Australian views of England

by Henry Parkes

AUSTRALIAN VIEWS

OF

ENGLAND.

ELEVEN LETTERS WRITTEN IN THE
YEARS 1861 AND 1862.

BY

HENRY PARKES,

LATE COLONIAL SECRETARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

London and Cambridge
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1869.

Cambridge:
PRINTED BY J. PALMER

PREFACE

THE following Letters were written during a residence in England, in the years 1861 and 1862, and were published in the Sydney Morning Herald on the arrival of the monthly mails. After they were posted in London, they were never seen by the writer until a few days ago, when they were brought under his notice by a search for matter of quite a different character.

On reperusal, these Letters appear to contain views of English life and impressions of English notabilities, which, as the views and impressions of an Englishman on his return to his native country after an absence of twenty years, may not be without interest to the English reader. The writer had opportunities of mixing with different classes of the British people, and of hearing opinions on passing events from opposite standpoints of observation. Some of the events then under discussion were of national magnitude, and will be the subjects of history. Some of the men glanced at were the leaders of the land, and will have a place assigned to them among the most illustrious.

With no claim to literary excellence, these Letters can possess no value unless it be derived from the explanation now offered of the circumstances under which they were written.

Sydney, November, 1868.

CONTENTS.

	page
LETTER I.
The State of Political Feeling—English Opinions of America	1
LETTER II.
The State of Political Feeling—Australian Colonists in England—The French Treaty—Gossip	9
LETTER III.
The War of Kindred—The National Mourning	22
LETTER IV.
The American War—Messrs. Mason and Slidell—Prince Albert—The Working Classes—Employment of Women	35
LETTER V.
Rumoured Abdication—Opening of Parliament—The House of Commons—Mr. Disraeli—Mr. Goldwin Smith—Gossip	44
LETTER VI.
The Reputation of the Colony in England—Australian Interests in the House of Commons—British Connection—The London Poor	56
LETTER VII.
Mr. Gladstone—Mr. Cobden—The Iron-clad 'Merrimac'—Emigration of Women—Poverty among the People	71
LETTER VIII.
The International Exhibition—The Queen—Prince Arthur—English Politics— The Turning Tide in the American War	80
LETTER IX.
The Exhibition—Party Conflict in the House of Commons—Lord Brougham and the Social Science Association	89
LETTER X.
Lord Palmerston and Mr. Cobden—The Distress in Lancashire—Confederate Sympathy in the House of Commons—Commemoration Day at Oxford	98
LETTER XI.
Rural England and the Railways	110