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be sent to Australia, where so much gold-carrying alluvia appeared to be found. But the government would not encourage the plan.

After the detection of gold in California in 1848 had astonished the world, and turned thousands of heads, a report was circulated in 1851 that gold was also to be found in Australia. A Mr. Hargrave, who had observed that the gold-yielding ground in California resembled some ground in Australia, returned to the last-named country for the purpose of ascertaining if his surmise were correct, and in February, 1851, he made the-in more than one sense-brilliant discovery. Quick as thought the gold mania spread. Public and private works were abandoned, and emigration to California was stopped, for that El Dorado lay far away, whereas gold here was within a couple of days' journey from the capital. The government put in its claims, and decreed that licenses for golddigging were to be purchased by monthly payments, and that those who took gold without permission were to be punished. About the same time gold was found in Victoria, particularly at Mount Alexander, fifty miles from Melbourne. Accounts of astonishing and successful gold-fields followed like one clap of thunder after another, and the capital became almost depopulated. Thirty thousand persons were in a short time dispersed over the gold regions, and hundreds were daily added to their number. It would be fatiguing both to you and to me were I to follow all the vicissitudes of the gold-diggers, from their first commencement to their present giddy height, or to enumerate all the places where the shining metal is found; or to tell how many of the poor creatures, thirsting for gold, have toiled and suffered; now carried away with the feverish glow of success, now sunk in the depths of disappointment and consuming despair, and falling victims to the suffering and sickness that dog their steps.

The mode of obtaining gold here is the same as in California. Round holes are generally dug in the ground until the rocky substance is reached, which here also consists of granite. These holes are sometimes no more than a few inches in depth, sometimes they are dug as far as forty feet below the surface of the earth. From the bottom they dig on all sides wide passages, or tunnels, to carry off the sediment. The workings are carried on here with "tom-longs, cradles, and pans," as formerly described. In every district there are government commissioners, who distribute "the claims," the rents of which vary according to the soilwhether alluvial gold, or in the loose earth, or matrix gold, embedded in the rock. Latterly the government has established on the most important gold districts military escorts for the protection of the gold when in transport to Sydney; it has also imposed an export duty on the gold, which has not yet been definitively settled.

However vast may be the tracts of land that are now worked, and yield in large quantities, there are yet more extensive regions where incalculable wealth still lies buried. Australia has sent in one year to Europe more than one-half of the amount of gold which California has sent in four years. This is the pleasant and alluring side of the case. But the medallion has also its reverse. Let us look likewise at it. We have contemplated a similar picture in California, and turned away in disgust from the degradation, the vice, the selfishness, which gold has engendered there. Is it better under Australian skies? Alas! no.

Where hundreds used to arrive, thousands now come, and ship-loads are landed at Port Phillip to meet but with disasters or ruin. The shepherds have fled from their herds-the farmers from their fields—the workmen from their manufactories-the servants from their employers-towns are deserted-industry is at a stand-for the gold-fever has seized on all. What are the consequences? Food has risen enormously in price, and soon there will be a want of the necessaries of life for the crowds of human beings who flock hither. All is confusion; lawlessness and disorder prevail; domestic comfort has vanished; and all occupations tending to the public good are laid aside. Crimes, it is true, are not committed with such impunity here as in California, for the police are vigilant; yet even here robbery and murder are not unfrequent. It is the general belief that this state of things will be the ruin of the gold regions, and many fear that the threatening aspect will not pass over without a revolution or crisis. Spain, both in the old world and the new, affords an example that gold brings no prosperity, either in a material or an intellectual point of view. Let Australia take warning by the fate of Spain, and learn that only where commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and minin glabour bear their respective portions in the employment of the population, can a country become prosperous, happy, and powerful.

It is not England alone that sends thousands of its surplus population to seek in Australia fortune and a home. From the most distant parts of the earth one set of adventurers after another find their way hither, especially Americans; even gold-diggers from California begin to emigrate to these shores.

Will my native country take any share in the advantages that are open to all? Will any of the hardy, temperate, laborious sons of the North feel a desire to gain here what a niggardly soil at home denies? Far be it from me to say to any one, "Leave your home, break all the ties that bind you to your native land, and seek for fortune on the other side of the globe." I say rather, "A little at home is better than much abroad;" but if any of my countrymen are determined to emigrate, then I give them three pieces of advice. In the first place, do not think of the gold mines, but emigrate with the firm determination to employ your industry in some other channel, and take work as a journeyman at first, until you become accustomed to the usages of the country. In the second place, do not emigrate without possessing a sufficient capital to secure you against want until you are established in some occupation which will yield you a certain maintenance. Land is now sold at 71. sterling per acre, and to buy less than eighty acres is scarcely advisable; therefore, without some capital, no one need attempt to purchase or cultivate land. In the third place, let no one emigrate who is not accustomed to hard work. How often have not merchants' clerks, shopmen, and young men in similar lines of life, emigrated but to have become the prey of adversity, and unable to bear the fatigues and privations to which they were subjected, have, far from home and friends, found only a grave in this land of their hopes!

