as good as we are. There is an exuberance of force, and in a
federated Oceana higher occupation would be found for them
in the army and navy and the public service.

On the whole, considering that they have been nursed in
sunshine, and have never known adversity, the merit of the
Victorian colonists is very great. They have worked miracles
in clearing and cultivating their land. In forty years--they
take their name from the Queen and are only coeval with her
reign--they have done the work of centuries. They are
proud of themselves, and perhaps assert their consequence
too loudly; but their country speaks for them, and they have
fair ground for elation. In one point they differ from us--I
know not whether to their advantage. Froissart says of the
English, that they take their pleasures sadly. A 'sad wise
man' was an old English phrase. With so fair a climate and
with life so easy the Victorians cannot be sad, and it is pleas-
ant to see a people who know so well how to enjoy them-
selves. But men and nations require in reserve a certain
sternness, and if anything truly great is ever to come out of
them this lesson will in time be hammered into them. For
the present they are well off and ought to be thankful. They
complain of want of sympathy; I should say that no subjects
of Her Majesty just now are less in need of it. Praise and
appreciation are their fair due, and we will not quarrel with
them if they insist on being respected as they deserve.

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