efforts made from home. It has not been my purpose to give anything like a history of the early years of our first Australian settlement, but I have thought that it might be well to state a few facts as to the manner in which the colony was formed. I have taken my dates, and many of my facts also, from a school book by F. Proeschel, F.R.S.V. Geographer, &c., M.A.I.AM. and M.S.E.I.N. F. I can make nothing of these letters, but the book is a very good book, with excellent maps, and may be recommended to the use of those who wish either to learn or to teach the history of Australia.

In 1856, five years after the separation of Victoria, responsible government was established in New South Wales, and governors of the happy, hospitable, sleek, and unburdened kind came into vogue. This happened during the reign of Sir William Denison, who came out in 1853 with the task of inaugurating the change. He, however, still kept the title of Governor-General of Australasia, which was not borne by his successor, Sir John Young. Perhaps of all her governors Sir Richard Bourke is the one best remembered and the most esteemed in New South Wales. He came to the colony in 1832, and remained there for the normal period of six years. A large statue to his memory, standing at the gate of the Sydney domain, helps to keep alive his honours. He was no doubt a firm, considerate man, excellently well qualified for his duties. He was preceded by Governor Darling, and succeeded by Governor Gipps, as to both of whom it is now recorded in the colony that, if diamonds, they were rough diamonds.

It is impossible in Australia to forget the name of any past governor, or any secretary of state for the colonies, almost impossible to forget that of any

under secretary of state, so prone have been the colonists to name their districts, rivers, counties, towns, and streets from the men who have governed them. We have Phillip Street, Hunter Street, King Street, Bligh Street, and Macquarie Street in Sydney, not to mention the Macquarie River, and Hunter River, and Port Phillip. We have the city of Brisbane, and the Darling River,-with various Darlings, and various Bourkes, and Gippsland in Victoria, and the Fitzroy River in Queensland, and Port Denison quite in the north, and the town of Young, and the river Murray, and Belmore hotels are innumerable. I do not know that there is as yet any Kimberley County, but there are Caernarvons, Russells, Laboucheres, Newcastles, Granvilles, Stanleys, Glenelgs, and Lyttons without stint, as also are there Merivales, Rogers, Elliots, Pelhams, and memorials of others who from time to time have been either politically or permanently great in Downing Street. Sir Hercules Robinson now reigns at Sydney, and when I left that city I heard enough to make me assured that before long there will be a Robinson district, a county Robinson, a town of Robinson, and a river Robinson.

CHAPTER XIII.

SYDNEY.

I DESPAIR of being able to convey to any reader my own idea of the beauty of Sydney Harbour. I have seen nothing equal to it in the way of land-locked sea scenery, nothing second to it. Dublin Bay, the Bay scenery,—nothing

of Spezzia, New York, and the Cove of Cork are all picturesquely fine. Bantry Bay, with the nooks of sea running up to Glengarrif, is very lovely. But they are not equal to Sydney either in shape, in colour, or in variety. I have never seen Naples, or Rio Janeiro, or Lisbon;-but from description and pictures I am led to think that none of them can possess such a world of loveliness of water as lies within Sydney Heads. The proper thing to assert is that the fleets of all nations might rest securely within the protection of the harbour. How much acreage of sea the fleets of all nations might require I cannot even surmise ;but if they could be anchored together anywhere, they could surely be so anchored at Sydney.

As I thought of this, steaming up the harbour to Sydney Cove, having just heard the boast from a stout Sydney citizen,-I felt assured that whenever the experiment should be tried, the English fleet would enter first with proud pre-eminence; and range themselves with haughty courtesy close under the governor's house and all round the town. Then

would come the Danish, the Swedish, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Turkish, the Russian, and the Austrian ironclads. And we should glow with national pride as we told ourselves that, added together, all these foreign ships of war amounted to about half our collected force. The French and the Prussian fleets would place themselves in the broad expanse between Manly Beach and Watson's Bay, watching each other with ill-concealed hatred. In the very mouth of the harbour would be four or five American Alabamas,who would thus be enabled to hurry off to Europe, to burn Liverpool, and carry off all the ropes of pearls which lie hidden between Bond Street and the Tower of London. By the time that they had disposed of the spoil in New York, we should be extricating ourselves from our position. The Americans after a while would apologize. The captains would probably have misunderstood their instructions, and would have gold swords given to them. But they would not pay for a single rope of pearls, and Liverpool would rebuild itself.

In none of the books which I have seen respecting the early settlement of the colony, or of its subsequent difficulties in progress, is much stress laid on the scenery of Sydney Harbour, or of the Hawkesbury River which is near it. Nor is much said of the glorious defiles of the Blue Mountains. Such books have been generally circumstantial and statistical,— either despondent or hopeful, according to the opinions of the writers. They have always insisted much,and have done so with well-deserved zeal,-on the great efforts made by Australian discoverers. They have told us of the drawbacks of the land,—which are very great, as the soil is often poor, is encumbered with forests, deficient in water, and subject to a climate

which is not propitious to cereals. On the other hand, we have heard from them much of Australian wool, and for the last twenty years of Australian gold. We gather from these books many facts as to the past events of Australia, and many opinions as to its future. But we hear very little of Australian scenery. Consequently we, at home in England, are inclined to believe that Australia, as a country, is displeasing to the eye. The eternal gum-tree has become to us an Australian crest, giving evidence of Australian ugliness. The gum-tree is ubiquitous, and is not the loveliest, though neither is it by any means the ugliest, of trees. But there are scenes of nature in Australia as lovely as are to be found in any part of the world; -not so closely congregated as in Western Europe, but quite as much so as in North America. They are often difficult of access,—and must remain so, till the population is large enough to stretch itself about the country, and to make railways, and to run river steamers.

The people of Sydney are by no means indifferent to the beauty, of their harbour, and claim for it the admiration of strangers with something of the language, but not with the audacity of Americans, when they demand the opinions of their visitors as to their remarkable institutions. There is something of shamefacedness, a confession of provincial weakness, almost an acknowledgment that they ought not to be proud of a thing so insignificant, in the tone in which you are asked whether, upon the whole, you do not think Sydney Harbour rather pretty. Every Sydney man and every Sydney woman does ask you the question,as does every American ask that other question; but it is asked in Sydney with bated breath, and with something of an apology, "Of course you have been