A politico-philosophical romance set in an ideal society, and which according to Everett Bleiler, contains some slight science-fiction elements. In his outline of the narrative, Bleiler writes:
The narrator and his friends decide to visit a thriving English-speaking state in the wilds of New Holland. After travelling inland across mountain ranges for several hundred miles they come to Southland [a loose federation of eleven states, which] is a prosperous land colonised by English dissenters during the Reformation, about three hundred years earlier. The travellers become acquainted with informed citizens, including several titled persons, and are instructed about the new land. The population is now of mixed origin, European and aborigine [sic], and there is no racial prejudice. Indeed, in some parts of Southland, one must prove partial aboriginal [sic] ancestry before qualifying for public office (p.262).
The book essentially serves to propose another possible society, and in this respect the authors consider the political structure of Southland in some detail.
