808 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 



reasons, he was left in chai'ge of a tutor. He found time and 

 opportunity to visit his Irish relative. It was the eventful 

 year of 1 848, when, as was natural, he fell in with members 

 of the Young Ireland Party, with whom he ever afterwards 

 sympathised. On his return to Sydney he adopted the pro- 

 fession of a solicitor, and was articled to that modern Macaenas, 

 Mr. N. D. Stenhouse, the ever generous patron of men of 

 letters. Of course he became a contributor to the newspapers 

 of the day. His sketches at once attracted attention fi-om 

 their unusual vigour and originality. During the winter of 

 1853 he delivered a series of lectures on " Modern Literature " 

 in the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts. He was a brilhant 

 speaker, and more than one of his speeches has been quoted 

 as evidencing remarkable oratorical power combined with 

 political insight. He was shortly afterwards returned to 

 Parliament for Argyle, and in 1858 for West Macquarie. 

 At the passing of the Electoral Reform Bill he withdrew 

 from public life. In 1860 he became one of the proprietors 

 of The Southern Cross, to which he contributed a number 

 of essays and reviews on leading litterateurs. His essay on 

 De Quincey has always been considered a masterpiece of 

 appreciative examination. In 1863 he went to Melbourne, 

 where, for nearly two years he conducted the Victorian, a 

 political journal of decided pohcy. Like other promising 

 ventures, the management was inferior to the literary talent. 

 It failed, ruining the hopes and career of Deniehy, the lamp 

 of whose life appeared to expire with the fated journal. 



In Henry Kingsley's great novel, "Geoffrey Hamlyn," 

 all genuine and conscientious critics must recognise the first, 

 the finest Australian work of fiction worthy of the subject, of 

 the great, the heroic subject of Australasian Colonisation. 

 It was not his only triumph. In " Ravenshoe " we have a 

 novel chiefly drawn from English life, only inferior to those 

 of the fraternal artist who produced " Westward Ho " and 

 " Hypathia." 



Brunton Stephens is a poet, pure and simple. Few of his 

 prose writings have come before the public. Measuring him 

 with his contemporary singers, Gordon and Kendall, he must 

 be acknowledged to be the most refined literary artist that 

 Australia has ever inspired. His range is wide — from the 

 exalted spirit soaring in the "Dark Companion" to the 

 homely but irresistible comic sketches of " The Chinese Cook " 

 and " To a Black Gin " and " Marsupial Bill." His fore- 

 east of " The Dominion of Australia " has an exquisite deUcacy 



