l watchman; in which situation was diligent, sober, and imparal; and had rendered himself so ninently serviceable, that the goernor resolved to draw him from e line of convicts; and, with the strument of his emancipation, he ceived a grant of thirty acres of and, in an eligible situation near 'arramatta.* Here was not only reward for past good conduct, ut an incitement to a continuance f it; and Barrington found himelf, through the governor's liberaty, though not so absolutely free s to return to England at his own leasure, yet enjoying the immuniies of a free man, a settler, and a civil officer, in whose integrity nuch confidence was placed."

On the 11th of December, in the same year, governor Phillips quitted the island, in the Atlantic transport, for England, and the care of the settlement devolved on Francis Grose, esq. as lieutenant-gover

nor.

This gentleman left the settle ment on the 15th of November, 1794; and the direction of the colony was assumed, pro tempore, by the officer highest in rank then on service there, Captain William Patterson, of the New South Wales corps.

Governor Hunter arrived in the Reliance, on the 7th of September, 1795, and took on him the govern ment-in-chief of the settlement on the 11th of the same month.

Many of our readers will recollect, that when governor Phillips returned to England he was accompanied by two natives of New South Wales; their names, we find, were Ben-nil-long and Yem-me-ra

VOL. XL.

wan-nie; "two men (says our author) who were much attached to his person. and who withstood, at the moment of their departure, the distress of their wives, and the dismal lamentation of their friends."

Of the former of those natives, we find a very neatly engraved portrait: and on this man's return to his own country, in company with governor Hunter, captain Collins makes the following remarks:

He

"On his first appearance, he conducted himself with a polished familiarity toward his sisters and other relations; but to his acquaintance he was distant, and quite the man of consequence. He declared, in a tone and with an air that seemed to expect compliance, that he should no longer suffer them to fight, and cut each other's throats, as they had done; that he should introduce peace among them, and make them love each other. expressed his wish, that when they visited him at Government-house they would contrive to be somewhat more cleanly in their persons, and less coarse in their manners; and he seemed absolutely offended at some little indelicacies which he observed in his sister Car-rang-arrang, who came in such haste from Botany-Bay, with a little nephew on her back, to visit him, that she left all her habiliments behind her.

"Ben-nil-long had certainly not been an inattentive observer of the manners of the people among whom he had lived; he conducted himself with the greatest propriety at table, particularly in the obser vance of those attentions which are chiefly requisite in the presence of

women.

His dress appeared to be an object of no small concern with him; and every one who knew him before he left the country, and who saw him now, pronounced, without hesitation, that Ben-nil-long had not any desire to renounce the habits and comforts of the civilized life which he appeared so readily and so successfully to adopt.

"His inquiries were directed, immediately on his arrival, after his wife, Go-roo-bar-roo-bool-lo; and her he found with Caruey. On producing a very fashionable rose-coloured petticoat and jacket, made of a coarse stuff, accompanied with a gypsey bonnet of the same colour, she deserted her lover, and followed her former husband. In a few days, however, to the surprize of every one, we saw the lady walking unincumbered with clothing of any kind, and Ben-nil-long was missing. Caruey was sought for; and we heard that he had been severely beaten at Rose Bay by Ben-nillong, who aetained so much of our customs, that he made use of his fists instead of the weapons of his country, to the great annoyance of Caurey, who would have preferred meeting his rival fairly in the field, armed with the spear and the club. Caruey being much the younger man, the lady, every inch a woman, followed her inclination, and Ben-nil-long was compelled to yield her without any farther opposition. He seemed to have been satisfied with the beating he had given Caruey, and hinted that, resting for the present without a

wife, he should look about him, and at some future period make better choice.

"His absences from the gove nor's house now became frequent, and little attended to. When he went out, he usually left his clothes behind, resuming them carefully on his return, before he made his visit to the governor."

In January, 1796, "some of the more decent class of prisoners, male and female, having some time since obtained permission to prepare ■ play-house at Sidney, it was opened on Saturday, the 16th, under the management of John Sparrow, with the play of the Revenge, and the entertainment of The Hotel. They had fitted up the house with more theatrical propriety than could have been expected, and their perfor mance was far above contempt. Their motto was modest and well chosen-"We cannot command success, but will endeavour to deserve it." Of their dresses, the greater part was made by themselves; but we understood that some veteran articles from the York theatre were among the best that made their appearance.

"At the licensing of this exhi bition they were informed, that the slightest impropriety would be no ticed, and a repetition punished by the banishment of their company to the other settlements: there was, however, more danger of improprieties being committed by some of the audience than by the players themselves, A seat in their gal lery, which was by far the largest

place

lace in the house, as likely to be the most resorted to, was to be procured for one shilling. In the payment of this price for admission, one evil was observable, which in fact could not well be prevented; in lieu of a shilling, as much flour, or as much meat or spirits, as the manager would take for that sum, was often paid at the gallery door. It was feared that this, like gambling, would furnish another in ducement to rob; and some of the worst of the convicts, ever on the watch for opportunities, looked on the play-house as a certain harvest for them, not by picking the pockets of the audience of their purses or their watches, but by breaking into their houses while the whole family might be enjoying them selves in the gallery. This actually happened on the second night of their playing."

