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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4220-h.zip b/4220-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8695f0e --- /dev/null +++ b/4220-h.zip diff --git a/4220-h/4220-h.htm b/4220-h/4220-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2180c87 --- /dev/null +++ b/4220-h/4220-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7242 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of An Autobiography, by Catherine Helen Spence +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Autobiography, by Catherine Helen Spence + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Autobiography + +Author: Catherine Helen Spence + +Posting Date: July 2, 2009 [EBook #4220] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 8, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY *** + + + + +Produced by Col Choat. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +An Autobiography +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Catherine Helen Spence +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">TOWARDS AUSTRALIA.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">A BEGINNING AT SEVENTEEN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">LOVERS AND FRIENDS.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">NOVELS AND A POLITICAL INSPIRATION.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">A TRIP TO ENGLAND.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">MELROSE REVISITED.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">I VISIT EDINBURGH AND LONDON.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">MEETING WITH J. S. MILL AND GEORGE ELIOT.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">RETURN FROM THE OLD COUNTRY.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">WARDS OF THE STATE.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">PREACHING, FRIENDS, AND WRITING.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">MY WORK FOR EDUCATION.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">SPECULATION, CHARITY, AND A BOOK.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">JOURNALISM AND POLITICS.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">SORROW AND CHANGE.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">BRITAIN, THE CONTINENT, AND HOME AGAIN.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">PROGRESS OF EFFECTIVE VOTING.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">WIDENING INTERESTS.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND FEDERATION.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">MORE PUBLIC WORK.</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER XXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">THE EIGHTIETH MILESTONE AND THE END.</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND. +</H3> + +<P> +Sitting down at the age of eighty-four to give an account of my life, I +feel that it connects itself naturally with the growth and development +of the province of South Australia, to which I came with my family in +the year 1839, before it was quite three years old. But there is much +truth in Wordsworth's line, "the child is father of the man," and no +less is the mother of the woman; and I must go back to Scotland for the +roots of my character and Ideals. I account myself well-born, for My +father and my mother loved each other. I consider myself well +descended, going back for many generations on both sides of intelligent +and respectable people. I think I was well brought up, for my father +and mother were of one mind regarding the care of the family. I count +myself well educated, for the admirable woman at the head of the school +which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen +and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times. In fact. +like my own dear mother, Sarah Phin was a New Woman without knowing it. +The phrase was not known in the thirties. +</P> + +<P> +I was born on October 31, 1825, the fifth of a family of eight born to +David Spence and Helen Brodie, in the romantic village of Melrose, on +the silvery Tweed, close to the three picturesque peaks of the Eildon +Hills, which Michael Scott's familiar spirit split up from one mountain +mass in a single night, according to the legend. It was indeed poetic +ground. It was Sir Walter Scott's ground. Abbotsford was within two +miles of Melrose, and one of my earliest recollections was seeing the +long procession which followed his body to the family vault at Dryburgh +Abbey. There was not a local note in "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" or +in the novels. "The Monastery" and "The Abbot," with which I was not +familiar before I entered my teens. There was not a hill or a burn or a +glen that had not a song or a proverb, or a legend about it. Yarrow +braes were not far off. The broom of the Cowdenknowes was still nearer, +and my mother knew the words as well as the tunes of the minstrelsy of +the Scottish Border. But as all readers of the life of Scott know, he +was a Tory, loving the past with loyal affection, and shrinking from +any change. My father, who was a lawyer (a writer as it was called), +and his father who was a country practitioner, were reformers, and so +it happened that they never came into personal relations with the man +they admired above all men in Scotland. It was the Tory doctor who +attended to his health, and the Tory writer who was consulted about his +affairs. +</P> + +<P> +I look back to a happy childhood. The many anxieties which reached both +my parents were quite unknown to the children till the crisis in 1839. +I do not know that I appreciated the beauty of the village I lived in +so much with my own bodily eyes as through the songs and the +literature, which were current talk. The old Abbey, with its 'prentice +window, and its wonders in stonecarving, that Scott had written about +and Washington Irving marvelled at—"Here lies the race of the House of +Yair" as a tombstone—had a grand roll in it. In the churchyard of the +old Abbey my people on the Spence side lay buried. In the square or +market place there no longer stood the great tree described in The +Monastery as standing just after Flodden Field, where the flowers of +the forest had been cut down by the English; but in the centre stood +the cross with steps up to it, and close to the cross was the well, to +which twice a day the maids went to draw water for the house until I +was nine years old, when we had pipes and taps laid on. The cross was +the place for any public speaking, and I recalled, when I was +recovering from the measles, the maid in whose charge I was, wrapped me +in a shawl and took me with her to hear a gentleman from Edinburgh +speak in favour of reform to a crowd gathered round. He said that the +Tories had found a new name—they called themselves Conservatives +because it sounded better. For his part he thought conserves were +pickles, and he hoped all the Tories would soon find themselves in a +pretty pickle. There were such shouts of laughter that I saw this was a +great joke. +</P> + +<P> +We had gasworks in Melrose when I was 10 or 11, and a great joy to us +children the wonderful light was. I recollect the first lucifer +matches, and the wonder of them. My brother John had got 6d. from a +visiting, uncle as a reward for buying him snuff to fill his cousin's +silver snuffbox, and he spent the money in buying a box of lucifers, +with the piece of sandpaper doubled, through which each match was to be +smartly drawn, and he took all of us and some of his friends to the +orchard, we called the wilderness, at the back of my grandfather +Spence's house, and lighted each of the 50 matches, and we considered +it a great exhibition. 'MY grandfather (old Dr. Spence) died before the +era of lucifer matches. He used to get up early and strike a fire with +flint and steel to boil the kettle and make a cup of tea to give to his +wife in bed. He did it for his first wife (Janet Park), who was +delicate, and he did the same for his second wife until her last fatal +illness. It was a wonderful thing for a man to do in those days. He +would not call the maid; he said young things wanted plenty of sleep. +He had been a navy doctor, and was very intelligent. He trusted much to +Nature and not too much to drugs. On the Sunday of the great annular +eclipse of the sun in 1835, which was my brother John's eleventh +birthday, he had a large double tooth extracted—not by a dentist, and +gas was then unknown or any other anaesthetic, so he did not enjoy the +eclipse as other people did. It took place in the afternoon, and there +was no afternoon church. +</P> + +<P> +In summer we had two services—one in the forenoon and one in the +afternoon. In winter we had two services at one sitting, which was a +thing astonishing to English visitors. The first was generally called a +lecture—a reading with comments, of a passage of Scripture—a dozen +verses or more—and the second a regularly built sermon, with three or +four heads, and some particulars, and a practical summing up. +</P> + +<P> +Prices and cost of living had fallen since my mother had married in +1815, three months after the battle of Waterloo. At that time tea cost +8/0 a lb., loaf sugar, 1/4, and brown sugar 11 1/2d. Bread and meat +were then still at war prices, and calico was no cheaper than linen, +and that was dear. She paid 3/6 a yard for fine calico to make +petticoats. Other garments were of what was called home made linen. +White cotton stockings at 4/9, and thinner at 3/9 each; silk stockings +at 11/6. I know she paid 36/ for a yard of Brussels net to make caps +of. It was a new thing to have net made in the loom. When a woman +married she must wear caps at least in the morning. In 1838 my mother +bought a chest of tea (84 lb.) for 20 pounds, a trifle under 5/0 a lb.; +the retail price was 6/0—it was a great saving; and up to the time of +our departure brown sugar cost 7 1/2d., and loaf sugar 10d. It is no +wonder that these things were accounted luxuries. When a decent Scotch +couple in South Australia went out to a station in the country in the +forties and received their stores, the wife sat down at her +quarter-chest of tea and gazed at her bag of sugar, and fairly wept to +think of her old mother across the ocean, who had such difficulty in +buying an ounce of tea and a pound of sugar. My mother even saw an old +woman buy 1/4oz. of tea and pay 11/2d. for it, and another woman buy +1/4lb. of meat. +</P> + +<P> +We kept three maids. The cook got 8 pounds a year, the housemaid 7 +pounds, and the nursemaid 6 pounds, paid half-yearly, but the summer +half-year was much better paid than the winter, because there was the +outwork in the fields, weeding and hoeing turnips and potatoes, and +haymaking. The winter work in the house was heavier on account of the +fires and the grate cleaning, but the wages were less. My mother gave +the top wages in the district, and was considerate to her maids, but I +blush yet to think how poorly those good women who made the comfort of +my early home were paid for their labours. You could get a washerwoman +for a shilling or 1/6 a day, but you must give her a glass of whisky as +well as her food. You could get a sewing girl for a shilling or less, +without the whisky. And yet cheap as sewing was it was the pride of the +middle-elms women of those days that they did it all themselves at +home. Half of the time of girls' schools was given to sewing when +mother was taught. Nearly two hours a day was devoted to it in my time. +</P> + +<P> +A glass of whisky in Scotland in the thirties cost less than a cup of +tea. I recollect my father getting a large cask of whisky direct from +the distillery which cost 6/6 a gallon, duty paid. A bottle of inferior +whisky could be bought at the grocer's for a shilling. It is surprising +how much alcoholic beverages entered into the daily life, the business, +and the pleasures of the people in those days. No bargain could be made +without them. Christenings, weddings, funerals—all called for the +pouring out of strong drink. If a lady called, the port and sherry +decanters were produced, and the cake basket. If a gentleman, probably +it was the spirit decanter. After the 3 o'clock dinner there was whisky +and hot water and sugar, and generally the came after the 10 o'clock +supper. Drinking habits were very prevalent among men, and were not in +any way disgraceful, unless excessive. But there was less drinking +among women than there is now, because public opinion was strongly +against it. Without being abstainers, they were temperate. With the +same heredity and the same environment, you would see all the brothers +pretty hard drinkers and all the sisters quite straight. Such is the +effect of public opinion. Nothing else has been so powerful in changing +these customs as the cheapening of tea and coffee and cocoa, but +especially tea. +</P> + +<P> +My brothers went to the parish school, one of the best in the county. +The endowment from the tiends or tithes, extorted by John Knox from the +Lords of the congregations, who had seized on the church lands, was +more meagre for the schoolmasters than for the clergy. I think Mr. +Thomas Murray had only 33 pounds in Money, a schoolhouse, and a +residence and garden, and he had to make up a livelihood from school +fees, which began at 2/ a quarter for reading, 3/6 when writing was +taught, and 51 for arithmetic. Latin, I think, cost 10/6 a quarter, but +it included English. Mr. Murray adopted a phonic system of teaching +reading, not so complete as the late Mr. Hartley formulated for our +South Australian schools, and was most successful with it. He not only +used maps, but he had blank maps-a great innovation. My mother was only +taught geography during the years in which she was "finished" in +Edinburgh, and never saw a map then. She felt interested in geography +when her children were learning it. No boy in Mr. Murray's school was +allowed to be idle; every spare minute was given to arithmetic. In the +parish school boys of all classes were taught. Sir David Brewster's +sons went to it; but there were fewer girls, partly because no +needlework was taught there, and needlework was of supreme importance. +Mr. Murray was session clerk, for which he received 5 pounds a year. On +Saturday afternoons he might do land measuring, like Goldsmith's +schoolmaster in "The Deserted Village"— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,<BR> + And even the rumour ran that he could gauge.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +My mother felt that her children were receiving a much better education +than she had had. The education seemed to begin after she left school. +Her father united with six other tenant farmers in buying the third +edition of "The Encyclopedia Britannica," seven for the price of six. +Probably it was only in East Lothian that seven such purchasers could +be found, and my mother studied it well, as also the unabridged +Johnson's Dictionary in two volumes. She learned the Greek letters, so +that she could read the derivations, but went no further. She saw the +fallacy of Mr. Pitt's sinking fund when her father believed in it. To +borrow more than was needed so as to put aside part on compound +interest, would make the price of money rise. And why should not +private people adopt the same way of getting rid of debts? The father +said it would not do for them at all—it was only practicable for a +nation. The things I recollect of the life in the village of Melrose, +of 700 inhabitants, have been talked over with my mother, and many +embodied in a little MS. volume of reminiscences of her life. I hold +more from her than from my father; but, as he was an unlucky +speculator, I inherit from him Hope, which is invaluable to a social or +political reformer. School holidays were only a rarity in harvest time +for the parish school. At Miss Phin's we had, besides, a week at +Christmas. The boys had only New Year's Day. Saturday was only a +half-holiday. We all had a holiday for Queen Victoria's coronation, and +I went with a number of school fellows to see Abbotsford, not for the +first time in my life. +</P> + +<P> +Two mail coaches—the Blucher and the Chevy Chase—ran through Melrose +every day. People went to the post office for their letters, and paid +for them on delivery. My two elder sisters—Agnes, who died of +consumption at the age of 16, and Jessie, afterwards Mrs. Andrew +Murray, of Adelaide and Melbourne, went to boarding school with their +aunt, Mary Spence, lit Upper Wooden, halfway between Jedburgh and +Kelso. Roxburghshire is rich in old monasteries. The border lands were +more safe in the hands of the church than under feudal lords engaged in +perpetual fighting, and the vassals of the abbeys had generally +speaking, a more secure existence. Kelso. Jedburgh, and Dryburgh Abbeys +lay in fertile districts, and I fancy that when these came into the +hands of the Lords of the congregation, the vassals looked back with +regret on the old times. I was not sent to Wooden, but kept at home, +and I went to a dayschool called by the very popish name of St. Mary's +Convent, though it was quite sufficiently Protestant. My mother had the +greatest confidence in the lady who was at the head of it. She had been +a governess in good situations, and had taught herself Latin, so that +she might fit the boys of the family to take a good place in the +Edinburgh High School. She discovered that she had an incurable +disease, a form of dropsy, which compelled her to lie down for some +time every day, and this she considered she could not do as a +governess. So she determined to risk her savings, and start a boarding +and day school in Melrose, a beautiful and healthy neighbourhood, and +with the aid of a governess, impart what was then considered the +education of a gentlewoman to the girls in the neighbourhood. She took +with her her old mother, and a sister who managed the housekeeping, and +taught the pupils all kinds of plain and fancy needlework. She +succeeded, and she lived till the year 1866, although most of her +teaching was done from her sofa. When my mother was asked what it was +that made Phin so successful, and so esteemed, she said it was her +commonsense. The governesses were well enough, but the invalid old lady +was the life and soul of the school. There were about 14 boarders, and +nearly as many day scholars there, so long as there was no competition. +When that came there was a falling off, but my young sister Mary and I +were faithful till the day when after nine years at the same school, I +went with Jessie to Wooden, to Aunt Mary's, to hear there that my +father was ruined, and had to leave Melrose and Scotland for ever, and +that we must all go to Australia. That was in April, 1839. +</P> + +<P> +As I said, I had a very happy childhood. The death of my eldest sister +at 16, and of my youngest sister at two years old, did not sink into +the mind of a child as it did into that of my parents, and although +they were seriously alarmed about my health when I was 12 years old, +when I developed symptoms similar to those of Agnes at the same age, I +was not ill enough to get at all alarmed. I was annoyed at having to +stay away from school for three months. When the collapse came Jessie +had a dear friend of some years' standing, and I had one whom had known +only for some months, but I had spent a month with her in Edinburgh at +Christmas, 1838, and we exchanged letters weekly through the box which +came from Edinburgh with my brother John's, washing. It was too +expensive for us to write by the post. Well, neither of our friends +wrote a word to us. With regard to mine it was not to be wondered at +much—she was only 13—but the other was more surprising. It was not +till 1865 that an old woman told me that when Miss F. B. came to return +some books and music to her to give to my aunt in Melrose, "she just +sat in the chair and cried as if her heart would break." She was not +quite a free agent. Very few single women were free agents in 1839. We +were hopelessly ruined, our place would know us no more. +</P> + +<P> +The only long holidays I had in the year I spent at Thornton Loch, in +East Lothian, 40 miles away. I did not know that my father was a heavy +speculator in foreign wheat, and I thought his keen interest in the +market in Mark lane was on account of the Thornton Loch crops, in which +first my grandfather and afterwards the three Maiden aunts were deeply +concerned. My mother's father, John Brodie, was one of the most +enterprising agriculturists in the most advanced district of Great +Britain. He won a prize of two silver salvers from the Highland Society +for having the largest area of drilled wheat sown. He was called up +twice to London to give evidence before Parliamentary committees on the +corn laws, and he naturally approved of them, because, with three large +farms held on 19 years' leases at war prices, the influx of cheap wheat +from abroad would mean ruin. He proved that he paid 6,000 pounds a year +for these three farms—two he worked himself, the third was for his +eldest son; but he was liable for the rent. On his first London trip, +my aunt Margaret accompanied him, and on his second he took my mother. +That was in the year 1814, and both of them noted from the postchaise +that farming was not up to what was done in East Lothian. +</P> + +<P> +My grandfather Brodie was a speculating man, and he lost nearly all his +savings through starting, along with others, an East Lothian Bank, +because the local banker had been ill used by the British Linen +Company. He put in only 1,000 pounds; but was liable for all, and, as +many of his fellow shareholders were defaulters, it cost 15,000 pounds +before all was over, and if it had not been that he left the farm in +the capable hands of Aunt Margaret, there would have been little or +nothing left for the family. When he had a stroke of paralysis he +wanted to turn over Thornton Loch, the only farm he then had, to his +eldest son, but there were three daughters, and one of them said she +would like to carry it on, and she did so. She was the most successful +farmer in the country for 30 years, and then she transferred it to a +nephew. The capacity for business of my Aunt Margaret, the wit and +charm of my brilliant Aunt Mary, and the sound judgment and accurate +memory of my own dear mother, showed me early that women were fit to +share in the work of this world, and that to make the world pleasant +for men was not their only mission. My father's sister Mary was also a +remarkable and saintly woman, though I do not think she was such a born +teacher as Miss Phin. When my father was a little boy, not 12 years +old, an uncle from Jamaica came home for a visit. He saw his sister +Janet a dying woman, with a number of delicate-looking children, and he +offered to take David with him and treat him like his own son. No +objections were made. The uncle was supposed to be well-to-do, and he +was unmarried, but he took fever and died, and was found to be not rich +but insolvent. The boy could read and write, and he got something to do +on a plantation till his father sent money to pay his passage home. He +must have been supposed to be worth something, for he got a cask of rum +for his wages, which was shipped home, and when the duty had been paid +was drunk in the doctor's household. But the boy had been away only 21 +months, and he returned to find his mother dead, and two or three +little brothers and sisters dead and buried, and his father married +again to his mother's cousin, Katherine Swanston, an old maid of 45, +who, however, two years afterwards was the mother of a fine big +daughter, so that Aunt Helen Park's scheme for getting the money for +her sister's children failed. In spite of my father's strong wish to be +a farmer, and not a writer or attorney, there was no capital to start a +farm upon, so he was indentured to Mr. Erskine, and after some years +began business in Melrose for himself, and married Lelen (Helen?) +Brodie. His elder brother John went as a surgeon in the Royal +Navy—before he was twenty-one. The demand for surgeons was great +during the war time. He was made a Freemason before the set age, +because in case of capture friends from the fraternity might be of +great use. He did not like his original profession, especially when +after the peace he must be a country practitioner like his father, at +every one's beck and call, so he was articled to his brother, and lived +in the house till he married and settled at Earlston, five miles off. +Uncle John Spence was a scholarly man, shy but kindly, who gave to us +children most of the books we possessed. They were not in such +abundance as children read nowadays, but they were read and re-read. +</P> + +<P> +In these early readings the Calvinistic teaching of the church and the +shorter catechism was supported and exemplified. The only secular books +to counteract them were the "Evenings at Home" and Miss Edgeworth's +"Tales for Young and Old!" The only cloud on my young life was the +gloomy religion, which made me doubt of my own salvation and despair of +the salvation of any but a very small proportion of the people in the +world. Thus the character of God appeared unlovely, and it was wicked +not to love God; and this was my condemnation. I had learned the +shorter catechism with the proofs from Scripture, and I understood the +meaning of the dogmatic theology. Watts's hymns were much more easy to +learn, but the doctrine was the same. There was no getting away from +the feeling that the world was under a curse ever since that unlucky +appleeating in the garden of Eden. Why, oh! why had not the sentence of +death been carried out at once, and a new start made with more prudent +people? The school in which as a day scholar I passed nine years of my +life was more literary than many which were more pretentious. +Needlework was of supreme importance, certainly, but during the hour +and a half every day, Saturday's half-holiday not excepted, which was +given to it by the whole school at once (odd half-hours were also put +in), the best readers took turns about to read some book selected by +Miss Phin. We were thus trained to pay attention. History, biography, +adventures, descriptions, and story books were read. Any questions or +criticisms about our sewing, knitting, netting, &c., were carried on in +a low voice, and we learned to work well and quickly, and good reading +aloud was cultivated. First one brother and then another had gone to +Edinburgh for higher education than could be had at Melrose Parish +School, and I wanted to go to a certain institution, the first of the +kind, for advanced teaching for girls, which had a high reputation. I +was a very ambitious girl at 13. I wanted to be a teacher first, and a +great writer afterwards. The qualifications for a teacher would help me +to rise to literary fame, so I obtained from my father a promise that I +should go to Edinburgh next year; but he could not keep it. He was a +ruined man. