for the year 1865. 13 



address clears up, to my mind, every doubt which non- 

 members of the Committee might entertain. 



A member of that Committee myself, T take to me my 

 share of blame, if there be any, arising out of the sad fate 

 of the Explorers. It is on record that I proposed the leader 

 for election, and there is sufficient also to show that had 

 Mr. Burke acted upon the instructions which I embodied in 

 a minute, and which stands on the records of the Explora- 

 tion Committee, probably the sad tale of his end, and that 

 of at least two others dear to this Society, would, under 

 Providence, have never need to have been written. 



But whether or not, the author of such a work as that 

 upon which I am making a passing observation, should have 

 dealt very carefully with every circumstance hitherto known 

 of the end of the Explorers, and still more so with the repu- 

 tation and feelings of the members of the Exploration 

 Committee. 



It is not my business now to enter into a discussion of 

 these questions, nor to defend myself or any colleague of 

 mine, but I will say this, that I believe, whoever dispassion- 

 ately looks at the case as stated in Mr. Woods' volumes, 

 will regTet the absence of that judicial mind and temper 

 which should always be most carefully maintained when 

 contemporaneous subjects are under consideration. 



One regrets that he forgot what some one said about 

 ' Time ' being the beautifier of the dead, and that said 

 * Time ' has had no chance yet of doing its amiable office 

 either for Burke or the members of the Exploration 

 Committee. 



I am thus lengthy on this work and its talented author, 

 because he has evidently been inspired by feelings other than 

 those which should sway the historian. And seeing that 

 ' history ' in its proper meaning could not yet be written of 

 the first successful crossing of Australia and of the fate of 



