better known by its original name of Van Diemen’s Land, a considerable island lying off the southeastern extremity of Australia, from which it is separated by Bass’s Straits, at 140 miles’ distance. It has been a British colony since 1803, when it was founded as a penal settlement, and a dependency of the penal head-quarters previously established at Sydney, on the eastern coast of Tasmania, the opposite mainland of Australia. In this character and as the receptacle of yearly legions of criminals, this island, replete with natural attractions, alike of climate and scenery, long held an unenviable and ignoble repute. The accumulated evils of the convict system having at length presented a social aspect to the colonists that had become utterly unbearable, a great and general effort, commenced by the organisation of an anti-transportation league in 1831, proved successful with the imperial government to effect its abolition, so far at least as regarded South-Eastern Australia and Tasmania. The penal stigma thus happily removed from this colony, was about the same time abrogated with reference to its too notorious adjunct, Norfolk Island. This terrestrial paradise, standing forth like a bright gem upon the bosom of the Pacific, after being cleared of its criminals, has lately and much more appropriately been given to the interesting group of the Pitcairn islanders. We must commend the policy which no longer devotes some of the finest regions of the world to the use or abuse of criminals. The desire to obliterate the past suggested and procured, by petition to the Queen, the change of name from Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania.

The onward progress of this colony has latterly been much less marked than that of its sisters across the straits. The expenditure from the British treasury under the convict system, gave a material prosperity that left a too visible blank at its cessation, while the heavily timbered soil was found too expensive to clear with the high wages of free labour under the new system. Added to these disadvantages was the fact that the young and thriving colonies of South Australia and Victoria on the opposite coast, which at first were largely supplied from Tasmania with agricultural produce, were now rapidly extending cultivation for themselves, and in doing so, could resort to soils, not only well adapted for cereal crops, but scarcely encumbered even with a single tree, and ready-made as it were for the ploughshare. The agricultural interest, therefore, whose vitality consisted in its cereal exports to adjacent settlements, has hardly maintained the conspicuous and flourishing character of former years, while the limited pasturage has for some time past arrested any great increase in wool production and the breeding of sheep. But on the other hand, the colony is now standing on a surer foundation of social order and prosperity. The population is on the increase, although slowly, and some little emigration is directed to the colony. The present population (1860) is close upon 85,000, being the highest number ever attained. Of these above 30,000 are the sub-adult native born Tasmanians, the hope of the colonial future; and the local press assures us that the masculine activity of the stronger sex, and the beauty of the weaker come fully up to the national standard. The old Van Diemen's Land has turned to a new and brighter page, and we may hope her colonists are to exemplify the new christening of the "fair Tasmania."

The island was discovered on 1st December 1642 by Tasman, and named after Van Diemen, the governor of the Dutch East Indian settlements, the friend and patron of the great navigator. A long interval elapses, until between 1772 and 1792, when the coast outline was further made known by other explorers, Marion, Furneaux, and Cook, Bruné d'Entrecasteaux, and Huon Kermadec, whose names are still conspicuous upon the present map of the colony. As yet that part of Australia, which is now the colonies of Victoria and South Australia, was entirely unknown, and Van Diemen's Land was commonly held to be the southern extreme of the grand terra Australis incognita of New Holland. This idea continued until Bass, in 1798, in a bold cruise from Sydney in a whale-boat, demonstrated the separating strait which has since borne his name. He decided this point by reaching Port Western in Victoria, where he was only a few miles short of the now world-renowned Port-Phillip, which was not discovered till four years later.

