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Author:Alexander James William Morrison

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 * Shakspeare's dramatic art: and his relation to Calderon and Goethe, by Hermann Ulrici (1846)
 * Lectures on dramatic art and literature, by Augustus William Schlegel, with John Black
 * The history of ancient philosophy by Dr. Heinrich Ritter (1838–1846)
 * History of the Thirty Years' War by Schiller (1846)
 * The philosophy of life, and philosophy of language, in a course of lectures, by Frederick von Schlegel. (1847)
 * History of the revolt of the Netherlands : trial and execution of Counts Egmont and Horn ; and the seige of Antwerp, by Schiller (1847)
 * General history of the Christian religion and church, by Dr. Augustus Neander (1847)
 * The auto-biography of Goethe. Truth and poetry; From my own life; Books 14–20, by Goethe (1849)
 * Letters from Switzerland, by Goethe (1849)
 * Travels in Italy. by Goethe (1849)
 * Manual of the antiquities of the church,, by H.E.F. Guericke (1851)
 * The Acts of the Apostles; or the History of the Church by Michael Baumgarten (1854)
 * System of Christian Ethics by Harless (1868)

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428 the controversy, and his denials have no strength, for there never can be a state of facts to which new meaning may not truthfully be added, provided the mind ascend to a more enveloping point of view. It must always remain an open question whether mystical states may not possibly be such superior points of view, windows through which the mind looks out upon a more extensive and inclusive world. The difference of the views seen from the different mystical windows need not prevent us from entertaining this supposition. The wider world would in that case prove to have a mixed constitution like that of this world, that is all. It would have its celestial and its infernal regions, its tempting and its saving moments, its valid experiences and its counterfeit ones, just as our world has them; but it would be a wider world all the same. We should have to use its experiences by selecting and subordinating and substituting just as is our custom in this ordinary naturalistic world; we should be liable to error just as we are now; yet the counting in of that wider world of meanings, and the serious dealing with it, might, in spite of all the perplexity, be indispensable stages in our approach to the final fullness of the truth.

In this shape, I think, we have to leave the subject. Mystical states indeed wield no authority due simply to their being mystical states. But the higher ones among them point in directions to which the religious sentiments even of non-mystical men incline. They tell of the supremacy of the ideal, of vastness, of union, of safety, and of rest. They offer us hypotheses, hypotheses which we may voluntarily ignore, but which as thinkers we cannot possibly upset. The supernaturalism and optimism to which they would persuade us may, interpreted in one way or another, be after all the truest of insights into the meaning of this life.

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424 of fact for those who have them as any sensations ever were for us. The records show that even though the five senses be in abeyance in them, they are absolutely sensational in their epistemological quality, if I may be pardoned the barbarous expression,—that is, they are face to face presentations of what seems immediately to exist.

The mystic is, in short, invulnerable, and must be left, whether we relish it or not, in undisturbed enjoyment of his creed. Faith, says Tolstoy, is that by which men live. And faith-state and mystic state are practically convertible terms.

2.

But I now proceed to add that mystics have no right to claim that we ought to accept the deliverance of their peculiar experiences, if we are ourselves outsiders and feel no private call thereto. The utmost they can ever ask of us in this life is to admit that they establish a presumption. They form a consensus and have an unequivocal outcome; and it would be odd, mystics might say, if such a unanimous type of experience should prove to be altogether wrong. At bottom, however, this would only be an appeal to numbers, like the appeal of rationalism the other way; and the appeal to numbers has no logical force. If we acknowledge it, it is for 'suggestive,' not for logical reasons: we follow the majority because to do so suits our life.

But even this presumption from the unanimity of mystics is far from being strong. In characterizing mystic states as pantheistic, optimistic, etc., I am afraid I over-simplified the truth. I did so for expository reasons, and to keep the closer to the classic mystical tradition. The classic religious mysticism, it now must be


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Rh, is only a 'privileged case.' It is an extract, kept true to type by the selection of the fittest specimens and their preservation in 'schools.' It is carved out from a much larger mass; and if we take the larger mass as seriously as religious mysticism has historically taken itself, we find that the supposed unanimity largely disappears. To begin with, even religious mysticism itself, the kind that accumulates traditions and makes schools, is much less unanimous than I have allowed. It has been both ascetic and antinomianly self-indulgent within the Christian church. It is dualistic in Sankhya, and monistic in Vedanta philosophy. I called it pantheistic; but the great Spanish mystics are anything but pantheists. They are with few exceptions non-metaphysical minds, for whom 'the category of personality' is absolute. The 'union' of man with God is for them much more like an occasional miracle than like an original identity. How different again, apart from the happiness common to all, is the mysticism of Walt Whitman, Edward Carpenter, Richard Jefferies, and other naturalistic pantheists, from the more distinctively Christian sort. The fact is that the mystical feeling of enlargement, union, and emancipation has no specific intellectual content whatever of its own. It is capable of forming matrimonial alliances with material furnished by the most diverse philosophies and theologies, provided only they


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400 pass to its methodical cultivation as an element of the religious life. Hindus, Buddhists, Mohammedans, and Christians all have cultivated it methodically.

In India, training in mystical insight has been known from time immemorial under the name of yoga. Yoga means the experimental union of the individual with the divine. It is based on persevering exercise; and the diet, posture, breathing, intellectual concentration, and moral discipline vary slightly in the different systems which teach it. The yogi, or disciple, who has by these means overcome the obscurations of his lower nature sufficiently, enters into the condition termed samâdhi, "and comes face to face with facts which no instinct or reason can ever know." He learns—

"That the mind itself has a higher state of existence, beyond reason, a superconscious state, and that when the mind gets to that higher state, then this knowledge beyond reasoning comes. … All the different steps in yoga are intended to bring us scientifically to the superconscious state or samâdhi. … Just as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness, and which, also, is not accompanied with the feeling of egoism. … There is no feeling of I, and yet the mind works, desireless, free from restlessness, objectless, bodiless. Then the Truth shines in its full effulgence, and we know ourselves—for Samâdhi lies potential in us all—for what we truly are, free, immortal, omnipotent, loosed from the finite, and its contrasts of good and evil altogether, and identical with the Atman or Universal Soul."

The Vedantists say that one may stumble into superconsciousness sporadically, without the previous discipline, but it is then impure. Their test of its purity, like


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Rh our test of religion's value, is empirical: its fruits must be good for life. When a man comes out of Samâdhi, they assure us that he remains "enlightened, a sage, a prophet, a saint, his whole character changed, his life changed, illumined."

The Buddhists use the word 'samâdhi' as well as the Hindus; but 'dhyâna' is their special word for higher states of contemplation. There seem to be four stages recognized in dhyâna. The first stage comes through concentration of the mind upon one point. It excludes desire, but not discernment or judgment: it is still intellectual. In the second stage the intellectual functions drop off, and the satisfied sense of unity remains. In the third stage the satisfaction departs, and indifference begins, along with memory and self-consciousness. In the fourth stage the indifference, memory, and self-consciousness are perfected. [Just what 'memory' and 'self-consciousness' mean in this connection is doubtful. They cannot be the faculties familiar to us in the lower life.] Higher stages still of contemplation are mentioned—a region where there exists nothing, and where the meditator says: "There exists absolutely nothing," and stops. Then he reaches another region where he says: "There are neither ideas nor absence of ideas," and stops again. Then another region where, "having reached the end of both idea and perception, he stops


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402 finally." This would seem to be, not yet Nirvâna, but as close an approach to it as this life affords.

In the Mohammedan world the Sufi sect and various dervish bodies are the possessors of the mystical tradition. The Sufis have existed in Persia from the earliest times, and as their pantheism is so at variance with the hot and rigid monotheism of the Arab mind, it has been suggested that Sufism must have been inoculated into Islam by Hindu influences. We Christians know little of Sufism, for its secrets are disclosed only to those initiated. To give its existence a certain liveliness in your minds, I will quote a Moslem document, and pass away from the subject.

Al-Ghazzali, a Persian philosopher and theologian, who flourished in the eleventh century, and ranks as one of the greatest doctors of the Moslem church, has left us one of the few autobiographies to be found outside of Christian literature. Strange that a species of book so abundant among ourselves should be so little represented elsewhere—the absence of strictly personal confessions is the chief difficulty to the purely literary student who would like to become acquainted with the inwardness of religions other than the Christian.

M. Schmölders has translated a part of Al-Ghazzali's autobiography into French: —

"The Science of the Sufis," says the Moslem author, "aims at detaching the heart from all that is not God, and at giving to it for sole occupation the meditation of the divine being. Theory being more easy for me than practice, I read [certain books] until I understood all that can be learned by study and


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Morgan, Frederick Augustus


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Morgan, Hon. Sir William


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Morgan, William Pritchard


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Morphett, Sir John


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text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Morris, Edward Ellis


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Morris, Henry Thomas


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Mort, Thomas Sutcliffe


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Moss, Frederick Joseph


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text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Mundy, Alfred Miller


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Munro, Hon. James


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text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Murphy, The Most Rev. Daniel


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Murphy, Sir Francis


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256 through me causes me ennui long before it is accomplished. Here you must take up with one party or another, and help them to carry on their feuds and cabals; and you must praise these artists and those dilettanti, disparage their rivals, and, above all, be pleased with everything that the rich and great do. All these little meannesses, then, for the sake of which one is almost ready to leave the world itself,—must I here mix myself up with them, and that, too, when I have neither interest nor stake in them? No: I shall go no farther than is merely necessary to know what is going on, and thus to learn in private to be more contented with my lot, and to stifle the desire, in myself and others, of going out into the dear wide world. I wish to see Rome in its abiding and permanent features, and not as it passes and changes with every ten years. Had I time, I might wish to employ it better. Above all, one may study history here quite differently from what one can on any other spot. In other places one has, as it were, to read one's self into it from without; here one fancies that he reads from within outwards: all arranges itself around you, and seems to proceed from you. And this holds good, not only of Roman history, but also of that of the whole world. From Rome I can accompany the conquerors on their march to the Weser or to the Euphrates; or, if I wish to be a sightseer, I can wait in the Via Sacra for the triumphant generals, and in the meantime receive for my support the largesses of corn and money, and so take a very comfortable share in all the splendour.

