blishment, moving slowly along to the distant interior. In short, as is said at the close of the other and more frequent performances in this building, so it may be said of almost the whole community of Port Phillip, Exeunt omnes, "they are all gone out a-squatting." (Much laughter.) Now, it appears to me that this is not exactly the condition of society best calculated to advance the general prosperity of the colony, or to promote the interests of the squatters themselves. If things, for example, are to continue as at present in this most important respect, the flocks and herds of the squatters will very soon be valuable only for their wool, their hides, and their tallow; and a vast quantity of valuable animal food that might otherwise afford sustenance to myriads of our half-starved countrymen at home will be lost or destroyed. Even horses will very soon be so numerous and cheap in this district, that the very beggars, when you have them, will be mounted, as they are in South America, without realizing the old proverb which consigns "beggars on horseback" to a personage I will not name. (Laughter.) In such circumstances it appears to me that some great and vigorous effort should be made at the present most important crisis of your colonial history for the introduction and settlement in this province of a numerous agricultural population, to develop the vast resources of the country, and to form a broad and permanent basis for the institutions of our fatherland. With all deference to the Squatters, I agree entirely in the sentiment so well expressed on one occasion by the late General Jackson, formerly President of the United States of America-"The strength and glory of a country are its population, and the best part of that population are the cultivators of the soil." (Cheers.) I am decidedly of opinion that it is as much the interest of Port Phillip as it is of England to encourage and to promote by every means the formation of

"A brave yeomanry, their country's pride."

(Renewed cheers.) I am aware there are some of the great Squatters not very friendly to the introduction of a numerous agricultural population into this province, under the idea that it might interfere materially with their runs. But when one considers that at the utmost only one-seventh, and in all likelihood only one-tenth of the whole available land of this colony would be considered, for at least a century to come, of superior quality for cultivation, it is surely most unreasonable to cherish any apprehension of the kind. One-tenth of the available land of this province is surely but a small quantity to be occupied for the purposes of cultivation-for the introduction and settlement of an industrious and virtuous population, and the gradual supply of all the labour that may be requisite for the Squatters themselves. It has been urged, indeed, that such a population would not find a market for their grain. But not to allude more particularly to the strong probability of the speedy opening of the English

ports for the consumption of colonial grain, I would only remind you that of the sixteen millions of Whites in the United States of America, not fewer than fourteen are employed in agriculture, besides a large majority of the entire negro population; and if so vast a portion of the population of that country can live by agriculture, why should not the same proportion of the whole population of this colony be able to live by it here? Much of the land of the western portion of this province is of such fertility, that even in its natural state it will maintain a sheep, and even a bullock to the acre; but I confess I should like much better to see each acre of such land maintaining its man. (Cheers.) Besides, there are many productions for which the soil and climate of this province are admirably adapted besides grain of all descriptions. Not to speak of the vine and the olive and tobacco, which would all thrive here wonderfully, there is one production for which the soil and climate are admirably adapted, and which I am confident will at no distant period form one of the great staple articles of export in this province, I mean flax ! (Cheers.) In the course of my recent tour to the Portland Bay District, Í ascertained that flax is indigenous in that part of the territory, and that extensive marshy plains towards the Glenelg River are actually covered with the native plant. In short, it is beyond all controversy that this portion of the colony is admirably adapted for the settlement of an industrious and virtuous population; and going home, as I intend doing, at this important crisis, I am in great hopes that I may be instrumental in giving such an impulse to emigration in the mother-country as will lead to the speedy introduction and settlement of many thousands of our countrymen at home of that most important class of society in this province. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, if in any way I can be of service to this district in the mother-country, either in promoting the cause of Separation, or in advancing the best interests of the province in any other way, you may rest assured I shall not be wanting in my efforts to the utmost of my ability. (Renewed cheering.)

The Honourable and Reverend Gentleman then repeating his thanks for the honour conferred upon him, resumed his seat amidst the most rapturous applause.*

* A Statement of the whole Expenditure of the Province of Port Phillip under the present system of Government, will be found in Appendix C.

حرق

CHAPTER XII.

PROSPECTS FOR RELIGION AND EDUCATION IN PHILLIPSLAND.

