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

comparative leisure which such an obstructed session has given me, and have made progress with my work, the following of which through all its ramifications is very interesting.

The cropping up of the emancipat question so late as in Gipps [sic] time in the Sydney Corporation Bill which Gipps withdrew is very remarkable.

Old Lang's roguery about the grant to the Australian College; & his having the conveyance of ^ Sir J. Jamison's land made to himself instead of to the Presbyterian body, and his spending the money lent to the Presbyterians on the land so conveyed to himself are well worth a record.

But now that (in skeleton) I have come down to times with which I am myself familiar the selection

of materials out of the immense and ever-increasing body of facts has become almost wearisome.

I think of confining myself to the main questions which agitated the minds of colonists or were dealt with by the Colonial Office.

Up to 1840 the history of N S Wales is almost the history of Australia; after that date the fortunes of New Zealand, South Australia and Port Phillip demand separate notice, and condensation is requisite.

In the earlier times I have been more diffuse and have embodied many of the ips iprima verba of Governors, of your father, of Marsden &c. Specific details of the first stages of growth are always interesting, I think, and they help to make the picture life like.

I did not know till I hunted it out amongst Gipps' Despatches that he had ever recommended that Wentworth should be made a member of the Legislative Council in the old nominee days, and that he withdrew the recommendation after the pitched battle between himself and Wentworth about the claims of the latter to land in New Zealand. Such a fact deserves notice. How different might have been the career of both the men if such a cause of quarrel had not arisen!

I heartily I [sic] hope I may be able to take my M.S.S. to Camden & have a rummage among yours.

It is too late to wish you the compliments of the New Year but I wish you all prosperity throughout it.

Yours very sincerely

[signed] G W Rusden

[right of page] Mundarlo Murrumbidgee River 1^st May 1876

[centred, in pencil] Rusden

My dear Sir William

I was proceeding on my journey today in anticipation of seeing you on Tuesday, as I hoped to arrive at Menangle about 2 p. m. on Tuesday the 3^rd May when by accident I met a person who told me that you have had serious illness in your household, and I need hardly tell you how shocked I was, and how I sympathize with you all. [on right] I know not what to say, for condolence however sincere falls harshly in time of trouble, but I must beg you to accept and to give Mrs Macarthur and Mrs Onslow my unfeigned sympathy.

I upbraid myself for having

[bottom left] Sir William Macarthur &c ... &c. Camden Park

unwittingly thrust my letters upon you at such a time.

I took the liberty (as my English letters were to be delivered a few hours after I left Melbourne) to direct that they should be sent on to me to Camden Park Menangle. [on right] I cannot now arrest them, and all I can do to retrieve my error, is to write to ask if you will kindly let them be sent back to Menangle, where I will ask for them on Tuesday, — or to the Australian Club, Sydney where I will call for them.

I am truly sorry that I am thus compelled to trouble you about my letters, but I know not what else to