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Thursday 14 January 1830
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2 corrections, most recently by yelnod - Show corrections
TIMES PRESENT.
(By Dr Quirosville.)
"The weather has broke up," exclaimed a gen- tleman from the country, whom I met in Castlereagh- street, "and here's a big opportunity for you, Doc- tor, to expatiate upon, in order to tranquilize the
discontented farmer !"
O rural scenes, I will see thee again, said I, as I parted from the clergyman who thus addressed me.
The last time I saw his sensible, really handsome wife at my friend, Surgeon Evan's, Paterson's Plains, how inanimate and desolate was all nature! How repulsive was every pursuit of agriculture, from the unyielding barren earth. It seemed as if vegetation was taking its departure from the world and nought were left, but despair and death!
How changed the scene !
" As on I rove,
TliMiisli tlowerlnu garden, tuend, or gi ore, Wlicro on tlio plain enamelled green Ilnpc bids ma expect her harvesting,"
Wheru every quadruped dun revel with deliyhl, a« wi II on mail hail the rvrning triumph* of Ore?,
Instead of a pnrclied up embrowning garment, lint ti 1 c lim pul on her hnliilny toil of green, lo glad- den and bail the approaching vear of 1830.
The bravem hace opened wide her windows, and lifted up her ponderous portal», lo cheer I ho pnrch in ', panting »oil. . «
Then let us be thankful to a just Supreme Cause, and being to our recollection, those " times gone by" when severer calamaties visited this tineiin globe, mid the comparison will make our mi fieri 11 if» to d', niiniilive, that wn ought lo blush in our repining», or nt I'Mitt to be (bankfill that no such iii«peeaatiom have been mir lot; nr by .niiv.poK«ibilitv can reach us in similar guise. I mean the effect* of winter.
What are we to think, when in the years 1709, and 1718, and 1725, and 1734, all those seasons corres- ponded in a dreadful visitation of the drought ;
when the "rapid Danube" was dried up, the river Seine was passable to the "walking tribe" and the "majestic shore" was as the ''vallies of Lebanon."
From these, and similar coincidences, have we not a right to conjecture that certain laws of nature are continually ruling without the intervention of our- selves, and that they ought to act as precautionary guides for us, to be more provident than we are?
.Should wf not Iny up n peri, die provrnder ni Jo- seph ii said In have don ? When ne calculate that a similar vmiatiou uiav take place ill 183(5, from what agency, wa have no1 vet found nut. Evru the wise Cntninoilore T'urry cannot tell thin.
No, no!-mr calculations are no1 yet rinsed, .Wi" are not sufficiently eiligh'oiied In sum up these
doubts yet.
Al tile same time, let experience of fact guido
ear trnti'tctioni. . ,
We (in I certain 'undpfiued rpo-nlaiioti« have ruli'd nature in her operation*. Every revolving n'n'h var hare produced consentaneous movements
of her inaehiiicrv.
Consequent!« on.'lit not we to brn-fit hy her " dumb, b'M cogent council" and prout by her
ipotirnina-" ?
Thpieiiin? in of the rain a 11 curt well I,think fur the Colony, for these nine years to minc, and if nt thatcriiis, "«nell favourable shower«"should re.come llic next nine years may be expected ta bu equally
auspicious, and so on.
I am not arcaing at random. I will stn'e my reason« for shewing ihesp ciinnlii.iou«, A very sensible and tjirewd ire iilemaii of Ü trlirnr Hurb mr, one nihill speaking of this dr-<ught, «aid to ni", what was it compared 10 the icy visi'ntinns of the year 80(1, and downward«, wliPre its dreadful rasage» swept otf half the habitable .> lohe?
When iiiinv of the German river« w»re1' finr.fn lo ihe vert/ bottom" and the trees of Lnngued c "<? rUhed from the cold intensity, and men, like Ne-
buchadrezzar, «vere glnd to feed on gra s and the', herbage nf die black fores»,
And tbi« vititatinn, wai periodic; aid Iheo ti convince me, he read iii« references m ide bv Toar.no mid Pilgrim ; who had been so ¡(lustrously im morlnlized hy ihe Edinburgh Keview,
Onylit no1 this therefore to nuaken our »en«ihi litiesnnd prudence ? And, like Ihe iiidutlrious bees, hive i|n nar «loipi ¡11 plenteous «pasen«.
We have had «everal unruhig«, and ought to be therefore provident for ihe future. ,
Even the luxurious abundant SiciliwH set in an excellent example.
The apprnnriate address In the ,c ¡»real first Su- preme Cause'* bv Archdeacon Brnuirhtnii, waihiehlv correct ; for well mav hesav. thal the late rain " is filling our heart« willi jov and irliuliipsi.
The late drought would hare been severely fell if nur population li id been mure deine, hecau«e a« yet
we hare not adequate resource« commercially or by
capital.
Those foolish «pecul it'sl», who p-ophpcv we shall conti he in<{t»MpiiifMit 11 f 'be moi lier, çottntrv, do no1 look to the p'lV'ic.il niflereuces of «or insular situa- tion and n uiiaciirable river«, ¡11 c imp irKon to A inf- rien. We tt» ii st alwnis be an integral part of the
BrbMi Rttpire.
Though, a« I said before, our real wea'th lie«nt the bottom of tin» " Great South Sen," ai.d whaling-and wool, Our chief emnnicrcial «pecnlali.m.
England hpgin« lo kim«»' our raine- the no long-er
jibes and jeers our infantile attempts, or our re-ge
nernted race.
If i« a curious t hou tIi'- li lit so it is eoneoelod in mv htain, b-fore Australia is a century old, she will present a mine refined race, and n much Iii'her
order of genius, than even the ." mighty men of the
North."
I judge from the fransliprrnt effect of the climate, and from vour Itali in " silvered ric ".-.inch a» Ar'nsln, mil To pit, mid their kindred sorii. ¡
Al the same nine, I qui winn whether there ever will be in nar future liteiati, the sanie in <ral ex- cellency of wiitin:*. That plain, sterling' good spihc, arising fiom enmoaralivc reasoning, which so milch
dii'iiiirui'.hes Ila N irtliern«.
The real gentry, in number«, will be our Au«.
II illina«.
There i« a high spirit of indepemlenep nrnwing Biiinng 1 hem, that make« the " iiilegri vim»" socan spictious and clear.
Rat a« tu nur adventurers from Engl mil, willi a few exeep'ioii«, they hare been needy sliopni-n, and wnnltl bo gentry,.
How ridiculous to «cp »rmleiinen dinp at 5 o'clock overrwo pouxds <>f ruiBR prnnv muttom chops, and two stiii.r.lNG-GAr.iiON wink!
Such 1111* lie fo 1 lip« of men of no farm« or hotiie'.
Bm this evil will be corrected by their conséquent
rtiip.
W» vrant niPii of real cipilal and laloiitf--anr! nlinrp all the iii.'Ciiiou« mechii'iic». And then we shall ii inriidi most rnpidlv, and even have Russia far behind ti«,-.as a ne« cuitnlry.
No1 iliut I think we can ever suppirt uny thiiiijr
like her population.
That is out of all ntiesiiou-from our present
knowledge of our inland deiU'irncic*-of river» and
brooks.