dom of the English Government, that enlightened policy
which guides all their enterprises and assures them success. If the new
immigrant during these five years has shown himself to be a diligent and
intelligent cultivator; if his clearings have been well extended and his
stock is managed with prudence; if the produce of his land has increased
rapidly--then, so far from finding himself a debtor to the Government,
his holding is declared to be his own, and, as a recompense, fresh
concessions are made to him, additional servants are assigned to him, his
immunity from contributions is prolonged, and additional assistance of
all sorts is extended to him. It is to these extensive and
well-considered sacrifices that it is necessary to attribute the fine
farms that daily increase in number in the midst of what was recently
wild and uncultivated forest. Activity, intelligence and application
conduce here more rapidly than elsewhere to fortune; and already several
of the earlier immigrants have become very wealthy proprietors. Emulation
of the noblest kind is stimulated everywhere. Experiments of all kinds
are made and multiplied. The Government encourages them, and generously
recompenses those who have succeeded.

What still further proves the particular interest which the English
Government takes in the colony is the enormous expense incurred in
procuring commodities for the new colonists. Nearly everything is
furnished by the Government. Vast depots are filled with clothes and
fabrics of all kinds and qualities, from the commonest to the finest. The
simplest furniture and household goods are to be found alongside the most
elegant. Thus the inhabitants are able to buy, at prices below those
ruling in England,* everything necessary to not only the bare wants of
life, but also its comforts and pleasures. (* Note 29: This statement is
surprising, but probably true of part of the period when Peron was in
Sydney. There was then a glut of goods, as Bass found to his cost. He had
to sell commodities brought out in the Venus at 50 per cent below their
proper values.)

Anxious to maintain the settlement on a firm and unshakeable basis, it is
to agriculture, the source of the true wealth of nations, that the
English Government endeavours to direct the tastes of the inhabitants of
the new colony. Different kinds of cattle have been imported, and all
thrive remarkably well. The better kinds, so far from losing quality,
gain in size and w