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TOWARDS AUSTRALIA. +</H3> + +<P> +Although my mother's family had lost heavily by him, her mother gave us +500 pounds to make a start in South Australia. An 80-acre section was +built for 80 pounds, and this entitled us to the steerage passage of +four adults. This helped for my elder sister and two brothers (my +younger brother David was left for his education with his aunts in +Scotland), but we had to have another female, so we took with us a +servant girl—most ridiculous, it seems now. I was under the statutory +age of 15. The difference between steerage and intermediate fares had +to be made up, and we sailed from Greenock in July, 1839, in the barque +Palmyra, 400 tons, bound for Adelaide, Port Phillip, and Sydney. The +Palmyra was advertised to carry a cow and an experienced surgeon. +Intermediate passengers had no more advantage of the cow than steerage +folks, and except for the privacy of separate cabins and a pound of +white biscuit per family weekly, we fared exactly as the other +immigrants did, though the cost was double. Twice a week we had either +fresh meat or tinned meat, generally soup and boudle, and the biscuit +seemed half bran, and sometimes it was mouldy. But our mother thought +it was very good for us to endure hardship, and so it was. +</P> + +<P> +There were 150 passengers, mostly South Australian immigrants, in the +little ship. The first and second class passengers were bound for Port +Philip and Sydney in greater proportion than for Adelaide There was in +the saloon the youthful William Milne, and in the intermediate was Miss +Disher, his future wife. He became President of the Legislative +Council, and was knighted. There was my brother, J. B. Spence, who also +sat in the Council, and was at one time Chief Secretary. There was +George Melrose, a successful South Australian pastoralist; there was my +father's valued clerk, Thomas Laidlaw, who was long in the Legislative +Council of New South Wales and the leading man in the town of Yass. +"Honest Torn of Yass" was his soubriquet. Bound for Melbourne there +were Mr. and Mrs. Duncan, of Melrose, and Charles Williamson, from +Hawick, who founded a great business house in Collins Street. There +were Langs from Selkirk, and McHaffies, who became pastoralists. Our +next cabin mate, who brought out a horse, had the Richmond punt when +there was no bridge there. All the young men were reading a thick book +brought out by the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge about sheep, +but they could dance in the evenings to the strains of Mr. Duncan's +violin, and although I was not 14, I was in request as a partner, as +ladies were scarce. Jessie Spence and Eliza Disher, who were grown up, +were the belles of the Palmyra. Of all the passengers in the ship the +young doctor, John Logan Campbell, has had the most distinguished +career. Next to Sir George Grey he has had most to do with the +development of New Zealand. He is now called the Grand Old Man of +Auckland. He had his twenty-first birthday, this experienced surgeon(!) +in the same week as I had my fourteenth, while the Palmyra was lying +off Holdfast Bay (now Glenelg) before we could get to the old Port +Adelaide to discharge. My brother saw him in 1883, but I have not set +eye on him since that week in 1839. We have corresponded frequently +since my brother's death. In his book "Poenama," written for his +children, there is a picture of the Palmyra, with an account of the +voyage and the only sensational incident in it. We had a collision in +the Irish Sea, and our foremast was broken, so that we had to return to +Greenock for repairs, and then obtained the concession of white biscuit +for the second class for one day in the week. Sir John Campbell's gift +of a beautiful park to the citizens of Auckland was made while my +brother John was alive. Just recently he has given money and plans for +building and equipping the first free kindergarten in Auckland—perhaps +in New Zealand—and as this includes a training college for the +students it is very complete. These Palmyra passengers have made their +mark on the history of Australia and New Zealand. It is surprising what +a fine class of people immigrated to Australia in these days to face +all the troubles of a new country. +</P> + +<P> +The first issue of The Register was printed in London, and gave a +glowing account of the province that was to be—its climate, its +resources, the sound principles on which it was founded. It is +sometimes counted as a reproach that South Australia was founded by +doctrinaires and that we retain traces of our origin; to me it is our +glory. In the land laws and the immigration laws it struck out a new +path, and sought to found a new community where the sexes should be +equal, and where land, labour, and capital should work harmoniously +together. Land was not to be given away in huge grants, as had been +done in New South Wales and Western Australia, to people with influence +or position, but was to be sold at the high price of 20/ an acre. The +price should be not too high to bring out people to work on the land. +The Western Australian settlers had been wellnigh starved, because +there was no labour to give real value to the paper or parchment deeds. +The cheapest fare third class was from 17 pounds to 20 pounds, and the +family immigration, which is the best, was quite out of the reach of +those who were needed. The immigrants were not bound to work for any +special individual or company, unless by special contract voluntarily +made. They were often in better circumstances after the lapse of a few +years than the landbuyers, and, in the old days, the owner of an +80-acre section worked harder and for longer hours than any hired man +would do, or could be expected to do. +</P> + +<P> +In the South Australian Public Library there is a curious record—the +minutes and proceedings of the South Australian Literary Society, in +the years 1831-5. As the province was non-existent at that time, this +cultivation of literature seems premature, but the members, 40 in +number, were its founders, and pending the passage of the Bill by the +Imperial Parliament, they met fortnightly in London to discuss its +prospects, and to read papers on exploration and on matters of future +development and government. The first paper was on education for the +new land, and was read by Richard Davies Hanson. The South Australian +Company and Mr. George Fife Angas came to the rescue by buying a +considerable area of land and making up the amount of capital which was +required. It is interesting to note that the casting vote in the House +of Lords which decided that the province of South Australia should come +into existence was given by the Duke of Wellington. Adelaide was to +have been called Wellington, but somehow the Queen Consort's name +carried the day. The name of the conquerer of Waterloo is immortalized +in the capital of the Dominion of New Zealand, in the North Island, +which, like South Australia, was founded on the Wakefield principle of +selling land for money to be applied for immigration. The 40 signatures +in the records of the South Australian Literary Society are most +interesting to an old colonist like myself, and the names of many of +them are perpetuated in those of our rivers and our streets:—Torrens, +Wright, Brown, Gilbert, Gouger, Hanson, Kingston, Wakefield, Morphett, +Childers, Hill (Rowland), Stephens, Mawn, Furniss, Symonds. The second +issue of The Register was printed in Adelaide. It was also The +Government Gazette. It gave the proclamation of the province, which was +made under the historic gum tree near Holdfast Bay, now Glenelg. It +also records the sales of the town acres which had not been allotted to +the purchasers of preliminary sections. These were of 134 acres, and a +town acre, at the price of 12/6 an acre. This was a temptation to +invest at the very first, because afterwards the price was 20/ an acre, +without any city lot. From this cheap investment came the frequent +lamentation, "Why did not I buy Waterhouse's corner for 12/6?" But +there was more than 12/6 needed. The investment was of 80 pounds, which +secured the ownership of the corner block facing King William street +and Rundle street, and besides 134 acres of valuable suburban land. +</P> + +<P> +There were connected with The Register from the earliest days the +enterprising head of the house. Robert Thomas, who must have been well +aided by his intelligent wife. The sons and daughters took their place +in colonial society. Mr. George Stevenson left the staff of The Globe +and Traveller, a good old London Paper, to try his fortunes in the new +Province founded on the Wakefield principle, as Private Secretary to +the first Governor (Capt. John Hindmarsh, R.N.). It is matter of +history how the Governor and the Commissioner of Lands differed and +quarrelled, the latter having the money and the former the power of +government, and it was soon found that Mr. Stevenson could wield a +trenchant pen. He had been on the "Traveller" branch of the London +paper what would be called now a travelling correspondent. The Governor +was replaced by Col. Gawler, and Mr. Stevenson went on The Register as +editor. Mrs. Stevenson was a clever woman, and could help her husband. +She knew Charles Dickens, and still better, the family of Hogarth, into +which he married. My father and mother were surprised to find so good a +paper and so well printed in the infant city. Then there were A. H. +Davis, of the Reedbeds, and Nathaniel Hailes, who wrote under the +cognomen of "Timothy Short," who had been publisher and bookseller. +There was first Samuel Stephens, who came out in the first ship for the +South Australian Company, and married a fellow passenger, Charlotte +Hudson Beare, and died two years after, and then Edward, manager of the +South Australian Bank, and later, John Stephens who founded The Weekly +Observer, and afterwards bought The Register. These all belonged to a +literary family. +</P> + +<P> +People came out on the smallest of salaries with big families—H. T. H. +Beare on 100 pounds a year as architect, for the South Australian +Company, and he had 18 children by two wives. I do not know what salary +Mr. William Giles came out on with nine children and a young second +wife, but I am sure it was less than 300 pounds. His family in all +counted 21. But things were bad in the old country before the great +lift given by railways, and freetrade, which made England the carrier +for the world; and the possibilities of the new country were shown in +that first issue of The Register in London in the highest colours. Not +too high by any means in the light of what has been accomplished in 73 +years, but there was a long row to hoe first, and few of the pioneers +reaped the prizes. But, in spite of hardships and poverty and struggle, +the early colonial life was interesting, and perhaps no city of its +size at the time contained as large a population of intelligent and +educated people as Adelaide. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Oliphant, writing in 1885 at the age of 57, says that reading the +"Life of George Eliot" made her think of an autobiography, and this was +written at the saddest crisis of her life. She survived her husband and +all her children, and had just lost the youngest, the posthumous boy. +For them and for the family of a brother she had carried on the +strenuous literary work—fiction, biography, criticism, and +history—and when she died at the age of 69 she had not completed the +history of a great publishing house—that of Blackwood. Her life +tallies with mine on many points, but it is not till I have completed +my 84 years that her sad narrative impels me to set down what appears +noteworthy in a life which was begun in similar circumstances, but +which was spent mainly in Australia. The loss of memory which I see in +many who are younger than myself makes me feel that while I can +recollect I should fix the events and the ideals of my life by pen and +ink. Like Mrs. Oliphant, I was born (three years earlier) in the south +of Scotland. Like her I had an admirable mother but she lost hers at +the age of 60, while I kept mine till she was nearly 97. Like Mrs. +Oliphant, I was captivated by the stand made by the Free Church as a +protest against patronage, and like her I shook off the shackles of the +narrow Calvinism of Presbyterianism, and emerged into more light and +liberty. But unlike Mrs. Oliphant, I have from my earliest youth taken +an interest in politics, and although I have not written the tenth part +of what she has done, I have within the last 20 years addressed many +audiences in Australia and America, and have preached over 100 sermons. +My personal influence has been exercised through the voice more +strongly than by the pen, and in the growth and development of South +Australia, to which I came with my parents and brothers and sisters +when I was just 14, and the province not three years old, there have +been opportunities for usefulness which might not have offered if I had +remained in Melrose, in Sir Walter Scott's country. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A BEGINNING AT SEVENTEEN +</H3> + +<P> +Perhaps my turn for economics was partly inherited from my mother, and +emphasized by my father having been an unlucky speculator in foreign +wheat, tempted thereto by the sliding scale, which varied from 33/ a +quarter, when wheat was as cheap as it was in 1837, to 1/ a quarter, +when it was 70/ in 1839. It was supposed that my father had made his +fortune when he took his wheat out of bond but losses and deterioration +during seven years, and interest on borrowed money—credit having been +strained to the utmost—brought ruin and insolvency, and he had to go +to South Australia, followed by his wife and family soon after. It +seems strange that this disaster should be the culmination of the +peace, after the long Napoleonic war. When my father married in 1815 he +showed he was making 600 pounds a year, with 2,000 pounds book debts, +as a writer or attorney and as agent for a bank. But the business fell +off, the book debts could not be collected; the bank called up the +advances; and for 24 years there was a struggle. My mother would not +have her dowry of 1,500 pounds and other money left by an aunt settled +on herself—neither her father nor herself approved of it—the wife's +fortune should come and go with her husband's. My father first +speculated in hops and lost heavily. He took up unlucky people, whom +other business men had drained. I suppose he caught at straws. He had +the gentlest of manners—"the politest man in Melrose," the old +shoemaker called him. My paternal grandfather was Dr. William Spence, +of Melrose. His father was minister of the Established Church at +Cockburn's Path, Berwickshire. His grandfather was a small landed +proprietor, but he had to sell Spence's mains, and the name was changed +to Chirnside. So (as my father used to say) he was sprung from the tail +of the gentry; while my mother was descended from the head of the +commonalty. The Brodies had been tenant farmers in East Lothian for six +or seven generations, though they originally came from the north. My +grandfather Brodie thought abrogation of the Corn Laws meant ruin for +the farmers, who had taken 19 years' leases at war prices. But during +the war times both landlords and farmers coined money, while the +labourers had high prices for food and very little increase in their +wages. I recollect both grandfathers well, and through the accurate +memory of my mother t can tell how middle-class people in lowland +Scotland lived and dressed and travelled, entertained visitors, and +worshipped God. She told me of the "dear years" 1799 and 1800, and what +a terrible thing a bad crop was, when the foreign ports were closed by +Napoleon. She told me that but for the shortlived Peace of Amiens she +never heard of anything but war till the Battle of Waterloo settled it +three months before her marriage. From her own intimate relations with +her grandmother, Margaret Fernie Brodie, who was born in 1736, and died +in 1817, she knew how two generations before her people lived and +thought. So that I have a grasp on the past which many might envy, and +yet the present and the future are even more to me, as they were to my +mother. On her death in 1887 I wrote a quatrain for her memorial, and +which those who knew her considered appropriate— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + HELEN BRODIE SPENCE<BR> + Born at Whittingham, Scotland, 1791.<BR> + Died at College Town, Adelaide, South Australia, 1887.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Half a long life 'mid Scotland's heaths and pines,<BR> + And half among our South Australian vines;<BR> + Though loving reverence bound her to the past,<BR> + Eager for truth and progress to the last.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Although my mother had the greatest love for Sir Walter Scott, and the +highest appreciation of his poems and novels, she never liked Melrose. +She liked Australia better after a while. Indeed, when we arrived in +November, 1839, to a country so hot, so dry, so new, we felt like the +good old founder of The Adelaide Register, Robert Thomas, when he came +to the land described in his own paper as "flowing with milk and +honey." Dropped anchor at Holdfast Bay. "When I saw the place at which +we were to land I felt inclined to go and cut my throat." When we sat +down on a log in Light square, waiting till my father brought the key +of the wooden house In Gilles street, in spite of the dignity of my 14 +years just attained, I had a good cry. There had been such a drought +that they had a dearth, almost a famine. People like ourselves with 80 +acre land orders were frightened to attempt cultivation in an unknown +climate, with seed wheat at 25/ a bushel or more, and stuck to the +town. We lived a month in Gilles street, then we bought a large +marquee, and pitched it on Brownhill Creek, above where Mitcham now +stands, bought 15 cows and a pony and cart, and sold the milk in town +at 1/ a quart. But how little milk the cows gave in those days! After +seven months' encamping, in which the family lived chiefly on rice—the +only cheap food, of which we bought a ton—we came with our herd to +West terrace, Adelaide. My father got the position of Town Clerk at 150 +pounds a year twelve months after our arrival, and kept it till the +municipal corporation was ended, as the City of Adelaide was too poor +to maintain the machinery; but 75 pounds was the rent of the house and +yards. We sold the cows, and my brothers went farming, and we took +cheaper quarters in Halifax street. +</P> + +<P> +The Town Clerkship, however, was the means of giving me a lesson in +electoral methods. Into the Municipal Bill, drawn up under the +superintendence of Rowland Hill (afterward the great post office +reformer, but then the Secretary of the Colonization Commissioner for +South Australia), he had introduced a clause providing for proportional +representation at the option of the ratepayers. The twentieth part of +the Adelaide ratepayers by uniting their votes upon one man instead of +voting for 18, could on the day before the ordinary election appear and +declare this their intention, and he would be a Councillor on their +votes. In the first election, November, 1840, two such quorums elected +two Councillors. The workmen in Borrow and Goodear's building elected +their foreman, and another quorum of citizens elected Mr. William +Senden; and this was the first quota representation in the world. My +father explained this unique provision to me at the time, and showed +its bearings for minority representation. +</P> + +<P> +After the break up of the municipality and the loss of his income my +father lost health and spirits. The brothers did not succeed in the +country. My sister had married Andrew Murray, an apparently prosperous +man, in 1841, but the protecting of the Government bills bought for +remitting to England, and other causes, brought down every mercantile +firm in Adelaide except A. L. Elder, who had not been long established; +and Murray & Greig came down too. Mr. Murray was a ready writer, and +got work on The South Australian, the newspaper which supported Capt. +Grey's policy of retrenchment and stoppage of public works; so, with a +small salary, he managed to live. When I left Scotland I brought with +me a letter of recommendation from my teacher, Miss Sarah Phin, +concerning my qualifications and my turn for teaching. I don't know if +it really did me any good, for the suspicious look and the question +about how old I was at the time embarrassed me. Of course I was only 13 +1/2 and probably my teacher over-estimated me a little, but here is, +the letter, yellow with the dust of over 70 years. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Melrose. June 20, 1839. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +My dearest Catherine—Our mutual friend, Mrs. Duncan, told me that you +were not to sail for Australia till next month, and I have been +thinking if my poor testimonial to your worth and abilities could be of +any service to you I ought to give it but how can I trust myself?—for +could any one read what I feel my heart dictates it would be thought +absurd. You were always one of the greatest ornaments of my school, +best girl and the best scholar, and from the time you could put three +letters together you have evinced a turn for teaching—so clear-headed +and so patient, and so thoroughly upright in word and deed, and your +knowledge of the Scriptures equal to that of many students of Divinity, +so should you ever become a teacher you have nothing to fear. You will +be able to undertake both the useful and the ornamental branches of +education—French, Italian, and Music you thoroughly understand. I feel +conscious that you will succeed. Please to remember me to your +excellent mother, and with love to Miss Spence and my darling Mary, +believe me, my beloved Catherine, your affectionate friend and teacher. +Sarah Phin. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +My knowledge of music was not great, even in those days, but I could +teach beginners for two or three years with fair success. We thought +that my mother and the two eldest girls could start a school, and +brought out with us a good selection of schoolbooks, bought from Oliver +J. Boyd. Edinburgh, superior to the English books obtainable here, +which we used up in time; but we dared not launch out into such a +venture in 1840, and my sister Jessie had no desire to teach at all. +The years at Brownhill Creek and West terrace were the most unhappy of +my life. I suffered from the want of some intellectual activity, and +from the sense of frustrated ambition and religious despair. The few +books we had, or which we could borrow, I read over and over again. +Aikin's "British Poets," a gift from Uncle John Spence, and Goldsmith's +complete works, a school prize of my brother William's, were thoroughly +mastered, and the Waverley novels down to "Quentin Durward" were well +absorbed. I read in Chambers's Journal of daily governesses getting a +shilling an hour, and I told my friend, Mrs. Haining, that I would go +out for 6d. an hour. Although she disliked that way of putting it, it +was really on that basis that I had made my beginning when I reached +the age of 17. In the meantime I had taught my younger sister Mary +(afterwards Mrs. W. J. Wren) all I knew, and in the columns of The +South Australian I wrote an occasional letter or a few verses. Through +Mr. George Tinline we made the acquaintance of Mrs. Samuel Stephens her +brother, Thomas Hudson Beare, and his family, who had all come out in +the Duke of York, and lived six months on Kangaroo Island before South +Australia was proclaimed a British province. I have been mixed up so +much with this family that it is often supposed that they were +relatives, but it was not so. Samuel Stephens had died from an accident +two years after his marriage to a lady much older and much richer than +himself, and she was living on two acres in North Adelaide, bought with +her money at the first sale of city lands in 1837, and Mr. Tinline +boarded with her till his marriage. The nephews, and especially the +nieces, of the old lady interested me—Lucy, the eldest, a handsome +girl, was about two years younger than myself; Arabella, about the age +of my sister Mary; Elizabeth, the baby Beare, who was the first white +person to set foot on South Australian soil after the foundation of the +province, died from a burning accident when quite young. The only +survivor of that first family now is William L. Beare (84), held in +honour as one of our earliest pioneers. By a second marriage there were +nine more children. Several died young, but some still survive. +</P> + +<P> +It was not till 1843 that I went as a daily governess at the rate of +6d. an hour, and gave two hours five days a week to the families of the +Postmaster-General, the Surveyor-General, and the Private Secretary. +Thus I earned three guineas a month. I don't recollect taking holidays, +except a week at Christmas. I enjoyed the work, and I was proud of the +payment. My mother said she never felt the bitterness of poverty after +I began to earn money, and the shyness which, in spite of all her +instructions and encouragement, I had felt with all strangers, +disappeared when I felt independent. When a girl is very poor, and +feels herself badly dressed, she cannot help being shy, especially if +she has a good deal of Scotch pride. I think mother felt more sorry for +me in those early days than for the others, because I was so ambitious, +and took religious difficulties so hard. How old I felt at 17. Indeed, +at 14 I felt quite grown up. In 1843 I felt I had begun the career in +Australia that I had anticipated in Scotland. I was trusted to teach +little girls, and they interested me, each individual with a +difference. I had seen things I had written in print. If I was one of +the oldest in feeling of the young folk in South Australia in my teens, +I am the youngest woman in feeling in my eighties; so I have had +abundant compensation. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LOVERS AND FRIENDS. +</H3> + +<P> +It is always supposed that thoughts of love and marriage are the chief +concerns in a girl's life, but it was not the case with me. I had only +two offers of marriage in my life, and I refused both. The first might +have been accepted if it had not been for the Calvinistic creed that +made me shrink from the possibility of bringing children into the world +with so little chance of eternal salvation, so I said. "No" to a very +clever young man, with whom I had argued on many points, and with whom, +if I had married him, I should have argued till one of us died! I was +17, and had just begun to earn money. I told him why I had refused him, +and that it was final. In six weeks he was engaged to another woman. My +second offer was made to me when I was 23 by a man aged 55, with three +children. He was an artist, whose second wife and several children had +been murdered by the Maoris near Wanganui during the Maori insurrection +of the forties, and he had come to Adelaide with the three survivors. +The massacre of that family was only one of the terrible tragedies of +that time, but it was not the less shocking. The Maoris had never been +known to kill a woman, and when the house was attacked, Mr. Gilfillan +got out of a back window to call the soldiers to their help. Though +struck on the back of the head and the neck and scarred for life—owing +to which he was always compelled to wear his hair long—he succeeded in +his mission. His wife put her own two children through the window, and +they toddled off hand in hand until they met their father returning +with the soldiers. The eldest daughter, a girl of 13, escaped with a +neighbour's child, a baby in arms. She was seen by the Maoris, struck +on the forehead with a stone axe, and left unconscious. The crying of +the baby roused her, and she went to the cowyard and milked a cow to +get milk for the hungry child, and there she was found by the soldiers. +She was queer in her ways and thoughts afterwards, and, it was said, +always remained 13 years old. She died in November last, aged 74. Her +stepmother and the baby and her own brother and sister were murdered +one by one as they tried to escape by the same window that had led the +rest of the family to safety. One of the toddling survivors still lives +in New Zealand. Now, these are all the chances of marriage I have had +in my life. Dickens, in "David Copperfield," speaks of an old maid who +keeps the remembrance of some one who might have made her an offer, the +shadowy Pidger, in her heart until her death. I cannot forget these two +men. I am constantly meeting with the children, grandchildren, and even +great-grandchildren of the first. As for the other, Andrew Murray gave +me a fine landscape painted by John A. Gilfillan as a slight +acknowledgment of services rendered to his newspaper when he left it to +go to Melbourne, and it hangs up in my sitting room for all to see. Mr. +Gilfillan had a commission to paint "The Landing of Capt. Cook" with +the help of Portraits and miniatures of the principal personages, and +some sketches of his of Adelaide in 1849 are in the Adelaide Art +Gallery. If the number of lovers has been few, no woman in Australia +has been richer in friends. This narrative will show what good +friends—men as well as women—have helped me and sympathized in my +work and my aims. I believe that if I had been in love, especially if I +had been disappointed in love, my novels would have been stronger and +more interesting; but I kept a watch over myself, which I felt I knew I +needed, for I was both imaginative and affectionate. I did not want to +give my heart away. I did not desire a love disappointment, even for +the sake of experience. I was 30 years old before the dark veil of +religious despondency was completely lifted from my soul, and by that +time I felt myself booked for a single life. People married young if +they married at all in those days. The single aunts put on caps at 30 +as a sort of signal that they accepted their fate; and, although I did +not do so, I felt a good deal the same. +</P> + +<P> +I went on with daily teaching for some years, during which my father's +health declined, but before his death two things had happened to cheer +him. My brother John left Myponga and came to town, and obtained a +clerkship in the South Australian Bank at 100 pounds a year. It was +whilst occupying a position in the bank that he had some slight +connection with the notorious Capt. Starlight, afterwards the hero of +"Robbery Under Arms," for through his hands much of the stolen money +passed. In 1900, when Mrs. Young and I were leaving Melbourne on our +visit to Sydney, we were introduced to "Rolf Boldrewood," the author of +that well-known story. His grave face lit up with a smile when my +friend referred to the author of her son's hero. "Ah!" and he shook his +head slowly. "I'm not quite sure about the wisdom of making heroes of +such sorry stuff," he replied. I thought I could do better with a +school. I was 20, and my sister Mary nearly 16, and my mother could +help. My school opened in May, 1846, a month before my father's death, +and he thought that our difficulties were over. My younger brother, +David Wauchope, had been left behind for his education with the three +maiden aunts, but he came out about the end of that year, and began +life in the office of the Burra Mine at a small salary. My eldest +brother William, was not successful in the country, and went to Western +Australia for some years, and later to New Zealand, where he died in +his eightieth year, soon after the death of my brother John in his +seventy-ninth, leaving me the only survivor of eight born and of six +who grew to full age. My eldest sister Agnes died of consumption at the +age of 16; and, as my father's mother and four of his brothers and +sisters had died of this malady, it was supposed to be in the family. +The only time I was kept out of school during the nine years at Miss +Phin's was when I was 12 when I had a cough and suppuration of the +glands of the neck. As this was the way in which Agnes's illness had +begun, my parents were alarmed, though I had no idea of it. I was +leeched and blistered and drugged; I was put into flannel for the only +time in my life; I was sent away for change of air; but no one could +discover that the cough was from the lungs. It passed away with the +cold weather, and I cannot say that I have had any illness since. My +father died of decline, but, if he had been more fortunate, I think he +would have lived much longer. Probably my mother's life was prolonged +beyond that of a long-lived family by her coming to Australia in middle +life; and if I ever had any tendency to consumption, the climate must +have helped me. There were no special precautions against infection in +those days: but no other member of the family took it, and the alarm +about me was three years after Agnes's death. +</P> + +<P> +But to go on to those early days of the forties. There were two +families with whom we were intimate. Mr. George Tinline (who had been +clerk to my fathers' old friend, William Rutherford, of Jedburgh), who +was in the bank of South Australia when in 1839, my father went to put +our small funds in safety, introduced us to a beautiful young widow, +Mrs. Sharpe, and her sisters Eliza and Harriet, and her brother, John +Taylor. Harriet afterwards married Edward Stirling, a close friend of +my brother-in-law, Andrew Murray, and I was a great deal interested in +the Stirlings and their eight children. Mr. William Bakewell, of +Bartley & Bakewell, solicitors, married Jane Warren of Springfield, +Barossa, and I was a familiar friend of their five children. In one +house I was "Miss Spence, the storyteller," in the other "Miss Spence, +the teller of tales!" Some of the tales appeared long after as +Christmas stories in The Adelaide Observer, but my young hearers +preferred the oral narrative, with appropriate gestures and emphasis, +and had no scruple about making faces, to anything printed in books. I +took great liberties with what I had read and sometimes invented all. +It was a part of their education, probably—certainly, it was a part of +mine, and it gave me a command of language which helped me when I +became a public speaker. My brother-in-law's newspaper furnished an +occasional opportunity to me, though no doubt he considered that he +could fill his twice-a-week journal without my help. He was, however, +helpful in other ways. He was one of the subscribers to a Reading Club, +and through him I had access to newspapers and magazines. The South +Australian Institute was a treasure to the family. I recollect a +newcomer being astonished at my sister Mary having read Macaulay's +History. "Why, it was only just out when I left England," said he. +"Well, it did not take longer to come out than you did," was her reply. +We were all omnivorous readers, and the old-fashioned accomplishment of +reading aloud was cultivated by both brothers and sisters. I was the +only one who could translate French at sight, thanks to Miss Phin's +giving me so much of Racine and Moliere and other good French authors +in my school days. +</P> + +<P> +But more important than all this was the fact that we took hold of the +growth and development of South Australia, and identified ourselves +with it. Nothing is insignificant in the history of a young community, +and—above all—nothing seems impossible. I had learned what wealth +was, and a great deal about production and exchange for myself in the +early history of South Australia—of the value of machinery, of roads +and bridges, and of ports for transport and export. I had seen the +4-lb. loaf at 4/ and at 4d. I had seen Adelaide the dearest and the +cheapest place to live in. I had seen money orders for 2/6, and even +for 6d., current when gold and silver were very scarce. Even before the +discovery of copper South Australia had turned the corner. We had gone +on the land and become primary producers, and before the gold +discoveries in Victoria revolutionized Australia and attracted our male +population across the border, the Central State was the only one which +had a large surplus of wheat and hay to send to the goldfields. +</P> + +<P> +Edward Wilson of The Argus, riding overland to Adelaide about 1848, was +amazed to see from Willunga onward fenced and cultivated farms, with +decent homesteads and machinery up to date. The Ridley stripper enabled +our people to reap and thresh the corn when hands were all too few for +the sickle. He said he felt as if the garden of Paradise must have been +in King William street and that the earliest difference in the +world—that between Cain and Abel—was about the advantages of the +80-acre system. Australia generally had already to realize the fact +that the pastoral industry was not enough for its development, and +South Australia had seemed to solve the problem through the doctrinaire +founders, of family immigration, small estates, and the development of +agriculture, horticulture, and viticulture. We owed a great deal in the +latter branches to our German settlers—sent out originally by Mr. G. +F. Angas, whose interest was aroused by their suffering persecution for +religious dissent—who saw that Australia had a better climate than +that of the Fatherland. We owed much to Mr. George Stevenson, who was +an enthusiastic gardener and fruitgrower, and lectured on these +subjects, but the contrast between the environs of Adelaide and those +of Sydney and Melbourne were striking, and Mr. Wilson never lost an +opportunity of calling on the Victorian Legislature and the Victorian +public to develop their own wonderful resources. When you take gold out +of the ground there is less gold to win. When you grow golden grain or +ruddy grapes this year you may expect as much and as good next year. My +brother David went with the thousands to buy their fortunes at the +diggings, but my brother John stuck to the Bank of South Australia. My +brother-in-law's subscribers and his printers had gone off and left him +woefully embarrassed. He went to Melbourne. My friend John Taylor left +his sheep in the wilderness and came to Adelaide to the aid of The +Register. He had been engaged to Sophia Stephens, who died, and her +father John Stephens also died soon after; and Mr. Taylor shouldered +the management of the paper until the time of stress was over. +</P> + +<P> +When Andrew Murray obtained employment on The Argus as commercial +editor, he left his twice-a-week newspaper in the charge of Mr. W. W. +Whitridge, my brother John, and myself. If anything was needed to be +written on State aid to religion I was to do it, as Mr. Whitridge was +opposed to it. This lasted three months. The next quarter there were no +funds for the editor, so John and I carried it on, and then let it die. +At that time I believed in State aid, which had been abolished by the +first elected Parliament of South Australia, although that Parliament +consisted of one-third nominees pledged to vote for its continuance. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOVELS AND A POLITICAL INSPIRATION. +</H3> + +<P> +It was the experience of a depopulated province which led me to write +my first book, "Clara Morison—A Tale of South Australia during the +Gold Fever." I entrusted the M.S. to my friend John Taylor, with whom I +had just had the only tiff in my life. He, through his connection with +The Register, knew that I was writing in The South Australian, trying +to keep it alive, till Mr. Murray decided to let it go, and he told +this to other people. At a subscription ball to which my brother John +took me and my younger sister Mary, she found she had been pointed out +and talked of as the lady who wrote for the newspapers. I did not like +it even to be supposed of myself, but Mary was indignant, and I wrote +an injured letter to my friend. He apologized, and said he thought I +would be proud of doing disinterested work, and he was sorry the +mistake had been made regarding the sister who did it. Of course, I +forgave him. He was the last man in the world to give pain to anyone, +and I highly admired him for his disinterested work on The Register. He +reluctantly accepted 1,000 pounds when the paper was sold. He must have +lost much more through neglect of his own affairs at such a critical +time. He was taking a holiday with his sister Eliza in England and +France, where the beautiful widowed sister was settled as Madam Dubois, +and I asked him to take "Clara Morison" to Smith, Elder & Co.'s, in +London, and to say nothing to anybody about it; but before it was +placed he had to return to Adelaide, and in pursuance of my wishes, +left it with my other good friend, Mr. Bakewell, who also happened to +be visiting England with his family at the time—1853-4. I had an idea +that, as there was so much interest in Australia and its gold, I might +get 100 pounds for the novel. Mr. Bakewell wrote a preface from which I +extract a passage:—"The writer's aim seems to have been to present +some picture of the state of society in South Australia in the years +1851-2, when the discovery of gold in the neighbouring province of +Victoria took place. At this time, the population of South Australia +numbered between seventy and eighty thousand souls, the greater part of +whom were remarkable for their intelligence, their industry, and their +enterprise, which, in the instance of the Burra Burra, and other copper +mines had met with such signal success. When it became known that gold +in vast quantities could be found within 300 miles of their own +territory, they could not remain unmoved. The exodus was almost +complete, and entirely without parallel. In those days there was no +King in Israel, and every woman did what was right in her own sight." +Another reason I had for writing the book. Thackeray had written about +an emigrant vessel taking a lot of women to Australia, as if these were +all to be gentlemen's wives—as if there was such a scarcity of +educated women there, that anything wearing petticoats had the prospect +of a great rise in position. I had hoped that Smith, Elder, & Co. would +publish my book, but their reader—Mr. Williams, who discovered +Charlotte Bronte's genius when she sent them "The Professor," and told +her she could write a better, which she did ("Jane Eyre")—wrote a +similar letter to me, declining "Clara Morison," as he had declined +"The Professor," but saying I could do better. J. W. Parker & Son +published it in 1854, as one of the two-volume series, of which "The +Heir of Redcliffe" had been most successful. The price was to be 40 +pounds; but, as it was too long for the series, I was charged 10 pounds +for abridging it. It was very fairly received and reviewed. I think I +liked best Frederick Sinnett's notice in The Argus—that it was the +work of an observant woman—a novelist who happened to live in +Australia, but who did not labour to bring in bushrangers and convicts, +and specially Australian features. While I was waiting to hear the fate +of my first book, I began to write a second, "Tender and True," of +which Mr. Williams thought better, and recommended it to Smith, Elder, +and Co., who published it in two volumes in 1856, and gave me 20 pounds +for the copyright. This is the only one of my books that went through +more than one edition. There were two or three large editions issued, +but I never got a penny more. I was told that nothing could be made out +of shilling editions; but that book was well reviewed and now and then +I have met elderly people who read the cheap edition and liked it. The +motif of the book was the jealousy which husbands are apt to feel of +their wives' relations. As if the most desirable wife was an amiable +orphan—if an heiress, so much the better. But the domestic virtues +which make a happy home for the husband are best fostered in a centre +where brothers and sisters have to give and take; and a good daughter +and sister is likely to make a good wife and mother. I have read quite +recently that the jokes against the mother-in-law which are so many and +so bitter in English and American journalism are worn out, and have +practically ceased; but Dickens and Thackeray set the fashion, and it +lasted a long time. +</P> + +<P> +While "Clara Morison" was making her debut, I paid my first visit to +Melbourne. I went with Mr. and Mrs. Stirling in a French ship consigned +to him, and we were 12 days on the way, suffering from the limited +ideas that the captain of a French merchantman had of the appetites of +Australians at sea. I intended to pay a six weeks' visit to my sister +and her family, but she was so unwell that I stayed for eight months. I +found that Melbourne in the beginning of 1854 was a very expensive +place to live in, and consequently a very inhospitable place. Mr. +Murray's salary sounded a good one, 500 pounds a year, but it did not +get much comfort. His sister was housekeeper at Charles Williamson & +Co.'s, and that was the only place where I could take off my bonnet and +have a meal. From the windows I watched the procession that welcomed +Sir Charles Hotham, the first Governor of the separated colony of +Victoria. He was received with rejoicing, but he utterly failed to +satisfy the people. He thought anything was good enough for them. One +festivity I was invited to—a ball given on the opening of the new +offices of The Argus in Collins street—and there I met Mr. Edward +Wilson, a most interesting personality, the giver of the entertainment. +He was then vigorously championing the unlocking of the land and the +developing of other resources of Victoria than the gold. It had +surprised him when he travelled overland to Adelaide to see from +Willunga 30 miles of enclosed and cultivated farms, and it surprised me +to see sheepruns close to Melbourne. With a better rainfall and equally +good soil, Victoria had neither the farms nor the vineyards nor the +orchards nor the gardens that had sprung up under the 80-acre section +and immigration systems of South Australia. It had been an outlying +portion of New South Wales, neglected and exploited for pastoral +settlement only. The city, however, had been well planned, like that of +Adelaide, but the suburbs were allowed to grow anyhow. In Adelaide the +belt of park lands kept the city apart from all suburbs. Andrew Murray +was as keen for the development of Victoria agriculturally and +industrially as Mr. Wilson, and they worked together heartily. Owing to +the state of my sister's health I was much occupied with her and her +children; but in August she was well, and I returned with Mr. Taylor +and his sister in the steamer Bosphorus, when it touched at Melbourne +on the way home. He brought me 30 pounds for my book, and the assurance +that it would be out soon, and that I should have six copies to give to +my friends. Novel writing had not been to me a lucrative occupation. I +had given up teaching altogether at the age of 25, and I felt that, +though Australia was to be a great country, there was no market for +literary work, and the handicap of distance from the reading world was +great. +</P> + +<P> +My younger sister married in 1855 William J. Wren, then an articled +clerk in Bartley & Bakewell's office, and afterwards a partner with the +present Sir James Boucaut. Mr. Wren's health was indifferent, and +caused us much anxiety. My brother John married Jessie Cumming in 1858, +and they were spared together for many years. As the Wrens went on a +long voyage to Hongkong and back for the sake of my brother-in-law's +health, my mother and I had the charge of their little boy. But in that +year, 1859, my mind received its strongest political inspiration, and +the reform of the electoral system became the foremost object of my +life. John Stuart Mill's advocacy of Thomas Hare's system of +proportional representation brought back to my mind Rowland Hill's +clause in the Adelaide Municipal Bill with wider and larger issues. It +also showed me how democratic government could be made real, and safe, +and progressive. I confess that at first I was struck chiefly by its +conservative side, and I saw that its application would prevent the +political association, which corresponded roughly with the modern +Labour Party, from returning five out of six members of the Assembly +for the City of Adelaide. But for blunders on ballot papers the whole +ticket of six would have been elected. They also elected the three +members for Burra, and Clare. I had then no footing on the Adelaide +press, but I was Adelaide correspondent for The Melbourne Argus—that +is to say, my brother was the correspondent, but I wrote the +letters—he furnished the news. I read Mill's article one Monday night, +and wrote what was meant for a leader on Tuesday morning, and went to +read it to my brother at breakfast time, and posted it forthwith. I +knew The Argus had been dissatisfied with the recent elections, and +fancied that the editor would hail with joy the new idea; but I +received the reply that The Argus was committed to the representation +of majorities; and, though the idea was ingenious, he did not even +offer to print it as a letter. About two years later Mr. Lavington +Glyde, M.P., brought forward in the Assembly Mr. Fawcett's abstract of +Hare's great scheme, and I seized the opportunity of writing a series +of letters to The Register, signed by my initials. Mr. Glyde, seeing +the House did not like his suggestions, dropped the matter, but I did +not. I was no longer correspondent to The Argus—the telegraph stopped +that altogether. My wonderful maiden aunts made up to me and my mother +the 50 pounds a year that I had received as correspondent, and did as +much for their brother, Alexander Brodie, of Morphett Vale, from 1,000 +pounds they had sent to invest in South Australia. It was as easy to +get 10 per cent. then as to get 4 per cent. now; indeed I think the +money earned 12 per cent. at first. My brother John was accountant to +the South Australian Railways, then not a very great department—I +think the line stretched as far as Kapunda to the north from Port +Adelaide. He was as much captivated by Mr. Hare's idea as I was, and he +said that if I would write a pamphlet he would pay for the printing of +1,000 copies, to be sent to all the members of Parliament and other +leading people in city and country. I called my pamphlet "A Plea for +Pure Democracy," and when writing it I felt the democratic strength of +the position as I had not felt it in reading Hare's own book. It cost +my brother 15 pounds, but he never grudged it. +</P> + +<P> +While the pamphlet was in the press, I heard of the dangerous illness +of my friend Lucy Anne Duval (nee Beare), one of the original +passengers in the Duke of York, the first ship which arrived here. I +went to consult Mr. Taylor and Mr. Stirling at their office. I saw only +Mr. Stirling. I said, "I should like to go and nurse her," and he said. +"If you will go, I'll pay your expenses;" and I went and stayed with +her for three weeks, till she died, and left five children, three of +them quite young. There were Duvals in England in good circumstances, +and I wrote pleading for the three little ones, though every one said +it was quite useless; but an uncle by marriage was touched, and sent +100 pounds a year for the benefit of the three children, and I was +constituted the guardian. The youngest died within two years, but the +allowance was not decreased, and I was able to get some schooling for +an elder boy. This was my first guardianship. +</P> + +<P> +My pamphlet did not set the Torrens on fire. It did not convert The +Register, but Mr. Fred Sinnett, who was conducting The Telegraph, was +much impressed, especially as he had the greatest reverence for John +Stuart Mill, and thought him a safe man to follow. I had another novel +under way at the time, and Mr. Sinnett thought it would help The +Telegraph to bring it out as a serial story in the weekly edition; and +I seized my opportunity to bring in Mr. Hare and proportional +representation. In England Mr. Hare, Mr. Mill, Rowland Hill, and his +brother, and Professor Craik, all considered my "Plea for Pure +Democracy" the best argument from the popular side that had appeared. I +got the kindest of letters from them, and my brother considered