Jan. 2, 1787.

Men may say what they will in favour of a written and oral communication: it is only in a very few cases indeed that it is at all adequate; for it never can convey the true character of any object soever,—no, not even of a purely intellectual one. But if one has


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Rh already enjoyed a sure and steady view of the object, then one may profitably hear or read about it; for then there exists a living impression around which all else may arrange itself in the mind, and then one can think and judge.

You have often laughed at me, and wished to drive me away from the peculiar taste I had for examining stones, plants, or animals, from certain theoretical points of view: now, however, I am directing my attention to architects, statuaries, and painters, and hope to find myself learning something even from them.

Jan. 4, 1797.

After all this, I must further speak to you of the state of indecision in which I am with regard to my stay in Italy. In my last letter I wrote to you that it was my purpose to leave Rome immediately after Easter, and gradually return home. Until then I shall yet gather a few more shells from the shore of the great ocean, and so my most urgent needs will have been appeased. I am now cured of a violent passion and disease, and restored to the enjoyment of life, to the enjoyment of history, poetry, and of antiquities, and have treasures which it will take me many a long year to polish and to finish.

Recently, however, friendly voices have reached me to the effect that I ought not to be in a hurry, but to wait till I can return home with still richer gains. From the duke, too, I have received a very kind and considerate letter, in which he excuses me from my duties for an indefinite period, and sets me quite at ease with respect to my absence. My mind, therefore, turns to the vast field which I must otherwise have left untrodden. For instance, in the case of coins and cameos, I have as yet been able to do nothing. I have, indeed, begun to read Winckelmann's "History of Art," but have passed over Egypt: for I feel, once


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258 again, that I must look out before me; and I have done so with regard to Egyptian matters. The more we look, the more distant becomes the horizon of art; and he who would step surely must step slowly.

I intend to stay here till the Carnival; and, in the first week of Lent, shall set off for Naples, taking Tischbein with me, both because it will be a treat to him, and because, in his society, all my enjoyments are more than doubled. I purpose to return hither before Easter, for the sake of the solemnities of Passion Week. But there Sicily lies—there below. A journey thither requires more preparation, and ought to be taken, too, in the autumn. It must not be merely a ride round it and across it, which is soon done, but from which we bring away with us, in return for our fatigue and money, nothing but a simple, I have seen it: the best way is to take up one's quarters, first of all, in Palermo, and afterward in Catania; and then, from those points, to make fixed and profitable excursions, having previously, however, well studied Riedesel and others on the locality.

If, then, I spend the summer in Rome, I shall set to work to study, and to prepare myself for visiting Sicily. As I cannot very well go there before November, and must stay there till over December, it will be the spring of 1788 before I can hope to get home again. Then, again, I have had before my mind a medius terminus. Giving up the idea of visiting Sicily, I have thought of spending a part of the summer at Rome, and then, after paying a second visit to Florence, getting home by the autumn.

But all these plans have been much perplexed by the news of the duke's misfortune. Since receiving the letters which informed me of this event I have had no rest, and would like most to set off at Easter, laden with the fragments of my conquests, and, passing quickly through Upper Italy, be in Weimar again by June.


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216 action of each, and may entail some inconvenient obligation. The stronger nations must forgo the right to make their interests prevail against the weaker by force.'

These are excellent and very necessary theses, but do they carry us far enough? Before you undertake any general obligation, is it not well to consider what it is likely to mean in concrete terms? Your League will have to reckon with certain realities. There was before the War an incipient League of Nations; its members were the States party to the system of International Law. Have we not had to fight the War just because two of the greater States broke the International Law, first in regard to one and then another of the smaller States, and have not those two greater States very nearly succeeded in defeating a very powerful League of Nations which intervened in behalf of the Law? In the face of such a fact, is it quite adequate to say that stronger nations must 'forgo' the right to make their interests prevail by force against the weaker? In a word, do not our ideals involve us in a circle unless we reckon with realities?

Is it not plain that if your League is to last there must be no nation strong enough to have any chance against the general


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Rh will of Humanity? Or, to put the matter in another way; there must be no predominant partner or even group of partners in your League. Is there any case of a successful federation with a predominant partner? In the United States you have the great States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, but no one of them counts for more than a small fraction of the whole Union. In Canada you have Quebec and Ontario balancing one another, so that the smaller provinces of the Dominion are never likely to be bullied by either. In the Commonwealth of Australia you have the approximately equal States of New South Wales and Victoria. In Switzerland not even the large Canton of Berne is anything like predominant. Has not German Federation been a pretence because of the dominance of Prussia? Is not the chief difficulty in the way of devolution within the British Isles, even if Irishmen would agree among themselves, the predominance of England? Did not this War originate from the fact that you allowed an almost dominant Germany to arise in Europe? Have not the great Wars of the past in Europe come from the fact that one State in the European System, under Napoleon, Louis or Philip  had become too powerful? Is it


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Rh worship. No dust, no heat, no noise nor jar. No grinding toil, no anxiety regarding business, no money, no poverty, no burdensome riches; plenty for all and all nearly as free us water or air. No demands to meet except twenty hours a week of labor and that itself be much a privilege that those to whom it was denied owing to mental or physical incapacity are the only sufferers or nearly so. Women and men are free and equal; a woman, does not resign her name or any social right. She has her voice in selecting a representative for either District or Central Executives and from within that body her vote in selecting the most suitable from the selected. Nothing but disablement or transference can remove a member, hence the best three are selected and one elected for a council wants some voice in picking men whom it can not send away. The fifth day is the Sabbath and every kind of work stops that can by any possibility be allowed to stop that the people can attend morning Thanksgiving and be free to spend the day as they please. They do not travel that day except on foot or by private air boat; because they will not partake of any pleasure that deprives another of his chance of enjoying the same. They cannot endure the picture of one man working for the gratification of two or three more. Still this altruism works two ways; any man if asked would work for the benefit of the rest or even to minister to others pleasure. The religious life of the community is free from sectarianism and free from cant. Little is said regarding the ten commandments but the eleventh is always obeyed. No one will wrong another. The religious faith may best be defined as a pure Theism and the worship is mostly musical and full of praise and thanksgiving. It is catered into by all with great heartiness. In Summer and even in Winter if the weather is fine and dry worship is conducted in amphitheatres. One near the junction of the avenues will seat twenty-five thousand people and when used it is filled. An orchestra of two hundred performers is backed up by a trained choir of a thousand voices, and in the parts of the service that allows of both priest and people speaking in unison the effect is overwhelming.

At least Frankston so defines it. Says he, "My little village ideas were all sent adrift. When I got through a long wide passage at the level of the street I found myself with about three or four thousand more people at one end of a great oval. The other half of the oval was occupied by a high platform for a reader; he was near the centre of the vast assemblage. Looking up on both sides I saw seven galleries separated from each other by broad, shallow flights of steps. One gallery was opposite the priest and would seat four thousand people; then there were three, more on each aide capable of holding each three thousand more. In the oval where I was there were no seats but four thousand could stand comfortably.

I went in to see one of the Sabbath morning sights of Sidonia, and up to this time I had not regarded public worship as a thing of much account. I had been inside the walls about three minutes when I saw the man in the

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218 not necessary, if your League of Nations is to have any chance of success, to face this cumulative evidence and not to gloss it over?

Is there not also another Reality with which you must reckon; the Reality of the Going Concern? If the nations of your League are to settle down to a quiet life, there are two different ways, it seems to me, in which you will have to face the Reality of the Going Concern; in respect of the Present and of the Future. What is meant by this Reality in the Present will best be conveyed by concrete consideration of the States available as the units to be leagued together.

The British Empire is a Going Concern. You will not persuade a majority of Britons to risk the coherence of the Empire, which has so triumphantly stood the test of this War, for any paper scheme of a Universal League. It follows, therefore, that the governing units of the British Empire can only grow by gradual process into their place as units of your League. Yet the relations of six of them are already, in fact, the relations of equality and, under their British League, of independency. Only last year was the last word said in that matter. The Prime Ministers of the Dominions are henceforth to communicate directly with the Prime


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152 "If the reawakening of thought, at the time of the Renaissance, permitted a few sparse minds to conceive better regulated relations between nations, at one and the same time, the burning desire to invent, and the thirst for knowledge supplied fresh food to the warrior instinct. The discovery of the West Indies, the exploration of Africa, the navigation of the Pacific Ocean, opened up vast territories to European avidity. The white kingdoms joined issue over the extermination of the red, yellow, and black races, and for the space of four centuries gave themselves up madly to the pillaging of three great divisions of the world. This is what is styled modern civilisation.

