enjoyable as the companionship of well-loved friends could make it. It was a very great pleasure—though "it makes me feel very old," he said—to meet again, as Governor of New South Wales, Sir Gerald Strickland, whose friendship stretched back to the days when His Excellency was an undergraduate at Cambridge.
Throughout his life H. H. preserved a feeling of gratitude to Australia, which found a reflection in the warm welcome he gave to all Australians visiting England.
He had a passionate belief in the future of Australia and the vigorous manhood that was inherent in her sons. At this hour, when the heroic deeds of the Australian contingent at the Dardanelles are thrilling every English heart, it is interesting to quote a passage from a speech H. H. made at Canterbury over twenty years ago:
"There is no cause to apprehend that England will ever be sullied by the foot of an invader, but one of our earliest Australian poets has indicated Australia as the refuge of Britannia, with her shattered trident, in such a case.
"And, oh Britannia! should'st thon cease to ride
Despotic Empress of old Ocean's tide;
Should thy tam'd Lion—spent his former might—
No longer rear, the terror of the fight;
Should e'er arrive that dark, disastrous hour,
When bow'd by luxury, thou yield'st to power;
When thou, no longer freest of the free,
To some proud victor bend'st the vanquished knee,
May all thy glories in another sphere
Relume, and shine more brightly still than here;
May this—thy last-born infant—then arise
To glad thy heart, and greet thy parent eyes;
And Australasia float, with flag unfurl'd,
A new Britannia in another world!"
