address your Grace upon the subject, although I am aware that any proceedings relative to the Colony must emanate from a department of the Stale other than that over which your Grace presides. If a further apology is necessary for the liberty I have taken, I can only offer the anxiety which I may be supposed to feel in the advancement of a measure to which I have devoted nearly five years of my life.
"For some weeks before Mr. Rice ceased to be Colonial Minister, the gentlemen who intended emigrating to South Australia expected in each succeeding Gazette to find the appointment of commissioners for carrying into effect the provision of the Act: eight gentlemen, selected by Mr. Rice and Mr. Whitmore, had consented to take upon themselves the office of commissioners, and to perform the duties gratuitously, and the body of emigrants eagerly hoped that as soon as the appointment of the commission should be sanctioned by His Majesty, nothing remained to cause fresh delay. On the dissolution of the late Administration, however, the gentlemen who had accepted the office of commissioners refused to act, but not, according to their own declaration, in consequence of any change in opinion relative to the beneficial character of the measure. Notwithstanding this refusal, the body of colonists feel assured that the present Government will give to a measure so totally divested of party politics, the same encouragement which it received from the late Administration, and they propose to request the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department to appoint other commissioners who they are convinced will fulfil the provisions of the Act with equal readiness and ability.
"Under these circumstances, and not having the honour of being known to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, I venture to express a hope that your Grace may not refuse to favour me with such a note, or so to mention the subject of the colony to the Earl of Aberdeen, as will secure for me, on the part of the colonists,