my +labour and his money well spent. Professor Craik, writing to Miss +Florence Davenport Hill about the "Plea for Pure Democracy," says—"It +is really a pity that the pamphlet should not be reproduced in this +country—modified, of course, to the slight extent that would be +necessary. It is really a very remarkable piece of exposition—the best +for popular effect by far on this subject that has come in my way. I +rejoice to hear that there is a chance of Mr. Hare's plan being adopted +in South Australia." I may be allowed to observe that there is still a +chance, but not yet a reality. My aunts at Thornton Loch were applied +to by my English admirers to see if they would be at the cost of an +English edition; but, though they were goodness itself to our material +needs, they thought it was throwing money away to bring out a pamphlet +on an unpopular subject that would not sell. Why, even in South +Australia, though the price was marked at one shilling, not a single +shilling had been paid for a single copy; and in South Australia I was +known! Not so well known, however. I wrote under initials only, and +many thought my letters and pamphlets were the work of Charles Simeon +Hare, one of the tallest talkers in South Australia, who said Mr. +Thomas Hare was his cousin. My novels were anonymous up to the third, +which was not then written. If my name would have done the cause any +good it would have been given, but it was too obscure then. +</P> + +<P> +The original title of my third book was "Uphill Work," and it took up +the woman question as it appeared to me at the time—the difficulty of +a woman earning a livelihood, even when she had as much ability, +industry, and perseverance as a man. My friend Mrs. Graham, who had +been receiving 100 pounds a year and many presents and much +consideration from the Alstons, of Charles Williamson & Co., had to +return to Scotland to cheer her father's last years. After his death +she became housekeeper to the Crichton Asylum for the Insane, with 600 +or 700 patients, at a salary of 30 pounds a year. This started me on +the story of two girls educated well and soundly by an eccentric uncle, +but not accomplished in the showy branches, who, fearing that the elder +and favourite niece would marry a young neighbour, and that the other +might be a confirmed invalid, disinherited them, and left his estate to +a natural son with a strict proviso against his marrying either of his +cousins. In that case the property was to go to a benevolent +institution named. Jane Melville applied for the situation of +housekeeper to this institution at 30 pounds a year, but was refused +because she was too young and inexperienced. After all sorts of +disappointments she took a situation to go out to Australia, and her +sister accompanied her as a lady's maid in the same family. You may +wonder how I brought in proportional representation, but I managed it. +I think, on the whole, it is a stronger book than either of the others. +The volume has two interesting associations, one which connects it with +Mrs. Oliphant. My friend Mrs. Graham knew I had sent it to England for +publication, and when she read the anonymous "Doctor's Family" she was +sure it was mine, and was delighted with it. When I read of the brave +Australian girl Nettie, taking on herself the burden of the flabby +sister and her worthless husband and their children, I wished that I +had written such a capital story. In a subsequent tale of Mrs. +Oliphant's, "In Trust," a father disinherits the elder girl from a fear +of an unworthy marriage, but he leaves a letter to be opened when Rosy +is 21, which—should Anne not marry Cosmo Douglas—restores her to her +own mother's fortune, which was in his power. There was no saving +clause in my book. The nieces were left only 20 pounds a year each. Mr. +Williams did not think "Uphill Work" as good as "Tender and True," and +it was hung up till circumstances most unexpectedly brought me to +England, and I tried Bentley, and found that his reader approved, but +wished me to change the name, as the first critic would say it was +uphill work to read it. Then let it be "Mr. Haliburton's Will." That +would clash with "Mrs Haliburton's Troubles." So the name was changed +to Hogarth, and the title became "Mr. Hogarth's Will." It was well +reviewed, and I got 35 pounds as my half-share of the profits on a +three-volume edition, besides 50 pounds from The Telegraph. But the +book was to have more effect in unexpected quarters than I could +imagine. When staying with my aunts in Scotland I had a letter from Mr. +Edward Wilson's secretary, saying that he had wished to write an +article for The Fortnightly on "The Representation of Classes," which +was his cure for the excesses of democracy; but, as he could not see, +and his doctor had forbidden him even to dictate, he had reluctantly +abandoned the idea. He had, however, heard that I was in Scotland, and, +though my idea was different from his, he believed that I could write +the article from some letters reprinted from The Argus and a few hints +from himself, and that I could adapt them to English conditions. I +gladly undertook the work, and satisfied Mr. Wilson. Just before I left +for Australia I went to Mr. Wilson's, and we went through the proofs +together. Mr. Wilson, being a wealthy man, did not ask any payment from +The Fortnightly, but he gave me 10 pounds and thanked me for stepping +in to his assistance when he needed it. He said that my novel had been +the subject of a great deal of discussion in his house. I asked, "Why?" +He replied, "The uncle and the nieces, of course." I thought no more of +it till the death of Mr. Wilson revealed that he had left his estate to +the charities of Melbourne. Then my brother told me that when he was in +England in 1877 Mr. Wilson had told him that it was seldom that a novel +had any influence over a man's conduct, but that reading his sister's +novel had set him thinking, and had made him alter his will. He did not +think it to the advantage of his nieces to be made rich, and he would +leave his money to Victoria and Melbourne, where he had made it. I was +the innocent cause of disappointing the nieces, for I think I made it +clear that the uncle did very wrongly. But when I see 5,000 pounds a +year distributed among Melbourne charities, and larger gifts for the +building of a new hospital, I cannot help thinking that these are the +results of Mr. Wilson reading "Mr. Hogarth's Will" and it may be that +other similar trusts are the results of Mr. Wilson's action. +</P> + +<P> +Another literary success I had during that visit to England. I went to +Smith, Elder, & Co. to ask if I could not get anything for the shilling +edition of "Tender and True," and was answered in the negative; but I +had not talked ten minutes with Mr. Williams before he said that if I +would put these ideas into shape, he thought he could get an article +accepted by The Cornhill Magazine. "An Australian's Impressions of +England" was approved by the editor, and appeared in The Cornhill for +January 1866, and for that I received 12 pounds, the best-paid work I +had ever had up to that time. The Saturday Review said of "Mr. +Hogarth's Will" that there was no haziness about money matters in it +such as is too common among lady writers. Mr. Bentley advised me to +give my name, and not to sell my copyright; but the latter has been of +no value to me; 500 copies of a three-volume novel exhausted the likely +demand. I got 12 copies to give to friends, and one copy I gave to Mr. +Hare. His daughters were a little amused to see their father in a +novel, and as the book was in the circulating library their friends and +acquaintances used to ask, "Is that really your papa that it is +intended for?" I did not at the time think of facing anybody in +England, but I had been both amused and annoyed with the portraits I +was supposed to have drawn from real people in and about +Adelaide—often people I had never seen and had not beard of. "But +Harris is Ellis to the life," said my old Aunt Brodie of Morphett Vale. +"Miss Withing is my sister-in-law," said another. Neither of these +people had I seen. Of course, Mr. Reginald was Mr. John Taylor, the +only squatter I knew, but I myself was not identified with my heroine +Clara Morison. I was Margaret Elliott, the girl who was studying law +with her brother Gilbert; but my brother and my cousin Louisa Brodie +were supposed to be figuring in my book as lovers. In a small society +it was easy to affix the characteristics to some one whom it was +possible the author might have met; but I shrank from the idea that I +was capable of "taking off" people of my acquaintance, and for many +reasons would have liked if the book had not been known to be mine in +South Australia. There must, however, have been some lifelike +presentment of my characters, or they could not have been recognised. +About this time I read and appreciated Jane Austen's novels—those +exquisite miniatures, which no doubt her contemporaries identified +without much interest. Her circle was as narrow as mine—indeed, +narrower. She was the daughter of a clergyman in the country. She +represented well-to-do grownup people, and them alone. The humour of +servants, the sallies of children, the machinations of villains, the +tricks of rascals, are not on her canvas; but she differentiated among +equals with a firm hand, and with a constant ripple of amusement. The +life I led had more breadth and wider interests. The life of Miss +Austen's heroines, though delightful to read about, would have been +deadly dull to endure. So great a charm have Jane Austen's books had +for me that I have made a practice of reading them through regularly +once a year. +</P> + +<P> +As we grew to love South Australia, we felt that we were in an +expanding society, still feeling the bond to the motherland, but eager +to develop a perfect society, in the land of our adoption. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A TRIP TO ENGLAND. +</H3> + +<P> +I have gone on with the story of my three first novels consecutively, +anticipating the current history of myself and South Australia. There +were three great steps taken in the development of Australia. The first +was when McArthur introduced the merino sheep; the second when +Hargreaves and others discovered gold; and the latest when cold-storage +was introduced to make perishable products available for the European +markets. The second step created a sudden revolution; but the others +were gradual, and the area of alluvial diggings in Victoria made +thousands of men without capital or machinery rush to try their +fortunes—first from the adjacent colonies, and afterwards from the +ends of the earth. Law and order were kept on the goldfields of Mount +Alexander, Bendigo, and Ballarat by means of a strong body of police, +and the high licence fees for claims paid for their services, so that +nothing like the scenes recorded of the Californian diggings could be +permitted. But for the time ordinary industries were paralysed. +Shepherds left their flocks, farmers their land, clerks their desks, +and artisans their trades. Melbourne grew apace in spite of the highest +wages known being exacted by masons and carpenters. Pastoralists +thought ruin stared them in the face till they found what a market the +goldfields offered for their surplus stock. Our South Australian +farmers left their holdings in the hands of their wives and children +too young to take with them, but almost all of them returned to grow +grain and produce to send to Victoria. It was astonishing what the +women had done during their absence. The fences were kept repaired and +the stock attended to, the grapes gathered, and the wine made. In these +days it was not so easy to get 80 acres or more in Victoria; so, with +what the farmers brought from their labours on the goldfields, they +extended their holdings and improved their homes. For many years the +prices in Melbourne regulated prices in Adelaide, but when the land was +unlocked and the Victorian soil and climate were found to be as good as +ours it was Mark lane that fixed prices over all Australia for primary +products. After the return of most of the diggers there was a great +deal of marrying and giving in marriage. The miners who had left the +Burra for goldseeking gradually came back, and the nine remarkable +copper mines of Moonta and Wallaroo attracted the Cornishmen, who +preferred steady wages and homes to the diminishing chances of Ballarat +and Bendigo where machinery and deep sinking demanded capital, and the +miners were paid by the week. These new copper mines were found in the +Crown leases held by Capt. (afterwards Sir Walter) Hughes. He had been +well dealt with by Elder, Smith, & Co., and gave them the opportunity +of supporting him. At that time my friends Edward Stirling and John +Taylor were partners in that firm, and they shared in the success. Mr. +Bakewell belonged to the legal firm which did their business, so that +my greatest friends seemed to be in it. I think my brother John +profited less by the great advance of South Australia than he deserved +for sticking to the Bank of South Australia. He got small rises in his +salary, but the cost of living was so enhanced that at the end of seven +years it did not buy much more than the 100 pounds he had begun with. +My eldest maiden aunt died, and left to her brother and sister in South +Australia all she had in her power. My mother bought a brick cottage in +Pulteney street and a Burra share with her legacy—both excellent +investments—and my brother left the bank and went into the aerated +water business with James Hamilton Parr. +</P> + +<P> +We made the acquaintance of the family of Mrs. Francis Clark, of +Hazelwood, Burnside. She was the only sister of five clever +brothers—Matthew Davenport, Rowland, Edwin, Arthur, and Frederick +Hill. Rowland is best known, but all were remarkable men. She was so +like my mother in her sound judgment, accurate observation, and kind +heart, that I was drawn to her at once. But it was Miss Clark who +sought an introduction to me at a ball, because her uncle Rowland had +written to her that "Clara Morison," the new novel, was a capital story +of South Australian life. She was the first person to seek me out on +account of literary work, and I was grateful to her. I think all the +brothers Hill wrote books, and Rosamond and Florence Davenport Hill had +just published "Our Exemplars." My friendship with Miss Clark led to +much work together, and the introduction was a great widening of +interests for me. There were four sons and three daughters—Miss Clark +and Howard were the most literary, but all had great ability and +intelligence. They were Unitarians, and W. J. Wren, my brother-in-law, +was also a Unitarian, and had been one of the 12 Adelaide citizens who +invited out a minister and guaranteed his salary. I was led to hear +what the Rev. J. Crawford Woods had to say for that faith, and told my +old minister (Rev. Robert Haining) that for three months I would hear +him in the morning and Mr. Woods in the evening, and read nothing but +the Bible as my guide; and by that time I would decide. I had been +induced to go to the Sacrament at 17, with much heart searching, but +when I was 25 I said I could not continue a communicant, as I was not a +converted Christian. This step greatly surprised both Mr. and Mrs. +Haining, as I did not propose to leave the church. The result of my +three months' enquiry was that I became a convinced Unitarian, and the +cloud was lifted from the universe. I think I have been a most cheerful +person ever since. My mother was not in any way distressed, though she +never separated from the church of her fathers. My brother was as +completely converted as I was, and he was happy in finding a wife like +minded. My sister, Mrs. Wren, also was satisfied with the new faith; so +that she and her husband saw eye to eye. It was a very live +congregation in those early days. We liked our pastor, and we admired +his wife, and there were a number of interesting and clever people who +went to the Wakefield Street Church. +</P> + +<P> +It was rather remarkable that my sister's husband and my brother's wife +arrived on the same day in two different ships—one in the Anglier from +England, and the other in the Three Bells from Glasgow—in 1851; but I +did not make the acquaintance of either till 1854 and 1855. Jessie +Cumming and Mary Spence shook hands and formed a friendship over +Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus." My brother-in-law (W. J. Wren) had fine +literary tastes, especially for poetry. The first gift to his wife +after marriage was Elizabeth Browning's poems in two volumes and Robert +Browning's "Plays and Dramatic Lyrics" in two volumes, and Mary and I +delighted in them all. In those days I considered my sister Mary and my +sister-in-law the most brilliant conversationalists I knew. My elder +sister, Mrs. Murray, also talked very well—so much so that her +husband's friends and visitors fancied she must write a lot of his +articles; but none of the three ladies went beyond writing good +letters. I think all of them were keener of sight than I was—more +observant of features, dress, and manners; but I took in more by the +ear. As Sir Walter Scott says, "Speak that I may know thee." To my +mind, dialogue is more important for a novel than description; and, if +you have a firm grasp of your characters, the dialogue will be true. +With me the main difficulty was the plot; and I was careful that this +should not be merely possible, but probable. I have heard scores of +people say that they have got good plots in their heads, and when +pressed to tell them they proved to be only incidents. You need much +more than an incident, or even two or three, with which to make a book. +But when I found my plot the story seemed to write itself, and the +actors to fit in. +</P> + +<P> +When the development of the Moonta Mine made some of my friends rich +they were also liberal. Edward Stirling said that if I wanted a trip to +England I should have it at his cost, but it seemed impossible. After +the death of Mr. Wren my mother and I went to live with my sister, and +put two small incomes together, so as to be able to bring up and +educate her two children, a boy and a girl. My brother John had left +the railway, and for nine years had been Official Assignee and Curator +of Intestate Estates; and in 1863 he had been appointed manager of the +new Adelaide branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. My +friend, Mr. Taylor, had helped well to get the position for one he +thought the fittest man in the city. He had lost his wife, Miss Mary +Ann Dutton when on a visit to England, and at this time was engaged to +Miss Harriet McDermott. His sisters both were very cold about the +engagement. They did not like second marriages at all, and considered +it a disrespect to the first wife's memory, even though a decent +interval had elapsed. When he wrote to me about it I took quite a +different view. He said it was the kindest and the wisest letter I had +ever written in my life, and he knew I had loved his late wife very +much. He came to thank me, and to tell me that he had always wished +that I should be in England at the time he was there, and that he was +going in a P. & 0. boat immediately after his marriage. Although Mr. +Stirling had promised to pay my passage, I hesitated about going. There +were my mother, who was 72, and my guardianship of the Duvals to think +about. I had also undertaken the oversight of old Mrs. Stephens, the +widow of one of the early proprietors of The Register. These objections +were all overruled. I still hesitated. "I cannot go unless I have money +to spend," I urged. "Let me do that," was the generous reply.—"I have +left you 500 pounds in my will. Let me have the pleasure of giving you +something while I live." I was not too proud to owe that memorable +visit to England to my two good friends. John Taylor had put into my +hands on board the Goolwa, in which I sailed, a draft for 200 pounds +for my spending money, and in the new will he made after his marriage +he bequeathed me 300 pounds. I said "Goodby" to him, with good wishes +for his health and happiness. I never saw him again. He took a sickly +looking child on his knee when crossing the Isthmus of Suez—there was +no canal in 1864—to relieve a weary mother. The child had smallpox, +and my friend took it and died of it. He was being buried beside his +first wife at Brighton when the Goolwa sailed up the Channel after a +passage of 14 weeks—as long as that of the Palmyra 25 years +before—and the first news we heard was that Miss Taylor had lost a +brother, the children a favourite uncle, and I, a friend. It was a sad +household, but the Bakewells were in London on business connected with +some claims of discovery of the Moonta Mines, and they took me to their +house in Palace Gardens. Kensington, till I could arrange to go to my +aunt's in Scotland. All our plans about seeing people and places +together were, of course, at an end. I was to go "a lone hand." Mrs. +Taylor had a posthumous son, who never has set foot in Australia. She +married a second time, an English clergyman named Knight, and had +several sons, but she has never revisited Adelaide, although she has +many relatives here. So the friend who loved Australia, and was eager +to do his duty by it—who thoroughly approved of the Hare system of +representation, and thought I did well to take it up, was snatched away +in the prime of life. I wonder if there is any one alive now to whom +his memory is as precious. The Register files may preserve some of his +work. +</P> + +<P> +At Palace Gardens the Bakewell family were settled in a furnished house +belonging to Col. Palmer, one of the founders of South Australia, +though never a resident. Palmer place, North Adelaide, bears his name. +Thackeray's house we had to pass when we went out of the street in the +direction of the city. His death had occurred in the previous year. I +had an engagement with Miss Julia Wedgwood, through an introduction +given by Miss Sophia Sinnett, an artist sister of Frederick Sinnett's. +I was called for and sent home. I was not introduced to the family. It +was a fine large house with men servants and much style. Miss Wedgwood, +who was deaf, used an ear trumpet very cleverly. I found her as +delightful as Miss Sinnett had represented her to be, and I discovered +that Miss Sinnett had been governess to her younger sisters, but that +there was real regard for her. I don't know that I ever spent a more +delightful evening. She had just had Browning's "Dramatis Personae," +and we read together "Rabbi Ben Ezira" and "Prospice." She knew about +the Hare scheme of representation, supported by Mill and Fawcett and +Craik. She was a good writer, with a fine critical faculty. Everything +signed by her name in magazines or reviews was thenceforward +interesting to me. I promised her a copy of my "Plea for Pure +Democracy," which she accepted and appreciated. By the father's side +she was a granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of British +pottery as a fine art. Her mother was a daughter of Sir James +Mackintosh. Mrs. Wedgwood was so much pleased with my pamphlet that she +wanted to be introduced to me, and when I returned to London I had the +pleasure of making her acquaintance. Miss Wedgwood gave me a +beautifully bound copy of "Men and Women," of which she had a +duplicate, which I cherish in remembrance of her. +</P> + +<P> +During my stay I was visited by Mr. Hare. I had to face up to the +people I had written to with no idea of any personal communication, and +I must confess that I felt I must talk well to retain their good +opinion. I promised to pay a visit to the Hares when I came to London +for the season. He was a widower with eight children, whom he had +educated with the help of a governess, but he was the main factor in +their training. The two eldest daughters were married—Mrs. Andrews, +the eldest, had helped him in his calculations for his great book on +"Representation." His second daughter was artistic, and was married to +John Westlake, an eminent lawyer, great in international law, a pupil +of Colenso, who was then in London, and who was the best-abused man in +the church. Another visitor was George Cowan, a great friend of my late +brother-in-law, Mr. W. J. Wren, who wrote to him till his death, when +the pen was taken up by my sister Mary till her death, and then I +corresponded with him till his death. He came to London a raw Scotch +lad, and met Mr. Wren at the Whittington Club. Both loved books and +poetry, and both were struggling to improve themselves on small +salaries. George Cowan had been entrusted with the printed slips of +"Uphill Work," and had tried it at two publishers without success. I +had to delay any operations till I returned to London, and promised to +visit the Cowans there. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MELROSE REVISITED. +</H3> + +<P> +Jack Bakewell and Edward Lancelot Stirling went to see me off by the +night train to Dunbar Station, five miles from Thornton-Loch, and I got +there in time for breakfast. The old house was just the same except for +an oriel window in the drawing room looking out on the North Sea, and +the rocks which lay between it and Colhandy path (where my +great-grandfather Spence had preached and his wife had preferred +Wesley), and Chirnside, or Spence's Mains in the same direction. All +the beautiful gardens, the farm village, where about 80 souls lived, +the fields and bridges were just as I remembered them. My aunt Margaret +was no longer the vigorous business-like woman whom I recollected +riding or driving in her little gig an over the farm of 800 English +acres which my great-grandfather had rented since 1811. Not the Miss +Thompson whom I had introduced into "Uphill Work." She had had a severe +stroke of paralysis, and was a prisoner to the house, only being lifted +from her bed to be dressed, and to sit in a wheeled chair and be taken +round the garden on fine days. The vigorous intellect was somewhat +clouded, and the power of speech also; but she retained her memory. She +was always at work with her needle (for her hands were not affected) +for the London children, grandnieces, and nephews who called her +grandmamma, for she had had the care of their Parents during 11 years +of her brother Alexander's widowhood. But Aunt Margaret could play a +capital game of whist—long whist. I could see that she missed it much +on Sunday. It was her only relaxation. She had given up the farm to +James Brodie, who had married her cousin Jane, the eldest of the two +children she had mothered, and he had to come to the farm once or twice +a week, having a still larger farm of his own in East Lothian, and a +stock farm in Berwickshire also to look after. The son of the old farm +steward, John Burnet, was James Brodie's steward, and I think the farm +was well managed, but not so profitable as in old times. Aunt Mary +said, in her own characteristic way, "she always knew that her sister +was a clever woman, but that the cleverest thing she had done was +taking up farming and carrying it on for 30 years when it was +profitable, and turning it over when it began to fall off." But she +turned it over handsomely, and did not interfere in the management. My +Aunt Mary deserves a chapter for herself. She was my beau ideal of what +a maiden aunt should be, though why she was never married puzzles more +than me. Between my mother and her there was a love passing the love of +sisters—my father liked her better than his own sisters. When my +letter announcing my probable visit reached her she misread it, and +thought it was Helen herself who was to come; and when she found out +her mistake she shed many tears. I was all very well in my way, but I +was not Helen. It was not the practice in old times to blazon an +engagement, or to tell of an offer that had been declined; but my +mother firmly believed that her sister Mary, the cleverest and, as she +thought, the handsomest of the five sisters, had never in her life had +an offer of marriage, although she had a love disappointment at 30. She +had fixed her affections on a brilliant but not really worthy man, and +she had to tear him out of her heart with considerable difficulty. It +cost her a severe illness, out of which she emerged with what she +believed to be a change of heart. She was a converted Christian. I +myself don't think there was so much change. She was always a noble, +generous woman, but she found great happiness in religion. Aunt Mary's +disappointment made her most sympathetic to all love stories, and +without any disappointment at all, I think I may say the same of +myself. She was very popular with the young friends of her youngest +brother, who might have experienced calf love; so very real, but so +very ineffectual. One of these said to her:—"Oh, Miss Mary, you're +just a delight, you are so witty." Another, when she spoke of some man +who talked such delightful nonsense, said, "If you would only come to +Branxholme I'd talk nonsense to you the haill (whole) day." +</P> + +<P> +When I arrived at the old home I found Aunt Mary vigorously rubbing her +hand and wrist (she had slipped downstairs in a neighbour's house, and +broken her arm, and had to drive home before she could have it set). No +one from the neighbour's house went to accompany her; no one came to +enquire; no message was sent. When she recovered so far as to be able +to be out, she met at Dunbar the gentleman and lady also driving in +their conveyance. They greeted each other, and aunt could not resist +the temptation to say:—"I am so glad to see you, and so glad that you +have spoken to me, for I thought you were so offended at my taking the +liberty of breaking my arm in your house that you did not mean to speak +to me again." This little expression of what the French call malice, +not the English meaning, was the only instance I can recollect of Aunt +Mary's not putting the kindest construction on everybody's words and +actions. But when I think of the love that Aunt Mary gathered to +herself from brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, and +friends—it seems as if the happiest wife and mother of a large family +could not reckon up as rich stores of affection. She was the unfailing +correspondent of those members of the family who were separated by land +and ocean from the old home, the link that often bound these together, +the most tolerant to their failings, the most liberal in her aid—full +of suggestions, as well as of sympathy. Now, in my Aunt Margaret's +enfeebled state, she was the head of the house and the director of all +things. Although she had differed from the then two single sisters and +the family generally at the time of the disruption of the Church of +Scotland, and gone over to the Free Church, the more intensely +Calvinistic of the two, though accepting the same standards—the +Westminster Confession and the Shorter Catechism—all the harsher +features fell off the living texture of her faith like cold water off a +duck's back. From natural preference she chose for her devotions those +parts of the Bible which I selected with deliberate intention. She +wondered to find so much spiritual kinship with me, when I built on +such a different foundation. When I suggested that the 109th Psalm, +which she read as the allotted portion in "Fletcher's Family +Devotions," was not fit to be read in a Christian household, she said +meekly—"You are quite right, I shall mark it, and never read it again." +</P> + +<P> +My mother always thought me like her sister Mary, and when I asked Mr. +Taylor if he saw any resemblance between us, he said, with cruel +candour—"Oh, no. Your Aunt Mary is a very handsome woman." But in ways +and manners, both my sister Mary and myself had considerable +resemblances to our mother's favourite sister; and I can see traces of +it in my own nieces. There can be no direct descent from maiden aunts, +though the working ants and bees do not inherit their industrious +habits from either male or female parents, but from their maiden aunts. +Galton's theory, that potentialities not utilized by individuals or by +their direct descendants may miss a generation or two, opens a wide +field of thought, and collaterals may draw from the original source +what was never suspected. And the Brodies intermarried in such a way as +to shock modern ideas. When my father was asked if a certain Mr. +Dudgeon, of Leith, was related to him, he said—"He is my mother's +cousin and my stepmother's cousin, and my father-in-law's cousin, and +my mother-in-law's cousin." Except for Spences and Wauchopes there was +not a relative of my father that was not related to my mother. +Grandfather Brodie married his cousin, and Grandfather Spence married +his late wife, Janet Parks cousin Katherine Swanston. I cannot see that +these close marriages produced degenerates, either physical or mental, +in the case of my own family. +</P> + +<P> +Of the twelve months I spent in the old country, I spent six with the +dear old aunts. How proud Aunt Mary was of my third novel, with the +sketch of Aunt Margaret in it, of the Cornhill article, and the request +from Mr. Wilson to write for The Fortnightly. I introduced her to new +books and especially to new poets; she had never heard of Browning and +Jean Ingelow. She was so much cleverer than her neighbours that I often +wondered how she could put up with them. How conservative these farmers +and farmers' wives and daughters were, to be sure. These big tenants +considered themselves quite superior to tradesmen, even to merchants, +unless they were in a big way. There was infinitely more difference +between their standard of living and that of their labourers than +between theirs and that of the aristocratic landlords. James Barnet, +the farm steward, said to me—"you have brought down the price of wheat +with your Australian grain, and you do big things in wool, but you can +never touch us in meat." This was quite true in 1865. I expected to see +some improvement in the farm hamlet, but the houses built by the +landlord were still very poor and bare. The wages had risen a little +since 1839, but not much. The wheaten loaf was cheaper, and so was tea +and sugar, but the poor were still living on porridge and bannocks of +barley and pease meal instead of tea and white bread. It was +questionable if they were as well nourished. There were 100 souls +living on the farms of Thornton and Thornton Loch. +</P> + +<P> +A short visit from Mrs. Graham to me at Thornton Loch opened up to Aunt +Mary some of my treasures of memory. She asked me to recite "Brother in +the Lane," Hood's "Tale of a Trumpet," "Locksley Hall." "The Pied +Piper," and Jean Ingelow's "Songs of Seven." She made me promise to go +to see her, and find out how much she had to do for her magnificent +salary of 30 pounds a year; but she impressed Aunt Mary much. Mrs. +Graham had found that the Kirkbeen folks, among whom she lived, were +more impressed by the six months' experiences of two maiden ladies, who +had gone to Valparaiso to join a brother who died, than with her fresh +and racy descriptions of four young Australian colonies. She had seen +Melbourne from 1852 to 1855—a wonderful growth and development. The +only idea the ladies from Valparaiso formed about Australia was that it +was hot and must be Roman Catholic, and consequently the Sabbath must +be desecrated. It was in vain that my friend spoke of the Scots Church +and Dr. Cairns's Church. Heat and Roman Catholicism were inseparably +connected in their minds. +</P> + +<P> +Visiting Uncle and Aunt Handyside and grown-up cousins, whom I left +children, I saw a lot of good farming and the easy circumstances which +I always associated with tenants' holdings in East Lothian. Next farm +to Fenton was Fentonbarns, a Show place, which was held by George Hope, +a cousin of my grandmother's He was an exceptional man—a radical, a +freetrader, and a Unitarian. Cobden died that year. Uncle Handyside was +surprised that George Hope did not go into mourning for him. John +Bright still lived, and he was the bete noire of the Conservatives in +that era; and the abolition of the corn laws was held to be the cause +of the agricultural distress—not the high rent of agricultural land. +George Hope was a striking personality. When my friend J. C. Woods was +minister at St. Mark's Unitarian Church, Edinburgh, Mr. Hope used to be +called the Bishop, though he lived 16 miles off. When the first Mrs. +Woods died, leaving an infant son, it was Mrs. Hope who cared for it +till it could go to his relatives in Ireland. Later he stood for +Parliament himself. In the paper I wrote over the name of Edward Wilson +for The Fortnightly I noted how the House of Commons represented the +people—or misrepresented them. The House consisted of peers and sons +of peers, military and naval officers, bankers, brewers, and +landownership was represented enormously, but there were only two +tenant farmers in the House. It was years after my return to Australia +that I heard of his unsuccessful candidature, and that when he sought +to take another lease of Fentonbarns, he was told that under no +circumstances would his offer be entertained. Fentonbarns had been +farmed by, three generations of Hopes for 100 years, and to no owner by +parchment titles could it have been more dear. George Hope's friend, +Russell, of The Scotsman, fulminated against the injustice of refusing +a lease to the foremost agriculturist in Scotland—and when you say +that you may say of the United Kingdom—because the tenant held certain +political opinions and had the courage to express them. My uncle +Handyside, however, always maintained that his neighbour was the most +honourable man in business that he knew, and far from being an atheist +or even a deist, he had family prayers, and on the occasion of a death +in the family, the funeral service was most impressive. He was one of +the salt of the earth, and the atmosphere was clearer around him for +his presence. +</P> + +<P> +But I must give some space to my visit to Melrose, my childhood's home. +My father's half-sister Janet Reid was alive and though her two sons +were, one at St. Kitts and the other at Grand Canary, she lived with an +old husband and her only daughter in Melrose still.. I can never forget +the look of tender pity cast on me as I was sitting in our old seat in +church, looking at seats filled by another generation. The +paterfamilias, so wonderfully like his father of 1839, and sons and +daughters, sitting in the place of uncles and aunts settled elsewhere. +They grieved that I had been banished from the romantic associations +and the high civilization of Melrose to rough it in the wilds, while my +heart was full of thankfulness that I had moved to the wider spaces and +the more varied activities of a new and progressive colony. My dear old +teacher was still alive, though the school had been closed for many +years. She lived at St. Mary's with her elder sister, who had taught me +sewing and had done the housekeeping, but she herself was almost blind, +and a girl came every day to read to her for two or three hours. She +told me what a good thing it was that she knew all the Psalms in the +prose version by heart, for in the sleepless nights which accompany old +age so often they were such a comfort to her in the night watches. I +had sent her my two novels when they were published, "Clara Morison" +and "Tender and True." She would have been glad if they had been more +distinctly religious in tone. Indeed, the novel I began at 19 would +have suited her better, but my brother's insistence on reading it every +day as I wrote it somehow made me see what poor stuff it was, and I did +not go far with it. But Miss Phin was, on the whole, pleased with my +progress, and glad that I was able to go to see her and talk of old +times. How very small the village of Melrose looked! How little +changed! The distances to the neighbouring villages of Darnick and +Newstead, and across the Tweed to Gattonsville, seemed so shrunken. It +was not so far to Abbotsford as to Norwood. The very Golden Hills +looked lower than my childish recollection of them. Aunt Janet Reid +rejoiced over me sufficiently. "You are not like your mother in the +face, but, oh, Katie, you are like dear Mrs. David in your ways. How I +was determined to hate her when she came to Melrose first. I was not 13 +and she was taking away the best of my brothers, the one that I liked +best; but it did not take long before I was as fond of her as of David +himself." +</P> + +<P> +I also had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Murray, the parish +schoolmaster, who taught my three brothers, then retired, living with +his daughter, Louisa, an old schoolfellow at Miss Phin's. There was an +absurd idea current in 1865 that all visiting Australians were rich and +I could not disabuse people of that notion. Of all the two families of +Brodies and Spences who came out in 1839 there was only my brother John +who could be called successful. He was then manager of the Adelaide +branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. If it had not +been for help from the wonderful aunts from time to time both families +would have been stranded. I had the greatest faith in the future of +Australia, but I felt that for such gifts as I possessed there was no +market at home. Possibly I should have tried literature earlier if I +had remained in Scotland, but I am not at all sure that I could have +succeeded as well. For the first time in my life I had as much money as +I wanted. I am surprised now that I spent that 200 pounds when I had so +much hospitality. In fact, except for a week in Paris, I never had any +hotel expenses. I had got the money to enjoy it and I did. This was +what my friend wished. I made a few presents. I bought some to take +home with me. I spent money on dress freely, so as to present a proper +appearance when visiting. I was liberal with veils, though I hate the +practice. To a woman who had to look on both sides of a shilling since +1839 this experience was new and delightful. Among other people I went +to see was Mrs. C——. the widow of the Tory writer and branch bank +manager, who was my father's successful rival. He was not speculative +like my father. He was a keen business man and had a great hunger for +land. +</P> + +<P> +On the gravestones around Melrose Abbey are many names with the +avocation added—John Smith, builder; William Hogg, mason—but many +with the word portioner. They were small proprietors, but they were not +distinguished for the careful cultivation which in France is known as +"LA PETITE CULTURE." No; the portions were most carelessly handled, and +in almost every instance they were "bonded" or mortgaged. I recollect +in old days these portioners used to make moonlight, flittings and +disappear, or they sold off their holdings openly and went to America, +meaning the United States. The tendency was to buy up these portions, +and a considerable estate could be built up by any shrewd man who had +money, or the command of it. Before we left Melrose in 1839, Mr. C—— +had possession of a good deal of land. When he died he left property of +the value of 90,000 pounds, an unheard-of estate for a country writer +before the era of freetrade and general expansion. He had asked so much +revenue from the railway company when the plan was to cut through the +gardens we as children used to play in, that the company made a +deviation and left the garden severely alone. The eldest daughter had +married a landed proprietor, the second was single, the third married +to a wealthy man in the west, the fourth the richest widow in Scotland. +One son had land, and the other son land, and another business +training. All was material success, and I am sure I did not grudge it +to them, but when I took stock of real things I had not the least +glimmering of a wish to exchange. One generally desires a little more +money than one has; but even that may cost too much. I think my dear +old Aunt Reid felt that the Spences had gone down in my father's +terrible smash in 1839, and the C—— family had steadily gone up, and +she was pleased that a niece from Australia, who had written two books +and a wonderful pamphlet, and, more important still in the eyes of Mrs. +Grundy, had money to spend and to give, was staying with her in +Melrose, and wearing good and well made clothes. Old servants—the old +laundress—old schoolfellows were visited. My father's old clerk, Allan +Freer, had a good business in Melrose, though not equal to that of the +Tory firm. I think the portioners were all sold out before he could +enter the field, and the fate of these Melrose people has thoroughly +emphasized for me the importance of having our South Australian +workmen's blocks, the glory of Mr. Cotton's life, maintained always on +the same footing of perpetual lease dependent on residence. If the +small owner has the freehold, he is tempted to mortgage it, and then in +most instances the land is lost to him, and added to the possessions of +the man who has money. With a perpetual lease, there is the same +security of tenure as in the freehold—indeed, there is more security, +because he cannot mortgage. I did not see the land question as clearly +on this 1865 visit, as I did later; but the extinction of the old +portioners and the wealth acquired by the moneyed man of Melrose gave +me cause for thinking. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I VISIT EDINBURGH AND LONDON. +</H3> + +<P> +A visit to Glasgow and to the relatives of my sister-in-law opened out +a different vista to me. This was a great manufacturing and commercial +city, which had far outgrown Edinburgh in population and wealth; but +the Edinburgh people still boasted of being the Athens of the north, +the ancient capital with the grandest historic associations. In Glasgow +I fell in with David Murray and his wife (of D. & W. Murray +Adelaide)—not quite so important a personage as be became later. Not a +relative of mine; but a family connection, for his brother William +married Helen Cumming, Mrs. J. B. Spence's sister. David Murray was +always a great collector of paintings, and especially of prints, which +last he left to the Adelaide Art Gallery. He was a close friend of my +brother John's until the death of the latter. One always enjoys meeting +with Adelaide people in other lands, and comparing the most recent +items of news. I went to Dumfries according to promise, and spent many +days with my old friend Mrs. Graham, but stayed the night always with +her sister, Mrs. Maxwell, wife of a printer and bookseller in the town. +Dumfries was full of Burns's relies and memorials. Mr. Gilfillan had +taken the likeness of Mrs. Burns and her granddaughter when he was a +young man, and Mrs. Maxwell corresponded with the granddaughter. It was +also full of associations with Carlyle. His youngest sister, Jean the +Craw, as she was called on account of her dark hair and complexion was +Mrs. Aitkin, a neighbour and close friend of Mrs. Maxwell. I was taken +to see her, and I suppose introduced as a sort of author, and she +regretted much that this summer Tom was not coming to visit her at +Dumfries. She was a brisk, cheery person, with some clever daughters, +who were friends of the Maxwell girls. When the Froude memorials came +out no one was more indignant than Jean the Craw—"Tom and his wife +always understood each other. They were not unhappy, though after her +death he reproached himself for some things." +</P> + +<P> +I found that my friend had just as much to do from morning to night as +she could do, and I hoped with a great hope that "Uphill Work" would be +published, and all the world would see how badly capable and +industrious women were paid. I fancied that a three-volume novel would +be read, marked, and inwardly digested by everybody! But Mrs. Graham +was appreciated by the matron, the doctors, and by the people of +Dumfries, as she had not been in the village of Kirkbeen. Her +picturesque descriptions of life in the various colonies interested +home-staying folk, for she had the keenest observing faculties. There +was an old cousin of Uncle Handyside's who always turned the +conversation on to Russia, where he had visited successful brothers; +but his talk was not incisive. My cousin Agnes asked me when I supposed +this visit was paid, and I said a few years ago, probably, when she +laughed and said—"Nicol Handyside spent six weeks in Russia 30 years +ago, and he has been talking about it ever since." One visit I paid in +Edinburgh to an old lady from Melrose, who lived with a married +daughter. She had always been very deaf, and the daughter was out. With +great difficulty I got her to see by my card that my name was Spence. +"Are you Jessie Spence?" I shook my head. "No; Katie." "Are you Mary +Spence?" Another headshake, "No; I am Katie." "Then who are you?" She +could understand the negative by the headshaking, but not anything +else. I wanted a piece of paper or a slate badly, but the daughter came +in and made her mother understand that I was the middle Spence girl, +and then the old lady said, "It is a very hot country you come from," +her only idea apparently of wonderful Australia. And to think that in +times long past some intriguing aunts tried very hard to arrange a +marriage between my father and the deaf young lady who had about 600 +pounds a year in land in and near Melrose. She might have been my +mother! The idea was appalling! None of her children inherited the +deafness, and they took a fair proportion of good looks from their +father, for the mother was exceedingly homely. A brightlooking grandson +was on the rug looking through a bound volume of Punch, as my nephew in +Australia loved to do. The two mothers were school companions and +playmates. +</P> + +<P> +My return to London introduced me to a wider range of society. I had +admissions to the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons from Sir +Charles Dilke, Professor Pearson's friend, and I had invitations to +stay for longer or shorter periods with people various in means, in +tastes, and in interests. To Mr. Hare I was especially drawn, and I +should have liked to join him and his family in their yearly walking +tour, which was to be through the Tyrol and Venice; but Aunt Mary +protested for two good and sufficient reasons. The first was that I +could not walk 16 or 20 miles a day, even in the mountains, which Katie +Hare said was so much easier than on the plains; and the second was +that to take six weeks out of my visit to the old country was a great +deal too much. If it could have done any good to proportional +representation I might have stood out; but it could not. For that I +have since travelled thousands of miles by sea and by land; and, though +not on foot, I have undergone much bodily fatigue and mental strain, +but in these early days of the movement it had only entered the +academic stage. My "Plea for Pure Democracy" had been written at a +white heat of enthusiasm. I do not think I ever before or since reached +a higher level. I took this reform more boldly than Mr. Mill, who +sought by giving extra votes for property and university degrees or +learned professions to cheek the too great advance of democracy. I was +prepared to trust the people; and Mr. Hare was also confident that, if +all the people were equitably represented in Parliament, the good would +be stronger than the evil. The wise would be more effectual than the +foolish. I do not think any one whom I met took the matter up so +passionately as I did; and I had a feeling that in our new colonies the +reform would meet with less obstruction than in old countries bound by +precedent and prejudiced by vested interests. Parliament was the +preserve of the wealthy in the United Kingdom. There was no property +qualification for the candidate in South Australia, and we had manhood +suffrage. +</P> + +<P> +South Australia was the first community to give the secret ballot for +political elections. It had dispensed with Grand Juries. It had not +required a member of either House to stand a new election if he +accepted Ministerial office. Every elected man was eligible for office. +South Australia had been founded by doctrinaires, and occasionally a +cheap sneer had been levelled at it on that account; but, to my mind, +that was better than the haphazard way in which other colonies grew. +When I visited Sir Rowland Hill he was recognised as the great post +office reformer. To me he was also one of the founders of our province, +and the first pioneer of quota representation. When I met Matthew +Davenport Hill I respected him because he tried to keep delinquent boys +out of gaol, and promoted the establishment of reform schools; but I +also was grateful to him for suggesting to his brother the park lands +which surround Adelaide, and give us both beauty and health. To Col. +Light, who laid out the