will, at the present moment, naturally centre itself in COTTON. And it may not be uninteresting to the reader to lay before him the actual prospects of Queensland as a field for its produetion. It had been ascertained for several years that a variety of the cotton plant, known as the Sea Island cotton, was capable of being cultivated with great success in the Moreton Bay settlement: indeed, this variety of cotton, if not indigenous to the Australian continent, as there is reason to suppose, is found in great luxuriance on some of the islands adjoining the mainland. It was also ascertained that the shrubs continued to improve up to their third and fourth year after planting, thereby effecting a considerable saving over the American plantations, where they are obliged to be renewed every year. Samples of this cotton were, from time to time, and as early as 1846, submitted to Manchester firms, and were most highly spoken of, their market value being estimated at from 1s. to 1s. 3d. and even 2s. per pound-the common New Orleans' variety then fetching about 5d. But it was not until 1858 that Australian cotton made its appearance in Liverpool as an article of commerce. It then realised 1s. 9d. per pound.

'I saw at once,' says Mr. Bazley, M.P. for Manchester, in a speech delivered on the subject of cotton-growth, that, with such vastly superior cotton, yarn could be produced finer than any that could be manufactured in India or Great Britain. I bought that cotton, carried it to Manchester, and spun it into exquisitely fine yarn. I found that the weavers of Lancashire could not produce a fabric from it, it was so exceedingly delicate; the weavers of Scotland could not weave it; nor could even the manufacturers of France weave this yarn into fine muslin. It occurred to me to send it to Calcutta, and in due time I had the happiness of receiving from India some of the finest muslin ever manufactured, the product of the skill of the Hindoos with this delicate Australian cotton.'

Small consignments of this cotton continued during succeeding years to arrive in England; and at the International Exhibition of 1862, no less than seven medals were awarded to Queensland growers, while the distinction of 'honourable men'tion' was conferred on five more. In a Report of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce on these exhibited samples, it is remarked — The samples of Sea Island cotton from the Australian colonies are far superior to cotton from any other part of the world.'

Incited by such testimonies as to the excellence of Queensland cotton, the colonists have taken vigorous steps to place a large quantity of land under cotton, and the Colonial Government have further encouraged its growth by offering a bonus.

of 107. (issued as a land-order) on every bale of Sea Island cotton, weighing 300 lbs., grown within the colony, and of 51. on the coarser varieties. The following is, as nearly as can be estimated, the total quantity of land placed under cotton crop, down to the 31st of December, 1862:- The Cabulture Cotton Company, on the Cabulture River, 150 acres under crop; on the Logan, 1,280 acres prepared, of which 150 are under crop; the English Company (Mr. Bazley's), on Nerang Creek, 2,000 acres, of which 100 just sown; several smaller companies on the Logan River, amount planted not stated; Victorian Company, on the Hotham River, 3,000 acres, 1,000 ready for sowing; Ipswich Cotton Company, 150 acres under crop; the Maryborough Cotton-growing Association, 35 acres under crop; several small private growers around Ipswich, 300 acres under crop; at Port Curtis, some plantations under crop, amount not stated. In addition to these, a large number of companies are now forming, and several private farmers are adding a few acres of cotton to their ordinary crops.

Of these new plantations, the first bales have already reached Liverpool from the Ipswich cotton-growers, and will naturally give increased activity to the movement. The cotton has realised 3s. per pound, and produced 323 lbs. to the acre. The result, including sale of cotton, cotton-seed, and landorders, shows a clear profit of 4371. 11s. 6d. on ten acres of land, according to a return published in the Queensland newspapers. Mr. Panton, the chief of these Ipswich cotton-growers, estimates that the total expenses may be brought within 10l. per acre. One able-bodied man can keep ten acres in cultivation, and, with the assistance of some of the junior members of his family, can gather in the crop. The picking season ranges between May, June, and July (the Australian winter), when the weather is almost invariably fine, and the climate cool. Under present circumstances, the return we have just given, showing a clear profit of over 40l. per acre, and enabling an ordinary labouring man to realise an income of 4371. 11s. 6d., does not appear an exceptional one. however, some material deductions to be made for future years. The local demand for cotton seed, which is produced in the ratio of 11 oz. of seed to 4 oz. of cotton, may be expected to decline. The 107. land-orders on each bale of cotton will be reduced to half that amount at the end of three years, and cease altogether at the end of five. And the present high price of cotton is exceptional; though not to such an amount in the case of this Sea Island variety as might at first sight be thought. The Sea Island cotton, as grown in the Southern States, has

There are,

hitherto, before the outbreak of the American civil war, commanded prices ranging from 1s. 6d. to 2s. per pound; while all testimony goes to prove the superior excellence of the Queensland growth. Indeed, some of the samples we have already mentioned as shown at the London Exhibition were valued as high as 4s. 6d. per pound, though what share the present abnormal state of the cotton market had in this calculation we are not aware. Even at this price, its annual consumption, in normal years, amounts to about 47,150 bags, or, at 400 lbs. to the bag, 18,860,000 lbs. In America, however, as well as in Egypt, it has been found not nearly so prolific as the coarser descriptions, to which it has greatly given place - New 'Orleans' cotton, at 6d. per pound, being considered a more remunerative crop than Sea Island' at 1s. 6d., or even 2s., unless under peculiarly favourable circumstances. This defect in the Sea Island cotton is, it is stated, on authority which we have no reason to doubt, in a great degree obviated in Queensland, where it is said to be capable of a production little, if at all, inferior to the coarser descriptions of America. Indeed, the return we have just given, exhibiting a return of 323 lbs. per acre, fully bears out these anticipations-the produce of the Sea Island variety in America seldom averaging higher than 225 lbs., and this only on particular plantations; while Mr. Panton, and other Queensland growers, speak confidently of raising the produce to 400 lbs. Its superior excellence, moreover, will enable it to command the market.

