Curious Facts of Old Colonial Days. By James Banwicke. (Sampson
Low and Co.)—These facts are certainly very "curious." Indeed we might apply a very mach stronger epithet to many of them. The stories of the dealings of the Government with the convict popu- lation are simply horrible. Such reckless neglect alternated with occa- sional fits of savage severity—the infliction of a thousand lashes was common—it would be difficult to believe in, but for the manifest truth- fulness of the narrative. Englishmen at home seem to have a faculty for ignoring disagreeable things, provided that they happen at a suffi- cient distance. Imagine the cry for vengeance that would have risen up if Scott had been shot by rebels in Connaught, instead of by rebels at the Red River ! And Englishmen abroad seem, like the Spartans of old, to indemnify themselves by an outrageous license for their enforced decorum at home. Then, not so horrible, but still " curious " enough to make one open one's eyes, are the facts about the struggles of the colonial press for liberty ; about the early ecclesiastical establishments, a subject on which Mr. Bonwicke is very copious ; about the " Great Rebellion of New South Wales," when the governor, Captain Bligb, the well-known commander of the Bounty, was deposed ; and about other topics of colonial history. The book is not one which we should recommend for general reading, but it is valuable, just as a faithful chronicle of life in the "Asylum " of Romulus would be valuable. The great Australian Empire of the future will be fortunate—or un- fortunate, as some might think—in having had its beginnings when every fact is committed to the permanent custody of type.
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