Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/50

 become owners of land in the new territory. We know that no such desire existed as regarded Australia when Pitt resolved to occupy the scene of Cook's discoveries. The intention being good, he deserves well of his country who avails himself of the only practical means of accomplishing his purpose, and there can he no doubt that Pitt's object was patriotic,

A colony such as the world had never before seen had been rent from England in spite of warnings from his father. A jealous continent was banded together to aid the insurgent colonists; only the kindred race of the Germany abstaining from unfriendliness. The sun of England was said to be setting, her humiliation complete. Submitting herself not to the gusts of popular passion, nor to the exigencies of party, but to the genius of a man who rose above party and dared to keep his equal way despite the clamour of the crowd, England was able, before the federation of the United States was completed in 1789, to found a new state into which, within three generations, her children were to be absorbed by millions, and where they may yet flourish, as her children, till some ill-omened North or Grenville shall be permitted, while public atten-