THE LIFE OF CONRAD MARTENS 



pictures and no artists in the Colony." Martens sets forth their 

 condition in the following letter to his brother Henry towards the 

 end of 1 849, which contains an animated picture of the times : 



" I have never known so great a depression in business of all 

 kinds as there is at present. The people are leaving the country 

 in hundreds for California by every ship that goes, and to charter 

 a vessel for that place is now, I believe, one of the best specs 

 going. When this mania will end, or how it will end, I cannot 

 even guess. It is true the ups and downs have always succeeded 

 each other in pretty quick succession, but, as the artist is perhaps 

 the last to feel the depression, so is he also the last to benefit by 

 an improvement in the times. The money will indeed be most 

 acceptable when it comes. I am altogether at a loss to account 

 for such great stagnation of business. I am certainly not inclined 

 to look upon emigration to California as the cause, but rather as 

 the effect, in part, of the want of employment in and about 

 Sydney, as the general intention is, I believe, not to go to the 

 mines, but rather to obtain the high wages reported to be given 

 in San Francisco. I am truly sorry to hear that you still lack 

 employment. I wish, indeed, that I could give you more en- 

 couragement to come out here, but I feel that I have said all I 

 dare say to you on that subject; some of which account, if in 

 strictness already too favourable, must be attributed to the very 

 natural desire of having you near us. 



1 cannot help looking out somewhat anxiously for the arrival 

 of the cash you mention ; indeed, I should have been fairly 

 aground some time since had it not been for a haul of about sixty 

 pounds which I made by the Art-Union Exhibition, which was, I 

 think, about to take place when I last wrote. It was as good an 

 exhibition of colonial talent as I could have expected, but in all 

 other respects a decided failure. That is to say, firstly, the pro- 

 prietors of good pictures would not lend them, visitors were not 

 so numerous as might have been expected, and subscribers to the 

 Art Union did not number more than, I think, sixty-two. There 

 was not a single picture sold during the Exhibition; but, for- 

 tunately for me, the prize-holders were almost unanimous in 

 selections from my works, so that where I could not meet them 



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