homes for millions and millions of human beings, or rather let him say
for flourishing nations. (Applause.) The present marked a great era in
the history of this hemisphere. A benignant Providence had lifted the
cloud of their ignorance, and they heard a kindly voice calling upon them
to arise, to go forth, to possess, to subdue, to people this goodly land.
(Hear, hear.) The friends whose success they had met to celebrate that
evening would henceforth have their names enrolled with those of
Mitchell, Leichhardt, Sturt, Gregory, and Burke and Wills, who had
sacrificed their lives to their zeal. (Hear, hear.) To the two latter
explorers belonged the praise--which time would never obscure or
diminish--of having been the first to solve the practicability of
traversing this great continent from south to north. The names which he
mentioned constituted a brilliant catalogue; and he ventured to think
that no inferior splendour would henceforth illustrate the names--now
familiar as household words--of Stuart, Landsborough, and McKinlay.
(Cheers and loud cries of "King.") The name of King ought also most
assuredly to be included. (Cheers.) They were a noble band, and he wished
they had all been present that night. He rejoiced to have the opportunity
of seeing those explorers who were present, of looking on their faces,
speaking to them, shaking hands with them, and calling them friends.
(Applause.) He was proud of these men, and all whom he was addressing
must be proud of them also. They were worthy of esteem, they were
entitled to applause; and mean, base, ineffably shabby, stupidly mean and
base was the soul--if such a soul there were--that questioned their merit
or grudged them a meet reward. (Applause.) He was delighted to have the
opportunity of looking upon the two great heroes, Landsborough and
McKinlay. They had undertaken and accomplished great things. Without
deliberation they undertook the arduous task assigned them and faced its
hazards. They had to contemplate hard privations, and it might be
disease, accident, or even a lingering and lonely death. These were the