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you. What do you think of Embden grits, or groats, which are little better than coarse oatmeal, selling for 2s. 6d. a lb.? (Oh, dear! to think of the oatmeal which you have at 9s. the long cwt. It makes one's mouth water to think of these things). They are useful for rearing young poultry, young horses, young calves, and also—not to make an irreverent use of the words of the Litany—"all women labouring of child, all sick persons, and young children." But poor Ireland seems to have its produce, not on the shores of a passable sea, that highway of nations, but hemmed in by an impossible barrier, obstructing all intercourse with the world. One would hardly know that there is such a place within the pale of commerce, but that you occasionally see "Tom Sherlock's" brand upon a cask of pork.
Two hundred bushels of wheat were sold in advance yesterday, by two settlers, to a merchant at 8s. per bushel. I suppose he is speculating upon sending some of it to Sydney, where, in consequence of a drought, they are in a very bad state. We could spare them a little now, for with the supplies in hand and the produce of harvest we have one pound for every mouth in the colony for 560 days. What would the South Australian people say to that? We hear that they are abusing us sadly as a "total failure," all ruined, starved, &c. We are getting on our legs now, so we can afford to let them abuse us a little, if it serves their purposes; it will turn out to our advantage in the end. It is impossible that their colony can succeed upon the plans mentioned in the prospectus which we see. They have their trials, sufferings, privations and disappointments, losses and crosses, to suffer as we had, and they will have spent more money in establishing themselves on their land. I could say a great deal on this subject, but perhaps it would not be interesting.
Friday.—The heat has come so powerfully upon us these few days that all our corn has ripened at once, so we are badly off for reapers. I have but five, and am consequently