"During this uninterrupted succession of deeds of rapine and violence, Europeans acquired a knowledge of the extent and configuration of the earth. As they progressed in this knowledge, so did their work of destruction proceed apace. To the present day, the whites come in contact with the black or the yellow races but to enslave or massacre them. The peoples whom we call barbarians know us so far through our crimes only.

"For all that, those navigations, those explorations undertaken in a spirit of savage cupidity, these tracks by land and by sea opened up to conquerors, adventurers, hunters of and traders in men, these life-destroying colonisations, this brutal impulse

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Rh which has led and still leads one-half of humanity to destroy the other, are the fatal conditions of a further progress of civilisation, and the terrible means which shall have prepared, for a still undetermined future, the peace of the world.

"This time, 'tis the whole world assimilated, in spite of enormous dissimilarities, to the state of the Roman Empire under Augustus. The Roman peace was the fruit of conquest. Universal peace will most assuredly not be brought about by the same means. No Empire is there to-day which can lay claim to the hegemony of the lands and seas covering the globe, known and surveyed at last. But, in spite of their being less apparent than those of political and military domination, the bonds which are beginning to unite the whole of humanity, and no longer merely a part of humanity, are none the less real; they are both more supple and more solid, more intimate and infinite in variety, since they are connected, athwart the fictions of public life, with the realities of social life.

"The increasing multiplicity of communications and exchanges, the compulsory solidarity of the financial markets of every capital, of commercial markets vainly striving to guarantee their independence by recourse to unfortunate expedients, the rapid growth of international socialism, seem likely to guarantee, sooner or later, the union of the

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154 peoples of every continent. If at the present moment the Imperialist spirit of the great States and the haughty ambitions of armed nations seem to give the lie to these previsions, and to damn these aspirations, it will be perceived that in reality modern nationalism amounts merely to a confused aspiration towards a more and more vast union of intellects and wills, and that the dream of a greater England, a greater Germany, a greater America, leads, will or do whatever you may, to the dream of a greater humanity, and to a partnership between nations for the common exploitation of the riches of the earth. ..."

The speech was interrupted by the appearance of the tavern-keeper bearing a steaming soup-tureen and grated cheese.

And, from amid the hot and aromatic vapour of the soup, Nicole Langelier concluded his argument with these words:

"There will doubtless be further wars. The savage instincts coupled with the natural desires, pride and hunger, which have embroiled the world for so many centuries, will again disturb it. The human masses have so far not found their equilibrium. The sagacity of nations is not yet sufficiently methodical to secure the common welfare, by means of the freedom and the facility of exchanges, man has so far not come to be looked up to with respect

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Rh Minister of the United Kingdom, and no longer through the subordinate Colonial Secretary; the Parliament at Westminster is no longer to be called the Imperial Parliament but only the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It only remains that the King should no longer be called King of the United Kingdom and of the Dominions beyond the Seas, but that the equality of all the Dominions should be recognised by some such title as King of all the Britains. Even in respect of realities—though in such matters names become realities—have we not now the certainty that the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia will each have its own fleet and army, to be put under a single strategical command only on the outbreak of War? As regards population, too, is it not now a question of only a few years before Canada and Australia will equal the Motherland in power? We shall then have the three minor Dominions—New Zealand, South Africa, and Newfoundland—counting the more because of the balance between the three major Domimions.

France and Italy are Going Concerns. Are they going to enter a League in which the British Empire is a unit? Fortunately we have achieved the single strategical command in the later stages of the War, so that the


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Rh everywhere by man, the several portions of humanity are not yet about to associate harmoniously for the purpose of building the cells and organs of one and the same body. It will not be vouchsafed even unto the youngest of us to witness the close of the era of arms. But, we feel within us a presentiment of these better times which we are not to experience. If we extend into the future the present trend, we may even now determine the establishment of more perfect and frequent communications between all races and all nations, a more general and stronger feeling of human solidarity, the rational organisation of labour, and the coming of the United States of the World.

"Universal peace will become a fact some day, not because men will become better ('tis more than we may hope for), but because a new order of things, a new science, and new economic necessities will force on men the state of peace, just as formerly the very conditions of their existence placed and kept them in a state of war."

"Nicole Langelier, a rose has shed a leaf in your glass," said Giacomo Boni. "This has not taken place without the permission of the gods. Let us drink to the future peace of the world."

Raising his glass, Joséphin Leclerc remarked:

"This wine of Chianti has a tart savour, and a light sparkle. Let us drink to peace, the while

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220 name Versailles has now an added historic meaning. No longer merely through their Ambassadors, but in the persons of their Prime Ministers, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy have acquired the habit of taking counsel together. These three countries of West Europe are not unfitted by any decisive inequality of size to be fellow members of a League. Is it not probable that occasions will occur when the Prime Ministers of Canada and Australia may be called into conference with the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Italy? They will be occasions of all the more value if you recognise the Going Concerns of to-day and do not attempt to make merely paper progress. Remember that it required the peril of the German offensive of 1918 to secure the unity of strategical command.

Then what of the United States? There is no good in pretending that the separate American States can be units in your League; the Republic fought the greatest War in History, before this War, in order to weld them together. Yet the United States form something very like a predominant partner as against the separate allied countries of


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156 Russians and Japanese are waging a bitter war in Manchuria and in Korea Bay."

"That war," resumed Langelier, "marks one of the great periods in the history of the world. And, in order to grasp its meaning, we must hark back two thousand years.

"The Romans, assuredly, did not suspect the vastness of the barbarian world, and had no conception of those immense human reservoirs which were to burst on them one fine day, and submerge them. They did not suspect that there existed in the world any other than the Roman peace. And yet, an older and vaster one there was, the Chinese peace.

"Not but what their merchants had business relations with the merchants of Serica. The latter were wont to bring raw silk to a spot situated to the north of the Pamir table-land, named the Tower of Stone. The merchants of the Empire went thither. Bolder Latin traders penetrated as far as the Gulf of Tong-King and the Chinese coasts up to Hang-chau-fu, or Hanoi. Nevertheless, the Romans did not conceive that Serica constituted an Empire more densely populated than their own one, richer, and more advanced in agriculture and political economy. The Chinese, on their part, knew the white men. Their annals mention the fact that the Emperor An-tung, under which name we recognise Marcus

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Rh Aurelius Antoninus, despatched an embassy to them, which was perhaps merely an expedition of navigators and merchants. But they were ignorant of the fact that a civilisation more seething and violent than their own, as well as more prolific and infinitely more expansive, was spread over one of the faces of the globe of which they covered another face: the Chinese, agriculturists and gardeners full of experience, honest and expert merchants, led a happy life, owing to their system of exchange and to their immense associations of credit. Contented with their subtle science, their exquisite politeness, their singularly human piety, and their immutable wisdom, they were doubtless not anxious to become acquainted with the ways of life and thought of the white men who had come from the land of Caesar. Perchance the ambassadors of An-tung may have seemed somewhat gross and barbarian to them.

"The two great civilisations, the yellow and the white, continued ignorant of each other until the day when the Portuguese, having doubled the Cape of Good Hope, settled down to trade at Macao. Merchants and Christian missionaries established themselves in China, and indulged in every kind of violence and rapine. The Chinese tolerated them, in the manner of men accustomed to works of patience, and marvellously capable of endurance; nevertheless, they could on occasion take life with all

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Rh West Europe. The United States must be in your League; and that means that, for healthy working, the six Britains must be held together as a counterbalance. Fortunately 3000 miles of undefended frontier in North America constitute a fact of good omen, though, to be quite frank, it would signify more if the countries which that frontier has separated had been less unequal; the test would have been more severe.

But the need of a reasonable equality of power as between a considerable number of the members of the League, so that in future crises—and they will occur—it may not be exposed to danger from predominance in any quarter, is less urgent in respect of the insular than of the continental members. There are the obvious limitations of sea-power; there are also natural boundaries which define the spread of any one insular, or even peninsular, base of power. The test of the League will be in the Heartland of the Continent. Nature there offers all the prerequisites of ultimate dominance in the world; it must be for man by his foresight and by the taking of solid guarantees to prevent its attainment. Notwithstanding their revolutions the German and Russian peoples are Going Concerns, each with a powerful historical momentum.


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158 the refinements of cruelty. For nearly three whole centuries the Jesuits were, in the Middle Kingdom, a source of endless disturbances. In our own times, the Christian acquired the habit of sending jointly or separately into that vast Empire, whenever order was disturbed, soldiers who restored it by means of theft, rape, pillage, murder, and incendiarism, and of proceeding at short intervals with the pacific penetration of the country with rifles and guns. The poorly armed Chinese either defend themselves badly or not at all, and so they are massacred with delightful facility. They are polite and ceremonious, but are reproached with cherishing feeble sentiments of affection for Europeans. The grievances we have against them are greatly of the order of those which Mr. Du Chaillu cherished towards his gorilla. Mr. Du Chaillu, while in a forest, brought down with his rifle the mother of a gorilla. In its death, the brute was still pressing its young to its bosom. He tore it from this embrace, and dragged it with him in a cage across Africa, for the purpose of selling it in Europe. Now, the young animal gave him just cause for complaint. It was unsociable, and actually starved itself to death. 'I was powerless,' says Mr. Du Chaillu, 'to correct its evil nature.' We complain of the Chinese with as great a show of reason as Mr. Du Chaillu of his gorilla.

