scholar; he was fond of literature, and had published a translation of Camoens's Lusiad. Mr. William Macleay, most welcome of guests at Nelson Bay, has already been mentioned more than once. With these Mrs. Lowe couples the name of Sir Alfred Stephen, who, at a very early stage of their intimacy, would seem to have formed the highest opinion of Lord Sherbrooke's capacity and character. He was already Chief Justice of the colony, a position he held for many years, and, though nine years Lord Sherbrooke's senior, Sir Alfred is still living in Sydney in his ninety-first year- a beautiful old man, whom it was a delight to have seen,' writes Mr. Froude in his Oceana.

Sir Thomas Mitchell, Sir Alfred Stephen, William Sharpe Macleay, and the future Lord Sherbrooke, sitting together as they frequently did at Nelson Bay, all in the full vigour of their rare conversational powers, would have been considered a distinguished group in any city in the world. Lord Sherbrooke always declared, though in after years he was intimate with the cleverest and most cultured men in England, that he had met no one whose conversation was more varied and more charming than William Macleay's. With such companions, one could not be said to be out of the only world worth living in-the world of ideas-and the leisure hours which Robert Lowe enjoyed with these old colonial friends, within sight and sound of the wide Pacific,' were amongst the happiest of his life.

The following letter, written at this time, shows that he was then in friendly relations with his only possible political rival in Australia-the late William Charles Wentworth.

Robert Lowe to the Rev. R. Michell, B.D., Oxford.

Nelson Bay, Sydney: November 30, 1846.

My dear Michell,--Never a very good correspondent at any time, the absence of common topics and the weakness of my eyes have reduced my efforts in that line to almost nothing. I trust that you and yours are wending, on the quiet road of Oxford, your way of

life with as few annoyances and as many pleasures as are consistent with the condition of humanity. My prospects are very good. I have as much practice as I can well get through, and am rapidly taking the lead at the Bar, which I assure you is no easy task in this colony. I have got a beautiful place on the shores of the Pacific, about five miles from Sydney; am saving money and investing it at good interest, so that in a few years it will be within my option to return to England. My wife is quite well and happy in laying out

⚫ her grounds. My eyes are indifferent, but certainly better than when I left England, and I am quite satisfied with the result of the expedition.

The object of this letter is to ask your assistance on behalf of a gentleman (Mr. Wentworth) well known as a writer, a lawyer, and a politician, to all who have any knowledge of New South Wales. He sent his eldest son, William Charles Wentworth, to Trinity College, Cambridge, but on my advice has decided to place him for a year with someone who is in the habit of taking charge of restive colts; and I am now writing to you to beg you to find such a person. A Cambridge man would be preferred. Young Wentworth is intended for a barrister. I know no one to whom I could apply with so much confidence as yourself, from my long experience of your judgment and discretion in all matters relating to the management of young men, Any arrangement you may make will be ratified by Mr. Wentworth's agents, who will attend to the pecuniary part of the matter. Whatever you do, please to communicate to them.

I am very sorry to give you this trouble, but I am sure you will feel for a parent who is quite unable, from the immense distance and the pressure of business, to come to England himself, and has no one to whom to entrust a matter of so much difficulty.

With kind regards to your wife, in which mine begs to join, believe me, my dear Michell,

Your old friend,

ROBERT LOWE.

The rector of Bingham passed away in the year 1845; but the news of his death did not reach Nelson Bay for many months, as communication was then painfully slow between England and Australia. By the Rev. Robert Lowe's will, his lands in the town of Nottingham and in the county of Derby were devised in equal shares to his second son Robert, and his youngest son, Frederick Pyndar Lowe.