To conclude, Australia is a land of the future; but its dawn promises a glorious day, in whose bright light the fifth portion of the world will stand forth in bold relief, and perhaps, in more than one respect, become of its weaker elder brethren.

the prop

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA.*

THE Congress had assembled at Vienna in order to complete the regulations of the treaty of Paris, and devote their energies to the settlement of the European balance of power. All the nations which had been engaged in the late war were invited to send representatives, and as Turkey was the only European state not engaged actively in the war, in the course of September Vienna was thronged with military and diplomatic celebrities. The princes whose energy had decided the fate of the campaign-Alexander and Frederick William-were the guests of the Emperor Francis at the Hofburg. Alexander was in excellent spirits, for he believed in a speedy and satisfactory termination of the business, and the restoration of a permanent peace. To Vienna also came the kings of Denmark, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, and the throng of princes belonging to the Rhenish Confederation, all eager for compensation. Around them congregated a brilliant circle of statesmen and warriors, and a still more brilliant band of ladies, in whose centre the empresses of Russia and Austria were most distinguished. As, too, all the relations of social life had been overthrown by the late convulsion, a quantity of individuals flocked to Vienna, who hoped to bring their own affairs before the notice of congregated Europe. Any person who had suffered a loss, or whose forefathers had been unjustly treated, those who wished to keep what they had obtained, or claim the property of others knights and chevaliers d'industrie, booksellers and merchants, portrait-painters and Jews, in short, everybody-hoped to benefit by the new era arising for Europe.

Among all these aspirants for fortune, Stein moved on the even tenor of his way, bound to no party, but universally regarded as the confidential counsellor of the Russian emperor. He possessed no vote in the formal discussions, but exerted an immense influence through the purity and inflexibility of his character. The author of the life of Capodistrias describes him in these terms: "Stein was in himself a power. He was one of those men who strive unceasingly for a great object, keeping on the straight road, in spite of a thousand obstacles, by the force of his genius and devotion. Without any further authority than his name and the services he had done to the common cause, he played the greatest part of all at the Congress of Vienna. Hostile to all diplomatic chicanery and tricks, in his quality of a man he laid his voice in the balance of European destiny. For a long time persecuted by the instinctive hatred of Napoleon, he had devoted himself to the restoration of the Prussian monarchy and the formation of a confederation against France without swerving an inch. History delights in delaying for a while with such men."

The first step taken by the congress was to regulate the progress of business, and it was decided that the affairs of Germany should be handed over to a special commission; but on the 24th of September the French embassy made its appearance, and everything was speedily thrown into confusion. Talleyrand was the head of the embassy.

• Das Leben des Ministers Freihernn von Stein. Von G H. Pertz. Berlin: George Reimer.

Talleyrand, notorious for many years as perfectly deficient in religious and moral principles, and for the readiness with which he adapted himself to the various phases of the revolution, and who, like rats leaving a sinking ship, had always deserted the tottering government at the right moment, appeared at Vienna with a brazen front, and as prophet of a new creed with which to gain over the easily deluded and excitable members of the congress for his own ends. Humiliated and weakened France, which had nothing to expect from the fears of the great powers, sought a new conquest under the banner of legitimacy—a principle which placed the rights of the princes above those of the people. Talleyrand employed this method to dethrone Murat, restore the Bourbon power in Italy, and collect the weaker princes around France, which had now assumed the title of Protector of the Oppressed; but these views were subordinate to his own interest. It is certain that he employed his position at Vienna to restore his own broken fortunes; and Savary, a connoisseur in such matters, tells us that Talleyrand received 300,000 ducats from Murat to serve his cause, and was then bought over to the other side by Ferdinand of Sicily for an equal sum and magnificent promises.

