conveyance), and not from pure caprice; and the patent of arms, at the same time that it accords the new ensigns, officially recognises the change of name, that recognition serving all the same purposes that the Royal licence does in England.

But we have perhaps said enough on the legal aspect of heraldry. Though the register is the only evidence in law of a Scotchman's right to arms, it is not there that the early armorial history of the country is to be sought. The materials for studying historical heraldry consist partly of heraldic MSS. prior to the register, and partly of seals, which down to the year 1584 were of necessity appended to all legal instruments. The use of seals in Scotland began as early as writing itself. In the twelfth century, they generally bore, along with the owner's name and style, some device, such as a star, a wheel, a flower, or a leaf, which was often the germ of the arms afterwards adopted by the family. In the thirteenth century, shields of arms, gradually more and more fixed, took the place of these devices; and we can trace, through means of a series of such seals, the rise and development of the pure and simple heraldry of North Britain. Many of these seals, after lying for centuries hidden in charter-rooms, have only recently seen the light, their historical importance having been hitherto undreamed of by their owners. It is about fifteen years since a catalogue of 1,248 Scottish seals was published by Mr. Henry Laing of Edinburgh, under the auspices of the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs a contribution of immense value to the heraldry of Scotland.

Among the materials for the study of historical heraldry are also the coats of arms which are to be found sculptured on buildings ecclesiastical and secular: and no country is richer in architectural heraldry than Scotland. Time has done much, and wanton destruction far more, to deface and obliterate the armorial records of the old castles and churches of North Britain; but much that is valuable still remains. This is as yet nearly an unwrought mine: Mr. Seton recommends it as an important field for any skilful artist possessed of a limited knowledge of blazonry; and we would strongly suggest to such of the country gentlemen of Scotland as have a taste for heraldic pursuits, that they would find it a most attractive occupation to collect, before it be too late, what has not yet been irretrievably lost of the monumental heraldry of their several neighbourhoods. By so doing they would be throwing valuable light on the histo and antiquities of their respective districts, in which as of education and intelligence they can hardly fail

erest.

ART. III.-1. The Colony of Victoria, its History, Commerce, and Goldmining; its Social and Political Institutions. By WILLIAM WESTGARTH. London: 1864.

2. Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in New South Wales and Victoria. By R. THERRY, late one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. London: 1863. 3. The History of New South Wales; with an Account of Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand, Queensland, and other Australian Settlements. By RODERICK FLANAGAN. 2 vols.

London: 1862.

FROM time to time, it has been the lot of England to plant nations in every portion of the habitable globe,-speaking her language, nurtured in her own institutions, and expanding her population under new conditions. Few more interesting and important studies present themselves than to trace the modifications which have been produced on these portions of her race, under the varying circumstances of clime, mode and time of settlement, and, above all, the progressive character of England's own colonial policy. Nowhere, indeed, will the marks of a common origin be found quite obliterated. There are streams so strong that their waters may be traced for many miles through the great oceans into which they discharge themselves. And thus, in a similar manner, the great stream of English colonisation will be found nowhere to have wholly lost the chief characteristics of its source. They may be traced under the tropical suns of the Indies, and amid the perennial snows of the Canadas-by the banks of the Mississippi, and the banks of the Murray. Everywhere, however, we shall find these characteristics forming new combinations, and passing into new institutions.

Amid many such minor settlements and plantations, two great groups occupy by far the most conspicuous positions in this wide-spreading colonial empire. In the Western Hemisphere, we have the American group; in the Eastern, the Australasian. In many respects these two groups present the most extraordinary features which the progress of colonisation has yet exhibited. In all that constitutes the elements of great and powerful nations, no portion of the Old World has shown a growth so rapid as the American plantations: no portion of the American plantations has shown a growth so rapid as the Colonies of Australasia. Our limits necessarily preclude us from entering into any detailed comparison between

these two groups; and, in endeavouring to place before our readers the present condition and future prospects of the colonies of Australasia, we shall refer to the state of American affairs as well understood and recognised facts which the flood of light now falling on that continent has sufficiently explained for our purpose. Those, however, who more nearly compare the physical configuration, the origin, and the history of the North American and the Australian Colonies of Britain, will be at no loss to discover causes which very differently affect their future destinies. The American continent, with its numerous harbours, its unbounded plains intersected by navigable rivers, its northern lakes, and its interminable forests, is the very opposite of the dry plateau of Australia, where a belt of pasture land encircles a huge unwatered waste, if not a desert. America, even before the arrival of the European, was inhabited by numerous and powerful Indian tribes, and possesses some memorials of a still more ancient civilisation. Australia was essentially a new region, containing no human beings but a few of the lowest race of mankind, and not even any animals known to the rest of the world. The American continent was soon invaded by the conflicting standards of European nations and parties: Spaniards, Dutch, French, and English, both of the Cavalier and the Puritan factions, left their mark upon the soil, and for more than two centuries the wars of European states were waged in part beyond the Atlantic. In Australia the modern English race holds an undivided sway: the peace of the country has never been broken: the natives were never formidable, and no foreign foe has ever approached its shores. The soil and climate of America are peculiarly favourable to the growth of all the products of agriculture: those of Australia encouraged the broad operations of pasturage by one class of adventurers, and the speculative operations of mining by another therefore the American settlers soon became more closely and permanently rooted to the land than those of the younger colonies. Australia, indeed, had the taint of convict labour, but she has shown already that this is no indelible evil: America received the far more fatal gift of negro slavery. The institutions of the American Colonies were moulded by the circumstances of their origin, and we still may discern in the events of the day the proud and warlike spirit of Virginia, the stern enthusiasm of New England, the French descent of Louisiana and Lower Canada. Their growth has been slow, their history gradual. Australia has no history, but that of a few squabbles with the Colonial Office, and she has risen in a couple of generations to the full exercise of all

