Forest Creek, May 10th, 1854.

The immense extent of diggings already worked out here gives one some serious thoughts regarding this colony, and the policy which has been pursued in it since the gold discoveries. You would see a short time ago a very scarifying article in the Times, on the conduct of Mr. La Trobe in this great crisis. In this article it recurred to a favourite topic of its own, that of the impropriety of allowing anybody and everybody to come and dig up, and carry away the wealth of the crown here. Substitute the word nation for crown, and I agree perfectly with the leading journal. That the British people should be allowed to come and dig up the treasure of the British people, under proper conditions, certainly cannot be wrong. But I confess that I cannot see the soundness of that policy by which foreigners of all other nations are allowed to come and take this wealth from the crown and people of England, and carry it away to their own countries.

No doubt it was done in imitation of the policy of America, which allows all nations to enter and dig gold in California, but there, it was under very different views and conditions. The United States made and still make it an inducement for these foreigners to settle in America—to invest what they took from the earth in the earth again.