Page:Inaugural address, delivered before the members of the Victorian Institute, on Friday the 21st of September, 1854 (IA inauguraladdres00barr).pdf/10

6 of the humblest races in the gradation of the human family has yielded to us the possession of the vast territory over which our people are now dispersed; and by an inscrutable regulation of Providence is waning before the access of civilization. By exertions, unassisted from without, cities and towns have sprung up, of a class and with a rapidity which challenge a parallel in former or contemporary history. The events crowded into the last three years have wrought a change, not merely in the actual condition, but in the immediate prospects of our community, which as regards our social and political state and the opening dawn of accelerated progression, must inspire consolation, confidence and hope. The discovery of gold, happily postponed until our hills, plains, and valleys were covered with flocks and herds, and until we had emerged from dependence upon, to that of sisterly amity with a province, has brought us into direct intercourse with nations hitherto indifferent to, perhaps ignorant of the geographical position of this country, the keels of whose stately vessels now furrow every sea to visit us; who exchange with us commodities, productions of every clime; and pour forth their hardy sons, to reinforce our numbers, bearing with them practised skill and restless avidity for the acquisition of wealth. The enterprise of our great parent state, but languidly expanding under pastoral occupations, has been caught up, and now directing itself into innumerable fresh channels gives indication of highly vital force. Each new scientific application to economise labour and time is brought within our reach, opening new avenues to honourably earned riches, and unatended [sic] by any of the inconveniences, which, in crowded communities occasionally arise from the substitution of machinery for manual labour before the classes affected thereby have resorted to other employments; and we may be well assured that there are amongst us many gifted men, of cultivated minds, fervid imagination, and intrepid temperament, who, curbed and confined elsewhere by the pressure of surrounding competition, have panted for a field in which their talents may be allowed to expatiate, and have gladly turned to this young country, ready to receive them with a gracious welcome.