"gold." Everything that is touched upon is
turned to gold: even the advertisements;
here are some specimens:—

CONVEYANCE TO THE DIGGINGS.— For
Private Sale, two first-rate English-built new Dog
Carts, with Aprons, Lamps, &c. Apply,—

GOLD DIGGINGS. Strong Colonial Rum, to stand
one to two, made expressly for the purpose, and
will be a saving of one hundred per cent, on the
Carriage to the Mines. To be had only at the Stores
of the Undersigned. Address,—-

Every imaginable article is advertised, as if
going to the diggings were the only journey
through the world. "Tents for the Gold
Regions"; " Boots for the Gold Regions";
"Biscuits for the Gold Regions"; "Bottled
Beer for the Gold Regions"; "Razors for
the Diggings"; "Trousers for the Mines";
"Hats for the New Dorado"; "Bedsteads
for the Placers" are all announced, as if no
single article was designed for the people
who remain behind. Auctioneers' puffs tell
of the extent of the exode in the plainest
terms. One commences with—

UNRESERVED.—Mr. John Smith has received
instructions from a gentleman leaving Sydney
for the Gold Country, to Sell by Auction, &c.

Another:—
EXTENSIVE CLEARING-OUT SALE.—Mr. D.
Cock has received instructions to submit to
public competition, this day, Friday, at half-past ten
o'clock precisely, without reserve, the property of
parties about to proceed to the Ophir Gold Diggings.

A merchant of a quaint turn of humour,
and of somewhat deficient grammatical
attainments, advertises in this fashion:—

TO PERSONS that won't go to the Gold Mines.—-
For Sale, a large-size English Feather-bed, one
hundred pounds weight, for six pounds.—To
PERSONS that will go to the Mines.—A large-size
Tent and Poles, four pounds; one ditto, ditto, two
pounds; double-bodied Phaeton and Harness,
sixteen pounds.

A Mr. Smith advertises " Shirts for the
Diggings, double sewn, and warranted to
stand the test of hard water." A Mr. Jones,
who heads his affiche, "Gold!!! Gold!!!
Gold!!! " addresses his fellow citizens in a
tone of irresistible persuasion:—

"Whoever may say nay, it is an undeniable fact,
that large fields of gold exist in our own country,
and almost at our own doors. Who, then, would
stay at home? Why not to the Diggings? "nothing
venture, nothing win". But, be advised; the want
of the Most Glorious Success to those already on the
spot, is known to be entirely attributable to the absence
of all proper apparatus for detecting and separating
the particles of gold. Then haste to Jones's Cabinet
Manufactory, King Street, where you can purchase
for a mere trifle, Rockers for washing the Gold, upon
the most approved principle, by one who has had
long experience among the Spanish, American, and
Mexican Gold Finders,'' &c., &c.

The proprietor of an establishment, named
"Waterloo House," informs the public that
"Parties purchasing their outfits for the Gold
Mines, to the amount of thirty shillings, at
Waterloo House, will receive, gratis, the
Digger's Hand-book, or Gold-Seeker's Guide,"
&c. Another enterprising dealer apprises his
friends, that he "has just received a few of
Soyer's Magic Stoves, and Lilliputian
Apparatus, specially adapted for out-door cooking".
The same individual—having not the most
implicit trust in the gentleness of human
nature, when human nature turns to gold-
seeking—adds a bristling catalogue of double-
barrel guns, pocket duelling and horse pistols,
carbines, muskets, gunpowder, bullets, shot-
belts, and powder-flasks.

Opening the sheet—for as yet only the
outside pages have been surveyed—we read, with
ever-increasing astonishment, head-line after
head-line, all about the same intensely absorbing
subject. The first leading article is
entitled, "'The Gold Field." There are "Mems.
about Gold"; "The Gold Mania"; Gold!"
a poem; and a long array of letters from the
Diggings, written "by our own correspondents".
Then come a number of epistles
addressed to the editor, by sundry citizens of
Sydney, without exception, about the newly
found gold-fields.

One gentleman is cuttingly sarcastic; he
declares with bristles sturdily erect:—

"Almost every Botany Bay holder of a bag of
sugar, a chest of tea, a ton of flour, a cask of ale, or
a gallon of spirits, has now joined in fostering this
unsubstantiated clamour. The demon of Insatiate
Greed rides the colony, and in a few days will be
joined by rampant Robbery and Grim Murder. You
walk the streets, and everybody asks you, "Are you
going to the Diggings?" At every corner of every
street you hear a lie, and at every corner of every
street this lie is contradicted; still folly reigns
triumphant, and every schemer's face—and they and
their satellites are numerous—shines with a demoniac
grin of accomplished trickery. Oh! we hope not.
Surely society could hardly be plunged into Hadean
horrors at one fell swoop."

Turned in a day from its dull, commercial
routine, to the discussion of a single dazzling
theme—changed from a leaden to a golden
newspaper—the "Sydney Morning Herald"
is a distinct and suggestive sign of the times
in Australia.

WISDOM IN WORDS.

THE history, the manners, and even the
morals of a nation, are impressed upon its
words.

In this country, for example, the history
of the relation between the Saxons and
the Normans is defined in words distinctly.
Prince, duke, marquis, and all titles of rank,
excepting earl, (whose wife, however, as a
countess, follows the prevailing rule,) are
Norman words. But boor, and hind, and
churl, are Saxon, for the Normans were the
rulers. Also they were invaders, we discover,
for they retained the old supreme authority