Doubtless our readers will have already seen that Queensland cotton-growing, in its present phase, promises no solution of the Lancashire problem-cotton at 3s., or even 1s., affording little hope of taking the place of the hitherto all but universal sixpenny short staple; though, under the data we have just sketched, the colonists and their Government have, in their own interests, given no undue preference to the Sea Island variety. However, even on the extreme- though, to all appearance, not unlikely — supposition that Queensland should wholly displace the finer varieties of cotton hitherto in the market, the comparatively small amount of 50,000 acres under crop would oblige her to resort to new tactics an amount which, in the continuance of the present rapidly increasing movement, may shortly be expected. In the meantime, her prospects of engaging in the coarser descriptions are by no means unfavourable. So early as 1852, Queensland samples of the New Orleans variety were submitted to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and after careful examination by its President-the present member for Manchester

6

were valued at 5d.-a trifle over the ruling price of 'short 'staple' American cotton of similar kind. Some of the samples, too, shown at the late International Exhibition were of the New Orleans variety, and in the Report to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, drawn up by Mr. Wanklyn, we find the following remark on them:-I do not desire in the least to discourage the cultivation of Sea Island cotton, but the samples of New Orleans are so particularly good, that I would recommend the Queensland people to try both the New Orleans and the Egyptian, for it is quite possible that the return per acre of those sorts may be even more profitable than Sea ' Island.' From the few specimens of the coarser varieties already grown in the colony, the more experienced planters anticipate a yield of 600 lbs. per acre, which is somewhat in excess of the ordinary American crop. And, indeed, considering the wonderful luxuriance which almost all introduced plants and shrubs have attained to under Queensland soil and climate, it is not unreasonable to suppose that other and coarser varieties of the cotton-tree may be found to exhibit a fertility corresponding to that which has brought into favour the Sea Island cotton. The latter and finer species would then be speedily displaced by the kinds for which there is the largest demand, as has already happened in the Southern States of America, Egypt, and other long-established cotton countries.

On every account, from its vast extent, from its fertile soil, from its delicious climate, from its extensive seaboard and abundant watercourses, from its judicious institutions, and from the wise and temperate spirit which has hitherto prevailed in its administration, Queensland deserves to be regarded as one of the most interesting and promising of those youthful States with which the maritime and colonial genius of England has studded the globe. Seven years have not yet elapsed since the province of Moreton Bay assumed the rank of an independent colony. The terms of service of its first Governor, Sir George Bowen, and of its first Minister, Mr. Herbert, have not yet expired: but these accomplished and fortunate rulers have already founded a State which cannot fail to rank amongst the freest and most prosperous communities on the face of the earth.

ART. II. Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, vom fünften Jahrhundert bis zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert. Von FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS. Vols. I.-IV. Stuttgart: 1859 -1862.

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IN

N a well-known passage of his autobiography, Gibbon has recorded to us how the first idea of his immortal work presented itself to his mind as he sat 'musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the 'Temple of Jupiter.' But his original plan, as he himself adds, 'was circumscribed to the decay of the city rather than of the 'empire,' and it was only by degrees that his views expanded so as to comprise the whole extent of the more important subject. No one certainly will regret the change, to which we are indebted for the greatest historical work of modern times. But there are some readers who will have felt that the original object of his aspirations has been too much lost sight of in the progress of the more extensive plan; or rather that the proportions to which the history of the city was necessarily reduced in order to keep it in due subordination to the main design, did not allow of its receiving so full a developement as it deserved. The concluding chapter of Gibbon's history contains indeed a masterly sketch of the decay of the city itself, and the causes which gradually reduced it to the condition in which it is described to us by Poggio Bracciolini in the fifteenth century; while the revolutions and fortunes of Rome, though occupying but a small place in the more extended picture after the fall of the Western Empire, are traced out in bold and vigorous outlines from the time of Alaric to that of Nicholas V.

It is not too much to say that whatever may be gleaned by the industry of later students in this field will do little more than fill up the outlines already drawn by the master-hand of Gibbon; but the task is not the less a desirable one, and one that has remained too long unfulfilled. Every one who, like Gibbon himself, has visited the ruins of Rome and mused over their vicissitudes-and who is there at the present day that has not been at Rome ?-must have felt that there was a great chasm in his associations with the scenes around him-that between the period of their imperial splendour, and that of their renewed magnificence under the Popes of the sixteenth century, there was a long interval with which he was comparatively unfamiliar: he will have desired to trace in more detail the progress