A view of Botany Bay.

In the 63d number of the Edinburgh Review, for July last, we find an interesting account of the settlement called Botany Bay in New South Wales, discovered by the Dutch in 1616, and taken possession of by the British in 1770. On the close of the war by which the United States obtained their independence, the government of Great Britain, at a loss for a receptacle for convicts sentenced to banishment, at last selected this remote country, and made the first settlement there in 1778. This colony, now a very flourishing one, was thus planted with the rogues of England, Ireland and Scotland, sent thither, in exile, as a punishment for their crimes—transportation to that distant and savage land being more dreaded there, perhaps, than our penitentiary is here, from which escapes are made with so much facility—the certainty of punishment deterring from the commission of crime more than its severity. The criminals landed in this southern clime, finding themselves placed in a new situation, where little could be got by theft, and having a better chance than in the mother country of earning a comfortable subsistence, often changed their habits, and became industrious, if not honest men. They are probably destined to be a great nation, having an abundant scope of territory, 2,700 miles in length, and 2,000 in breadth, (three-fourths the extent of Europe,) and will, at a future day, in imitation of America, cast off the shackles of colonial subjection, and assert the prerogative of self-government.

The climate of Botany Bay is represented to be equal to any in Europe, but rather Asiatic than European—Favourable on the whole to health and longevity. December, January, and February, are the summer months of that country, and then the heat, which at noon is at 80 deg. is tempered by a strong sea-breeze. The winter months, June, July, and August, have very cold nights, and fire through the day is comfortable.

The Reviewer humorously calls this colony "a land of convicts and kangaroos," and sportively observes, that, "in this remote part of the earth Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular and useful productions, for the rest of the world) seems determined to have a bit of play, and to amuse herself as she pleases. Accordingly, she makes cherries with the stone on the outside; and a monstrous animal, as tall as a granadier, with the head of a rabbit, a tail as big as a bed-post, hopping at the rate of five hops to a mile, with three or four young kangaroos looking out of its false uterus to see what is passing. Then comes a quadruped as big as a large cat, with the eyes, colour, and skin of a mole, and the bill and web-feet of a duck—'puzzling Dr. Shaw' and rendering the latter half of his life miserable, from his utter inability to determine whether it was a bird or a beast. Add to this a parrot, with the legs of a sea-gull; a skate with the head of a shark, and a bird of such monstrous dimensions that a side bone of it will dine three real carnivorous Englishmen; together with many other productions that agitate Sir Joseph, and fill him with mingled emotions of distress and delight."

The colony has made the following progress:

In 1778.1817.

Horned cattle544,753

Horses73,072

Sheep29170,920

Hogs7417,842

Land cultivatednone acres,47,564

Inhabitants1,00020,379

Sydney, the principal town and seat of government, has a population of 7000 souls; it has a newspaper, a bank, and many public and private buildings, that would not disgrace the best parts of London—So says Mr. Wentworth, a native of Botany Bay, who has lately published a statistical, historical, and political description of the country.

The attention paid to the education of the children, by their "larcenous forefathers," is worthy of commendation and of imitation in other parts of the world, where the morals of the parent stock are less depraved. "The town of Sydney contains 2 good public schools, for the education of 224 children of both sexes. There are establishments also for the diffusion of education in every populous district throughout the colony: the masters of these schools are allowed stipulated salaries from the Orphans' fund. Mr. Wentworth states, that one-eighth part of the whole revenue of the colony is appropriated to the purposes of education: this eighth he computes at 2500l. Independent of these institutions, there is an Auxiliary Bible Society, a Sunday School, and several good private schools. This is all as it should he: The education of the poor, important every where, is indispensable at Botany Bay. Nothing but the earliest attention to the habits of children can restrain the erratic finger from the contiguous scrip, to prevent the hereditary tendency of larcenous abstraction. The American arrangements respecting the education of the lower orders, is excellent. Their unsold lands are surveyed, and divided into districts. In the centre of every district, an ample and well selected lot is provided for the support of future schools. We wish this had been imitated in New Holland; for we are of opinion that the elevated nobleman, Lord Sidmouth, should intimate what is good and wise, even if the Americans are his teachers. Mr. Wentworth talks of 15,000 acres set apart for the support of the Female Orphan schools; which certainly does sound a little extravagant; but then 50 or 100 acres of this reserve are given as a portion to each female orphan; so that all this pious tract of ground will be soon married away. This donation of women, in a place where they are scarce, is amiable and foolish enough. There is a school also for the education and civilization of the natives, we hope not to the exclusion of the children of convicts, who have clearly a prior claim upon public charity."

Great exertions have been made in public roads and bridges. Toll gates have been established on all the principal roads. The general average of unimproved land in the neighbourhood of the town is 5l. sterling per acre. The inhabitants of New South Wales have suffered greatly from the tyranny and caprice of the rulers placed over them by Britain. There is no sufficient check on the Governor of the colony—far from the parent country, there is no Council to restrain his excesses, nor any Colonial Legislature to assert the rights of the people. There is no trial by jury. The Governor imposes what taxes he pleases.

[Geo. Journal.