Arthur Patchett Martin

“ Were I asked to name, from among the prominent Australian public men, those of Celtic-Irish extraction who have risen superior to what I have called Irish tribal or Sept feeling, and become genuine Australian leaders—I could perhaps name only Sir John O'Shanassy of Victoria, and Sir James Martin and Mr. Dalley of New South Wales. From an Imperial standpoint, this is no light distinction; as the aims and aspirations of these eminent Australian Irishmen serve to justify those who believe in the eventual fusion and happy blending of the races. ”

“ The Governor who knows little and cares less about the colony, whose interest is in every respect anti-colonial, whenever the interests of the colony and the Empire are supposed to clash, is responsible to the clerks of the Colonial Office, who care as little as he, and know even less about us than himself. ”

“ We shall have more and more of unison of spirit with all that is honest and true in this divided land; with the noble-hearted ministers of the Protestant Communities around us, who have borne witness in the face of England to loyalty and honesty; with the tens of thousands of our Roman Catholic countrymen whose voices may he overborne for a while, but who are inwardly with us heart and soul. ”

“ I have received from Professor Herbert A. Strong, while these pages are going through the press, a further criticism, which, in view of his unique experience as a University Professor, both in England and Victoria, I do not feel justified in passing over in silence, deferring especially to the curriculum of the Melbourne University, Professor Strong points out: (1) that the anti-Darwinian biology is quite out of date in England; (2) that modern languages are taught in England, historically and philologically. Lectures are given in the literature of the subject by the best men that can be got. ”

“ Service is a North Briton, to which circumstance may be traced his sound practical education, his acute commercial instincts, his deep Liberal proclivities, and his utter absence of that too common weakness of the middle-class Englishman—snobbishness. This combination of strong qualities, and freedom from weak ones, has led to the establishment of the great intercolonial firm of "James Service & Co.," and to its chief having been twice Prime Minister of the colony of Victoria, Mr. Service's political career in Victoria has been a long and honourable one. ”

“ No stronger hint could be given to us at home to arrive at a rapid decision upon our future Imperial policy. When the disintegration of our Empire is recommended by a Royal Commission, it is time to consider whether Her Majesty is to be Queen only of Great Britain, or an Imperial Sovereign. ”

“ Hearn's masterpiece, however, is The Aryan Household, a work which places him on a level with the foremost thinkers of our age. All of these learned books, intended for scholars and students, were written and published in the colony of Victoria; but despite the disadvantage of remote "provincial" publication, they were at once recognised by competent critics in England as entitling the author to a place beside the late Sir Henry Maine. Dr. Hearn was a keen local politician, ranking himself with what is known as the "Constitutional" or Conservative party in Victoria. ”

“ Since I have been in England, it has in many ways come to my knowledge that the historic Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and such institutions as the Science and Art Schools in connection with South Kensington, are doing much more for the General enlightenment and culture of the mass of the people than are any similar institutions in Australia. ”

“ Further, Professor Strong thinks that each professor in Melbourne has far too many subjects—which is fatal to specialised efficiency. He then continues—comparing his present English with his recent Victorian experience: "The great point which I notice, as different here from there, is that the professors here are looked to in every case to take the lead in education. The clerks form an association to educate themselves ”

“ But, for all that, he had many of the great qualities of a true political leader, and the general community of Victoria, as well as his Irish Roman Catholic fellow-colonists, may well be proud of so loyal and stalwart a champion as he. ”

“ He was a member of the Anglican Church, and, after Sir William Foster Stawell, one of the most efficient among the prominent laymen who assist in the working of the vast diocese under the Bishop of Melbourne. Dr. Hearn in private life was a singularly genial man, with a rare fund of that quality, native Irish wit, of which we read so much in books, but see so little in actual life. ”

“ The occasion was a public banquet to William Charles Wentworth for his political services in being mainly instrumental in transforming what was originally a penal settlement into a partially self-governed colony. It took place in the hall of Sydney College on Monday, January 26, 1846, and some 250 really representative colonists, prominent among whom was Lowe, attended. The mere presence of two such intellectual giants, as Wentworth and Lowe, at the same festive board, in a remote dependency half a century ago, is of itself a remarkable fact. ”

“ Such was the proud position of a citizen of Great Britain—such was the position he was entitled to under their glorious constitution.
"But if that citizen should see fit to change his place of abode—if he should have found it necessary to cast his lot in this land, governed as it was by the same Sovereign; peopled as it was by sons of the same race and of the same language, and entitled to the same privileges ”