"In 1901, order having been disturbed at Peking,

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Rh the troops of the five Great Powers, under the command of a German Field-Marshal, restored it by the customary means. Having in this fashion covered themselves with military glory, the five Powers signed one of the innumerable treaties by which they guarantee the integrity of the very China whose provinces they divide among themselves.

"Russia's share was Manchuria, and she closed Korea to Japanese trade. Japan, which in 1894 had beaten the Chinese on land and on sea, and had taken a part, in 1901, in the pacifying action of the Powers, saw with concentrated fury the advance of the voracious and slow-footed she-bear. And, while the huge brute indolently stretched out its muzzle towards the Japanese beehive, the yellow bees, arming their wings and stings together, riddled it with burning punctures.

"'It is a colonial war,' was the expression used by a high-placed Russian official to my friend Georges Bourdon. Now, the fundamental principal of every colonial war is that the European should be more powerful than the peoples whom he is fighting; this is as clear as noonday. It is understood that in these kinds of wars the European is to attack with artillery, while the Asiatic or African is of course to defend himself with arrows, clubs, assegais and tomahawks. It is tolerated that he should procure

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A.D. 1067.] considerable nobility of England, who, while they served to grace his court by their presence and magnificent retinues, were in reality hostages for the fidelity of the nation. Among these were Edgar Atheling, Stigand the primate, the Earls Edwin and Morcar, Waltheof, the son of the brave Earl Siward, with others eminent for the greatness of their fortunes and families, or for their ecclesiastical and civil dignities.

He was visited at the abbey of Fescamp, where he resided during some time, by Rodulph, uncle to the King of France, and by many powerful princes and nobles, who, having taken part in his enterprise, were desirous of participating in the joy and advantages of its success. His English courtiers, willing to ingratiate themselves with their new sovereign, outvied each other in equipages and entertainments; and made a display of riches; which struck the foreigners with astonishment. William of Pointers, a Norman historian, who was present, speaks with admiration of the beauty of their persons, the size and workmanship of their silver plate, the costliness of their embroideries, an art in which the English women then excelled; and he expresses himself in such terms as tend much to exalt our idea of the opulence and cultivation of the people. But though everything bore the face of joy and festivity, and William himself treated his new courtiers with great appearance of kindness, it was impossible altogether to prevent the insolence of the Normans: and the English nobles derived little satisfaction from those entertainments, where they considered themselves as led in triumph by their ostentatious conqueror


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As the horizontal contours of any portion of the earth's surface must depend on the vertical, or, in other words, the various features which are marked on the map—the coast line, plains, rivers, vallies, lakes, hills, mountains, &c., being consequent on the different elevations of the various portions of the surface above the level of the sea; and as those elevations are the results of geological formation, a general knowledge of the geology of any country is the best introduction to a knowledge of its geography.

The geology of Western Australia is in its general features very simple. Upon an undulating surface of granitoidal rocks, passing, as is common elsewhere, into gneiss and other forms of metamorphic rock, have been deposited strata, for the most part horizontal, of


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16 and limestones, the greatest thickness of which does not probably in any place exceed 700 feet. These form flat-topped ranges, and by process of denudation and consequent separation from the mass, detached masses and peaked hills, which are characteristic features of the country over a large portion of its area. The arenaceous and cretaceous deposits have, in process of denudation, been cut into valleys and gullies, in the courses of which the base rock is commonly laid bare; but as these deposits, even when obviously similar in formation, are found at different elevations, and as science has recently confirmed the possibility of similar deposits having been made at different periods under similar conditions, it will not follow that these are all of the same period in time, or that they have even been continuous. On the contrary, it would seem that the different positions in which such deposits are found are due to gradual or successive elevations of the land from its Western Coast, but, in addition to these causes of the superficial formation, recent examination of the Southern district of the Colony has shown that its area has been traversed by elevations of eruptive rocks. The same features have been observed in the upper basins of the Murchison River, and the highest and most prominent hills and ranges throughout the country have been so formed; those on the South being granitic or schistose, while those to the North are described as basaltic, trappean, or volcanic. Those erupted rocks, both on the South and in the Murchison District, form well defined ranges culminating in bold rocky peaks trending from East and North to South and West, and, about the sources of the Murchison, divide a series of parallel valleys forming the basins of its affluents. True basalt has been found in its crystalline forms in the South Western angle of the Colony at Bunbury on the


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Rh North, and Cape Beaufort on the South, but connexion between these eruptive masses has not been determined.

Two geological maps of the South-Western part of the Colony have been published; one by F. H. Gregory (Arrowsmith, London, 1860) including the Gascoigne river, which is now very scarce, and the other by H. Y. L. Brown, giving the result of his surveys when employed as Government Geologist during the years 1870-73, which will be found with detailed maps, sections, &c., in the volumes of Council papers published by the Government during the years 1872-73. This of course is the more valuable, as of later date, and the work of a professional Geologist, but Mr. Gregory's map, including a much larger area both to the North and East, and marking the appearance of granitoid rocks in the river courses and elsewhere, as well as many erupted masses not included in Mr, Brown's map, gives valuable assistance in considering the general geological features of the Colony. Granitoid rocks appear in great masses, forming capes and headlands on the Southern Coast, as also in dome-like elevations and bare escarpments, on the summits and sides of the principal water-sheds of the country. These, in many places, and more especially from Champion Bay to the Murchison River, are traversed by dykes of greenstone and similar rocks, in which rich lodes of copper and lead are found; and on the surface, in other places, there are extensive deposits of brown hæmatitic iron ore. Silver exists in small quantities in the lead ores, and gold has been found both in alluvium and quartz reefs, but not as yet in quantity to make its working remunerative. Among the erupted schistose rocks on the Irwin, Phillips, and Fitzgerald rivers have been found, as probably there will be elsewhere, strata


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1807. ship of the line, supported by one or two frigates, could without a moment's notice repeat at New York the tragedy which had required a vast armament at Copenhagen; and the assault on the "Chesapeake" had given warning of what the British navy stood ready to do. Other emphatic omens were not wanting.

About July 27—the day after Lord Gambier's fleet sailed from the Downs, and the day when Monroe first saw in the newspapers an account of the "Leopard's" attack on the "Chesapeake"—the American minister might have read a report made by a committee of the House of Commons on the commercial state of the West Indian Islands. The main evil, said the committee, was the very unfavorable state of the foreign market, in which the British merchant formerly enjoyed nearly a monopoly. "The result of all their inquiries on this most important part of the subject has brought before their eyes one grand and primary evil from which all the others are easily to be deduced; namely, the facility of intercourse between the hostile colonies and Europe under the American neutral flag, by means of which not only the whole of their produce is carried to a market, but at charges little exceeding those of peace, while the British planter is burdened with all the inconvenience, risk, and expense resulting from a state of war." To correct this evil, a


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18 a semi-bituminous deposit which has been taken for coal. Tin and zinc have also been reported as existing in several places, but have not yet been discovered in workable quantities. Mr. Brown attributes the argillaceous clays, shales, and schists to the Silurian period, the bituminous shales to the Carboniferous, the sandstones and limestones to the Oolitic, but the coast limestone, evidently a more recent concretion, must be excepted, which, with its accompanying beds of calcareous grit and sandstone, he attributes to the Tertiary period. Some of the fossils which these limestones contain, differ but little from species still existing on the shores of the Colony; but Mr. Brown seems to think that the clays and laminated rocks found at the base of the hills may underlie them.

This outline sketch of the Geology of Western Australia may be sufficient to account for its most apparent physical features, but some further Geological notices will be required in considering them more in detail. On examination, the coast line of Western Australia will be seen to present three deep indentations—at King George's Sound on the South, Shark's Bay on the West, and King's Sound on the North coast, all trending to the Westward of North. To the West of King's Sound there is an extensive bight, reaching nearly to the N.W. angle of the Colony, while, on the South coast, the Great Australian Bight stretches Eastward from Cape Arid; and lines drawn from Fowler's Bay (beyond the Eastern limit of the Colony) to King's Sound, and, parallel to it, Northward from Cape Arid and Southward from Shark's Bay, will divide the Colony into three districts, trending about N.N.W. and S.S.E.

 * 1. The Desert district, continuous beyond the Eastern limit of the Colony.


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Rh :2. The Lake district, extending to the head waters of the Greenough and Murchison.

 * 3. The Coast district, including the basins of all rivers South of the Greenough.

To these must be added the Coast districts of the North and South, including the basins of all rivers felling into the sea in those directions.

