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BOB NICHOLLS.

under his particular auspices.

This was

a disappointment to Mr. Donaldson, the Member for Durham, as it was a disadvantage to his constituents. He would have had an easy access, in all probability, to the House of Commons, in which he might have acquired a better style of senatorial oratory. There would have been an "avenir" for him, not as great as that which he prophesied to the colony in his valedictory address, but still gratifying and encouraging.

There is also a lawyer of the name of Nicholls, an attorney of considerable practice, whom it is rather amusing to hear address the House, as he speaks to the Chair, as if he were examining a reluctant witness at the Old Bailey.

The most Parliamentary speaker is a honourable gentleman of the name of D'Arville, who has been many years in the colony, and has the leading practice at the colonial bar. He speaks with ease and smoothness; his language is pure and unaffected; his delivery agreeable and persuasive; his voice well-managed and melodious. He has been

recently offered a seat on the judicial bench by the authorities at Melbourne, which he has declined. He is justly popular and respected as an independent member and leader at the bar. We met him at the mess of the regiment quartered in Sydney, the 11th. His amenities in social life accord

with his public courtesy.

The Speaker, Sir C. Nicholson, has lately had his income voted to eight hundred pounds per annum, upon a motion introduced by Mr. W. Wentworth, in which he stated it was not intended to allow the speakership to be any longer an undisputed tenure. He has given satisfaction to all parties in the House by his impartiality and gentlemanly deportment.

The Attorney-General, the Honourable Mr. Plunkett, has a weak, feeble voice, and unprepossessing delivery, more so than his colleague, the Solicitor-General, who is the son of a former judge in the colony, Judge Manning, and has an agreeable manner, with considerable facility of language.

When there on one occasion we were

K 3

addressed by a gentleman under the reporters' gallery, with a beard that an Arab might have envied, and who subsequently we discovered to be an M.P. for some Scotch county (Linlithgowshire), and who, we believe, is still a member, who had come out, perhaps, to get up colonial politics.

you

After leaving the Legislative Council Chamber, by winding your way to the left, will arrive at the race-course, or Hyde Park, and from the top of it, on the right, St. James's Church presents itself; a little to the left stands the Roman Catholic Cathedral. Either of these buildings the metropolis of London would not be disgraced by; and below St. James's Church are the courts of law.

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY.

203

CHAPTER XV.

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY-BISHOP OF NEWCASTLE-THE GOOD SENSE OF CLERGY AND LAITY-HIS OWN UNIVERSITY— HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH SIR CHARLES NICHOLSONTHE ARCHDEACON- -THE PROBABLE RESULT OF THE TWO SYSTEMS-THE OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY-ITS CONSTITUTION WELL ADAPTED TO AUSTRALIA-THE WANT OF ARCHITECTURAL BEAUTY-THE PROTESTANT CATHEDRAL LYONS' TERRACE HIS ANTECEDENTS

SYDNEY MUSEUM

WOO

THE DOMAIN THE

CURATOR-GOVERNOR MACQUARIE-TRIAL BY JURY-
ATTORNEY-GENERAL FINDS TRUE BILL-THE JUDGES OF
NEW SOUTH WALES
AND HIS

LORD SHAFTESBURY

EXCELLENCY-SYDNEY NOT WORSE THAN ANY ENGLISH GARRISON OR PORT TOWN

TALLOW FRAUD GOLD FRAUD-NOT ONLY PAUPERS AND CONVICTS SENT OUTALSO YOUNG PRODIGALS-THE FOLLY OF SENDING THEM OUT THE BEST WAY TO SEND THEM OUT-LETTER OF INTRODUCTION--THE MR. V.'S-THE WAY TO GET ON.

IN the middle of the race-course stands the Sydney University, for which the colony, in a great measure, is indebted to Wentworth -the most useful measure he has ever propounded for their advantage. But it has

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BISHOP OF NEWCASTLE.

raised a controversy, which was raging with considerable warmth, between the Bishop of Newcastle, the clergy, and some portion of the laity.

The Principal is a first-class Oxford man, and formerly head-master of Bury St. Edmund's; a person of unquestionable literary and classical attainments. The Professor of Mathematics was senior wrangler of his year; as also was the Professor of Chemistry, a gentleman of the highest pretension in the inductive sciences. So far, therefore, as sufficiency of talent was concerned, there could be no doubt respecting the efficiency of the institution. But the Bishop of Newcastle, in the absence of the Bishop of Sydney, thought that a portion of the five thousand pounds per annum which was voted by the Council, should be appropriated to founding professorships of theology, regulated in amount by the same principle that the Church funds are, for teachers of different creeds.

The College was separated from the University; but this was not sufficient for his lordship, who is rather arbitrary in his discipline, being of a "sic volo, sic jubeo"