Not only on such abstract grounds, but for reasons of a more particular nature is the occasion favourable.

One of the humblest races in the gradation of the human family has yielded to us the possession of the vast territory over which our people are now dispersed, and, by an inscrutable regulation of Providence, is waning before the access of civilization. By exertions unassisted from without, cities and towns have sprung up of a class and with a rapidity which challenge a parallel in former or contemporary history. The events crowded into the last three ears have wrought a change, not merely in the actual condition, but in the immediate prospects of our community, which, as regards our social and political state and the openiny dawn of accelerated progression, must inspire consolation, confidence, and hope. The discovery of gold, happily postponed until our hills, plains, and valleys were covered with flocks and herds, and until we had emerged from dependence upon, to that of sisterly amity with a province, has brought us into direct intercourse with nations hitherto indifferent to, perhaps ignorant of, the geographical position of this country; the keels of whose stately vessels now furrow every sea to visit us, who exchange with us commodities, productions of every clime, and pour forth their hardy sons to reinforce our numbers, bearing with them practised skill and restless avidity for the acquisition of wealth. The enterprise of our great parent state, but languidly expanding under pastoral occupations, has been caught up, and now directing itself into innumerable fresh channels, gives indication of highly vital force. Each new scientific application to economise labour and time is brought within our reach, opening new avenues to honourably earned riches, and unattended by any of the inconveniences which in over-crowded communities occasionally arise from the substitution of machinery for manual labour before the classes affected thereby have resorted to other occupations; and we may be well assured that there are amongst us many gifted men of cultivated minds, fervid imagination, and intrepid temperament, who, curbed and confined elsewhere by the pressure of surrounding competition, have panted for a field in which their talents may be allowed to expatiate, and have gladly turned to this young country ready to receive thein with a gracious welcome.

Royal Society of Victoria