The island was taken possession of as a British colony in 1803. On the 10th August of that year, Lieut. Bowen landed with a party from Sydney on the east side of the river Derwent, at a place now called Risdon. The following year Collins came over from Port-Phillip with his party of convicts, after an abortive effort to found a penal settlement at the south-eastern extremity of that harbour. He landed at Sullivan's Cove, on the opposite side of the Derwent, on the 19th February, and there founded, on a site at once convenient and attractive, the present city of Hobarton. Collins was the first governor, and died at his post in 1810. The colony made small advances until 1821, about which time there began a considerable immigration of respectable families, who were liberally attracted by grants of land, and the free use of the convicts as labourers. Thus originated many fine estates and comfortable homesteads, which gave a pleasant and thriving aspect to the colony. In that year the number of the colonists had attained to 7185, and there were 14,940 acres under cultivation. There were 170,000 sheep, and 35,000 cattle. The young settlement had come through severe trials, and in those days, when it was isolated from the busy world to a degree now hardly to be realised, it had repeatedly been at the point of starvation, particularly in extreme drought during the years 1813-1815. The young society, such as it was, had also thus early experienced that dreadful feature of penal colonies, bush-ranging, which had reached such an extreme, through the number of escaped desperadoes, as to call for the exertions not only of the whole military and police, but even also of the free colonists. In 1817 these united exertions had been very generally, if not completely successful. In 1825 Van Diemen's Land became a distinct colony, with a lieutenant-governor, and a legislative council consisting of 15 members of crown nomination. Since that time until towards the time when the present self-government was inaugurated, 1855-6, there had been a marked progress, especially after 1835 and 1836, when the Port-Phillip settlement (now Victoria) and South Australia were founded, the former having been first colonised from Tasmania, and both having been largely supplied with the agricultural produce, and sawn and split timber from the senior settlement. The great gold discoveries in Victoria in 1851 imparted a further stimulus; and during the bustle and wonderful expansion of the earlier years of that eventful time, produced a culminating prosperity and commerce. The exertions of the newer colonies in self-production have since diminished their demands upon Tasmania, and the reduced figures of import and export commerce still exhibit the loss the latter has thus sustained.

Tasmania is situated between the parallels of 40.40. and 43.38. S. Lat., and between E. Lon. 144.33. and 148.28. Its area is 14,482,592 acres, or 22,629 square miles, being about four-fifths of the area of Ireland. The shape has some resemblance to that of a heart placed due north and south, with a length in that direction of 173 miles, and a breadth east and west between the extremes of Eddystone Point and West Point of 196 miles. The climate, as might be expected in such temperate latitudes of the southern hemisphere, is mostly delightful and suitable to the European constitution, with much clear weather and genial sunshine, but also characterised by occasional unpleasant extremes of heat during summer, and on some rare occasions by long and destructive droughts. The average temperature of the island throughout the year is about 53°, and the rain-fall 21 inches. The extremes of heat and cold are 105° and 25°, the latter degree of cold occurring in mid-winter upon the higher lands. The scenery is of a bold mountainous character, plentifully diversified with picturesque inlets of the sea, with rivers and fresh-water lakes, and exhibiting Tasmania, almost universally a vast forest, whose primeval solitudes have even yet been but sparsely intruded upon by the colonists. The trees attain to prodigious dimensions, having in some instances been found 102 feet in circumference, and 350 feet high. The eucalyptus family, as in Australia, are the conspicuous denizens of the soil. The blue gum, the swamp gum, and the stringy bark are used in both house and ship-building, and attain a height of 300 feet, and a diameter of 30 feet. The extensive mountain scenery culminates in elevations of upwards of 5000 feet, where the snow reposes for six months of the year. Cradle Mountain on the western side is 5059 feet, and Ben Lomond on the eastern side 5010 feet. Mount Wellington, immediately behind Hobarton, rises in a mass of striking magnificence to the height of 4166 feet. The island produces abundantly all the cereals and fruits of the northern half of Europe, but the perfect ripening of the grape cannot always be relied on except in particular situations. Besides the abundance of timber of a kind available for use, coal is also found in several situations, although hitherto of inferior quality. The search for gold under the stimulus of a promised reward, has shown at least that much of the country is auriferous, in common with the other side of the straits; but as yet the quantities obtained in the Fingal district and elsewhere are quite unimportant.

