Part 01: G. W. Rusden letters, 1846-1900

of those people were who thought the days of heavy rain and floods had past away.

Our ^ Council legislators are now busy in discussing the Land Bill which has been sent up from the Assembly : it certainly has no chance of passing the Council as it was passed by the Assembly : and at present appearances are against the acceptance by the Assembly of amendments such as are hinted at in the Council. However the debate will come on today and I may be able to let you know before I close my note, somewhat of the tendencies of the debate, which by the mustering of member's friends one may guess will be a warm one.

7 June In my hurry of business I kept this letter so long in

my pocket that I forgot to post it by the last steamer.

You will see, if it be of any interest to you that our Ministry resigned on the ejection by the Council of the leading features of their Land Bill but the on dit is that they will today resume their posts : and if they do I have no doubt the near approach (in September next) of election of our members for the Council will be an element in their determination, as five opponents of their Bill have then to go to the country.

You will not be sorry to see that there is considerable vine discussion in our newspapers here, and your opinions are cited with great respect your "Mars" being a high authority with the winemakers here.

This a poor letter, but it is only a vehicle for my question as to what I can do for you in the Bridge line.

Yours faithfully

[signed] G W Rusden My Shakspeare [sic] idea progresses well so far.

[top right] 17^th Jan^y 1868 Ercildoun.

My dear Sir,

Though I write from Mr Learmonth's rather celebrated homestead, my proper address is still (though in these troubled times I know not how long it will be) at the Parliament Houses. This is a well-ordered establishment, and I wish you could see it. As you probably know, Mr. Learmonth takes prizes and obtains high prices both for stock and wool. I have before me a letter from your late brother, which I had not replied to when I was startled by hearing of his departure, and which I have not mentioned by writing to you before, because I shrunk from intruding on your privacy. His was a letter in which he replied to one from me congratulating him on his daughter's marriage, but in which as usual in our letters he spoke of many other subjects.

I have been long intending to write to you and have indeed had the letter I speak of in my pocket for some time and I now take the opportunity of a rainy

day in this delightful retreat from noise and official trouble. I joined with Arthur King some short time ago by handing him my mite towards the Memorial Window in your Church which it is now so long since I visited, but which I have not in any way forgotten. Pray remember me to Mrs Macarthur, Mrs Onslow and Captain Onslow whom I must congratulate with your whole household on the event which I saw chronicled in one of the papers. I so seldom see, and more seldom read the Sydney papers, that it is almost by chance that I observe what occurs with you, unless it forms the subject of a telegram which prompts one to watch the subsequent full accounts.

After our fever of loyalty, our socalled (Queen's) Attorney General in plunging us into a low type of disease which I know not how to name. One of his warmest supporters talks of the crack of a rifle under the Parliament windows:- another says that if the Assembly wish to pension the devil himself with £50000 a year the Council have no right to say No : --- and what else is to be said before the elections

are concluded may perhaps be imagined by Dore or Cruickshank - for surely it must be beyond the pale of reason, so burlesque are some of the developments from which we are suffering. You have your evils in Sydney, but I cannot help thinking we are worse off than you, inasmuch as we are without the element of numerous youth and mature men who have grown up on the soil, and can command respect, and will not be led away as our passageres legislators are by the clap-trap of second clap men, who in Victoria are all-powerful.

There are certainly signs of a tendency to be weary of Higinbotham & Co. but whether that tendency will acquire strength enough to make its mark during the present elections I know not.

I almost fear that we can hope for no real or lasting improvement until our University-bred men come forward, as no doubt in a few years they will, to assist in public affairs.

Our University is I think, going infinite good. Our Professors are able & zealous: - and some of our young men are the same.