AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE. 813 



bein^ of the first degree of merit, but merely as writers whom 

 all who have an interest in Australia and her history ought 

 to know to some extent. 



And first among such writers I would place Wentworth, 

 in many ways a most prominent figure in our early story. 

 The first Australian-born who rose to any eminence, he figures 

 in our annals as the patriot who by indefatigable efforts won 

 for his native land the blessings of free British institutions to 

 replace the autocracy of a ])enal settlement ; as the framer 

 of the constitution of New South Wales when she was 

 permitted to assume legislative independence ; and as the 

 founder of the first Australian University, that of Sydney, 

 where his statue now stands in a place of highest honour. 



To all these claims upon our remembrance, he adds that 

 of being our first man of letters. He was six and twenty 

 when he left Sydney to proceed to Cambridge, and while 

 there he wrote the first book of genuinely Austrahan origin. 

 It had a twofold object; on the one hand to promote the 

 emigration of free settlers to Australia, Wentworth rightly 

 conceiving that only in that way could the status of his native 

 land be raised. On the other hand he wished in this book 

 to show how irresponsible was the rule of officials in Sydney, 

 and how pernicious it was to preserve a severe fine between 

 the emancipated convicts and the free immigrants. In all his 

 contentions he was eventually successful, and his book did 

 good work for Australia ; but looking at it strictly as a piece 

 of literature it was not calculated to build up a reputation for 

 its author. It has fine passages, and it is throughout marked 

 by clear and vigorous use of the English language, but its 

 subject-matter is too clearly of temporary interest to give 

 it any chance to live as a work of art. 



In later years Wentworth delivered many speeches of 

 notable fire, and marked by no little eloquence in places, but 

 they are upon topics now forgotten. He made one well 

 known appearance as a poet. At Cambridge the subject in 

 1823 for the prize poem was to be " Australasia," and the 

 young student who hailed from it as his native place could 

 not keep silent upon such a theme. He asks. 



And shall I now by Cain's old classic stream, 

 Forbear to sing, and thou proposed the theme ? 



When he remembers the happiness of his boyish days, spent 

 in and around the Sydney Harbour, 



The tangled brake, the eternal forest's gloom, 

 The wonted brook, where with some truant mate 



