Page:Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.djvu/35

 “ The benevolent intentions of Her Majesty, her Majesty's advisers, and of the British Parliament, are so well set forth in the words of the noble Secretary of State, that I feel I should only weaken the effect they are calculated to produce upon you, were I at any length to comment on them, or make to them additions of my own. I cannot, however, gentlemen, on this my first occasion of addressing you, avoid adverting to the peculiar constitution which has been given to your body—or to the fact, that to you singly have been confided by the Imperial Parliament the powers, which in some of the older colonies of Great Britain are divided between two separate bodies. The council, gentlemen, is composed of three elements, or three different classes of persons—the representatives of the people—the official servants of Her Majesty, and of gentlemen of independence—the unofficial nominees of the Crown. “ Let it not be said or supposed that these three classes of persons have, or ought to have, separate interests to support—still less that they have opposing interests, or any interest whatever, save that of the public good. Let there be no rivalry between them, save which shall in courtesy excel the other, and which of them devote itself most heartily to the service of their common country. “ His Excellency then retired.” The fifty-five years which fill the space between the two above noticed extraordinary and strikingly contrasting eras, 1788 and 1843—a period unparalleled in the records of any colony—have been marked on the part of the colonists by many severe trials, continual struggles, extensive improvements, and that praiseworthy perseverance in developing the resources of the country, and in raising themselves in the social and commercial scale, which have at last