But years passed, and I heard no more of the subject. Finally the book was brought out by the most unsuitable of all possible publishers, Mr. Thorn, the official printer of the Irish Government. After I left Australia Mr. Thorn sent out a case to my address containing the fifty copies I had promised to take, and along with them the alternative dozen intended for subscribers in case they could only be sent after I had left Australia, and with the case not a scrap of information on the price at which the volume was to be sold or any other subject. Mrs. Hutton must, I fear, have found it an unpleasant experiment if the business was so managed generally; and for my part I found the only satisfactory way out of the difficulty was a cheque for the entire claim as soon as I found that the price of the book was ten shillings.
Of a multitude of farewell letters which my intended retirement produced, I shall quote only one from an eminent man whom I had recently added to the list of my friends:—
Sydney, February 3, 1880.
My dear Sir Charles,—I must send you one line to say "Good-bye"—for though I am in so great a measure a stranger to you, and have not had the opportunity of saying much more than once "How do you do?" still I cannot but feel your going from Australia as a great loss, which will leave a weakness behind.
I wish you most heartily, at the same time as I say "Good-bye, all the blessings "that you most wish for yourself. It will be pleasant for you to go home, I dare say—but I wish home were not so sad as it is at present. Perhaps your influence will help to bring about some radical change which may end the terrible famine once for all.
I am sending you some "lectures" I gave here last Lent, to read instead of the two you have, because they touch on more interesting points, and I think are, perhaps, more generally interesting. What makes me say this is, that they have been republished (on their own merits) in two or three cities in the United States.
I won't trouble you to write again. Think kindly of me, and believe me, dear Sir Charles, yours ever faithfully,
✠ Roger Bede
Archbishop of Sydney.P.S. "Good-bye," too, to your daughter, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making in poor Butler's house.
As the Session approached its close, I announced that I would not again occupy the Chair, or be a member of the coming Parliament. I took farewell of a House in which I had served since its creation, to which I had given without stint toil of mind and body, and which had bestowed on me all the favours it could confer on a public man. I owed
