xcept one house, all who could pretend to that rank maintained their
position.

The settlers were, however, deeply involved. They were mostly induced to
purchase at the land sales by borrowed capital. They complained bitterly
of the usury, to which their produce bore no comparison; and incessantly
invoked the legislature to limit the exactions of money-lenders. To
aggravate these evils American flour poured into the colonial markets,
drawing their cash and rendering agriculture profitless. The
declarations of insolvency were daily. Whole streets of mechanics and
traders followed each other. A common liability to the same ordeal
introduced a system of dangerous license; and men walked away with their
creditors' property without molestation and almost without reproach. The
statistics of these times afford a memorable warning to all. To the
government, that by enticing the people to purchase land, the general
revenue will suffer by their imprudence; to the banks, that by reckless
advances capital will be sacrificed for nominal assets; and to the
British merchants, that by glutting every store with speculative
consignments they render their exports of no value--that they ruin the
shopkeeper, whose capital they destroy by the competition and sacrifice
of their own.

But the great resources of the colonies soon manifested themselves. A
settler at Port Phillip discovered or applied the art of boiling down
the surplus stock, so as to produce the tallow of commerce; and sheep,
lately 2s. 6d., became worth eight shillings. The discovery of the Burra
mines raised Adelaide from deep prostration. The opening of new tracts
of country offered a vast field for successful enterprise; wool once
more rose in price; the banks lowered their discounts to a reasonable
level; the goods saved from the general wreck appeared in the shops of
those who took the tide at its flow; and every colony exhibited the
signs of returning vigor--all but Van Diemen's Land.

SECTION V.

The last three years of Sir John Franklin's administration were chiefly
employed in arranging the details of the system of convict discipline,
afterwards expanded by Lord Stanley to gigantic proportions, and
described in the second volume of this history. Accompanied by Lady
Franklin, Sir John penetrated the western district of Van Diemen's Land
to Macquarie Harbour, formerly a penal station, to ascertain its fitness
for a similar purpose, and some of the perils of