289

CHAPTER XIX

THE POPULAR LEADER

The Wentworth Banquet-Robert Lowe and Imperial Federation-Private Friends and Public Funds The Speakership and Bi-weekly DinnersLowe on Economy-Hon. Francis Scott, M.P.-Land Legislation-Death of Richard Windeyer-Death of Lady Mary Fitzroy-Caroline Chisholm

IN the letter to his old Oxford tutor, Robert Lowe makes not the slightest reference to his activity as a popular leader in the Legislative Council. If the reports of the proceedings of the Council, however, be examined, it will be found that the new member for St. Vincent and Auckland was one of the most prominent public figures in the Colony. He went in and out daily from Nelson Bay on horseback, attended the Courts, where he was making an ever-increasing income, and thence to the Council Chamber, where he spoke with brilliant effect on almost every political question of the hour. Mrs. Lowe does not omit to let their English relatives know how steadily and rapidly he is mounting the ladder of success. 'All who hear Robert speak' (she writes), 'both in Court and Council, say he is greatly gifted; and men who have been in the habit of hearing the best speaking in the House of Commons and at the Bar say he would make his way rapidly in England. The judges, Sir Alfred Stephen and Mr. Dickenson [afterwards Sir John Nodes Dickenson], tell Robert it is folly for him to remain here. Robert wishes to return on my account, but he never shall destroy his prospects for me. He has struggled hard, and, considering his sight, the result surprises even me.'

VOL. I.

U

This is the first actual intimation of any intention of returning to England; and it will be seen that the immediate cause was the failing health of Mrs. Lowe. She herself says in this letter: 'I now feel the value of my love for nature; to me it supplies society, and as long as I am well enough to ride about our shore and above on the superb cliffs that overhang the coast, I want nothing more. But I have not been well, and my strength has failed me much at times; then it is that I feel so wishful to see old friends again.'

Robert (she continues) is much away; the Bar and the Council engross so much of his time.'

The letter goes on to assure her English friends that the prospects of the colony are brightening, and that her husband, whose income has reached 1,000l. a year, is making wise and profitable investments. Is it not strange' (she adds with naïveté) 'that Robert, so unlike a money-making man, should be making a fortune?'

There was a great public dinner given in honour of William Charles Wentworth in the hall of Sydney College (January 26, 1846), at which most of the leading men in Sydney, who were not Crown officials, were present. Chief among these were Robert Lowe, M.C., Richard Windeyer, M.C., Dr. Lang, M.C., Mr. Archibald Michie, barrister-at-law, Mr. Donald Larnach, and Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Martin. It was on this occasion, in reply to the toast, 'A speedy and thorough reform of the Colonial policy of Great Britain,' that Mr. Lowe delivered one of the most eloquent and effective of his Australian speeches, and, according to the local critics, entirely outshone Wentworth himself. The interest in the following passage is heightened by the palpable allusion to Gladstone, Cardwell, and others, with whom he had contended in debate at the Oxford Union:

:

Many of my college contemporaries have been offices of trust and importance to the State. . . .

called on to fill They have been

placed in those offices by the voices of the people, and when they acted unwisely, they might be removed; but by coming out here, I have not only closed to myself that path of ambition, but have ceased to be a part of the governing body-have lost all control over the political destinies of the community to which I belonged, and have sunk into the slave of those who were once my equals. Even if it were an offence to join one's lot with that of the struggling colonists of Australia, political disfranchisement and degradation was too severe a punishment for it.

It is noticeable that in this remarkable after-dinner speech Mr. Lowe gave eloquent expression to strong Imperialist views. He was not one of those, he declared, who looked forward to separation from the mother country as inevitable. 'Were they not of the same language of the same race? Had they not in common glorious recollections of the past, high and lofty interests of the present?' He then painted in the blackest colours the bungling and incompetence of Downing Street, and proceeded to lay down a line of policy by which he considered the tie between England and the colonies could be perpetuated, and the rights and liberties of both communities preserved. The political sentiment, no less than the eloquent expression of the following passage might have inspired the late deeply respected statesman, William Edward Forster, and will surely appeal to the mind and heart of Lord Rosebery :

A line of demarcation should be drawn between Imperial and Colonial legislation, and all meddling interference in matters of a domestic nature should be utterly and for ever renounced. They were the best judges of their own wants, their own circumstances, and could legislate for their own welfare better than those who were totally ignorant of both; he claimed for the Colony the right to regulate her local affairs by her local Assembly, without the control of any power on earth. In Imperial matters also, a voice should be given to the Colonies-a share in the government of which they were made to feel the effect: for if the Colonies were to share in the results of Imperial policy, it was fit they should have a voice in its deliberations. If it was intended to carry out the principle, that colonies were integral parts of the British Empire, they had a right to be represented in the British Parliament; they would then be heard,