possessed squatting property, the people would be slow to believe that he would sacrifice his personal interest, and it would be long before a squatter would be accepted as a safe and disinterested leader of the people. He said the public would know nothing about it, the run could be registered in the names of Curtain and Harney. I rejoined that if nobody knew it but myself the objection would remain, but in politics everything became known, and I would be certain to be asked some day in the Assembly if I was not squatting in secret, and though the transaction might be perfectly innocent its discovery would be like the revelation of a crime. It was bad enough to be an Irish Papist; if, moreover, I was a squatter, I might as well retire from Parliament unless I abandoned my convictions, which was not a practice I was accustomed to. Mooney's sincerely generous offer was accepted by the other gentlemen he had in view, and he did not exaggerate its value, for to most of them it became the seed of a rich harvest.
At this time I received many Irish letters and newspapers congratulating me on my reception in Australia. But it is needless to return on them. Edward Whitty, a keen and sympathetic critic, wrote:—
"Congratulations. The word contains all I have got to say. Of course I've seen all the papers. Your speeches perfect.
"The Argus seems well done. What do they want with an editor from London? I am doing the London Correspondence, and am told that the editorship is in futuro, but I doubt. I'm in the thick of the Australian people here, from Wentworth downwards."
I find in the "Life of William Carleton"[1] a letter which I wrote to him at this period. I republish it because a line written at the moment often lights up an obscure situation better than much retrospection, and I shall often borrow a vivacious sentence from a correspondent for this purpose.
"Melbourne, 1856."My Dear Carleton, I have often meditated a letter to
- ↑ "Life of William Carleton," by W. J. O'Donoghue. London: Downey and Co.
