Revieic of heviews, l/S/06. 



Distinguished Early Australians. 



449 



group generally was the establishment at once of a 

 Legislative Assembly, to make laws in reference to 

 intercolonial questions, that have arisen or may here- 

 after arise in them." In that belief Wentworth was 

 far in advance of his time. 



Australian natives will read with interest the fol- 

 lowing quotation from one of Wentworth's speeches 

 on the Sydney hustings : — " I can truly say the love 

 of my country has been the master passion of my 

 life. No man's 

 heart has ever 

 beat with a more 

 ardent love of 

 his country than 

 mine, and it is 

 on my native 

 land that I here 

 stand. From boy- 

 hood up to man- 

 hood I have 

 watched over its 

 infant growth as 

 a mother over 

 her cradled 

 child. Its wel- 

 fare through life 

 has been the ob- 

 ject of my devot- 

 ed love and af- 

 fection, and ncAv 

 when my da\ s 

 are in the au- 

 tumn of their 

 cycle, that wel- 

 fare is the object 

 of my highest 

 hopes, and most 

 hallowed aspira- 

 tions." Austra- 

 lian politicians, 

 too, will do well 

 to r e m e mber 

 W e n t w orth's 

 words in the 

 same speech as 

 to the fickleness 

 of popular fa- 

 vour : — " I know 

 the proverbial 

 inconstancy of 



the popular gale, that the breeze which filled my flow- 

 ing sheet to-day, might become a head w-ind to- 

 morrow. I had learned from the unerring history 

 of the past, that the misdeeds of public men are 

 graven on brass, the records of their virtues and 

 services are traced on the sand. I had been in- 

 structed by the same stern teacher that the landed 

 patriot of to-day — the benefactor of his country and 

 his kind — might be the despised exile of to-morrow," 



Tree on the north hank of the Hume River upon which Captain Hovell cut his 

 name. !7th Jsoveniber. 18_'4. 



HAMILTON BUME. 



who was born in Parramatta in 1797, while yet a 

 youth had now fame as an explorer. In company with 

 his brother they discovered the country near Berrima. 

 Later on he did exploring work from the Shoalhaven 

 River inland, and named Lake Bathurst and the 

 Goulburn plains. Still later he had penetrated 

 close to the present site of Braidwood. Notwith- 

 standing Oxley's 

 statement that 

 he had demon- 

 strated that no 

 river could fall 

 into the sea be- 

 tween Cape Ot- 

 way and Spen- 

 cer's Gulf, and 

 that the country 

 south of the 

 parallel of 34 

 deg. and west of 

 the meridian 147 

 deg. 30 min. E. 

 was uninhabit- 

 able, and useless 

 for all the pur- 

 poses of civilised 

 man. Sir Thomas 

 Brisbane wish- 

 ed explorations 

 to be made with- 

 in that area. 

 His idea was to 

 land an explor- 

 ing party of pri- 

 soners at Wil- 

 son's Promon- 

 tory-, to travel 

 south, to the 

 settled districts 

 of New South 

 Wales. The 

 command of 

 such a party 

 was offered to 

 Hume. The pro- 

 posal did not 

 commend itself 

 to his judg- 

 ment. He sug- 

 gested that explorers should leave the fron- 

 tier squatter's station of New South Wales and 

 travel south. He offered to take charge of an 

 expedition, if he were supplied with six men, and 

 six pack horses, and seek to reach Western Port. 

 After considerable delay, Hume's offer was accept- 

 ed, but, owing to the jealousy or captiousness of 

 some Government officials, the Governor withdrew 

 his promise of help. Thereupon Hume and Cap- 



