAIDWOOD-NO ARISTOCRACY AT THE DIGGINGS-SAILOR LUCK-ABUSE OF IT-PUBLICANS BENEFITED-THE LARGE SUMS SQUANDERED BY DIGGERS-KNOCKING DOWN HIS DUST IN SYDNEY-DEMORALIZING EFFECT ON SOCIETY-A DIGGER'S WEDDING-CABS-CHAMPAGNE.

Ir is, indeed, incredible to realize the fact of thousands upon thousands of people occupied in picking up gold, with simple implements, and in the purest state, and in large quantities. Had it been predicted that simultaneously with the opening of the Great

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Exhibition, a mine of countless wealth would be laid open at the antipodes, as was the fact, the seer would have been looked upon as labouring under some aberration of mind. While the noble and philanthropic philosophy of an accomplished, wise, and virtuous prince had conceived and matured a palace for the commerce of the world to meet in; instructing nations that the noblest description of contest and competition was in arts and science, rather than in war and bloodshed; the medium of exchange to go, " pari passu," with the increased commerce which this design might create, was by Providence laid open to man. It was a year memorable for Australia as well as for England.

Gold-digging is laborious and its result capricious and uncertain. It cannot be said of it, as Mr. McCulloch said of writing for the press, that it is laborious, unprofitable, and disreputable. It is certainly laborious, and may be both unprofitable and disreputable. It would mislead the reader and would be contrary to the truth to say that all who go gold-digging are successful; but on the other

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hand it is undeniable that many persons have in a few months acquired sums, which they never would have got together in a lifetime of laborious and long-continued industry. Failure and success do not appertain to gold-digging alone, they are the alternations of all callings and professions in life. Many, without counting the cost, undertake what they are incompetent to perform. On the first discovery of gold, before the real character of gold-digging was understood, young gentlemen went prospecting and gold-seeking with kid gloves and penknives, just turning over a piece of quartz with the open blade, and expecting to have as a reward for this condescension to toil a large piece of gold. Of course such persons acted most unwisely when they gave up, small though they might be, the incomes which they obtained in government offices, or at lawyer's desks. Some there were, who, notwithstanding the blisters which they got on their fingers, persevered, till at last they could go to work "secundum artem," and dig down their forty, fifty, or sixty feet,

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if necessary, to get at the precious ore, either in the more portable and agreeable form of nuggets, or of auriferous earth to be washed out at the cradle. Any one of the genteel classes, or such whose training has not accustomed him to labour, must prepare himself, if he goes to the diggings, to undergo fatigue and privations which he has never experienced before, and with a hearty resolution and fixedness of determination that will insure his conquest over them. Many have returned penniless and disheartened to Sydney and Melbourne from the diggings, and would gladly resume the occupations they had thrown up to make a fortune in the gold field, simply because they had not looked well before they leapt; they had no doubt a hearty good will to find the gold, but they wanted one very important element of success-aptitude to get at it. Such persons were physically unfit for the calling: if they make up their mind to seek the fickle lady in this path, their pluck must compensate for what they lack in experience and habits. Another great source of failure and disapN 3

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CAPITAL REQUIRED.

pointment to such persons is that they go up to the gold field without sufficient means, also with exaggerated ideas of the facility with which gold is obtained. They have not the necessary provision to give themselves a fair chance, or their industry and resolution an opportunity; for the maxim "labor omnia vincit" holds most especially in gold-mining; it is here as ever, in all pursuits of life, “the hand of the diligent that maketh rich." But if the miner has not capital enough to meet temporary failure, he returns, as has often been the case, disgusted and disheartened. This has been the upshot with numberless persons, indeed, of all classes. Many have gone to the mines, remained scraping the surface, expecting to obtain gold at once, and their expectations, extravagant as they were, failing to be realised, they say gold-digging is all nonsense, and in many cases are too glad to return to their ordinary callings.

Another class of persons who have attempted gold-digging are half-pay officers. One steamer brought out quite a cargo of them; they also were not prepared for the