In March, 1796, we hear again of Ben-nil-long, who occasionally shook off the habits of civilized life, and in native nudity went for a few days into the woods with his friends. "He now sent in word, that he had had a contest with his bosom friend, Cole-be, in which he had been so much the sufferer, that until his wounds were healed he could not with any pleasure to himself appear at the governor's table. This notification was accompanied with a request, that his clothes, which he had left behind him when he went away, might be sent him, together with some victuals, of which he was much in want.

"On his coming among us again, he appeared with a wound on his mouth, which had divided the upper lip, and broke two of the teeth of that jaw. His features, never very pleasing, now seemed out of

all proportion, and his pronunciation was much altered. Finding himself badly received among the females (although improved, by his travels, in the little attentions that are supposed to have their weight with the sex), and not being able to endure a life of celibacy, which had been his condition from the day of his departure from this country until nearly the present hour, he made an attack upon his friend's favourite, Boo-re-a, in which he was not only unsuccessful, but was punished for his breach of friendship, as above related, by Cole-be, who sarcastically asked him, "if he meant that kind of conduct to be a specimen of English manners ?"

On the 29th of September, 1796, our author left Port Jackson, for England, and his journal concludes with the following paragraph:

"The account of the English colony of New South Wales must here be closed, for a time, the writer being embarked in the Britannia, on his return to England. On reviewing the pages he has written, the question involuntarily arises in his mind, In what other colony, under the British government, has a narrator of its annals had such circumstances to record? No other colony was ever established under such circumstances. He has, it is true, occasionally had the gratification of recording the return of principle in some, whose want of that ingredient, so necessary to society, had sent them thither: but it has oft ener been his task to show the predilection for immorality,perseverance in dissipation, and inveterate propensity to vice, which prevailed in many others. The difficulty, under such disadvantages, of esta blishing the blessings of a regular Hh2

and

his administration of 27 is divided, by Mr. Coxe, into the following tight periods. From his birth to the accession of George I. 1676— 1714.-Thence to the commenceIment of the South-Sea scheme in 1720.-Thence to the death of George I. in 1727.-From the accession of George II. to the resignation of lord Townsend, 17271730.-Thence to the dissolution of the parliament in 1734.-Thence to the death of queen Caroline in 1737.-Thence to the resignation of sir Robert Walpole in 1742; and thence to his death in 1745. The letters and other documents contained in the second and third volumes are, also, for the facility of reference, divided into eight periods;-applying to the subjects of the corresponding periods in the

narrative.

In a prefatory explanation of the circumstances which led him to this undertaking, Mr. Coxe makes a full display of the ample unpublished materials which have enabled him, in treating the reigns of the first and second kings of the house of Hanover, to trace motives of action unknown to former historians, and to place, in a new light, the foreign and domestic transactions of the cabinet. The papers belonging to the different branches of the Walpole and Townsend families, naturally make the principal figure in the list; but, anxious to hear those who opposed, as well as those who supported, the mea. sures of sir Robert, Mr. Coxe applied for, and obtained communications of the Stanhope, Middleton, Melcombe, and Egremont papers. These he has printed as he has found them, not omitting a single invec➡ tive, but leaving the reader to judge

:

between the partial eulogiums of Hervey, and the acrimonious reproaches of Bolingbroke.

Of printed authorities, Mr. Coxe says that he has principally consulted Tindal's, or rather Birch's continuation of Rapin. He regards Smollett as a careless or partial writer, who appears never to have examined the journals, and but superficially to have perused the par liamentary debates. Belsham he thinks a copyist of Smollett as to facts; although differing from him in speculations. Mr. Coxe has not relied on either as an authority.

In examining the Walpole and Orford papers, the author finds convincing proof of the authenticity and general accuracy of Chandler's parliamentary proceedings. From the year 1755, the speeches in parliament were given in the Gentleman's Magazine, by Guthrie, and in the London Magazine, by Gordon, both of whom constantly attended in the gallery of the hous, and received information from members. From the year 1740, many of the debates în the Gentleman's Magazine werė written by Dr. Johnson. His biographers, prone to credulity and wonder, have represented these. speeches as fictitious; and Johnson is said to have confessed that they were chiefly the work of his own imagination: but the truth is, as Mr. Coxe asserts, that Johnson constantly received notes and heads of the speeches from persons employed by Cave, and particularly from Guthrie.' The present bishop of Salisbury,' adds Mr. Coxe,

recollects that he has seen several of these notes, whien Guthri communicated to him on the v day on which he obtained them.