Organic nature in this island presents that peculiarity of aspect that distinguishes Australia. Tasmania, however, has not those grassy plains and open forest scenes that additionally characterise the latter country, and that are, in their immediately productive uses, a great element in its prosperity. But in both countries there are the colossal gum-trees, the graceful acacias, and the sombre evergreen foliage of the forest, with the numerous distinctive and exceptional specimens both of the vegetable and the animal world. The duck-billed platypus, well named by astonished naturalists Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, combines in one structure the mammal with the bird and the reptile. The pig-like wombat, and the kangaroo with its striking and complete marsupial development, are subjects of deep scientific interest. The great kangaroo (Macropus major) attains to 140 lb. in weight. It has been much used as food, and nearly hunted out of existence, as also the lesser Brush kangaroo, once very plentiful, but now rare, owing to the demand for the soft leather made from its skin. There are altogether 26 species of mammals, not including the seals or cetaceans, and of these 14 are common to Tasmania and Australia, but 12 are peculiar to Tasmania. The more remarkable of the latter are the Thylacinus cynocephalus (tiger or hyena of the colonists), and the Dasyurus ururus, or devil. The former, which is now rare, is of the size of a large dog, and carnivorous; the latter, less rare, is about the size of a bull terrier, fierce, and of disgusting appearance, and omnivorous, even to devouring its own kind. The whole of this mammal family, under the divisions Marsupialia (kangaroo, &c.) and Monotremata (Platypus and Echidna), have latterly been the objects of increased attention, and in particular by Professor Owen, whose mammalian classification by the brain, superseding that of Cuvier by the teeth, has brought together these Australian quadrupeds more correctly, both as regards their own mutual relations, and their relative position in the animal world. They are thus the lowest division of the mammals; and, in accordance, they present features that ally them to orders less advanced and intelligent—as, for instance, to the egg-bearing orders, the reptiles and birds. The semi-viviparous kangaroo, with its marsupial arrangements for completing the development of the fetus, is, in fact, a connecting link between the mammals giving birth to an offspring of perfect mammalian character, and a lower grade, that produce the egg with the deferred life and organization of its occupant. The brain of these Australian mammals presents a striking distinction, or rather deficiency, as compared with that of other mammals, and this cerebral deficiency seems connected with these peculiarities, or comparative shortcomings, in the generative system of the order. Among remarkable birds, the emu and the black swan belong to Tasmania as well as Australia, but both are getting scarce. There are many of the beautiful parrot tribe, besides quail and snipe, which are shot as game by sportsmen. Edible fish are abundant, but few are comparable to those of Europe. The best of this kind has the colonial name of the trumpeter.

We appropriately conclude this portion of our subject by a few sentences upon another animal of aboriginal Tasmania, also, like the marsupials, manifestly degraded, although in a different scientific sense—namely, man. The aboriginal Tasmanian differs somewhat from the Australian, particularly in the hair, which approaches to the woolly appearance of that of the negro. This is a sub-variety of our race that is now inevitably doomed to disappear, and that, too, within a very few years. They are supposed to have numbered 5000 when the colony was first formed; and they were long so troublesome and dangerous that, as with the bush-ranging convicts, it was deemed necessary to hunt them down almost like wild beasts. A small remnant was eventually collected and transported to one of the Furneaux Islands in Bass Strait; but after a while, to their great joy, they were reconducted to their own country, where the diminishing and tiny band is attended to by the colonial government. At the beginning of 1859 they numbered altogether five old men and nine old women. No children are now born. "Uncleanly, unsober, unvirtuous, unenergetic, and irreligious, with a past character for treachery, and no record of one noble action," so Mr Hull, a statistical writer of the colony, describes them; and with such a description one is tempted to ask with him, who is to regret their departure from the scene? But we may credit also the testimony of one who saw them in the only state in which, perhaps, it is fair to judge of extreme savage life, and who looked back with almost penitent regrets upon years of untiring hostility towards them. "Undoubtedly," writes Governor Arthur to the Colonial Office (6th April 1833), "the being reduced to the necessity of driving a simple but warlike, and, as it now appears, noble-minded race from their native hunting-grounds, is a measure in itself so distressing, that I am willing to make almost any prudent sacrifice that may tend to compensate for the injuries that Government is unwillingly and unavoidably the instrument of inflicting." There is something lamentable in thus witnessing the final passing away of a distinctive family of man. At all events, we have one example added to others to show that races of this savage character, as Count Strzelecki remarks, cannot associate with a civilized people. They imbibe only the vices that are presented to them, and are impervious to the counterbalancing adjuncts. If time and adverse circumstances have occasioned the degradation, time and a happier ordination of the future might effect a restoration. But all our theorizing is dissipated at the very threshold of the experiment; for we have hardly contemplated the question ere its subject has ceased to exist.

The island comprised at first only two counties, but there are now 17, with 217 parishes, and upwards of 100 towns and villages. Hobarton, the capital, is situated on the west side of the Derwent, a noble river, and the largest in the island. The town contained, in 1851, 23,107 inhabitants, and 4050 houses, of which 2932 were of stone or brick. This population has since scarcely been maintained, although that of the colony has increased. The withdrawal of the convict expenditure, and the restricted commerce of late years, already alluded to, have directed the colonists from the town to the resources of the country. Launces- Tasmania, the second town in size and importance, situated about 40 miles up the fine river Tamar, at the head of its navigation, is similarly circumstanced, having enjoyed, in 1851, a population of 10,855, with 2181 houses. The population is now (1859) about 8000. There are five newspapers published in Hobarton, three of them daily, and three in Launceston. These two ports nearly equally divide the commerce of the colony between them, Hobarton taking the southern, and Launceston the northern districts. There is a well-made road, 121 miles in length, and traversed by daily coaches, connecting the two places; and also the electric telegraph, which in 1859 was extended, via King's Island, across the straits to Victoria. In 1857 there were 17 steamers registered as belonging to the colony, several of which ply between Hobarton and Melbourne, and Hobarton and Sydney, and between Launceston and Melbourne. The two towns enjoy municipal institutions.