I HAD intended to have included in this volume a chapter on the Protectorate of the Aborigines in Phillipsland; but the goodly size to which it has already and rather unexpectedly attained, and the delay which has been occasioned in its publication by "a strike among the printers" in Edinburgh, have induced me to forego that intention; especially as I shall have an opportunity, in another work, which is now in the press, of descanting at considerable length on the origin, manners, and customs, as well as on the condition and prospects of the Aborigines of Australia generally." Suffice it to say, however, that, with the exception of Gippsland, where, in consequence of unprovoked outrage on the one hand, followed by savage retaliation on the other, there is at present no intercourse but that of hostility between the Whites and the Blacks, the relations of the two races throughout the territory are now in great measure of a peaceful and friendly character. The influence and exertions of Mr. Assistant Protector Parker, in the north-western portion of the territory,

* Cooksland; or the Northern Division of the Colony of New South Wales: its characteristics and capabilities, as a highly eligible field for European Colonization. With a Disquisition on the Origin, Manners, and Customs of the Aborigines,

have, I am happy to state, been eminently conducive to this most desirable result.

The three principal religious denominations throughout the province are the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, and the Roman Catholic. Of the masters or employers of labour generally, eighty-five per cent. are from England and Scotland; the larger number of that proportion, including a decided preponderance of the Squatting interest, being from Scotland: the remaining fifteen per cent. are from the Sister-island. It has been estimated, however, that of the class of servants or labourers, as large a proportion as sixty per cent. are from Ireland; the remainder, consisting of twenty-five per cent., from Scotland, and only fifteen from England. This estimate, taken in connexion with the fact that the Irish Protestants, included respectively in the proportions of fifteen per cent. of the higher and sixty per cent. of the humbler classes, are pretty equally divided into Episcopalians and Presbyterians, will enable the intelligent reader to form a tolerably correct idea of the relative proportions of the THREE DENOMINATIONS throughout the province. In the town of Melbourne there are also congregations of the Independent, Baptist, and Methodist communions; and I have had occasion, when treating of Geelong and its vicinity, to mention a Methodist congregation in that locality; but these three classes of English Dissenters, being all for the most part proselytizing communions, depending alike for their existence and extension on the inadequacy or the inefficiency of clerical ministrations elsewhere, are confined exclusively to the towns.

There have hitherto been only three ministers of the Episcopalian communion in the province-one in Melbourne, one in Geelong, and one at Portland. As yet there has been comparatively little of the Puseyite tendencies of Colonial Episcopacy exhibited in Phillipsland, probably from the want of a Bishop in the province; but as that Right Hon. English Puseyite, of Scotch Presbyterian descent, Mr, Ex-Secretary Gladstone,of whom, I was most happy to find, on my arrival at

Pernambuco, on my voyage to England, that the Australian Colonies had been safely delivered*—set himself, during his brief tenure of office, to supply this great deficiency, and accordingly appointed a Protestant bishop for Melbourne; there is reason to believe that Episcopacy in Phillipsland will henceforth exhibit the same rapid progress towards downright Romanism as it exhibits already, under direct Episcopal influence, in New South Wales, New Zealand, and Van Dieman's Land. It is possible, indeed, that the Protestant bishop

* During this gentleman's brief period of office, he gave the public sanction of Government to one of the basest practices of the Australian Colonies-I mean, that of transmitting to England clandestine, and perhaps anonymous charges against individuals occupying a prominent place in society-by recalling Sir Eardley Wilmot, the Governor of Van Dieman's Land, on the ground of certain vague and indefinite rumours against his personal character and conduct, which there was no body to substantiate, even with the prima facie evidence of his name! What a premium and encouragement will not such procedure afford for this peculiar form of Colonial baseness, which I may inform the reader, in passing, has sometimes a clerical, as well as a political, origin and object, as I have repeatedly experienced myself! Why, it will transform Downing Street into a perfect harbour for Colonial informers and assassins!

Mr. Gladstone endeavoured also, although in a somewhat insidious manner, during his brief tenure of office, to transform New South Wales once more into a Convict Colony, by making it again the chosen receptacle for British and Irish felons, in the face of the solemn pledge of Her Majesty's Government, five or six years before, that Transportation to that Colony should then cease and determine. To the credit of the Colony, the idea was scouted with the utmost indignation by the great bulk of the people, including men of all ranks and conditions throughout the Territory. It is peculiarly instructive, however, as a confirmation of certain statements I have made in a previous chapter, that Mr. Gladstone's proposal to revive Transportation to New South Wales, was received with perfect rapture by the whole Squatting Interest in the Legislative Council, or in other words, by the vir tual Representatives of all the sheep and horned cattle beyond the boundaries! The Whig Ministry, therefore, just got in in time to save the Australian Colonies; which, I repeat it, have had much reason to felicitate themselves in being safely delivered of Mr. Gladstone, notwithstanding the spurious piety of the Right Honourable gentleman in appointing a bishop for l'hillipsland, and an additional one for New South Wales Proper.