The first open interference on the part of Talleyrand was with reference to Saxony; but the Emperor Alexander declined to enter into any discussion on this matter, as the allied powers had, in the peace of Paris, reserved to themselves the settlement of the conquered countries. Talleyrand replied that he believed there were no longer any allied powers. "Yes," the emperor said, "whenever steps are being taken to carry out the treaty of Paris." Hardenberg, Metternich, Nesselrode, and Castlereagh recognised the necessity of union to foil Talleyrand's intrigues, and proceeded at once to regulate the position of the King of Saxony towards the other powers. But it must not be supposed that Talleyrand defended Saxony from mere disinterestedness, and the reports of the Russian envoy at Berlin soon explained his motives. Alopæus announced that the King of Saxony had paid large sums to Talleyrand. Lagarde, after mentioning Talleyrand's partisanship for Saxony, speaks of several millions which Frederick Augustus had paid to two influential personages in Vienna— the other remains to be guessed-while Chateaubriand states point blank that Talleyrand was gained over by the king for three million francs to sell the true interests of France, which would have preferred Prussia in Saxony sooner than on the Rhine. But Alexander speedily cut the knot of the intrigue by stating that if the King of Saxony did not consent to the decrees of congress, he must be treated like a prisoner, and sent off to Riga.

On the 14th October the German committee assembled for the first time, and it was soon evident that nothing need be expected from it, as the princes strenuously intrigued to gain the upper hand. Austria determined on forming a coalition with South Germany and France, to establish an equipoise against Russia, which would always have Prussia and North Germany on her side. But to effect this, Mayence must be given to Bavaria, and to such a step Prussia could not assent. This embroglio gave rise to a violent paper war, and an article which appeared in the Rheinische Mercur excited an immense sensation. The Bavarian envoys even went so far as to demand satisfaction in the committee. The Crown Prince of Bavaria, while at table, expressed himself in these words: Yes, there is a great deal of nonsense written at present by Görres and the other fellows Stein protects." Stein heard this from the other end of

the room, rushed up, and said to the prince, "I must beg your royal highness not to forget your position, who you are and who I am. It is not proper to mention names in such mixed company." Another circumstance caused much conversation about this time. A journal published an odious article stating that Stein had been powerful, but was so no longer. At a party at Count Stackelberg's, a German prince walked up to Stein, and said, contemptuously, "Had been-yes, had been." Stein flew out, "I despise the impudence of a journalist"—and holding his clenched fist before the prince's nose" but I would not recommend any one to repeat it." The result of the general dispute was that the German committee was broken up, and the attention of congress drawn exclusively to the settlement of Poland and Saxony.

Of all the questions brought before the congress that of Poland was the most dangerous. Prussia and Austria, after being deprived of their Polish possessions by Napoleon, had made their restoration a condition of the alliance with Russia, and a treaty had been drawn up at Reichenbach on the 27th June, 1813, to that effect. By this treaty the kingdom of Warsaw was to be dissolved, and divided among the three Powers amicably, but when the moment arrived Alexander could not consent. On the other hand, it was impossible that Poland should be formed into an independent kingdom. The emperor, therefore, hoped that he might induce his neighbours to assent to his occupation of the Grand Duchy, but he recognised the difficulty. Thus he said to General von Knesebeck at Vienna, "Russia's power is disquieting for Europe; still the honour of the nation demands an aggrandisement as a reward for its sacrifices, exertions, and victories. It can, however, be rendered innocuous only in one way-Russian Poland must be united with Warsaw, and receive a constitution and independent army." The manifesto of the emperor created an awful excitement, and the powers applied to England to solve the difficulty. On the 12th October, Castlereagh handed in a note to Alexander, in which he urged the necessity of carrying out the stipulations relating to the division of Warsaw. This letter caused the emperor considerable annoyance, which was augmented by the magnificent review of the Austrian troops which took place in the Prater on the 18th, for Alexander was no longer able to believe in the weakness of Austria, on which he had built his hopes. The result was a very angry reply to Castlereagh's interposition, and the emperor expressed his indignation that, after allowing his allies such expansion, they thwarted his own simple wishes. He ended by saying that he washed his hands of Germany. At the same time, Alexander omitted no opportunity to express his dislike for Metternich. To the old Princess Metternich he said, "I despise every man who does not wear uniform ;" and he induced the Duchess de Sagan to break off her long-standing connexion with Metternich by the remark, "It is not proper for you to be liee with a paltry writer." Nor did Alexander despise the more ignoble arts of persuasion, and tried hard to induce Frederick William to accept his views, but the King of Prussia, for the present, adhered to his own opinion.

A grand crop of notes and counter-notes emanated from this discordance of views, terminating in a split among the allies, Prussia and Russia being opposed to England and Austria. The emperor's obstinacy was backed up by the King of Prussia, who was informed that Austria was Sept.-VOL. CAI, NO. CCCCXLI.

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