17 DECEMBER 1853, Page 2

From our own Colonies, the ce is anareeLy-lem stirring,

though it is upon the whole more hopefuL From Australia we have reports which show a continued expansion of her productive industry, her gold-fields, and her commerce, while the politietd world is diversified by a somewhat greater vicissitude. In the Sydney Council, Mr. Wentworth had been obliged to postpone the Constitution Bill, comprising his plan for a Council with an hereditary constituency, in order that public opposition to it might die out or be deliberately confirmed. In South Australia, the Council had arranged the new constitution, with a nominee Upper Chamber, subject to the provision that at the termination of nine years the elective chamber should have the power of discontinuing the principle of nomineeship in the Council. In Victoria, the gold-diggers had succeeded, by importunity and menaces, in obliging Mr. Latrobe to abandon the really excessive fee which he had imposed upon lioenoes for digging. In the Cape of Good Hope, amid fears that the Caffies might resume their pre- datory aggressions, Lieutenant-Governor Darling was taking leave of the Legislative Council at its last sitting, in making room for the new Legislature under a new constitution. General Cathcart, as yet unconscious of his promotion, was waiting his recall home to be Adjutant-General of the British Army. And from the West Indies we have the best report in the statement that the Jamaica Legislature was proceeding steadily with business,—a good sign for the success of Sir Henry Barkly's mission.