These divisions accord well with what is known of the Geology of the Colony, as a line drawn N.N.W. from Point Culver at the Western end of the Great Australian Bight will pass along the Western limit of the granitoid rocks on the edge of the great desert, and strike the mountains at the head of the Fortescue; while a similar line drawn from Fowler's Bay, at the head of the Bight, where Mr. Delisser found granite, will pass between Mounts Elvire and Fort Mueller granitic rocks, on Forrest's track, near the Eastern edge of the great desert. It is also apparent that a similar line, drawn from the Eastern shore of the Great Bight, would come out on the Northern coast in the deep indentation to the East of Cape Londonderry. These lines, and others drawn at right angles to them, will also be found to correspond generally with the coast line, so that, within a parallelogram of 1000 miles in length by 700 in breadth, which may form the normal figure of the Colony, its area to the West of a line drawn from King's Sound, S.S.E., would be included. If, however, the Southern limit of such a parallelogram were to be a line drawn through Point Culver, the Western coast limit of surface granite, in the desert district, it would pass to the North of that great mass of oolitic rock which appears on the shore of the Great Bight; and this exclusion would be consistent with the fact that this formation is exceptional, and differs from all other known geological formations in the Colony; the


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20 coast of the Great Bight extending at the foot of a limestone range of perpendicular cliffs, named after Governor Hampton. The limestones here found are of various qualities and have never been sufficiently examined, but, from the fossils they contain, which in all are numerous, and of which some entirely consist, they may probably be classed as approximating to the Great oolite of England. They are too dense to contain water, unless in fissures or caverns which are common in them. Their surface is grassed but waterless, though water, fit for stock, is found in Roe's Plains, at their base near the sea. Their Northern limit has not been observed. They present materials for building, for lime burning, and for such ornamental uses as marble is applied to. A similar line drawn from N. W. Cape, S.S.E., would exclude the projecting mass to the East of King's Sound, which has aim its own characteristic difference.

The Desert District, which had only been entered from the East and West until it was in the present decade crossed by Warburton, Forrest, and Giles, appears, so far as our present knowledge extends, to be a level expanse of sandstone, with some granitic elevations and depressions forming hills and pools, the surface covered by what is locally known as spinifex, thinly wooded with belts of mulga and other shrubs, and with scattered white gum trees near the pools of water. To the South, Giles found it waterless, but Forrest found water nearly throughout his whole route across the centre. It is therefore probable that water may exist in many places, but the district, so far as is known, offers no inducement even to further exploration; yet Forrest, in 1853, found a sandstone range extending into it under the parallel 28-30 South Latitude, and reports many natives, and much game in its interior; it may


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Rh therefore possibly be more varied in character than is commonly supposed.

Of the Lake District more is known, but by no means as much as is to be desired. It presents an irregular undulating surface of granitic rocks, very varied, as is usual, in composition and structure, traversed by dykes of dioritic quartzose and schistose rocks, the general direction of which may be found to correspond to the normal lines already indicated. Masses termed indifferently trap or basalt by explorers, and cairns of granite, form isolated hilts and ranges, the relations of which have yet to be determined. Quartzose and schistose dykes in erupted masses appear to be most common in the South, and trap or basalt in the North.

Upon the undulating surface of the primitive rocks of this district horizontal strata of sandstone, but of no great thickness, have been deposited; the elevations are separated by broad irregular shallow troughs, the depressions in the surface of the primitive rocks, in which are deposited clays and sands disintegrated from them, which act as receptacles for water, and form lakes of greater or smaller extent, according to the amount of the rainfall, and which uniting in very wet seasons may have given rise to the report, once prevalent, of an inland sea. The lakes or swamps thus formed may probably cover one-third of the entire area of this district South of the sources of the Murchison river.

The disintegration of the surface rocks, even of the granite, from the quantity of feldspar contained in it, but more especially of the sandstone and schistose rocks, is effected with great rapidity both here and elsewhere in the Colony, and is not confined to wet periods, but is continuous from atmospheric action during the whole year; and it may be assumed that where sandstones


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22 dominate, the process of evaporation, by which only the surface waters are diminished, there being no known outfall for them, not only leaves in deposition any saline matters that may be present in them, but also may cause the formation of crystals of gypsum, as Mr. Brown supposes, and consequently the lakes so formed are salt; while those of which the clay basins are formed by the disintegration of granitic or erupted rocks are fresh, as are the springs commonly found at the bases of elevations of those rocks.

A considerable portion of this district is, after rains, richly grassed, and has been utilized for grazing sheep and cattle; but as rain falls at very irregular periods, and often at long intervals, it is therefore unfit for agricultural purposes. Long belts of a thick but low growth of small Eucalypti are found traversing it at intervals. It may probably be found hereafter rich in those minerals which accompany or are contained in granitic transition or erupted rocks.

The Lake district may be considered as a shallow basin on a plateau of 300 miles square, and is buttressed up on three sides by elevations which form the watersheds of the rivers, the valleys of which open to the coasts of the Colony. The superior ranges, which separate the river basins, commonly present bare surfaces of granitoid rock; the inferior are, for the most part, covered with a concretionary rock, frequently appearing as a conglomerate, known in the Colony as iron-stone, which is also common in the valleys and on the flanks of the ranges on the West Coast, while to the North and South sandstones predominate. As is commonly the case, the highest points project in front of the main mass, but it is not probable that any attain to 2000 feet above the level of the sea, and the greatest elevations


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Rh will be found in the South-West and North-West; in the former about the middle of the river basins, and in the latter near the sources of the rivers.

As the basins of the larger rivers naturally divide the Coast Districts into areas having characteristic differences, they may be best considered separately, and, as the principal settlements are on the West Coast, it may claim priority in description. A line of about 300 miles, from the sources of the Blackwood to those of the Irwin, may represent the South-Western watershed of the Colony. This great mass of granitic rock,—the Western escarpment of which is known as the Stirling Range, which forms the watershed of the rivers of the South as well as West, and the spurs from which separate their basins—,has its greatest elevations to the South and West. The height of but few of these has been correctly ascertained, but Mt. William, at the source of Meares River, to the South of the Murray, rises 1685 feet above the level of the sea.

To the West and South another range has been thrown up, forming a sort of terrace below the main range, and this is marked by Roe's Range, of which Mt. Lennard on the Collie is the culminating point; beneath this, as has been noted, on the coast, both to the West and South, basaltic columns have been protruded at Bunbury and at Cape Beaufort; and beyond, about thirty miles to the West, the Coast Range, some points of which are nearly 800 feet above the sea, has by its elevation directed the course of the Blackwood to the South. This is also granitic, but has deposits of limestone and saliferous sandstones upon it. The former, probably of the same formation as the Coast limestone, are hollowed into numerous caverns containing fossils and fossiliferous deposits, while, in the lowlands at the


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24 base of the main range to the East, there are superficial masses of gravel containing fossil bones of large animals which have not yet been examined. The line of this coast range is apparently continued in the reefs which fringe the coast, the outer one being known as the Five Fathom Bank, possibly terminating in Houtman's Abrolhos.

The great granitic mass of the South-Western Ranges slopes downward to the North, where the strata of sandstones and limestones about Moore River and the rivers of the Victoria district to the North, and which rest upon it, give a distinct character to that portion of the Colony. The formation of these is not sufficiently well known, but it would seem that they are related to the schistose deposits on the Irwin and the South coast. The Blackwood, having had its lower course directed Southward by the interposition of the rock masses on the West Coast, from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste, assumes an intermediate position in the South, as the Gascoigne, falling into Shark's Bay, does to the North. The rivers Murchison, Greenough, Swan, and Murray, the basins of which open to the West coast, have their sources in the main watershed, and mark the principal divisions of the Coast district; while the Hutt, Bowes, and Chapman, the Irwin and Moore, the Serpentine, Harvey, and Collie, have their sources in the outer slopes of the ranges which form the upper basins of the larger rivers, as other inferior rivers, so called, have their sources still nearer the Coast line. The rivers of the Colony are indeed, for the most part, water courses, down which torrents rush in wet seasons, which occur only occasionally and sometimes at long intervals; and their courses are at other times marked by sand and gravel, brought down by the floods, and pools formed in


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Rh the bottom rocks, in which, as being below the general level of the river bed, water remains after a flood, and in some of which it is maintained by natural springs; these are fresh or saline, too frequently the latter, according to the conditions in which they are found. The lower course of the rivers commonly opens into lakes, lagoons, or (as they are termed) estuaries, often formed by elevations or depressions in the rocks near the coast, and shut in from the sea by a bar of rock and sand, a passage through the latter being opened in time of flood, to be immediately closed by the action of the sea, when the force of the current of the river is no longer sufficient to keep it open. Some few of the rivers have, however, a stream continuous throughout the year, and of fresh water; these will be found on the South-Western and Northern coasts of the Colony. It will be seen that the main, as well as the lateral valleys of the river basins, are generally in the direction of the normal lines already indicated.

Captain Fremantle hoisted the British flag at the mouth of the Swan river, he took possession formally of all the land in the Great Island Continent now known as Australia not included in the Colony of New South Wales. Subsequently the Colony of Western Australia had its Eastern limit defined by the 129th meridian of longitude East from Greenwich, and in 1861 that also was made the Western boundary of the Colony of South Australia; the whole area to the West of that meridian is therefore within the limits of and subject to the


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68 of the enemies' colonies had been suggested; "and such a measure, if it could be strictly enforced, would undoubtedly afford relief to our export trade.  But a measure of more permanent and certain advantage would be the enforcement of those restrictions on the trade between neutrals and the enemies' colonies which were formerly maintained by Great Britain, and from the relaxation of which the enemies' colonies obtain indirectly, during war, all the advantages of peace."

