legerdemain, spend or lose their capital in a very short space of time,
and return to England to abuse the place, the people, and everything
connected with colonization.--Sydney. Australian Handbook (admirable for
its wisdom and compactness).

(4) Lest this seem an exaggeration, I venture to annex an extract from a
manuscript letter to the author from Mr. George Blakeston Wilkinson,
author of "South Australia"--

"I will instance the case of one person who had been a farmer in England,
and emigrated with about L2,000 about seven years since. On his arrival
he found that the prices of sheep had fallen from about 30s. to 5s. or
6s. per head, and he bought some well-bred flocks at these prices. He
was fortunate in obtaining a good and extensive run, and he devoted the
whole of his time to improving his flocks, and encouraged his shepherds
by rewards; so that in about four years his original number of sheep had
increased from twenty-five hundred (which cost him L700) to seven
thousand; and the breed and wool were also so much improved that he could
obtain L1 per head for two thousand fat sheep, and 15s. per head for the
other five thousand,--and this at a time when the general price of sheep
was from 10s. to 16s. This alone increased his original capital,
invested in sheep, from L700 to L5,700. The profits from the wool paid
the whole of his expenses and wages for his men."

(5) I felt sure from the first that the system called "The Wakefield"
could never fairly represent the ideas of Mr. Wakefield himself, whose
singular breadth of understanding and various knowledge of mankind belied
the notion that fathered on him the clumsy execution of a theory wholly
inapplicable to a social state like Australia. I am glad to see that he
has vindicated himself from the discreditable paternity. But I grieve to