have been colonised, cities founded, harbours constructed, canals cut, and railroads made.
Under this system the territories for sale are surveyed in advance, and laid out in lots of eighty acres and upwards, at a fixed price of a dollar an acre; a map containing the land for sale is open to every intending purchaser; there are no reserves except for special stated public purposes; parties settling beyond the bounds of surveyed land do so at their own risk, and have no power to inflict on the parent state heavy expenses in armies or officials. They are expected to govern and protect themselves, and to retire or purchase when the government surveyor makes his appearance. No doubt the American system has its defects, but, taken as a whole, it is the best which has ever been devised for employing a large emigrant population, and conquering and subduing the earth, at the least possible public expense.
It is possible that something like it might have eventually been transplanted to Australia, but a series of accidents threw that island-continent entirely into the hands of a clique of political land-jobbers.
In 1829 the colony of Swan River was founded on principles, under circumstances, and in a situation which ensured failure.
Mr. Peel, a gentleman who had influence with government, combined with Sydney merchants to found a colony in some other part of Australia. The merchants found the money, Mr. Peel the influence. The large fortunes which had been realised by colonists in New South Wales led the colonisers to believe that the same might be realised in a new colony, without the disadvantage of a convict population.
Swan River, on the north-western coast of Australia, was the site chosen. Sailors who had visited the shores gave the favourable reports, as sailors always do of any safe harbour where they find wood and water enough for their ship's crew. Geographical reasons led the adventurers to expect a temperate climate; further precise investigations as to the quality of the soil, extent of pastures, and character of the aborigines, were considered unnecessary.
The government, in total ignorance of the simplest principles of colonisation, did its part by bestowing a million acres on the founder, and to every other colonist acres in proportion to his capital in cash, live stock, implements, or the number of labourers whose passage he paid.
In great haste ships were freighted, and loaded with fine gentlemen and ladies, farmers and labourers, blood-horses, short-horned cattle, merino rams, carriages of fashionable build, and agricultural implements