the powers of self-government and to the possession of enormous wealth, without any of those trials and efforts by which men are trained to the discharge of public duties and the knowledge of public affairs. The political constitution of the United States has been subjected for many years to the critical analysis of travellers and statesmen, and it was supposed till lately to have resolved several of the problems most interesting to the science of government: the political institutions of Australia are still, even amongst ourselves, very imperfectly known. With so many essential points of difference we by no means anticipate that Australia will become an America of the East. On the contrary, the dissimilarity will probably increase between the two nations. But it is interesting to remember that they are offsets from the same trunk, though planted in different soils; and to trace in their political condition at the present time the indicia of their future destiny. Their destiny is that of hundreds of millions of men of the English race, yet unborn, who may hereafter have to settle, for themselves and for the world, the greatest problems in the government of mankind.*

Before we attempt to inspect the internal workings of these Colonies, it may not be out of place to enter into a rapid sketch of the manner in which they have risen into their present importance. Indeed the first, and perhaps to many the only impression, connected with the origin of Australasian colonisation, is that its earlier settlers were convicts, and that the convict element is still largely represented. It is quite true that our first occupation of Pacific waters was made by a shipload of convicts, who commenced the new colony of New South Wales: and it is equally true that New South Wales claimed jurisdiction from Carpentaria to the distant New Zealand. With the exception, however, of a penal depôt established for a short time at Moreton Bay, New South Wales confined her convict population to the immediate shores of Botany Bay. The Island of Tasmania-under its ill-omened title of Van Diemen's Land-next followed in the demand for penal labour. But with Van Diemen's Land ends the short category of names which associate the Eastern Colonies, at least, of the continent with transported felons. The colony of South Australia was the next addition to the Australasian group. Though chiefly made known by the discoveries of New South Wales colonists,

* The reader may follow this interesting subject of inquiry in a chapter of Lord Bury's work on Colonial Policy, entitled 'The 'Exodus of the Western Nations,' which well deserves attention.

it owes its settlement to the South Australian Colonisation 'Association' of England, who affixed a high price to their lands, with the twofold object of obtaining landowners possessed of capital, and picked labour from the Home country by the proceeds of their purchase-money. Under such machinery it secured a steady accession of population far superior to the ordinary emigrant or colonial adventurer, and kept itself free from all penal taint. The increase of the whale fisheries in the Pacific led to the introduction of New Zealand within the group. And the rapid extension of a system of missionaries throughout that colony doubtless contributed to its selection by a very superior class of settlers. The convict system never obtained any footing on its shores. The colony of Queensland we have lately seen starting on an independent career under the great squatters of Australia, and a very desirable class of immigrants from the Home country. Even the colony of Western Australia, alone distinguished, at the present time, among the group by the penal element-started on an existence by far the most ambitious of all. Principalities in land were allotted to such men as Mr. Peel, Colonel Latour, and Sir James Stirling; and a large number of English middle-class capitalists followed in their wake, with proportionate grants of land. On a lone coast, not particularly inviting, and the most remote from civilisation, were landed elegantly-nurtured ladies, race-horses, carriages, pianos, and various other articles of luxury. So liberal were the land regulations, and so accustomed are persons to regard land as wealth, that, in a short time, the settlers were all masters and no men. No houses were built for them, and they were obliged to live in their carriages. No crops were put into the ground, and they were obliged to eat the seeds they brought with them. Such a beginning could have but one end; and when that end came, and all the remaining colonies had shaken off the last remnant of transportation, the colonists of Western Australia besought that the stream of penal labour might still be turned in their direction.

In actual numbers, then, of the seven colonies which compose the Australasian group-namely, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, New Zealand, Queensland, and Western Australia,-two alone started with the penal element, and they abolished it upwards of a quarter of a century ago; four maintained themselves entirely free from that taint; and the seventh and last was, at a late period, obliged to call in the aid of convict labour. In addition to which, it is to be borne in mind that every member of the group obtained its