The population of Tasmania, by the last census in March 1857, was 81,492, including the military, and may be thus analysed: married men, 15,333; married women, 14,524; single men, 31,583; single women, 20,362; troops with their families, 690. The proportion of prisoner population was 2139 males and 869 females, and of these there were 895 males and 241 females under coercion; the others being in private service, or earning their own livelihood upon leave. The convict system is thus gradually disappearing. Its culminating era was the year 1846, at which time there were no less than 26,001 male, and 4278 female convicts, a total of 30,279 adult criminals to a remaining population of 37,000, which itself was, to a large extent, composed of adults who had been convicts, but were free by servitude.

The gold discoveries in Victoria in 1851 occasioned a great emigration, which, happily for Tasmania, included many of the worst of the convict class. The average yearly emigration of about 4000 was, in 1852, increased to 21,920, of whom 7357 were of the convict class, many of whom of course soon "came to grief" by their procedure in their new and tempting abode. Out of 26 bush-ranging parties captured in Victoria soon after their arrival, 25 were considered to have been composed of these convicts. The population fell from 69,497 in 1851, to 63,445 in 1852. There was, however, an eventual return on the part of most, and with some increase of means acquired at the gold mines; and the population has since gradually increased to about 85,000. In 1857, the religion of the people appeared as follows—Church of England, 47,714; Church of Scotland, 7220; Wesleyan Methodists, 4721; other Protestant Dissenters, 3820; Roman Catholics, 16,852; Jews, 429; Mahomedans and Pagans, 46.

The colony possesses a considerable quantity of live stock, which increased rapidly at first, but has of late been stationary, or even retrograde in numbers, the limited pastoral area having become stocked. In 1857 there were 1,879,113 sheep, yielding 5,701,815 lb. of wool; and for 7 or 8 years preceding, these respective quantities scarcely vary. Horses, however, have been gradually increasing, and numbered, in 1857, 19,857; but there has for some years been a decrease in cattle, which numbered, in 1855, 110,304, but were in 1857 only 81,164. The acreage under crop had begun to fall off, but has latterly been on the increase; and, in 1858, was 229,489 acres.

The public revenue is derived chiefly from customs-duties, under a moderate tariff, nearly, but not quite resembling the tariff of New South Wales and Victoria. In 1857 these duties gave L.134,830, out of a total revenue of L.282,179, exclusive of loans. The treasurer's statement for 1858 was to the effect, that there had been a great falling off in revenue after 1854. The deficiencies were considerable and somewhat unexpected, and a system of borrowing had come into operation, by means of an issue of debentures. Towards the end of 1857 there had been thus issued L.282,280 in bonds, due on the years Tasmanian, 1860-82. The balance of debt for which the colony was then liable was L.223,680. The government and legislature, however, proceeded to adapt the expenditure to the diminished income; and for 1858 the former was voted at L.208,978, the revenue for the same year being estimated at only L.183,978. The revenue for 1854 had been L.387,784; for 1844 it was L.167,622; for 1834, L.142,701; and for 1824, L.32,126. The colony has for several years past been devoting an annual sum to pay the passages of useful and suitable emigrants from the mother-country.

