Page:The founding of South Australia.djvu/91

 of the prospectus. All letters were directed to be written on paper, printed thus: —

"The Provisional Committee are anxious that it should be distinctly understood, that although no effort will be spared by them to obtain from His Majesty's Government a Charter on the principles stated in the publications referred to, yet, as they may not succeed, there is necessarily doubt as to whether the Colony will be established or not; they therefore hope that no person will take any decided step with a view to emigrating to South Australia so long as such doubt continues.'

"January 24th.—Received a letter from Poulett Scrope, saying that he feared, 'from private sources of information, that Government is still much prejudiced against the Association and its scheme.'

"January 25th.— Rowland Hill recommended me to go down to his brother at Westminster, and to get him to go with me to Shaw-Lefevre. This I did. I told Lefevre that 'my chief object in seeking the interview was to show him, as well as a bad headache would allow, the difference between this scheme and the last attempt to found a colony in the neighbourhood of Spencer's Gulf. In the last attempt, almost all those who were connected with the scheme intended to make money by it; this was not the case now—we were not attempting to get anything out of Government, we were not trying to make a bargain; but that the object of every meeting with Stanley would be to confer upon the best mode of doing a great thing, and the object of which was wholly national.' He replied, 'that whatever the objections to the scheme might be, it was quite clear that nothing like jobbing could be urged against it. The great respectability of the names would be a sufficient guarantee for that.' I then said that in the course of the correspondence which was about to take place between the Committee and Government, it might be very desirable for me occasionally to see him, not officially, but as a private individual, to converse upon the measure—this kind of intercourse might pre-