MONTGOMERY MARTIN S BRITISH COLONIES.
THE history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was only achieved " by the labour of six quartos and twenty years." Mr. MONTGOMERY MARTIN has a readier pen and quicker hand than GIBBON. Some fifteen months have elapsed since the first appearance of his first volume on a subject as extensive, if not chronologically speaking so long, as the decadence of Rome ; and lo the fourth is already before us. Such rapidity of maau• facture closely approaches an indecent haste, and what is worse, has left evidence of haste behind it. Thus, in attackiog M'Cue- LOCH for his opinions upon the value of the African trade, he confounds the statement of Mr. l'I`Crne.ce it as regards the annual Nalue of the trade of Sierra Leone, with that of the whole of the Western coast. He ekes out the account of St. IIelena with a trite schoolboy rhodomontade of his personal opinions touching NAPOLEON, and a long quotation from Mr. Captain Jonersteer the smuggler's plan fhr carrying off the hero. In the account of the projected South Australian colony, he appears to us merely to follow, and without acknowledgment, the published statements of the individuals concerned, adopting all their facts and infe- rences as regards fertility and capability, and certainly making one of the most startling opinions his own, yet attacking the prin- ciple on which the whole is founded, because it interferes with one of his crotchets—that land should be given away. In the Penal Settlements, he prints entire in his text such rare and curious documents as the various regulations, Sec. in relation to the con- victs; in other cases, we have memorials, which are not history, but its materials,—all very useful documents, no doubt, but dear at the rate of twenty shillings a volume. The history of the Cape is enriched by tales of the Flying Dutchman, which he aims at in- vesting with an air of supernatural interest ; though, unless our memory deceives us, one of his facts was mentioned by its observer as a singular instance of optical delusion, and has afforded matter for philosophical illustration. He deems such a story as the follow- ing not out of place in a history of New South Wales. On the supernatural part we make no comment ; upon the human we will merely observe, that if it be really true, " the sagacity of the native was remarkable."
A settler on the great Western road was missing from his small farm. His convict overseer gave out that he had gone off privately to England, and left the property in his care. This was thought extraordinary, as the settler was not in difficulties, and was a steady, prudent individual ; the affair, however, was almost forgotten, when one Saturday night, another settler was returning with ins horse and cart from market. On arriving at a part of the fence on the road- side, near the farm of his absent neighbour, he thought he saw him sitting on the fence; immediately the farmer pulled up his mare, haiku his friend, and, receiving no answer, got out of the cart and went towards the fence; his neigh- bour (as he plainly appeared) quitted the fence, and crossed the field towards a pond in the direction of his home, which it was supposed he had deserted. The farmer thought it strange, remounted his cart, and proceeded lime. The next morning he went to his neighbour's cottage, expecting to see bun; but saw only the overseer, who laughed at the store, and said, that his master was then near England. The circumstance was so 'strange, that the farmer went to the near- est Justice of the Peace (I think it was. to the Pemith Bench), related the above, and stated that he thought foul play had taken place. A native Black, who was (and I believe still is) attached to the station as a constable, was sent with some of the mounted police, and accompanied the farmer to the rails where the latter thought he saw, the evening before, his deceased friend. The Black was pointed out the spot, without showing him the direction which the lost per- son apparently took after quitting the fence. On close inspection, a part of the upper rail was observed to be discoloured ; it was scraped with a knife by the Black, smelt, and tasted. Immediately after, he crossed the fence, and took a straight direction for the pond near the cottage; on its surface was a scum, which the Black took up in a leaf, and, after tasting and smelling, he declared it to be "white man's fat." Several times, somewhat after the manner of a blood- hound, he coursed round the lake ; at last darted into the neighbouring thicket, and stopped over a place containing some loose and decayed brushwood. On re- moving this, he thrust down the ramrod of his piece iuto the earth, smelt it, and then desired the spectators to dig there. Instantly spades were brought from the cottage, and the body of the absent settler was found, with his skull frac- tured, and presenting every indication of having been some time iennersed in water. The overseer who was in possession of the property of the deceased, and who had invented the story of his departure for England, was committed to gaol, and tried for murder. The foregoing circumstantial evidence formed the main accusations. Ile was found guilty, sentenced to death, and proceei:ed to the scaffold, protesting his innocence. Here, however, his hattlihood forsook him; he acknowledged the murder of his late master ; that he came behind him when he was crossing the identical rail on which the farmer thouyht he saw the de. ceased, and, with one blow on the head, felled him dead, dragged the body to the pond, arid threw it in ; but, after some days, took it out again, and buried it wheie it was found. The sagacity of the native Black was remarkable; but the unaccountable manner in which the murderer was discovered, is one of the inscrutable dispensations of Providence.
The foregoing remarks apply to the merits, or rather the deme- rits, of the compilation. In the general tone of his mind the author remains unchanged, or rather gets wilder. " Call a dog Hervey, I shall love him," said JOHNSON, when speaking of an old friend. Call a place a colony, and R. MONTGOMERY MARTIN will swear it is an earthly paradise. He cannot, for instance, with decency maintain that the Golgotha, Sierra Leone, is positively healthy, but he deposes to its relative salubrity—"it is as healthy for Europeans as any other tropical climate."
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