In its way this West Indian Report was stamped with the same Napoleonic character as the bombardment of Copenhagen or the assault on the "Chesapeake;" in a parliamentary manner it admitted that England, with all her navy, could not enforce a blockade by lawful means, and therefore it had become "a matter of evident and imperious necessity" that she should turn pirate. The true sense of the recommendation was neither doubted nor disputed in England, except as matter of parliamentary form. That the attempt to cut off the supply of French and Spanish sugar from Europe, either by proclaiming a paper blockade or the Rule of 1756, might result in war with the United States was conceded, and no one in private denied that America in such a case had just cause for war. The evidence upon which the Report founded its conclusion largely dealt with the probable effect on the colonies of a war with the United States; and the Report itself, in language only so far veiled as to be decent, intimated that although war would


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26 of this Colony. By the supplementary commission granted to the Governor in 1873, the boundaries of the Colony were defined "as extending from the parallel of thirteen degrees thirty minutes South latitude to West Gape Howe, in the parallel of thirty-five degrees eight minutes South latitude, and from the Hartog's Island on the Western Coast, in longitude one hundred and twelve degrees fifty-two minutes, to one hundred and twenty-nine degrees of East longitude, reckoning from the meridian of Greenwich, including all the Islands adjacent in the Indian and Southern Oceans within the latitudes and longitudes aforesaid.

The positions of the extreme points of the Colony are: —

The extent and area of the Colony, as estimated in the Office of the Surveyor General, are:—

It is therefore the largest of the Colonies of Australia, and more than 80 times as large as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Swan River, as the centre of the population and industry of the Colony, and as having on its banks the capital, Perth, and at its mouth the principal port, Fremantle, may claim precedence in description. Its name was, moreover, that at first given to the new


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Rh Colony, and is even yet more familiar to those engaged in trade than the more general and proper appellation of Western Australia.

The first land usually made by vessels on the West coast of Australia is Rottnest (i.e., Rat-nest) island. This is of irregular shape, having its greatest length on the transverse axis, from W. to E., t.e., from Cape Vlaming to Ft. Phillip, 7½ miles in length, and being from Ft. Parker to North Point, 2½ miles in breadth; it is 10 miles from the coast. The West point forms a small peninsula; and, on the East there are lagoons from which salt is extracted by native aboriginal convicts, who are confined on the island. Their prison, the superintendent's house, and other buildings have been erected, and a small farm is cultivated by them. There is also on the East side, on the shore of Thomson's Bay, a marine residence for the Governor of the Colony. A lighthouse stands on a hill 154 feet high, the lanthorn being 211 feet above the sea, and the light visible 21 miles. To the South of the island, in a hue on the main axis of elevation, two miles from its Eastern extremity, a series of rocks and reefs extends for seven miles to Carnac, a rocky islet, and is continued from thence for two miles to Garden Island, which has its greatest length of 5½ miles to within one mile of John's point to the North of Cape Peron, from which the mainland is continuous to the East and North, thus forming apparently an extensive and sheltered harbor 17 miles in length from North to South, The Southern portion, Cockburn Sound, is indeed a spacious basin, 8 miles long by 3½ wide, having 7 fathoms water within less than a cable's length of the East shore, but it is rendered inaccessible from the North by Parmelia bank, stretching from Woodman's Point to Carnac, which, although it


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28 affords protection from that quarter, has only 1½ fathoms water on its crest To the North of this, Owen's Anchorage has 4 fathoms water close to the shore, but this is again covered to the North by Success bank, which, however, has a channel between it and the Stragglers to the West, with 3¼ fathoms. The entrances between the reefs into these anchorages from the sea are narrow, tortuous, and difficult, which makes them at present inaccessible to large vessels in bad weather. The entrance between Garden Island and John's point is barred by the South flats, with only about 1½ fathoms water on the crest. The North channel has been recommended by the Admiralty Surveyor as affording entrance to the largest vessels, if properly lighted and buoyed, and with the removal of one rock. The Challenger Passage, however, he entirely condemns. Owen's Anchorage and Cockburn Sound are, however, resorted to by vessels drawing 16 feet when detained during winter months at Fremantle; the latter, besides its extensive area of some 28 square miles, with from 9 to 12 fathoms water, having the snug anchorage of Careening Cove, at the South-East point of Garden Island, three-quarters of a mile in width, and with five fathoms close to the North shore; and Mangles Bay to the South, one mile and a half broad, with seven fathoms within less than half a cable's length of the shore.

Between Rottnest and the main are Gage's Roads, but the reefs which extend to the North from Carnac on the line to Rottnest, limit their breadth to five miles from thence to the shoal water on the coast; they are from 9 to 13 fathoms deep, and are a safe anchorage for vessels, excepting, possibly, in very strong gales from the North, and, with the sounds and harbors to the South, naturally appertain to the embouchure of the Swan.


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Rh The river itself, however, is only about 400 yards wide at the mouth, which was closed all but a very narrow channel to the South under Arthur's Head, by a reef, until a similar channel was opened under Rous' Head to the North. As these are seldom accessible to vessels drawing more than 6 feet, and as the rise of the tide does not commonly exceed 18 inches, the trade of the port at Fremantle has at present to be carried on by means of lighters, which either discharge their cargoes from vessels in the roads, at the jetty, or take them up the river to Perth and Guildford. Outward-bound vessels have to he loaded in the same manner. For the first two miles the river is narrow, and for the most part shallow, ledges of rock projecting into it from the shores on which sandbanks have been formed; but beyond it opens into a series of broad lake-like reaches for some 11 miles to the narrows above Perth, which should perhaps be considered, more properly, the real mouth of the river. Perth water is nearly land-locked and shallow, but from thence to Rocky Bay there are some 8 square miles of water, a large portion of which is deep carrying a channel of six fathoms, affording access to a coastline of 25 miles. The country about these waters has an undulating surface of limestone, the greatest elevations of which do not much exceed 250 feet. It has been, for the most part, covered with large timber trees, of which, however, but few remain. Perth water forms a pretty lake, on the West of which Mt. Eliza rises about 180 feet in a steep escarpment; it is about one mile and a half in length, and a mile in breadth. Perth, the capital of the Colony, is built on its North bank. Below Perth water the Canning, a small river rising in the face of the Darling Range, has its outlet in Melville water. It is navigable for boats and barges for some 12 miles, to the mills of Messrs. Mason & Bird, and affords


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30 means for taking the timber brought down their tramway, to Perth, or to Fremantle for shipment. Above the islands to the East of Perth water, the river has a tortuous course, forming a succession of broad reaches to the confluence of the Helena, a small stream from the East, above which it bends to the East round the town of Guildford, and thence, ascending the stream Northward, to Ellen's Brook, a distance of about 20 miles direct from Perth, which drains the base of the range to the North, whence the valley trends North-East to Toodyay, where it is joined by the Avon from the South-East. This is, indeed, the main river, but had been so named at York before its connexion with the Swan was known. The lateral valley of the Avon, and its affluent the Dale, from the South, extend about 60 miles in a direct line, and the main river about 50 miles from Toodyay to Perth.

The upper basins of the river present, as is usual in West Australia, chains of pools, for the most part formed in rock, connected only in times of flood by water, at others by deposits of sand. Granite is largely developed in the surface of the hills about the Avon valley, which is one of the most fertile, as well as beautiful, parts of the Colony. Throughout the whole course of the river the flats on the banks are very rich with springs of fresh water from the drainage of the ground above them; some are still uncultivated, but it is occupied nearly throughout its entire length, the land having been taken up in the early days of the Colony. The banks have been throughout well wooded, and are so now in many places. The tertiary and alluvial clays and sands of marine formation, which extend along the base of the Darling Range to the South coast across the valley of the Blackwood, present an apparently level


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Rh surface, broken by small lakes, and crossed by numerous rivers. The coast limestone ranges, which in some places appear to have been deposited upon the tertiary strata, in some others may be clearly perceived to rest on granitic rocks. About the mouth of the Swan they have been found below the bed of the river resting on solid cretaceous sandstones. The superficial limestones, however, form ranges of low hills along the coast, between which are extensive lagoons, two of which only, Feel and Leschenanlt [sic] inlets, communicate with the sea, but neither are accessible to vessels; the former will not, but the latter will, admit the entrance of boats. Peel inlet extends 20 miles to the South in Harvey inlet and receives the waters of the Murray, with the smaller streams of the Serpentine and Harvey, which have their sources in the valleys in the face of the Darling Range, and with other rivers of the same class to the South, run a rapid course, broken by fells before reaching the plain at the foot of the hills. The falls of the Serpentine and Meares are most remarkable for their height and the picturesque scenery about them.

The Murray has its Northern sources—the Bannister and Hotham—near those of the Avon and Canning; while its Southern, which unite in the Williams, interlock with the Hillman and Arthur, the Northern affluents of the Blackwood. The lateral valleys of the Murray extend about 45 miles, and its main valley is in a direct line from its watershed to the confluence of the Williams and Hotham, about 50 miles in length, and from thence to Peel inlet about 50 more. It receives the North and South Dandalup, from the base of the range on the the North, in its lower course. Upon these, as on all the rivers of this coast, there is much fertile land, which however has been in occupation since the early days of


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33 the Colony. The mouth of the Murray is obstructed by sandbanks, but its lower course is navigable for small craft to Pinjarrah.

