Launceston, Van Diemen's Land, July 8th, 1854.

The country, the farther we advanced towards Hobart Town, increased in beauty. The valley along which we drove became narrower, the hills more lofty, and much more varied in their outlines than any Australian scenery which I have yet seen. The valleys were rich and, for the most part, as well cultivated as in England. Owing to the difference of tenure here and in Victoria, a very different state of things has been the result. Here the occupiers of the land are the owners, not mere squatters, who have no sure tenure of the land, and, therefore, do nothing to it. Here, then, instead of mere isolated wooden huts, standing in the unappropriated forest, we have a constant succession of towns and villages, bearing the singular medley of names which colonists delight in, Ross, Oatlands, Green Ponds, Brighton, Bagdad, Jericho, Jerusalem, and, of course, the river Jordan.

All round these villages, which consist of substantial and even elegant houses, extend the richest fields all enclosed, with hedges generally of sweet briar, or furze, or broom, but also a good many of honest English hawthorn. There you see cattle, sheep, pigs enormously fat, and abundance of poultry of all kinds, feeding and flourishing in their several resorts, the meadows, the woodland slopes, or the farm-yards. It is England all over.

Bendigo, White Hills, August 15th, 1853.

A new phase appears in digger life,—a crisis has arrived. Those discontents which I spoke of some time ago, as to the amount of license for gold-digging, the mode of collecting it, the administration of justice, and the general treatment of the digger, which I foresaw would produce their fruits, have been steadily growing, and now stand forth to the day, in the shape of decided remonstrance. There is a general agitation of these questions, both here and on the other diggings. That which is put forward most prominently is the repeal of the gold license; but, besides this, there is a strong feeling against the arbitrary treatment of the diggers by the Commissioners and police, and for an elective franchise — the principle of the British Constitution being grossly violated in the persons of the diggers, who are heavily taxed, and totally unrepresented in the legislative body.

I have already stated the grievances of the diggers, as described by themselves, and I have admitted that they are real, substantial, and full-grown grievances, such as no Englishmen should, or will long, tolerate.

The Bush, near Bendigo, Nov. 2nd, 1853.

Our curious experience of official management and noli me tangere temperament on the old road being terminated, we held a council as to our next movement. Our splendid dam on the creek was now occupied by others; and, indeed, the water was fast failing on the Bendigo, so that all operations on the creek must, of necessity, cease in a few weeks. What was still more admonitory of a move, was the warning voice of the medical men, who predicted the general prevalence of fever and dysentery on the Bendigo field during the summer months, and especially in November. The water during the heat of this month rapidly dries up; the vast space now cleared of every bush and tree, lays the whole surface open to the sun, which, striking on the bare heaps of gravel, makes the whole like one great oven. There is scarcely any water to be procured for household use, much less for washing gold; and, therefore, the diggers, at the approach of this season, hurry away to other diggings, where water is more plentiful; and it is already curious to see that where crowds of tents stood the other day, there now stand only solitary chimneys and the poles and blocks of trees over which the tents were stretched. The place looks like a destroyed village, with only a few fragments of the abodes remaining.

Melbourne, March 29. 1853.

Here we are again, safe and sound. We have come down the country with as much ease as we had difficulty in getting up it. The fact is, that the roads are now dry, and beaten smooth by the traffic of the whole summer; and, therefore, as we broke no wheel, we had no delay except what was voluntary, and, consequently, no ill-health. Exclusive of the time that we staid at friends' houses, we were only about ten days in getting down. We called on our way to see our friends, eat peaches, grapes, and water-melons, and in these agreeable relaxations spent nearly a week.

We quitted our pleasant abode in the woods at the Upper Yackandanda on the 2nd of March, and took our course back again to Spring Creek. But now, we had no longer, as in coming up, to make our way through the untracked bush. It was tracked to some purpose. The diggers who had followed on our course were thousands. They had settled along these creeks for miles; and the extent of ground that they had turned up was surprising. We were astonished at the population that we found where, at our coming up, it was an untracked desert. On the Nine-mile Creek the throng was great, and some of the diggers had done well. One party of our acquaintance had obtained 16 lbs. weight of gold, per man. But, of course, there were complainers here as everywhere.