Victoria The British El Dorado PDF Download

Excerpt from Victoria, the British "El Dorado," or Melbourne in 1869: Shewing the Advantages of That Colony as a Field for Emigration On becoming fully acquainted with the actual state of affairs I no longer hesitated to publish the results of my observations in Victoria. If the facts that came under my notice appeared to me, a colonist of old standing, to be strik ing and remarkable, how much more surprising, I thought, must they be to the ordinary reader, who has no personal knowledge of colonial life. One great obstacle to the progress of emigration has been the absolute ignorance and apathy that are to be found among the mass of Englishmen respecting the colonies. They bestow no thought upon them, such as they freely give to the sensational topics of the day. They do not body forth to their mind's eye the great fact that we possess colonies - territories of boundless extent, with soil and climate equal to those of England they do not dwell upon the sub ject with sufficient persistence to enable them to picture to themselves, as an objective reality, the outlines - the form and features - of a great colonial Empire.ranricr. In the sketch which I have drawn of the colony of Victoria, I have studied correctness of outline. Rather than pictorial effect. My aim has been to state facts and results, and to enable the reader to see the country as I saw it myself. I might easily have given objects a certain conlem' de rose tint had I been so minded but it will be found that I have shown both sides of the picture - the dark as well as the bright surface. I have no personal or pe cuniary interest in the colony. My principal object has been to call the attention of the public to the importance of the Australasian colonies generally, as adjuncts and outposts of the British Empire. And more especially to help forward the work of emigra tion, in which I have always taken a lively interest, believing that it is the most effectual means of re lieving the distress that must always prevail in a densely peopled country of limited area - that has no longer space left for its redundant population. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.