The area enclosed between the Murray and Blackwood is drained by the Collie, which receive the Brunswick and Wellesley from the foot of the range in its lower course; the Preston, with its affluent stream, the Dardanup, flowing into Leschenault inlet from the South, as the Vasse and other small streams do into Geographe Bay. The valley of the Margaret opens the the coast range to the "West, as Turner's River does to the South, the interior being accessible from those points. The Blackwood drains the largest area of all the rivers in the South of the Colony, but, in consequence of the secondary elevation of the ranges to the South-West, is confined to a narrow valley in its middle course of some 60 miles in direct distance, through a mountainous and well wooded country, in which there are, however, many fertile flats and well grassed banks. Its lower course for 40 miles is of the same character as the rivers of the West coast; but it has a much greater breadth and depth, and when in flood rises more than 20 feet above its ordinary level. The lateral valleys of the upper basin have an extent of about 75 miles, and from the sources of the Beaufort on the South, to its confluence with the Arthur from the North, may be 50 miles; about 15 miles below this it is joined by the Balgarup, also from the South, from whence to the sea it has no affluent stream worthy of notice, though it is fed by numerous torrents from the mountains on either side. As the lateral valleys of the Murray are separated from those of the Swan, so the head waters of the Arthur and Hillman are separated from those of the Murray and Collie by narrow watersheds, thus


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Rh dividing the hill district of the South-West into their several basins, and, in like manner, the basins of the rivers of the South coast open from the reverse of the watershed of the sources of the Blackwood. These are the Gordon, formerly called the Frankland, the Kent or Macquoid, Hay, Kalgan, and Palinup, which drain the area from Cape Chatham to Point Henry at Dillon Bay on a coast line of about 180 miles, all having their sources in the flanks of the great granitic mass of the South-West; as has the Warren between Cape Beaufort and Point D'Entrecasteaux, near which are the smaller rivers Donelly and Gardner, formerly known as the Gordon, and the Shannon and Chesapeake, which fall into Broke's inlet from the North-West. On these there is much good land, and the country about them is well grassed, and consequently has been taken up by stock owners. The forests are from 15 to 20 miles from the coast, but there are groves of peppermint and other trees on the low sandy ranges between the inlets.

The Gordon, rising between the sources of the Palinup and Beaufort, has a Westerly course of 60 miles, when it is joined by the Frankland from the North, which formerly gave its name to the whole river; from thence it has its course through a narrow valley to the rapids at the foot of the hills, and is from thence navigable for small craft to its mouth in Nornalup inlet, which is, however, obstructed by sandbanks. There are many fertile flats and well grassed slopes throughout the valley of this river. The Kent and Kalgan have their rise in a district of small lakes on the outer slopes of the basin of the Gordon. The former has a course of about 70 miles, with no considerable affluents, to Irwin inlet, and is on a smaller scale similar to the Gordon; as is the Hay, falling from the Southern slopes of its watershed,


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34 which is about 35 miles from its source to its mouth in Wilson's inlet; this also receives the smaller streams of the Denmark on the West, and the Sleeman and Teutor on the East.

The Palinup and Kalgan are intermediate in character, for on their courses the granitic hills and forests die out; the Porongurup, extending in solitary grandeur to the East, and culminating 2145 feet above the sea, while between them the schistose peaks of the Stirling Range rise in rugged masses for 30 miles; Tolbrunup, near the centre, rising 3341 feet; Ellen's peak to the East, 3420 feet, and the highest points between the two 3640 feet above the sea, as recently estimated by Capt. Archdeacon. Across the lower course of the Palinup, a comparatively level plain extends to Doubtful Island Bay, formed by sandstone deposits on the granitic floor, which is apparent in the channels of the rivers, and has its surface partly covered with timber to the West, and numerous fresh water lakes, those to the East being marked by the belts of yeat and tea-trees which surround them. The Kalgan has its course of 75 miles round Porongurup Range, and falls into Oyster harbor, which opens into King George's Sound. It is, like the rivers to the West, a constantly flowing water, but the Palinup is, except in rare seasons of flood, marked only by occasional pools; it has its outlet after a course of about 100 miles, during which it receives only two small affluents from the North, in an estuary of about five miles in length, which lies in a very beautiful valley surrounded by lofty hills, but it is closed from the sea by a bank of sand.

The sandstone rocks are well developed on either side of the estuary of the Palinup, presenting steep escarpments to the sea of some 60 feet in height, but they


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Rh attain their greatest elevation on the Fitzgerald River, which flows (when it does flow, which is at intervals of several years) between lofty cliffs in its middle course, having its sources beyond the granitic outcrop to the South of the district of the Lakes, which crosses the Palinup in its middle course, extending towards Cape Arid. The sandstones occupy less of the valley of the Phillips, and it is therefore more fertile; but the erupted schists, which are so largely developed in parallel lines near the coast of Doubtful Bay, cross the lower course of both rivers, and culminate in the three Mounts Barren. All the waters of the Fitzgerald are saline, but Hamersley's River, an affluent of the Phillips, on the North of Eyre's Range, is fresh. There are also deep and large fresh water pools on the Nicolay and Gardner Rivers, which traverse the centre of the plain, and have their estuaries in Bremer and Doubtful Island Bays. St. Mary's River drains the Eastern and Northern slopes of West Mount Barren, and is remarkable for the beauty of its estuary, and the romantic development of the schistose rocks at St. Mary's crags, on its middle course. There are also fresh water pools on the lower course of the Palinup, where the granitic rocks appear on the surface.

Mr. Price's recent survey of the coast from Bremer Bay to Eucla has given accurate knowledge of its physical features. Granitic rocks present themselves in ragged peaks at intervals to Cape Arid and Cape Pasley. The Steere falls into Cullum inlet to the East of the Phillips, some 20 miles beyond which the Judacup communicates with a chain of lakes; 25 miles further East is the Oldfleld. The Young and Lort fall into Stoke's inlet, and here limestones begin to appear above the granite floor. At Barker inlet the limestone


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36 cliffs are 250 feet in height, beyond which Gray's Kiver communicates with the lake of the same name; and other lakes and lagoons, both salt and fresh, are continued to the Eastward. At Esperance Bay the granite is again developed in high peaks, rising at Cape le Grand 1040 feet above the sea level. Thomas River to the East and the Weeauenginup Creek are the last waters on the South-east coast of the Colony, the latter being between Capes Arid and Pasley. The limestone cliffs of Hampden Range extend to Wilson's Bluff 7 miles beyond the landing place at Eucla; and Ross plains, beneath these, have an extreme breadth of 25 miles; they are covered with samphire bushes, and afford only water fit for stock.

The Western coast of the Colony presents a range of low sandhills, varied with occasional points of limestone rock, to beyond the Moore River; but the Southern rises in bold granitic headlands at Cape Chatham on the West, 820 feet above the sea, and at Mount Manypeake, to the East of King George's Sound, 1855 feet; Warricup and Bald island are both 1020 feet high; Bennet's Range, to the North of Parry's inlet, culminates in Mt. Lindsay, 1469 feet above the sea; and Kalganup, to the North of Nornalup, at 1384 feet. Between West Cape Howe and Cape Chatham are many extensive inlets,—Burkes, 7½ miles long, Nomalup 2¾, Irwin's, and Parry's, and Wilson's, 8 miles long, of which Nornalup alone is accessible to small craft. There are, however, at Point D'Entrecasteaux, Capes Leeuwin and Chatham, the mouth of Nornalup, and Point Hillier, as well as in Tor Bay, anchorages sheltered by islets and reefs; but, as the Admiralty survey now in progress is complete only in the coast line without soundings, nothing can be said certainly respecting them. King


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Rh George's Sound, however, in the centre of this coast, is accessible to vessels of any class and at all times, and has a circular area of some six miles in diameter, protected to the East by Michaelmas and Breaksea, rocky islands, and surrounded for the most part by granitic hills; on the North it terminates in a sandy beach of three miles in length, on the East of which is Oyster Harbor, accessible to vessels drawing 14 feet, and carrying that depth to the mouth of King River, having a small area of deeper water within; to the South-East is an inner harbor, named Princess Royal, of which, though a great portion to the West is, as in Oyster Harbor, shallow, it is on the North capable of receiving the largest vessels; and here, at the town of Albany, at the base of Mt. Gardner, a granitic mass rising 860 feet above the sea, the mail steamers deliver their mails and passengers, and take in coal for their further voyage. This harbor is entirely landlocked, a long point crossing it to the East, rising in Quarantine hill, 260 feet, and the entrance being only three cables broad. The survey of King George's Sound is completed and published, as are those of the ports of Fremantle and Champion Bay.

