than manly pride, to the high state of general education in Victoria. Brides and bridegrooms who signed their names with a cross in the register are fewer there than elsewhere. "For this happy state of things," cuttingly remarks the old Pioneer, "we are of course indebted to the scholars, not to the teachers—who are chiefly 'foreigners'—nor to those who established and have administered our educational system, and who certainly belonged to the decaying generation."
I have perhaps already quoted sufficient to indicate to the intelligent English reader the general drift of this, to me, most interesting discussion. The Young (native) Australian, like the greatest of living poets in his youth, had, as we have seen, "dipped into the future far as human eye could see;" and perhaps, if one may be allowed to say so, somewhat further. The old Pioneer, after the pathetic manner of men who have turned the solemn side of fifty, prefers to look in the opposite direction.
"Surely this young Victorian forgets that to the unwearying energy, the strong self-reliance, the clear heads and stout arms of her early settlers, his country owes the very wealth and culture of which
