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COMMERCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS.

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nothing when compared with what met the eye before these evil days came over the colony.

We have arrived in this country at a critical moment : alarm and panic prevail; over-speculation, as it is alleged, has been going on to an extraordinary extent; and all credit and confidence are gone. The demand for money

is unexampled; but there is none to be had, and the bill system will go no further. Many causes are assigned for this distressing state of affairs, and sundry proposals are now brought forward to give temporary relief, or rather to afford a barrier against the ruin that threatens to engulph the country. Individual suffering is very great, and in some cases peculiarly severe. There seems a kind of "sauve qui peut" feeling in the community, that banishes the better feelings of our nature; and if a few pounds are wanting to pay debts or to meet bills, anexecution is taken with as little compunction as I now state it, against those with whom habits of business, intimacy, and friendship, have been hitherto uninterrupted.

Government also appears to have arrived at the bottom of its strong-box; and delays occur in the payments of the emigration bounties, which cause, and will continue to cause, great and unexpected inconvenience and loss. Our surgeon is alarmed for the bounties due to the Lady Kennaway, and for his own gratuities and salary; but I trust and believe this is without foundation. There may have been some evasion of the act regarding the less important details as to the management of our emigrants, of which government may avail itself for delay. But ultimate non-payment I cannot contemplate; as, from all I learn, few ships have given so little opening for censure as she has. And if zeal and praise

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APPEARANCE OF SYDNEY.

worthy attention to their duties, entitle the medical superintendants to prompt and full payment of their demands, I cannot suppose any one to possess a more valid claim than her surgeon.

In every department stagnation and pecuniary pressure are excessive, and for those that occupy the credit side of the books of the Sydney storekeepers, the times are alarming indeed.

The general appearance of the town exceeded my expectation. Although the houses even in the principal streets form most striking contrasts as to architecture, a handsome stone building of four stories being frequently next neighbour to a slab wooden erection of one, still the great length of some of the streets, and the regularity of their plan, being cut at fixed distances by others at right angles, and the great extent of the place altogether, bordered by these beautiful bays on every side, give the whole an extremely imposing effect to a stranger.

The shops are very handsome; and were it not that the trottoirs are so villanously bad as even to endanger life at night, and so broken up as to appear intended as a check, or at least a punishment to drunkenness, one would have pleasure in looking at these signs of prosperity, and at the most wonderful collection of merchandise, furnished by almost every part of the globe. Some of the shops are lighted up with gas; and those of the confectioners, silversmiths, and haberdashers would, many of them at least, not discredit Prince's-street, Edinburgh, or that street of streets, Regent-street, London. I will not assert that such sights as Everington's, in Ludgate-hill, or Holmes's, in Regent-street, are to be seen here; but certainly, there are many shops in Sydney much above the average of their fellows in London.

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One thing that pains and surprises a stranger, is the vast number of grog-ships, and the conspicuous and public places and thoroughfares selected for these wells of poison. I am told there are at present in Sydney two hundred and fifteen of these dens of iniquity; which gives one public-house, where spirits are sold and drunk over the counter, for every one hundred and forty souls, including women and children! In a community constituted as Sydney is, of mixed materials, it might have been anticipated that some restriction would exist on this point; but so much the contrary has it ever been, that from the first establishment of the colony, such houses have been the foundation of some of the largest fortunes; and the earlier history of its transactions states, "that his Majesty's Servants made rum a legal tender, and the liberty to sell it was a privilege eagerly grasped at by gentlemen holding at the time commissions in his Majesty's army. I do not mean to assert that such things exist now. But certain it is, that the injury done to the masses by this facility ofobtaining spirits, is a disgrace to the country.

Shop rents in Sydney are higher than in any town I ever was in. Those of the corner shops in some of the chief streets-George-street and Pitt-street, for instance-range from three hundred and fifty to five hundred and fifty pounds per annum. Retail prices are enormous: in some articles two hundred per cent. upon the prime cost in England. This, together with there being no local dues, and very few taxes of any sort, accounts in some degree for these high rentals. Five years ago, an acre of land in the principal thoroughfare, brought, at a public sale, ten thousand pounds sterling.

One great drawback to the comfort and cleanliness of

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ORDERLY STATE OF THE STREETS.

the town, is the want of common-sewers, to carry off the water and other impurities. It is true the chief part of the town stands upon a height, and that there is a declivity to the sea on either side. But some of the principal streets are perfectly level; and it is wonderful to me that the senses of the inhabitants are not more offended than they are, and that disease is not more prevalent. The dryness of the atmosphere may in some degree counteract his evil; but the town's-people will never do justice to themselves or their beautiful capital until this is remedied, nor until their streets are macadamized and lighted with gas.

Notwithstanding what I have too truly stated, with regard to the number of public-houses in all their varied description, from the bright and seducing gin-palace to the lowest pot-house, still it is not the less the fact, that I never was in any town in my life where the streets were quieter at night, or where there was less danger of street annoyance.

I expected to have found Sydney a very noisy, dissolute place, especially after dark; and that vice would "run down her streets like a river." But, on the contrary, it is most orderly, and scarcely any drunkenness or licentiousness is to be seen; and there seems as much respect shown to the Sabbath, in the public parts of the town at least, as even in Edinburgh, which is acknowledged to be, in this respect, the most exemplary city in the world. In Sydney this may be, and I dare say is, to a certain extent, the effect of compulsion, and not altogether voluntary; but, if so, it only shows what public good can be effected by the force of public opinion, or the wholesome surveillance of a vigilant police.

The first sight of the town and people does not impress

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a European with the idea of being in a country so distant from his home;-the language, the manners and dress of the inhabitants being for the most part similar to his own. But there are many peculiarities that gradually display themselves, chiefly attributable to the climate. There is a sallowness of countenance in the male, and a delicacy of feature and skin in the female, that I have not seen elsewhere: while you are every now and then instinctively placing your hand upon your pockets, as some suspiciouslooking fellow passes you. Nor is this to be wondered at ; when it is remembered, that every seventh man you meet in the street has "left his country for his country's good"; or is the offspring of those who have done so. There are at the same time very fine specimens of our kind to be seen, above the average height, and with well-proportioned frame; though it is remarked, that tall, well-made men, who have been born in Australia, do not possess that muscular power which is found in Britain generally to accompany similar proportions. The features are, I think, better than those of the English: the eye is generally black in both sexes, the nose rather Roman than Grecian, and finely formed, and the whole expression sharp and good. On hot days, the white dress, very generally worn by all classes, gives a lightness and gaiety to the streets, that is very striking. Few ladies are to be seen walking in the public streets: it is not the custom; and this, I confess, is a great drawback to the general appearance of the place. But the truth is, prudence, as well as that first of female attributes, delicacy, have rendered it necessary in Sydney.

I have not yet seen what I should call a fine woman among the native ladies of Australia, the currency lasses, as they are termed. Many would consider as such those

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