A chain of fresh water lakes stretches to the North of Perth water for 30 miles towards the Moore River; and from thence to the Bowes River, beyond Champion Bay, the granite floor has a more even surface, and the sandstones and limestones are more largely and regularly developed, so that the ranges throughout this district, of which the principal near the coast are Gardner and Moresby's flat-topped ranges, have a level surface, varied only by the valleys of the rivers and by detached conical hills. Granite, however, forms elevated masses to the North of Moore River in Mounts Peron and Lesueur,


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38 which rise to more than 1000 feet above the sea, and on the Greenough River, and forms the surface of the greater portion of what is known as the Mines district, to the North of Champion Bay; it also appears in the Victoria Plains, where the Moore and Arrowsmith rivers take their rise about 50 miles from the coast. The rivers of this district are therefore mere watercourses, with occasional deep pools in the rocks, but in rainy seasons are filled with broad, deep, and rapid torrents. On and about their banks occasional flats of rich land are found, but the country is obviously more fitted for pastoral than agricultural pursuits. To this there are, however, two marked exceptions; one in the plains along the base of the hills below the upper valleys of the rivers, and the other in the lacustrine basins between the Irwin and Greenough, in which there is a large extent of rich alluvium, in the latter mostly under cultivation. The Moore, Arrowsmith, and Irwin have their sources in the Western slopes of the Northern spurs of the Darling Range, but the sources of the Greenough are in the North-West angle of the Lake district, and overlap those of the Irwin. The Chapman has its sources in the outer slopes of the basins of the Greenough, as the smaller rivers of the coast, the Buller, Oakagee, and Bowes, have from without the valley of the Chapman. The Greenough may have a direct course of more than 150 miles, and its lateral valleys may extend 100, but this part of the Colony has not been surveyed, although triangulations have been carried from Perth to the Weld Range, beyond the Murchison, under the direction of the Surveyor General, from which it appears that the principal elevations are Mt. Dalgeranger, to the East of the sources of the Greenough, 2100 feet, and Mt. Lulworth, the culminating point of Weld Range, 2330 feet above the sea.


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Rh Forrest found Mt. Hale, under the 26th parallel, composed of magnetic iron ore with brown hæmatite, similar to the peak in consequence named Mt. Magnet by Austin; and several other peaks in this and the Lake district are of the same formation.

The Murchison River is exceptional both in size, position, and character. It is the longest river of the Colony, has its upper basin in the North-West angle of the Lake district, to the Eastward of the Greenough and Gascoigne, and on its banks the first specimens of the fauna and flora of the North coast are apparent. It has a deep channel above its mouth. The river, in its middle and lower courses, winds through an irregular valley, rich in minerals, for more than 100 miles is a direct line without an affluent. The upper valleys of the Murchison have not been mapped, but it has several affluents, the Sanford, Impey, and Roderick, the valleys of which have an extent of from 100 to 200 miles. Forrest found the Eastern watershed under the 120th meridian, after passing over some 100 miles of undulating well-grassed country, traversed by numerous watercourses, the most important lateral valley being that of the Sanford, the waters of those to the North being fresh, and those to the South, for the most part, saline. Mounts Bartle and Russel, at the Eastern source, are in latitude 26° 5' South, and the valley lies to the South of Robinson Range. In ordinary seasons the course of this river is only marked by its bed, either of rock or sand, or by occasional pools; but in times of flood a vast volume of water is poured down to the sea, into which it passes through cliffs of limestone. The plains about the head waters of the Murchison and to the East of the Greenough are being rapidly occupied by sheep farmers, especially those of the


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1807. be essentially detrimental to the islands it would not be fatal, and would be better than their actual condition. The excuse for what every reasonable Englishman frankly avowed to be "a system of piracy," was that the West Indian colonies must perish without it, and England must share their fate. In vain did less terrified men, like Alexander Baring or William Spence, preach patience, explaining that the true difficulty with the West Indies was an overproduction of sugar, with which the Americans had nothing to do.

 * "To charge the distresses of the West Indian planters upon the American carriers," said Spence, "is almost as absurd as it would be for the assassin to lay the blame of murder upon the arsenic which he had purposely placed in the sugar-dish of his friend."

Thus Parliament, Ministry, navy, colonies, the shipping and the landed interest of England had wrought public opinion to the point of war with the United States at the moment when Lord Gambier bombarded Copenhagen and the "Leopard" fired into the "Chesapeake." The tornado of prejudice and purposeless rage which broke into expression on the announcement that a British frigate had fired into an American, surpassed all experience. The English newspapers for the year that followed the "Chesapeake" affair seemed irrational, the drunkenness of power incredible. The Americans, according to the


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40 Champion Bay district, to whom they have proved a most valuable means of extending their runs and increasing their flocks. Mr. Forrest discovered large surfaces of well-grassed land, and many pools and fresh water springs on the main source of the river. The Gascoigne and its affluent, the Lyons, form the connecting links between the rivers of the West and those of the North coasts, the head waters of the one interlocking with those of the Murchison, and of tine other with those of the Ashburton. The Lyons flows at the foot of the South face of Barlee Range, as the Ashburton does at the North of Capricorn Range, under the Southern tropic, the Spinifex district of the coastline extending to the Eastward between them.

The basin of the Upper Gascoigne is marked by lofty hills of erupted rock, trap, and basalt, as well as by schists and slates. It is rich in minerals, has many available arable and pastoral locations; it may present an irregular curved area of 200 miles in length by 60 in breadth. The Lyons joins the Gascoigne about 75 miles from the sea, at the base of the sandstones, which have here their escarpment on the North face of the Kennedy Range, through which the course of the river passes to the sea, in Sharks Bay. About the mouth there is much good pastoral land, which has been taken up and is in course of occupation. The mouth of the river covered by Babbage island forms a harbor accessible by the Southern channel to vessels drawing 14 feet. Sharks Bay will probably become the centre of the trade of the Upper Murchison, as well as of the Gascoigne; it is a vast sheet of water having a low Eastern coast of about 130 miles covered by mangrove flats on the South of the Gascoigne, and rising in the sandhills of Lyell's Range to the North, unbroken, save by the mouth of


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Rh that river. This great gulf is divided at its Southern extremity into two large bays or sounds by Peron Peninsula, extending 70 miles to Cape Peron. The Eastern is again divided into two parts by Point Petit and Faure island. Durham Sound, on the West, is broken into several deep inlets, and terminates in Freycinet harbor. Sharks Bay is covered to the West by Dirk Hartog's island, about 70 miles in length by six in breadth, to the North of which Doore and Bernier islands, with their connecting reefs, extend 50 more. The Naturaliste channel, between Dirk Hartog and Bernier islands, is 15 miles broad, and the Geographe Channel, to the North, 50. There can be no doubt that this must become hereafter an important naval station. Dirk Hartog's island has been long occupied as a sheep station by Mr. F. von Bibra. These islands are all rocky. Dirk Hartog's rises 435 feet above the sea at the Northern extremity.

From the Murchison a barren sandstone plain extends to the coast near the mouth of the Ashburton, broken only by the lower course of the Gascoigne, and supposed to be waterless. With the valley of the Ashburton the pastoral district of the North-West coast commences, and extends for 300 miles to the DeGrey. Throughout this district from Exmouth Gulf the coast is generally low and covered with mangroves, while to the West it is bold and rocky, yet granitic rocks appear in many places. The principal rivers—the Ashburton, Fortescue, and DeGrey—have their sources among the granitic ranges of the interior, and their middle in the sandstone ranges which flank them, and from which the surface descends gradually to the sea, and below which the inferior rivers—the Cane, Robe, Maitland, Harding, and Yule—have their, rise. F. H. Gregory describes three


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70 Post" of Jan. 14, 1808, "possess all the vices of their Indian neighbors without their virtues;" and two days afterward the same newspaper—which gave tone to the country press—declared that England was irresistible:  "Our vigor and energy have just reached that sublime pitch from which their weight must crush all opposition." No one could say for how much of this extravagance Canning was directly responsible; but the tone of the press was certainly an echo of the tone he had so long taken, and which he stimulated.  That he was really so reckless as he seemed need not be imagined; although eighteen months afterward, Lord Grenville with the utmost emphasis said in the House of Lords, "I do firmly believe that it is the object of his Majesty's ministers to do everything in their power to force America into hostility with this country."  Lord Grenville occasionally exaggerated, and he was probably mistaken in this instance; but he found it possible to believe ministers capable of acting with the motive he charged on them. In truth he had strong ground for the opinion he held, which was by no means peculiar to him. As early as July 27, 1807, the "Morning Chronicle," in announcing the first news of the "Chesapeake" affair, added:—

 * "We trust it is of a nature to be adjusted without that most ruinous of all follies yet left us to be guilty of,—an American war. We have rather more fear than hope


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42 distinct terraces rising from the sea to the South. Although much of the land is very fertile, yet, as the rainfall is uncertain, and often at long intervals, this district is not well fitted for agriculture; but as there is water for stock, and the natural grasses are permanent, it has become one of the most important grazing districts in the Colony.

The sources of the Gascoigne and Ashburton may he 1500 feet above the sea, and there are many points of considerable elevation about them. Mount Augustus, on the Lyons, was estimated by Gregory to be 3480 feet in height; here he found porphyritic, schistose, and metamorphic sandstone rocks; and the ridges, which separate the head waters of all the rivers, are commonly highly siliceous. Plutonic and erupted rocks, diorite, trap, and basalt have been also noticed by explorers in many parts of their valleys.

The Ashburton has a course of nearly 200 miles to the sea, and is 100 yards wide at the mouth, with deep water, but has no safe anchorage. It receives two considerable affluents on the right, Hardey River and Duck Creek, and has good alluvial land and well-grassed plains throughout its course. The upper basin may be 75 miles in width. The Fortescue may be in extent equal to the Ashburton, but has no considerable affluent; this river has much richly grassed country throughout its course, especially below Hamersley Range, which culminates in Mt. Pyrton, 2700 feet above the sea, and from the flanks of which a stream of fresh water, known as the Mill stream, debouches through a gorge. Here first are seen the palm-trees of the North coast. To the North-East of this river, about the sources of the Sherlock and Yule, plains covered with spinifex are found, which again extend beyond the