To the Editor of the Argus. 

Sir, - Any thoughtful person who calmly views our present condition, either commercially or politically, must feel the necessity of vigorous exertions in order to place us in the position we ought to be in. When we consider the rich and beautiful country God has given to us - a country that waits only for the plough to give us wheat - the vine to give us wine - the olive to give us oil - every luxury and comfort that man can desire is within our reach, only waits our biddings. Gold lies at our feet, and yet with all these advantages we are on the verge of national insolvency, and the hands of our people are stained with blood. 

May the frightful and sorrowful position we are in induce us all with one spirit to co-operate in bringing about a more creditable state of things. Let us cast aside all party feeling or class interest; - let us retrench, economise, and abandon the idea that getting further into debt will clear us of our difficulties. Let us fling to the wind the wild fallacy that public works carried on with borrowed money is fitting employment for newly-arrived immigrants. 

Let us be wise in time, and give to our people a fair scope for their activity - a wider and more wholesome range for their energies, and we shall soon become a happy, a peaceful, and a contented people. 

We have too long indulged in taxing,- we have become under the Wakefield system a nation of consumers, instead of producers. We must alter our system, if we wish to recover character; and if Sir Charles Hotham is a wise man, he will at once call to his assistance that first minister of finance, the Plough! 

Yours faithfully, 
CAROLINE CHISHOLM 
Melbourne, Dec.7, 1854.