The commerce of this colony is chiefly in three articles of export—namely, wool, agricultural produce, and timber. In common with the revenues, the commerce has somewhat fallen off within the last few years, but caused partly by the lower prices of flour and grain since 1855. The imports of that year were L.1,559,797, and the exports L.1,428,629. In 1858 the imports were L.1,330,616, and the exports L.1,014,918. In 1824 the respective amounts were—imports, L.62,000; exports, L.14,500. In 1845 they had attained to L.520,562 and L.422,218 respectively. In 1855 the proportions of the chief articles of export were—wool (5,763,090 lb.), L.378,822; agricultural produce and fruit, L.371,181; timber, L.98,546. In 1857 these proportions were, respectively, wool, L.393,646; agricultural produce, &c., L.478,277; timber, L.133,953. In the earlier years of the gold discoveries (1851-54) gold appears as a considerable article of Tasmanian export. The whole, however, a few yearly ounces perhaps excepted, was the produce of Victoria, sent over for Tasmanian account, and re-exported. In this manner the exports comprise, in 1851, 7636 ounces of gold; in 1852, 145,420 ounces; in 1853, 59,054; and, in 1854, 17,411 ounces. After that year this branch of trade became insignificant, the competition in gold buying in Victoria having by that time so raised the price as to leave no profit to Tasmanian shippers. A continued search has been made for gold within the colony; but although much of the country is, like Victoria, evidently auriferous, no available gold-field has yet been met with. At Fingal, in the eastern division of the island, and more lately towards the north-west, upon or near the extensive properties of the Van Diemen's Land Company, gold has been found, and small parties are finding employment in extracting it. In 1857 the export of gold had fallen to 399 ounces, but 300 ounces were of colonial produce.

We shall briefly conclude by a sketch of the political history of the colony. For reference or convenience it may be desirable to give here the various governors who have officiated in the colony. The first, Collins, who died in 1810, has already been alluded to. Three acting governors successively officiated until the arrival of Col. Davey, 1813-17. Sorell succeeded Davey as third governor, and after him Col. George Arthur (1824-36), who occupies a conspicuous position, energetic and despotic, amongst his mixed subjects. After a short interregnum, Sir John Franklin (1837-43) assumed the government, and with much more acceptance than his predecessor. Sir J. E. E. Wilmot (1843-46) arrived in troublous times, when the evils of the convict system were beginning to irritate the colonists, and to cause opposition and unpopularity to the local government. Under some charges, which seem to have been unfounded, Wilmot, who died in the colony shortly after, was superseded by Mr La Trobe from Port-Philip (1846-7), who reported to the home government so unfavourably of the convict system, as to induce a change of the imperial system, or rather to induce a desire for such a change, even to the entire abolition of the system of penal transportation; but these intentions have been as yet only partially carried out. Sir William Denison succeeded La Trobe, who returned to Port-Phillip. Sir William had many differences with the colonists during the increasing agitation for the cessation of convictism. Whether from personal views on the subject, or more likely, perhaps, from a sense of the duties of his official position, he soon arrayed himself against the colonial views, and contended for the continuance of the obnoxious system. He lost the day however; but since his transfer to Sydney, where the transportation question does not now arise, and where the colony was just entering upon a constitutional self-government, his administration has been successful and satisfactory. Sir Henry Young, who succeeded Denison, and arrived after the pacifying settlement of the transportation question, still enjoys the government (1860), and appears to administer it successfully under the free system.

This system came into operation in 1856. In prompt response to imperial invitation to this and the adjacent colonies two years previously, the Tasmanian legislature embodied its views as to a new constitution in an act passed on 1st November 1854, which in the following year received the royal assent. We should here remark, however, that an alteration in the constitution of the colony had already taken place from that of the council of crown nomination, appointed in 1825. This alteration was introduced by the Australian Colonies Act, of 5th August 1850, of the imperial parliament, which took effect in Tasmania in 1851, and called forth there a legislature consisting of sixteen members elected by the colonists, and eight nominated by the crown. To this intermediate legislature was committed the duty of framing the constitution for self-government. The constitution which came into operation in 1856 consisted of two houses of legislation—a form which the other colonies have all agreed in adopting. The council and assembly, as they are respectively named, are both elective—the former requiring for voters a L50 freehold rental, and the age of thirty years for a member; the latter a L10 rental, or a freehold of L100 value. The council consists of 15 members, 5 of whom retire every 3 years; the assembly consists of 30, who are elected for 5 years, unless immediately dissolved by the governor. In carrying out the principle of self-government, this colony, with a judicious reserve under the circumstances, has not adopted the extreme democratic "platform" of its sister colonies. The ballot, however, has been adopted under the common example, and as yet has worked with acknowledged success. There has also been, as in the adjacent colonies, the agitation for the purpose of freeing religion from all state connection. The new Constitution Act had continued the old system, by providing out of the public revenue L15,000 a year towards support of churches and ministers of the "Christian" bodies. This clause of the act the colonial parliament repealed in 1859, awarding a compensation of L100,000; but the imperial government, in the succeeding year, refused its sanction to this measure.