city so well, we owe the many open spaces and +squares; but he did not originate the idea of the park lands. Much of +the work of Mr. Davenport Hill and of his brother Frederick I took up +later with their niece (Miss C. E. Clark), and their ideas have been +probably more thoroughly carried out in South Australia than anywhere +else; but in 1865 I was learning a great deal that bore fruit +afterwards. +</P> + +<P> +I fear it would make this narrative too long if I went into detail +about the interesting people I met. Florence and Rossamund Davenport +Hill introduced me to Miss Frances Power Cobbe, whose "Intuitive +Morals" I admired so much. At Sir Rowland Hill's I met Sir Walter +Crofter, a prison reformer; Mr. Wells, Editor of "All the Year Round;" +Charles Knight, who had done so much for good and cheap literature; +Madame Bodichon (formerly Barbara Smith), the great friend and +correspondent of George Eliot, who was interesting to me because by +introducing the Australian eucalyptus to Algeria she had made an +unhealthy marshy country quite salubrious. She had a salon, where I met +very clever men and women—English and French—and which made me wish +for such things in Adelaide. The kindness and hospitality that were +shown to me—an absolute stranger—by all sorts of people were +surprising. Mr. and Mrs. Westlake took me on Sunday to see Bishop +Colenso. He showed me the photo of the enquiring Zulu who made him +doubt the literal truth of the early books of the Bible, and presented +me with the people's edition of his work on the Pentateuch. +</P> + +<P> +In all my travels and visits I saw little of the theatre or concert +room, and some of the candid confessions of Mrs. Oliphant might stand +for my own. I had read so many plays before I saw one that the +unreality of much of the acted drama impressed me unfavourably. The +asides in particular seemed impossible, and I think the more carefully +the pieces are put on the stage the more critical I become concerning +their probability; and when I hear the praise of the beautiful and +expensive theatrical wardrobes which, in the case of actresses seem to +set the fashion for the wealthy and well-born, I feel that it is a +costly means of making the story more unlikely. I seem to lose the +identity of the heroine who in two hours wears three or four different +toilettes complete. As Mrs. Oliphant did not identify the "nobody in +white tights" who rendered from "Twelfth Night" the lovely lines +beginning "That strain again; it had a dying fall" with the Orsino she +had imagined when reading the play, so I, who knew "She Stoops to +Conquer" almost by heart, was disappointed when I saw it on the stage. +I was taken to the opera once by Mr. and Mrs. Bakewell, and heard Patti +in "Don Giovanni," at Covent Garden, but opera of all kinds is wasted +on me. I liked some of the familiar airs and choruses, but all opera +needs far more make-believe than I am capable of. It is a pity that I +am so insensible to the youngest and the most progressive of the fine +arts. I am, however, in the good company of Mrs. Oliphant, who, +speaking of the musical parties in Eton, where she lived so long, for +the education of tier boys, writes in words that suit me perfectly: "In +one of these friends' houses a family quartet played what were rather +new and terrible to me—long sonatas and concerted pieces which filled +my soul with dismay. It is a dreadful confession to make, and proceeds +from want of education and instruction, but I fear any appreciation of +music I have is purely literary. I love a song and a 'tune;' the +humblest fiddler has sometimes given me the greatest pleasure, and +sometimes gone to my heart; but music, properly so called, the only +music that many of my friends would listen to, is to me a wonder and a +mystery. My mind wanders through adagios and andantes, gaping, longing +to understand. Will no one tell me what it means? I want to find the +old unhappy far off things which Wordsworth imagined in the Gaelic song +of the 'Highland Lass.' I feel out of it, uneasy, thinking all the time +what a poor creature I must be. I remember the mother of the sonata +players approaching me with beaming countenance on the occasion of one +of these performances, expecting the compliment which I faltered forth, +doing my best not to look insincere. 'And I have this every evening of +my life,' cried the triumphant mother. 'Good heavens, and you have +survived it all' was my internal response." But the worst thing is when +you do not expect a musical evening and this superior music is sprung +on you. Mrs. Webster and I were once invited to meet some very +interesting people, some of the best conversationalists in Melbourne, +and we were given high-class music instead, and scarcely could a remark +be exchanged when a warning finger was held up and silence insisted on. +I could not sing, but sometimes I attempted to hum a tune. I recollect +during my first visit to Melbourne, my little nephew Johnnie, delighted +in the rhymes and poems which I recited; but one day when I was ironing +I began to sing, and he burst out with "Don't sing, auntie; let me hear +the voice of your words." So for my own delectation I began +Wordsworth's "Leechgatherer"— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + There was a roaring in the wind all night,<BR> + The rain came heavily and fell in floods;<BR> + But now the sun is rising calm and bright.<BR> + The birds are singing in the distant woods;<BR> + Over his own sweet voice the stock dove broods.<BR> + The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters,<BR> + And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's pretty, auntie; say it again," I said it again, and yet +again, at his request, till he could almost repeat it. And he was not +quite 4 years old. He is still alive, and has not become a poet, which +was what I expected in those early days. He could repeat great screeds +of Browning's "Pied Piper of Hamelin," which was his especial +favourite. Music has often cheated me of what is to me the keenest +pleasure in life. Like Samuel Johnson, I enjoy greatly "good talk," +though I never took such a dominant part in it. There are two kinds of +people who reduce me to something like silence—those who know too +little and those who know too much. My brother-in-law's friend, Mr. +Cowan, was a great talker, and a good one, but he scarcely allowed me a +fair share. He was also an admirable correspondent. +</P> + +<P> +One predominant talker I met at Mr. Edwin Hill's—William Ellis, a +special friend of the Hills, and a noteworthy man. One needs to look +back 60 years to become conscious of how much English education was in +the hands of the church. Not only the public schools and the university +were overshadowed by the Established Church, but what schools were +accessible to the poor were a sort of appanage to the rectory, and the +teachers were bound to work for the good of the church and the +convenience of the incumbent. The commercial schools, which were +independent of the church, to which Non-conformists sent their boys, +were satirised by Dickens, and they deserved the satire. The masters +were generally incompetent, and the assistant teachers or ushers were +the most miserable in regard to payment and status. William Ellis +expended large sums of money, and almost all his leisure, in +establishing secular schools that were good for something. He called +them Birkbeck schools, thus doing honour to the founder of mechanics' +institutes, and perhaps the founder of the first of these schools; and +he taught what he called social science in them himself. He was the +Senor Ferrer of England; and, though he escaped martyrdom in the more +enlightened country he was looked on suspiciously by those who +considered education that was not founded on revealed religion and +permeated by its doctrines as dangerous and revolutionary. +</P> + +<P> +But there was one great personage who saw the value of those teachings +on things that make for human happiness and intellectual freedom, and +that was the Prince Consort. He asked William Ellis to give some +lessons to the eldest of the Royal children—the Princess Victoria, +Prince Edward (our present King), and Prince Alfred, afterwards Duke of +Saxe-Coburg. Mr. Ellis said all three were intelligent, and Princess +Victoria exceptionally so. What a tragedy it was—more so than that of +many an epic or drama—that the Princess Royal and the husband of her +choice, who had educated themselves and each other to take the reins of +the German Empire, and had drawn up so many Plans for the betterment of +the general conditions of the people, should, on their accession to +power, have met death standing on the steps of the throne; and that +only a powerless widow should have been left without much authority +over her masterful son. But my firm belief is that in many of the +excellent things that the Kaiser William has done for his people, he is +working on the plans that had been committed to writing by the Crown +Prince and Princess. Her father's memory was so dear to the Crown +Princess that anything he had suggested to her was cherished all her +life; and I do not doubt that these early lessons on the right relation +of human beings to each other—the social science which regards human +happiness as depending on justice and toleration—is even now bearing +fruit in the Fatherland. Shortsighted mortals see the immediate +failures, but in the larger eye of the Infinite and the Eternal there +is always progress towards better things from every honest attempt to +remedy injustice, and to increase knowledge. +</P> + +<P> +I arranged for a week in Paris with my young friends, Rosa and Symonds +Clark, of Hazelwood, and we travelled as far as Paris with the Hare +family, who went on to the Tyrol. We enjoyed the week. Louis Napoleon +appeared then to be quite secure on his throne, and we saw the fetes +and illuminations for his birthday. What a day and night of rain it +was! But the thousands of people, joyful and good-humoured under +umbrellas or without them—gave us a favourable impression of Parisian +crowds. In London I had been with Mr. Cowan in the crush to the +theatre. It was contrary to his principles to book seats, and I never +was so frightened in my life. I thought a London crowd rough and +merciless. I was the only one of the party who could speak any French, +and I spoke it badly, and had great difficulty in following French +conversations; but we got into a hotel where no English was spoken, and +managed to pull through. But we did not know a soul, and I think we did +not learn so much from our week's sightseeing as we should have done if +Miss Katie Hare had stayed the week with us. +</P> + +<P> +I then paid a visit to Birmingham, and spent a week at the sittings of +the British Association. By subscribing a guinea I was made an +Associate, and some of the sessions were very interesting, but much too +deep for me. I sat out a lecture on the Higher Mathematics, by +Professor Henry Smith, to whom Professor Pearson gave me an +introduction, in hopes that I might visit Oxford; but he was going +abroad, and I could not go to Oxford if I knew nobody—especially +alone. I went, however, to Carr's Lane Chapel, where a humble friend +had begged me to go, because there she had been converted, and there +the Rev. R. W. Dale happened to preach on "Where prayer was wont to be +made." He said that consecration was not due to a Bishop or to any +ecclesiastical ceremony, but to the devout prayers and praise of the +faithful souls within it—that thousands over Scotland and England, and +others in America, Australia, and New Zealand, look back to words which +they had heard and praises and prayers in which they had joined as the +holiest times in their lives. I thought of my good Mrs. Ludlow, and +thanked God for her. When Mr. Cowan took me to the church in Essex +place where he and his friend Wren used to hear Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P. for +Oldham, preach, a stranger, a young American, was there. I found out +afterwards he was Moncure Conway, and he gave us a most striking +discourse. There was going on in Birmingham at this time a controversy +between the old Unitarians and the new. In the Church of the Messiah +the old ministers gave a series of sermons on the absolute truth of the +New Testament miracles. The Old Testament he was quite willing to give +up, but he pinned his faith on those wrought by Christ and His +apostles. Some of the congregation told me they had never thought of +doubting them before, but the more Mr. B. defended them as the bulwarks +of Christianity, the more they felt that our religion rested on other +foundations. I saw a good deal of the industrial life of Birmingham, +and had a sight of the Black Country by day and by night. Joseph +Chamberlain was then a young man; I believe he was a Sunday school +teacher. The Unitarian Sunday Schools taught writing and arithmetic as +well as reading. In the terrible lack of national day schools many of +the poor had no teaching at all but what was given on Sundays, and no +time on other days of the week to learn anything. I could not help +contrasting the provision made by the parish schools of Scotland out of +the beggarly funds or tithes given for church and schools out of the +spoils of the Ancient Church by the Lords of the Congregation. +Education was not free, but it was cheap, and it was general. Scotchmen +made their way all over the world better than Englishmen mainly because +they were better educated. The Sunday school was not so much needed, +and was much later in establishing itself in Scotland. Good Hannah More +taught girls to read the Bible under a spreading tree in her garden +because no church would give her a place to teach in. "If girls were +taught to read where would we get servants?" It was an early cry. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MEETING WITH J. S. MILL AND GEORGE ELIOT. +</H3> + +<P> +I leave to the last of my experiences in the old world in 1865-6 my +interviews with John Stuart Mill and George Eliot. Stuart Mill's wife +was the sister of Arthur and of Alfred Hardy, of Adelaide, and the +former had given to me a copy of the first edition of Mill's "Political +Economy," with the original dedication to Mrs. John Taylor, who +afterwards became Mill's wife, which did not appear in subsequent +editions; but, as he had two gift copies of the same edition, Mr. Hardy +sent it on to me with his almost illegible handwriting:—"To Miss +Spence from the author, not, indeed, directly, but in the confidence +felt by the presenter that in so doing he is fulfilling the wish of the +author—viz., circulating his opinions, more especially in such +quarters as the present, where they will be accurately considered and +tested." I had also seen the dedication to Harriet Mill's beloved +memory of the noble book on "Liberty." Of her own individual work there +was only one specimen extant—an article on the "Enfranchisement of +women," included in Mill's collected essays—very good, certainly, but +not so overpoweringly excellent as I expected. Of course, it was an +early advocacy of the rights of women, or rather a revival of Mary +Wollstoneeraft's grand vindication of the rights of the sex; and this +was a reform which Mill himself took up more warmly than proportional +representation, and advocated for years before Mr. Hare's revelation. +For myself, I considered electoral reform on the Hare system of more +value than the enfranchisement of women, and was not eager for the +doubling of the electors in number, especially as the new voters would +probably be more ignorant and more apathetic than the old. I was +accounted a weak-kneed sister by those who worked primarily for woman +suffrage, although I was as much convinced as they were that I was +entitled to a vote, and hoped that I might be able to exercise it +before I was too feeble to hobble to the poll. I have unfortunately +lost the letter Mr. Mill wrote to me about my letters to The Register, +and my "Plea for Pure Democracy," but it gave him great pleasure to see +that a new idea both of the theory and practice of politics had been +taken up and expanded by a woman, and one from that Australian colony, +of which he had watched and aided the beginnings, as is seen by the +name of Mill terrace, North Adelaide, to-day. Indeed, both Hare and +Mill told me their first converts were women; and I felt that the +absolute disinterestedness of my "Plea," which was not for myself, but +only that the men who were supposed to represent me at the polling +booth should be equitably represented themselves, lent weight to my +arguments. I have no axe to grind—no political party to serve; so that +it was not until the movement for the enfranchisement of women grew too +strong to be neglected that I took hold of it at all; and I do not +claim any credit for its success in South Australia and the +Commonwealth, further than this—that by my writings and my spoken +addresses I showed that one woman had a steady grasp on politics and on +sociology. In 1865, when I was in England, Mr. Mill was permanently +resident at Avignon, where his wife died, but he had to come to England +to canvass for a seat in Parliament for Westminster as an Independent +member, believed at that time to be an advanced Radical, but known to +be a philosopher, and an economist of the highest rank in English +literature. I had only one opportunity of seeing him personally, and I +did not get so much out of him as I expected—he was so eager to know +how the colony and colonial people were developing. He asked me about +property in land and taxation, and the relations between employers and +employes, and I was a little amused and a little alarmed when he said +he was glad to get information from such a good authority. I had to +disclaim such knowledge; but he said he knew I was observant and +thoughtful, and what I had seen I had seen well. He was particularly +earnest about woman's suffrage, and Miss Taylor, his stepdaughter, said +she thought he had made a mistake in asking for the vote for single +women only and widows with property and wives who had a separate +estate; it would have been more logical to have asked for the vote on +the same terms as were extended to men. The great man said +meekly—"Well, perhaps I have made a mistake, but I thought with a +property qualification the beginning would awake less antagonism." He +said to me that if I was not to return to London till January we were +not likely to meet again. He walked with me bareheaded to the gate, and +it was farewell for both. +</P> + +<P> +Wise man as Mill was he did not foresee that his greatest object, the +enfranchisement of women, would be carried at the antipodes long before +there was victory either in England or America. When I received, in +1869 from the publisher, Mr. Mill's last book, "The Subjection of +Women," I wrote thanking him for the gift. The reply was as +follows:—"Avignon, November 28, 1869—Dear Madam—Your letter of +August 16 has been sent to me here. The copy of my little book was +intended for you, and I had much pleasure in offering it. The movement +against women's disabilities generally, and for the suffrage in +particular, has made great progress in England since you were last +there. It is likely, I think, to be successful in the colonies later +than in England, because the want of equality in social advantages +between women and men is less felt in the colonies owing, perhaps, to +women's having less need of other occupations than those of married +life—I am, dear Madam, yours very truly, J. S. Mill." I have always +held that, though the Pilgrim Fathers ignored the right of the Pilgrim +Mothers to the credit of founding the American States—although these +women had to take their full share of the toils and hardships and +perils of pioneer and frontier life, and had in addition to put up with +the Pilgrim Fathers themselves—Australian colonization was carried out +by men who were conscious of the service of their helpmates, and +grateful for it. In New Zealand and South Australia, founded on the +Wakefield system, where the sexes were almost equal in number, and the +immigration was mainly that of families, the first great triumphs for +the political enfranchisement of women were won, and through South +Australia the women of the Commonwealth obtained the Federal vote for +both Houses: whereas even in the sparsely inhabited western states in +the United States which have obtained the State vote the Federal vote +is withheld from them. But Mill died in 1873, 20 years before New +Zealand or Colorado obtained woman's suffrage. +</P> + +<P> +In treating of my one interview with Mr. Mill I have carried the +narrative down to 1869. With regard to my single meeting with George +Eliot, I have to begin in 1865, and conclude even later. Before I left +England Mr. Williams, of Smith, Elder, & Co., offered me an +introduction to George Henry Lewes, and I expressed the hope that it +might also include an introduction to George Eliot, whose works I so +admired. Mr. Lewes being away from home when I called, I requested that +the introductory letter of Mr. Williams should be taken to George Eliot +herself. She received me in the big Priory drawing room, with the grand +piano, where she held her receptions and musical evenings; but she +asked me if I had any business relating to the article which Mr. +Williams had mentioned, and I had to confess that I had none. For once +I felt myself at fault. I did not get on with George Eliot. She said +she was not well, and she did not look well. That strong pale face, +where the features were those of Dante or Savanarola, did not soften as +Mill's had done. The voice, which was singularly musical and +impressive, touched me—I am more susceptible to voices than to +features or complexion—but no subject that I started seemed to fall in +with her ideas, and she started none in which I could follow her lead +pleasantly. It was a short interview, and it was a failure. I felt I +had been looked on as an inquisitive Australian desiring an interview +upon any pretext; and indeed, next day I had a letter from Mr. +Williams, in which he told me that, but for the idea that I had some +business arrangement to speak of, she would not have seen me at all. So +I wrote to Mr. Williams that, as I had been received by mistake, I +should never mention the interview; but that impertinent curiosity was +not at all my motive in going that unlucky day to The Priory. +</P> + +<P> +Years passed by. I read everything, poetry and prose, that came from +George Eliot's pen, and was so strong an admirer of her that Mr. W. L. +Whitham, who took charge of the Unitarian Church while our pastor (Mr. +Woods) had a long furlough in England, asked me to lecture on her works +to his Mutual Improvement Society, and I undertook the task with joy. +Mr. H. G. Turner asked for the MS. to publish in the second number of +The Melbourne Review, a very promising quarterly for politics and +literature. I thought that, if I sent the review to George Eliot with a +note it might clear me from the suspicion of being a mere vulgar +lionhunter. Her answer was as follows:—"The Priory, North Bank, +Regent's Park, September 4, 1876. Dear Madam—Owing to an absence of +some months, it was only the other day that I read your kind letter of +April 17; and, although I have long been obliged to give up answering +the majority of letters addressed to me, I felt much pleased that you +had given me an opportunity of answering one from you; for I have +always remembered your visit with a regretful feeling that I had +probably caused you some pain by a rather unwise effort to give you a +reception which the state of my health at the moment made altogether +blundering and infelicitous. The mistake was all on my side, and you +were not in the least to blame. I also remember that your studies have +been of a serious kind, such as were likely to render a judgment on +fiction and poetry, or, as the Germans, with better classification, +say, in 'DICHTUNG' in general, quite other than the superficial +haphazard remarks of which reviews are generally made. You will all the +better understand that I have made it a rule not to read writing about +myself. I am exceptionally sensitive and liable to discouragement; and +to read much remark about my doings would have as depressing an effect +on me as staring in a mirror—perhaps, I may say, of defective glass. +But my husband looks at all the numerous articles that are forwarded to +me, and kindly keeps them out of my way—only on rare occasions reading +to me a passage which he thinks will comfort me by its evidence of +unusual insight or sympathy. Yesterday he read your article in The +Melbourne Review, and said at the end—'This is an excellently written +article, which would do credit to any English periodical' adding the +very uncommon testimony, 'I shall keep this.' Then he told me of some +passages in it which gratified me by that comprehension of my +meaning—that laying of the finger on the right spot—which is more +precious than praise, and forthwith he went to lay The Melbourne Review +in the drawer he assigns to any writing about me that gives him +pleasure. For he feels on my behalf more than I feel on my own, at +least in matters of this kind. If you come to England again when I +happen to be in town I hope that you will give me the pleasure of +seeing you under happier auspices than those of your former visit.—I +am, dear madam, yours sincerely, M. G. Lewes." The receipt of this kind +and candid letter gave me much pleasure; and, although on the strength +of that, I cannot boast of being a correspendent of that great woman, I +was able to say that I had seen and talked with her, and that she +considered me a competent critic of her work. Mrs. Oliphant says that +George Eliot's life impelled her to make an involuntary +confession—"How have I been handicapped in life? Should I have done +better if I had been kept, like her, in a mental green-house and taken +care of? I have always had to think of other people and to plan +everything for my own pleasure, it is true, very often, but always in +subjection to the necessity which bound me to them. To bring up the +boys—my own and Frank's—for the service of God was better than to +write a fine novel, if it had been in my power to do so." The heart +knows its own bitterness. There might have been some points in which +George Eliot might have envied Mrs. Oliphant. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +RETURN FROM THE OLD COUNTRY. +</H3> + +<P> +Before leaving Scotland I arranged that my friend, Mrs. Graham of the +strenuous life and 30 pounds a year, should undertake the care of my +aunts, to their mutual satisfaction. My last days in England were spent +in either a thick London fog or an equally undesirable Scotch mist, +which shrouded everything in obscurity, and made me long for the sunny +skies and the clear atmosphere of Australia. I told my friends that in +my country it either rained or let it alone. Indeed, the latest news +from all Australia was that it had let it alone very badly, and that +the overstocking of stations during the preceding good seasons had led +to enormous losses. Sheepfarmers made such large profits in good +seasons that they were apt to calculate that it was worth while to run +the risk of drought; but experience has shown that overstocking does +not really pay. The making of dams, the private and public provision of +water in the underground reservoirs by artesian bores, and the +facilities for travelling stock by such ways have all lessened the +risks which the pioneer pastoralists ran bravely in the old days. An +Australian drought can never be as disastrous in the twentieth century +as it was in 1866; and South Australia, the Central State, has from the +first been a pioneer in development as well as in exploration. The hum +of the reaping machine first awoke the echoes in our wheatfields. The +stump-jumping plough and the mullenicer which beats down the scrub or +low bush so that it can be burnt, were South Australian inventions, +copied elsewhere, which have turned land accounted worthless into +prolific wheat fields. +</P> + +<P> +If South Australia was the first of the States to exhaust her +agricultural soil, she was the first to restore it by means of +fertilizers and the seed drill. When I see the drilled wheat fields I +recollect my grandfather's two silver salvers—the Prizes from the +Highland Society for having the largest area of drilled wheat in +Scotland—and when I see the grand crops on the Adelaide Plains I +recall the opinion that, with anything like a decent rainfall, that +soil could grow anything. In 1866 the northern areas had not been +opened. The farmers were continuing the process of exhausting the land +by growing wheat—wheat—wheat, with the only variety wheaten hay. I +recollect James Burnet's amazement when I said that our horses were fed +on wheaten hay. "What a waste of the great possibilities of a grain +harvest!" He was doubtful when I said that with plenty of wheaten hay +the horses needed no corn. South Australia, except about Mount Gambier, +does not grow oats, though Victoria depends on oaten hay. The British +agriculturist thinks that meadow hay is the natural forage for horses +and cattle, and for winter turnips are the standby. It was a little +amusing to me that I could speak with some authority to skilled and +experienced agriculturists, who felt our rivalry at Mark lane, but who +did not dream that with the third great move of Australia towards the +markets of the world through cold storage we could send beef, mutton, +lamb, poultry, eggs, and all kinds of fruit to the consumers of Europe, +and especially of England and its metropolis. I did not see it, any +more than the people to whom I talked. I still thought that for meat +and all perishable commodities the distance was an insuperable +obstacle, and that, except for live stock from America, or canned meat +from Australia, the United Kingdom would continue self-supporting on +these lines. +</P> + +<P> +I returned to Australia, when this island continent was in the grip of +one of the most severe and protracted droughts in its history. The war +between Prussia and Austria had begun and ended; the failure of Overend +and Gurney and others brought commercial disaster; and my brother, with +other bankers, had anxious days and sleepless nights. Some rich men +became richer; many poor men went down altogether. Our recovery was +slow but sure. In the meantime I found life at home very dull after my +interesting experiences abroad. There was nothing to do for +proportional representation except to write an occasional letter to the +press. So I started another novel, which was published serially in The +Observer. Mr. George Bentley, who published it subsequently in book +form, changed its title from "Hugh Lindsay's Guest" to "The Author's +Daughter." But my development as a public speaker was more important +than the publication of a fourth novel. Much had been written on the +subject of public speaking by men, but so far nothing concerning the +capacities of women in that direction. And yet I think all teachers +will agree that girls in the aggregate excel boys in their powers of +expression, whether in writing, or in speech, though boys may surpass +them in such studies as arithmetic and mathematics. Yet law and custom +have put a bridle on the tongue of women, and of the innumerable +proverbs relating to the sex, the most cynical are those relating to +her use of language. Her only qualification for public speaking in old +days was that she could scold, and our ancestors imposed a salutary +cheek on this by the ducking stool in public, and sticks no thicker +than the thumb for marital correction in private. The writer of the +Proverbs alludes to the perpetual dropping of a woman's tongue as an +intolerable nuisance, and declares that it is better to live on the +housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. A later writer, +describing the virtuous woman, said that on her lips is the law of +kindness, and after all this is the real feminine characteristic. As +daughter, sister, wife, and mother—what does not the world owe to the +gracious words, the loving counsel, the ready sympathy which she +expresses? Until recent years, however, these feminine Rifts have been +strictly kept for home consumption, and only exercised for the woman's +family and a limited circle of friends. In 1825, when I first opened my +eyes on the world, there were indeed women who displayed an interest in +public affairs. My own mother not only felt the keenest solicitude +regarding the passing of the Reform Bill, but she took up her pen, and +with two letters to the local press, under the signature of "Grizel +Plowter," showed the advantages of the proposed measure. But public +speaking was absolutely out of the question for women, and though I was +the most ambitious of girls, my desire was to write a great book—not +at all to sway an audience. When I returned from my first visit to +England in 1866, I was asked by the committee of the South Australian +Institute to write a lecture on my impressions of England, different +from the article which had appeared in The Cornhill Magazine under that +title, but neither the committee nor myself thought of the possibility +of my delivering it. My good friend, the late Mr. John Howard Clark, +Editor of The Register, kindly offered to read it. I did not go to hear +it, but I was told that he had difficulty in reading my manuscript, and +that, though he was a beautiful reader, it was not very satisfactory. +So I mentally resolved that if I was again asked I should offer to read +my own MS. Five years afterwards I was asked for two literary lectures +by the same committee, and I chose as my subjects the works of +Elizabeth Browning and those of her husband, Robert Browning. Now, I +consider that the main thing for a lecturer is to be heard, and a +rising young lawyer (now our Chief Justice) kindly offered to take the +back seat, and promised to raise his hand if he could not hear. It was +not raised once, so I felt satisfied. I began by saying that I +undertook the work for two reasons—first, to make my audience more +familiar with the writings of two poets very dear to me; and second, to +make easier henceforward for any woman who felt she had something to +say to stand up and say it. I felt very nervous, and as if my knees +were giving way; but I did not show any nervousness. I read the +lecture, but most of the quotations I recited from memory. Not having +had any lessons in elocution, I trusted to my natural voice, and felt +that in this new role the less gesticulation I used the better. Whether +the advice of Demosthenes is rightly translated or not—first +requisite, action; second, action; third, action—I am sure that +English word does not express the requisite for women. I should rather +call it earnestness—a conviction that what you say is worth saying, +and worth saying to the audience before you. I had a lesson on the +danger of overaction from hearing a gentleman recite in public "The +dream of Eugene Aram," in which he went through all the movements of +killing and burying the murdered man. When a tale is crystallized into +a poem it does not require the action of a drama. However little action +I may use I never speak in public with gloves on. They interfere with +the natural eloquence of the hand. After these lectures I occasionally +was asked to give others on literary subjects. +</P> + +<P> +At this time I began to study Latin with my nephew, a boy of 14. He was +then an orphan, my youngest and beloved sister Mary having recently +died and left her two children to my care. My teacher thought me the +more apt pupil, but it was really due more to my command of English +than to my knowledge of Latin that I was able to get at the meaning of +Virgil and Horace. When it came to Latin composition I was no better +than the boy of 14. Before the death of my sister the family invested +in land in Trinity street, College Town, and built a house. Mother had +planned the house she moved into when I was six months old, and she +delighted in the task, though she said it seemed absurd to build a +house in her seventy-ninth year. But she lived in it from January, +1870, till December, 1887, and her youngest daughter lived in it for +only ten months. Before that time I had embarked with my friend, Miss +Clark, on one of the greatest enterprises of my life—one which led to +so much that my friends are apt to say that, if I am recollected at +all, it will be in connection with the children of the State and not +with electoral reform. But I maintain now, as I maintained then, that +the main object of my life is proportional representation, or, to use +my brother John's term, effective voting. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WARDS OF THE STATE. +</H3> + +<P> +In a little book which the State Children's Council requested me to +write as a memorial of the great work of Miss C. E. Clark on her +retirement at the age of 80, I have given an account of the movement +from the beginning down to 1907, which had its origin in South +Australia under the leadership of Miss Clark. When I was on my way cut +from England, Miss Clark wrote a letter to The Register, suggesting +that the destitute, neglected, or orphaned children should be removed +from the Destitute Asylum and placed in natural homes with respectable +people; but the great wave which came over England about that time for +building industrial schools and reformatories affected South Australia +also, and the idea was that, though the children should be removed from +the older inmates, it should be to an institution. Land was bought and +plans were drawn up for an industrial school at Magill, five miles from +Adelaide, when Miss Clark came to me and asked me to help her to take a +different course. She enlisted Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Colton and Mrs. +(afterwards Lady) Davenport in the cause, and we arranged for a +deputation to the Minister; Howard Clark, Neville Blyth, and Mr. C. B. +Young joined us. We offered to find country homes and provide lady +visitors, but our request was simply scouted. As we did not offer to +bear any of the cost it would be absurd to give us any share in the +administration. Children would only be given homes for the sake of the +money paid, and Oliver Twist's was held up as the sort of +apprenticeship likely to be secured for pauper children. So we had to +play the waiting game. The school built to accommodate 230 children was +on four floors, though there was 40 acres of good land. It was so +popular that, though only 130 went in at first, in two years it was so +full that there was talk of adding a wing. This was our opportunity, +and the same men and women went on another deputation, and this time we +prevailed, and were allowed to place out the overflow as an experiment; +and not only the Boarding-out Committee, but the official heads of the +Destitute Department, were surprised and delighted with the good homes +we secured for 5/ a week, and with the improvement in health, in +intelligence, and in happiness that resulted from putting children into +natural homes. What distinguishes work for children in Australia from +what is done elsewhere is that it is national, and not philanthropic. +The State is in loco-parentis, and sees that what the child needs are a +home and a mother—that, if the home and the mother are good, the child +shall be kept there; but that vigilant inspection is needed, voluntary +or official—better to have both. Gradually the Magill School was +emptied, and the children were scattered. Up to the age of 13 the home +was subsidized, but when by the education law the child was free from +school attendance, and went to service, the supervision continued until +the age of 18 was reached. For nearly 14 years, from 1872 to 1886, the +Boarding-out Society pursued its modest labours as auxiliary to the +Destitute Board. Our volunteer visitors reported in duplicate—one copy +for the official board, and one for the unofficial committee. When the +method was inaugurated, Mr. T. S. Reed. Chairman of the Board, was +completely won over. We had nothing to do with the reformatories, +except that our visitors went to see those placed out at service in +their neighbourhood. +</P> + +<P> +Our success attracted attention elsewhere. The late Dr. Andrew Garran, +who was on The Register when I went to England, had moved to Sydney in +my absence, and was on the staff of The Sydney Morning Herald. When +Miss Clark went to England in 1877, after her mother`s death, Dr. +Garran wrote to me for some account of our methods, and of their +success, physical, moral, and financial. Dr. Garran came out with Mr. +G. F. Angas and the Australian Constitution in 1851 in search of health +and work, both of which he found here. The first pages of my four +volumes of newspaper cuttings are filled with two long articles, "The +Children of the State," and this started the movement in New South +Wales, led by Mrs. Garran, nee Sabine, and Mrs. Jefferis wife of the +leading Congregational minister, moved from Adelaide to Sydney. +Professor Henry Pearson asked me a year or two later to give similar +information to The Melbourne Age. Subsequently I wrote on this subject, +by request, to Queensland, New Zealand, and I think also Tasmania, +where we were imitated first, but where there are still to be found +children of the State in institutions. In Victoria and New South Wales +a vigorous policy emptied these buildings, which were used for other +public purposes, and the children were dispersed. The innovation which +at first was scouted as utopian, next suspected as leading to neglect, +or even unkindness—for people would only take these children for what +they could make out of them—was found to be so beneficial that nobody +in Australia would like to return to the barrack home or the barrack +school. If the inspection had been from the first merely official, +public opinion would have been suspicious and sceptical, but when +ladies saw the children in these homes, and watched how the dull faces +brightened, and the languid limbs became alert after a few weeks of +ordinary life—when the cheeks became rosier, and the eyes had new +light in them; when they saw that the foster parents took pride in +their progress at school, and made them handy about the house, as they +could never be at an institution, where everything is done at the sound +of a bell or the stroke of a clock—these ladies testified to what they +knew, and the public believed in them. In other English-speaking +countries boarding-out in families is sometimes permitted; but here, +under the Southern Cross, it is the law of the land that children shall +not be brought up in institutions, but in homes: that the child whose +parent is the State shall have as good schooling as the child who has +parents and guardians; that every child shall have, not the discipline +of routine and redtape, but free and cheerful environment of ordinary +life, preferably in the country—going to school with other young +fellow citizens, going to church with the family in which he is placed, +having the ordinary ditties, the ordinary difficulties, the ordinary +pleasures of common life; but guarded from injustice, neglect, and +cruelty by effective and kindly supervision. This movement, originated +in South Australia, and with all its far-reaching developments and +expansions, is due to the initiative of one woman of whom the State is +justly proud—Miss Caroline Emily Clark. +</P> + +<P> +Even while we were only a Boarding-out Committee, it was found +necessary to have one paid inspector; but there was great +dissatisfaction with the Boys' Reformatory which had been located in an +old leaky hulk, where the boys could learn neither seamanship nor +anything else—and with some other details of the management of the +destitute poor, and a commission with the Chief Justice as Chairman, +was appointed to make enquiries and suggest reforms. The result was the +separation of the young from the old absolutely; and a new body, the +State Children's Council, of 12 men and women of nearly equal +proportions, had authority over the reformatories, as well as what was +called the industrial school, which was to be reduced to a mere +receiving home, and all the children placed out, either on subsidy or +at service. Most of the old committee were appointed; but, to my great +joy, Dr. Edward C. Stirling and Mr. James Smith, the most enlightened +man on the Destitute Board, were among the new members. We had a paid +stall, with a most able secretary—Mr. J. B. Whiting. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Stirling was unanimously voted in as President, and we felt we +began our new duties under the most promising auspices. But, alas, in +two years there was so much friction between the council and the +Ministry that we all resigned in a body, except Mrs. Colton (who was in +England) and Mrs. Farr. We were fighting the battle of the unpaid +boards, and we were so strong in the public estimation that we might +have won the victory. The Government had relieved children on the +petition of parents, contrary to the strong recommendation of the +council. Although the commission had declared that the reformatory boys +should be removed at once from the hulk Fitzjames, they were still kept +there, and the only offer of accommodation given was to share the +Magill Industrial School with the reformatory girls. Now, this the +council would not hear of, for we felt that the Government plans for +separate entrances and separate staircases were absolutely futile and +ridiculous for keeping apart these two dangerous classes in a single +building. The Government gave way on the point of providing a separate +building for the reformatory girls; and the committee, with the +exception of Dr. Stirling and Mr. James Smith—our two strongest +members—were reappointed. The official staff was increased by the +appointment of clerks and inspectors, many of them women, who have +always given every satisfaction, and who justify the claim made that +women's work is conscientious and thorough. +</P> + +<P> +More departments were gradually added to our sphere of action. The +separate trial of juvenile delinquents was strongly advocated by the +council. Miss Clark and Mr. C. H. Goode were particularly keen on the +introduction of Children's Courts. In this reform South Australia led +the world, and in the new Act of 1896, after six years of tentative +work, it became compulsory to try offenders under 18 at the Children's +Court in the city and suburbs, and in the Magistrate's room in the +country. The methods of organization and control vary in the different +States of the Commonwealth, but on one point the six are all +agreed—that dependent and delinquent children are a national asset and +a national responsibility, and any forward step anywhere has every +chance of being copied. The result of Children's Courts and probation +has been that, while the population of the State has greatly increased, +the committals to the Gaol and for penal servitude have steadily +decreased, and the Boys' Reformatory has been reduced to one-third of +the number in earlier days. There are, of course, many factors in all +directions of social betterment, but the substitution of homes for +institutions, and of probation carefully watched for summary +punishment, are, in my opinion, the largest factors in, this State. The +affection between children and their foster parents is often lifelong; +and we see thousands who were taken from bad parents and evil +environments taking their place in the industrial world, and filling it +well. The movement in South Australia initiated by Miss Clark spread +from State to State, and the happy thought of the President and +Secretary of the Council that I should write an account of +"Boarding-out and its Developments" as a memorial of her great work +bore fruit in the legislation of the United Kingdom itself. A letter I +received from Mr. Herbert Samuel, then Under-Secretary of State in the +British Government, was gratifying, both to the council and to +me:—"Home Office, Whitehall, S.W., August 5, 1907. Dear Madam—I have +just read your little book on 'State Children in Australia;' and, +although a stranger to you, would venture to write to thank you for the +very valuable contribution you have made to the literature on the +subject. The present Government in England are already engaged in +promoting the more kindly and more effective methods of dealing with +destitute, neglected, or delinquent children, which are already so +widely adopted in South Australia. We are passing through Parliament +this year a Bill to enable a system of probation officers, both paid +and voluntary, to be established throughout the country, for dealing +not indeed with child offenders alone, but with adult offenders also, +who may be properly amenable to that treatment. And next year we +propose to introduce a comprehensive Children's Bill, which has been +entrusted to my charge, in which we hope to be able to include some of +the reforms you have at heart. In the preparation of that Bill the +experience of your colony and the account of it which you have +published will be of no small assistance. Yours sincerely, Herbert +Samuel." +</P> + +<P> +Another department of our work for the protection of infant life, and +this we took over from the Destitute Board, where some unique +provisions had been initiated by Mr. James Smith. The Destitute Asylum +was the last refuge of the old and incapacitated poor, but it never +opened its doors to the able bodied. In the Union Workhouse in England +room is always found for friendless and penniless to come there for +confinement, who leave as soon as they are physically strong enough to +take their burden—their little baby—in their arms and face the world +again. In Adelaide these women were in 1868 divided into two classes, +one for girls who had made their first slip—girls weak, but very +rarely wicked—so as to separate them, from women who came for a second +or third time, who were cared for with their infants in the general +asylum. Mr. James Smith obtained in 1881 legislation to empower the +Destitute Board to make every woman sign an agreement to remain with +her infant, giving it the natural nourishment, for six months. This has +saved many infant lives, and has encouraged maternal affection. The +Destitute Board kept in its hands the issuing of licences, and +appointed a lady to visit the babies till they were two years old, and +did good work; but when that department was properly turned over to the +State Children's Council there was even more vigilance exercised, and +the death rate among these babies, often handicapped before birth, and +always artificially fed after, was reduced to something less than the +average of all babies. We have been fortunate in our chief inspectress +of babies. Her character has uplifted the licensed foster mothers, and +the two combined have raised the real mothers. It is surprising how few +such babies are thrown on the State. The department does not pay any +board or find any clothing for these infants. It, however, pays for +supervision and pays for a lady doctor, so that there need be no excuse +for not calling in medical assistance if it is felt to be needed. +Occasionally a visitor from other States or from England is allowed as +a great favour to see, not picked cases, but the ordinary run, of the +homes of foster mothers, and the question, "Where and how do you get +such women?" is asked. We have weeded out the inferiors, and our +instructions with regard to feeding and care are so definite, and found +to be so sound, that the women take a pride in the health and the +beauty of the little ones; and besides they keep up the love of the +real mother by the care they give them. A recent Act has raised the age +of supervision of illegitimate babies from two to seven years, and this +has necessitated the appointment of an additional inspectress. In South +Australia baby farming has been extinguished, and in the other States +legislation on similar lines has been won, and they are in process of +gradually weeding out bad and doubtful foster mothers. And the foster +fathers are often as fond of the babies as their wives—and as +softhearted. "Did you see that the poor girl had on broken boots this +weather?" said he. "Yes, it's a Pity; but we are poor folks +ourselves—we can't help it," said she. "Let her off the 6/ for a +fortnight, so as she can get a pair of sound boots for her feet, we'll +worry through without it." And they did. The extreme solicitude of the +State Children's Department, as carried out by its zealous officers, +for the life and the wellbeing of their babies serves them in Public +extenuation, and the children are often so pretty and engaging that +they win love all round. A grown-up son in the home was very fond of +little Lily. "Mother will you get Lily a cream coat, such as I see +other babies wearing, and I will pay for it." +</P> + +<P> +A most pathetic story I can tell of a girl respectably connected in the +country, who had been cast off in disgrace, and came to town to take a +place, committing her infant to a good foster mother. When he was old +enough to move about, and was just trying to walk, the mother was taken +dangerously ill to the Adelaide Hospital. The foster mother thought the +girl's father should be sent for, and wrote to him giving her own +address, but not disclosing her connection with the patient. The father +of the girl came, and was told that he had better be accompanied by his +informant, who could prepare the sick woman for the interview. The +little boy was running about, and the old man took him on his knee +while the woman got ready to go out. "You must come with us, Sonny," +said she. "I can't leave you alone in the house." "A very fine little +chap. Your youngest, I suppose. I can see he is a great pet." "No," +said the woman slowly, "he is not my son, he is your grandson." "Good +God, my grandson," Then, clasping the little fellow to his heart, he +said, "I'll never part with him!" The mother recovered, and was taken +home with her child and forgiven. Such is often the work of the good +foster mother. In all the successes of the irresponsible committee and +of the responsible State Children's Council the greatest factor has +been the character of the good women who have been mothers to the +little ones. The fears that only self-interest could induce them to +take on the neglected and uncontrollable children were not borne out by +experience, and in the ease of these babies not really illegitimate—it +is the parents who deserve that title, no infant can—the mother's +instinct came out very strong. At a conference of workers among +dependent children, held in Adelaide in May, 1909, when all six States +were represented, a Western Australian representative said that the +average family home was not so good for its natural circle that it +could be depended on for strangers; but our answer was that, both for +the children of the State and for the babies who were not State +children, we insisted on something better than the average home, and +through our inspection we sought to improve it still further. We have +not reached perfection by any means. When we begin to think we have, we +are sure to fall back. Another good office the State Children's +Department fills is that of advice gratis. One of the most striking +chapters in Gen. Booth's "Darkest England" dealt with the helplessness +of the poor and the ignorant in the face of difficulties, of injustice, +and of extortion. When I was in Chicago in 1893 I saw that the first +university settlement, that of Hull House, presided over by Miss Jane +Addams (St. Jane some of her friends call her) was the centre to is +which the poor American, German, Italian, or other alien went for +advice as well as practical help. A word in season was often of more +value than dollars. To be told what to do or what not to do at a crisis +when decision is so important may be salvation for the pocket or for +the character. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREACHING, FRIENDS, AND WRITING. +</H3> + +<P> +My life now became more interesting and varied. A wider field for my +journalistic capabilities was open to me, and I also took part in the +growth of education, both spiritual and secular. The main promoters of +the ambitious literary periodical The Melbourne Review, to which I +became a contributor, were Mr. Henry Gyles Turner (the banker), Mr. +Alexander Sutherland, M.A. (author of "The History of Australia" and +several other books), and A. Patchett Martin (the litterateur). It +lived for nine years, and produced a good deal of creditable writing, +but it never was able to pay its contributors, because it never +attained such a circulation as would attract advertisements. The +reviews and magazines of the present day depend on advertisements. They +cheapen the price so as to gain a circulation, which advertisers cater +for. I think my second article was on the death of Sir Richard Hanson +(one of the original South Australian Literary Society, which met in +London before South Australia existed). At the time of his death he was +Chief Justice. He was the author of two books of Biblical +criticism—"The Jesus of History" and "Paul and the Primitive +Church"—and I undertook to deal with his life and work. About that +time there was one of those periodic outbursts of Imperialism in the +Australian colonies—not popular or general, but among politicians—on +the question of how the colonies could obtain practical recognition in +the Legislature of the United Kingdom. Each of the colonies felt that +Downing street inadequately represented its claims and its aspirations, +and there were several articles in "The Melbourne Review" suggesting +that these colonies should be allowed to send members to the House of +Commons. This, I felt, would be inadmissible; for, unless we were +prepared to bear our share of the burdens, we had no right to sit in +the taxing Assembly of the United Kingdom. The only House in which the +colonies, small or great, could be represented was the House of Lords; +and it appeared to me that, with a reformed House of Lords, this would +be quite practicable. An article in Fraser's Magazine, "Why not the +Lords, too?" had struck me much, and the lines on which it ran greatly +resemble those laid down by Lord Rosebery for lessening in number and +improving in character the unwieldy hereditary House of Peers; but +neither that writer nor Lord Rosebery grasped the idea that I made +prominent in an article I wrote for The Review, which was that the +reduction of the peers to 200, or any other number ought to be made on +the principle of proportional representation, because otherwise the +majority of the peers, being Conservative, an election on ordinary +lines would result in a selection of the most extreme Conservatives in +the body. My mother had pointed out to me that the 16 representative +Scottish peers elected by those who have not a seat as British peers, +for the duration of each Parliament, were the most Tory of the Tories, +and that the same could be said of the 28 representative peers for +Ireland elected for life. So, though the House of Lords contains a +respectable minority of Liberals, under no system of exclusively +majority representation could any of them be chosen among the 200. I +had the same idea of life peers to be added from the ranks of the +professions, of science, and of literature, unburdened by the weight +and cost of an hereditary title, that Lord Rosebery has; and into such +a body I thought that representatives of the great self-governing +colonies could enter, so that information about our resources, our +politics, and our sociology might be available, and might permeate the +press. But, greatly to my surprise, my article was sent back, but was +afterwards accepted by Fraser's Magazine. This was better for me, for +what would have been published for nothing in The Melbourne Review +brought me 8/15/0 from a good English magazine. I continued to write +for this review, until it ceased to exist, in 1885, literary and +political articles. The former included a second one on "George Eliot's +Life and Work," and one on "Honore de Balzac," which many of my friends +thought my best literary effort. +</P> + +<P> +It was through Miss Martha Turner that I was introduced to her brother +and to The Melbourne Review. She was at that time pastor of the +Unitarian Church in Melbourne. She had during the long illness of the +Rev. Mr. Higginson helped her brother with the services. At first she +wrote sermons for him to deliver, but on some occasions when he was +indisposed she read her own compositions. Fine reader as Mr. H. G. +Turner is he did not come up to her, and especially he could not equal +her in the presentment of her own thoughts. The congregation on the +death of Mr. Higginson asked Miss Turner to accept the pastorate. She +said she could conduct the services, but she absolutely declined to do +the pastoral duties—visiting especially. She was licensed to conduct +marriage services and baptized (or, as we call it, consecrated) +children to the service of Almighty God and to the service of man. +During the absence of our pastor for a long holiday in England Mr. C. +L. Whitham afterwards an education inspector, took his place for two +years, and he arranged for an exchange of three weeks with Miss Turner. +She is the first woman I ever heard in the pulpit. I was thrilled by +her exquisite voice, by her earnestness, and by her reverence. I felt +as I had never felt before that if women are excluded from the +Christian pulpit you shut out more than half of the devoutness that is +in the world. Reading George Eliot's description of Dinah Morris +preaching Methodisim on the green at Hayslope had prepared me in a +measure, but when I heard a highly educated and exceptionally able +woman conducting the services all through, and especially reading the +Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments with so much intelligence that +they seemed to take on new meaning, I felt how much the world had been +losing for so many centuries. She twice exchanged with Adelaide—the +second time when Mr. Woods had returned—and it was the beginning to me +of a close friendship. +</P> + +<P> +Imitation, they say, is the sincerest flattery; and when a similar +opportunity was offered to me during an illness of Mr. Woods, when no +layman was available, I was first asked to read a sermon of Martineau's +and then I suggested that I might give something of my own. My first +original sermon was on "Enoch and Columbus," and my second on "Content, +discontent, and uncontent." I suppose I have preached more than a +hundred times, in my life, mostly in the Wakefield Street pulpit; but +in Melbourne and Sydney I am always asked for help; and when I went to +America in 1893-4 I was offered seven pulpits—one in Toronto, Canada, +and six in the United States. The preparation of my sermons—for, after +the first one I delivered, they were always original—has always been a +joy and delight to me, for I prefer that my subjects as well as their +treatment shall be as humanly helpful as it is possible to make them. +In Sydney particularly I have preached to fine audiences. On one +occasion I remember preaching in a large hall, as the Unitarian Church +could not have held the congregation. It was during the campaign that +Mrs. Young and I conducted in Sydney—in 1900, and we had spent the +day—a delightful one—with the present Sir George and Lady Reid at +their beautiful home at Strathfield, and returned in time to take the +evening service at Sydney. I spoke on the advantages of international +peace, and illustrated my discourse with arguments, drawn from the +South African War, which was then in progress. I seized the opportunity +afforded me of speaking some plain home truths on the matter. I was +afterwards referred to by The Sydney Bulletin as "the gallant little +old lady who had more moral courage in her little finger than all the +Sydney ministers had in their combined anatomies." For one of my +sermons I wrote an original parable which pleased my friends so much +that I include it in the account of my life's work. "And it came to +pass after the five days of Creation which were periods of unknown +length of time that God took the soul, the naked soul, with which He +was to endow the highest of his creatures—into Eden to look with him +on the work which He had accomplished. And the Soul could see, could +hear, could understand, though there were neither eyes, nor ears, nor +limbs, nor bodily organs, to do its bidding. And God said, 'Soul, thou +shalt have a body as these creatures, that thou seest around thee have. +Thou art to be king, and rule over them all. Thy mission is to subdue +the earth, and make it fruitful and more beautiful than it is even now, +in thus its dawn. Which of all these living creatures wouldst thou +resemble?' And the Soul looked, and the Soul listened, and the Soul +understood. The beauty of the birds first attracted him and their songs +were sweet, and their loving care of their young called forth a +response in the Prophetic Soul. But the sweet singers could not subdue +the earth—nay, even the strongest voice could not. Then the Soul gazed +on the lion in his strength; on the deer in his beauty. He saw the +large-eyed bull with the cow by his side, licking her calf. The stately +horse, the huge elephant, the ungainly camel—could any of these subdue +the earth? He looked down, and they made it shake with their heavy +tread, but the Soul knew that the earth could not be subdued by them. +Then he saw a pair of monkeys climbing a tree—the female had a little +one in her arms. Where the bird had wings, and the beasts four legs +planted on the ground, the monkeys had arms, and, at the end of each, +hands, with five fingers; they gathered nuts and cracked them, and +picked out the kernels, throwing the shells away—the mother caressed +her young one with gentle fingers. The Soul saw also the larger ape +with its almost upright form. 'Ah!' sighed the Soul, 'they are not +beautiful like the other creatures, neither are they so strong as many +of them. But their forelimbs, with hands and fingers to grasp with, are +what I need to subdue the earth, for they will be the servants who can +best obey my will. Let me stand upright and gaze upward, and this is +the body that I choose.' And God said, 'Soul, thou hast chosen well, +Thou shalt be larger and stronger than these creatures thou seest thou +shalt stand upright, and look upward and onward. And the Soul can +create beauty for itself, when it shines through the body.' And it was +so, and Adam stood erect and gave names to all other creatures." +</P> + +<P> +In the seventies the old education system, or want of system, was +broken up, and a complete department of public instruction was +constructed. Mr. J. A. Hartley, head master of Prince Alfred College, +was placed at the head of it, and a vigorous policy was adopted. When +the Misses Davenport Hill came out to visit aunt and cousins, I visited +with them and Miss Clark the Grote Street Model School, and I was +delighted with the new administration. I hoped that the instruction of +the children of the people would attract the poor gentlewomen who were +so badly paid as governesses in families or in schools; but my hope has +not been at all adequately fulfilled. The Register had been most +earnest in its desire for a better system of public education. The late +Mr. John Howard Clark, its then editor, wanted some articles on the +education of girls, and he applied to me to do them, and I wrote two +leading articles on the subject, and another on the "Ladder of +Learning." from the elementary school to the university, as exemplified +in my native country where ambitious lads cultivated literature on a +little oatmeal. For an Adelaide University was in the air, and took +form owing to the benefactions of Capt. (afterwards Sir Walter Watson) +Hughes, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Elder. But the opposition to +Mr. Hartley, which set in soon after his appointment, and his supposed +drastic methods and autocratic attitude, continued. I did not knew Mr. +Hartley personally, but I knew he had been an admirable head teacher, +and the most valuable member of the Education Board which preceded the +revolution. I knew, too, that the old school teachers were far inferior +to what were needed for the new work, and that you cannot make an +omelette without breaking eggs. A letter which I wrote to Mr. Hartley, +saying that I desired to help him in any way in my power, led to a +friendship which lasted till his lamented death in 1896. I fancied at +the time that my aid did him good, but I think now that the opposition +had spent its force before I put in my oar by some letters to the +press. South Australians became afterwards appreciative of the work +done by Mr. Hartley, and proud of the good position this State took in +matters educational among the sister States under the Southern Cross. +</P> + +<P> +It was due to Mrs. Webster's second visit to Adelaide to exchange with +Mr. Woods that I made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. E. Barr Smith. +They went to the church and were shown into my seat, and Mrs. Smith +asked me to bring the eloquent preacher to Torrens Park to dine there. +I discovered that they had long wanted to know me, but I was out of +society. I recollect afterwards going to the office to see Mr. Smith on +some business or other, when he was out, and meeting Mr. Elder instead. +He pressed on me the duty of going to see Mrs. Black, a lady from +Edinburgh, who had come out with her sons and daughter. Mr. Barr Smith +came in, and his brother-in-law said, "I have just been telling Miss +Spence she should go and call on the Blacks." "Tom," said Mr. Barr +Smith, "we have been just 20 years making the acquaintance of Miss +Spence. About the year 1899 Miss Spence will be dropping in on the +Blacks." What a house Torrens Park was for books. There was no other +customer of the book shops equal to the Torrens Park family. Rich men +and women often buy books for themselves, and for rare old books they +will give big prices; but the Barr Smiths bought books in sixes and in +dozens for the joy of giving them where they would be appreciated. On +my literary side Mrs. Barr Smith, a keen critic herself, fitted in with +me admirably, and what I owed to her in the way of books for about 10 +years cannot be put on paper, and in my journalistic work she +delighted. Other friendships, both literary and personal, were formed +in the decade which started the elementary schools and the University. +The first Hughes professor of English literature was the Rev. John +Davidson of Chalmers Church, married to Harriet, daughter of Hugh +Miller, the self-taught ecologist and journalist. +</P> + +<P> +On the day of the inauguration of the University the Davidsons asked +Miss Clark and myself to go with them, and there I met Miss Catherine +Mackay (now Mrs. Fred Martin), from Mount Gambier. I at first thought +her the daughter of a wealthy squatter of the south-east, but when I +found she was a litterateur trying to make a living by her pen, +bringing out a serial tale, "Bohemian Born," and writing occasional +articles, I drew to her at once. So long as the serial tale lasted she +could hold her own; but no one can make a living at occasional articles +in Australia, and she became a clerk in the Education Office, but still +cultivated literature in her leisure hours. She has published two +novels—"An Australian Girl" and "The Silent Sea"—which so good a +judge as F. W. H. Myers pronounced to be on the highest level ever +reached in Australian fiction, and in that opinion I heartily concur. I +take a very humble second place beside her, but in the seventies I +wrote "Gathered In," which I believed to be my best novel—the novel +into which I put the most of myself, the only novel I wrote with tears +of emotion. Mrs. Oliphant says that Jeanie Deans is more real to her +than any of her own creations, and probably it is the same with me, +except for this one work. From an old diary of the fifties, when my +first novels were written I take this extract:—"Queer that I who have +such a distinct idea of what I approve in flesh-and-blood men should +only achieve in pen and ink a set of impossible people, with an absurd +muddy expression of gloom, instead of sublime depth as I intended. Men +novelists' women are as impossible creations as my men, but there is +this difference—their productions satisfy them, mine fail to satisfy +me." But in my last novel—still unpublished—felt quite satisfied that +I had at last achieved my ambition to create characters that stood out +distinctly and real. Miss Clark took the MS. to England, but she could +not get either Bentley or Smith Elder, or Macmillan to accept it. +</P> + +<P> +On the death of Mr. John Howard Clark, which took place at this time, +Mr. John Harvey Finlayson was left to edit The Register, and I became a +regular outside contributor to The Register and The Observer. He +desired to keep up and if possible improve the literary side of the +papers, and felt that the loss of Mr. Clark might be in some measure +made up if I give myself wholeheartedly to the work. Leading articles +were to be written at my own risk. If they suited the policy of the +paper they would be accepted, otherwise not. What a glorious opening +for my ambition and for my literary proclivities came to me in July, +1878, when I was in my fifty-third year! Many leading articles were +rejected, but not one literary or social article. Generally these last +appeared in both daily and weekly papers. I recollect the second +original social article I wrote was on "Equality as an influence on +society and manners," suggested by Matthew Arnold. The much-travelled +Smythe, then, I think, touring with Charles Clark, wrote to Mr. +Finlayson from Wallaroo thus:—"In this dead-alive place, where one +might fire a mitrailleuse down the principal street without hurting +anybody, I read this delightful article in yesterday's Register. When +we come again to Adelaide, and we collect a few choice spirits, be sure +to invite the writer of this article to join us." I felt as if the +round woman had got at last into the round hole which fitted her; and +in my little study, with my books and my pigeon holes, and my dear old +mother sitting with her knitting on her rocking chair at the low +window, I had the knowledge that she was interested in all I did. I +generally read the MS to her before it went to the office. What is more +remarkable, perhaps, is that the excellent maid who was with us for 12 +years, picked out everything of mine that was in the papers and read +it. A series of papers called "Some Social Aspects of Early Colonial +Life" I contributed under the pseudonym of "A Colonist of 1839." From +1878 till 1893, when I went round the world via America, I held the +position of outside contributor on the oldest newspaper in the State, +and for these 14 years I had great latitude. My friend Dr. Garran, then +editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, accepted reviews and articles from +me. Sometimes I reviewed the same books for both, but I wrote the +articles differently, and made different quotations, so that I scarcely +think any one could detect the same hand in them; but generally they +were different books and different subjects, which I treated. I tried +The Australasian with a short story, "Afloat and Ashore," and with a +social article on "Wealth, Waste, and Want." I contributed to The +Melbourne Review, and later to The Victorian Review, which began by +paying well, but filtered out gradually. I found journalism a better +paying business for me than novel writing, and I delighted in the +breadth of the canvas on which I could draw my sketches of books and of +life. I believe that my work on newspapers and reviews is more +characteristic of me, and intrinsically better work than what I have +done in fiction; but when I began to wield the pen, the novel was the +line of least resistance. When I was introduced in 1894 to Mrs. Croly, +the oldest woman journalist in the United States, as an Australian +journalist, I found that her work, though good enough, was essentially +woman's work, dress, fashions, functions, with educational and social +outlooks from the feminine point of view. My work might show the bias +of sex, but it dealt with the larger questions which were common to +humanity; and when I recall the causes which I furthered, and which in +some instances I started, I feel inclined to magnify the office of the +anonymous contributor to the daily press. And I acknowledge not only +the kindness of friends who put some of the best new books in my way, +but the large-minded tolerance of the Editors of The Register, who gave +me such a free hand in the treatment of books, of men, and of public +questions. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MY WORK FOR EDUCATION. +</H3> + +<P> +I was the first woman appointed on a Board of Advice under the +Education Department, and found the work interesting. The powers of the +board were limited to an expenditure of 5 pounds for repairs without +applying to the department and to interviewing the parents of children +who had failed to attend the prescribed number of days, as well as +those who pleaded poverty as an excuse for the non-payment of fees. I +always felt that the school fees were a heavy burden on the poor, and +rejoiced accordingly when free education was introduced into South +Australia. This was the second State to adopt this great reform, +Victoria preceding it by a few years. I objected to the payment of fees +on another ground. I felt they bore heavily on the innocent children +themselves through the notion of caste which was created in the minds +of those who paid fees to the detriment of their less fortunate school +companions. And again, education that is compulsory should be free. +Other women have since become members of School Boards, but I was the +pioneer of that branch of public work for women in this State. It is a +privilege that American women have been fighting for for many years—to +vote for and to be eligible to sit on School Boards. In many of the +States this has been won to their great advantage. In this present year +of 1910 Mrs. Ella, Flagg Young, at the age of 65, has been elected by +the Chigago Board, Director of the Education of that great city of over +two millions of inhabitants at a salary of 2,000 pounds a year, with a +male university professor as an assistant. At an age when we in South +Australia are commanding our teachers to retire, in Chicago, which is +said by Foster Fraser to cashier men at 40, this elderly woman has +entered into her great power. +</P> + +<P> +It is characteristic of me that I like to do thoroughly what I +undertake to do at all, and when, on one occasion I had not received +the usual summons to attend a board meeting, I complained of the +omission to the Chairman. "I do not want," I said, "to be a merely +ornamental member of this board. I want to go to all the meetings." He +replied, courteously, "It is the last thing that we would say of you, +Miss Spence, that you are ornamental!" It was half a minute before he +discovered that he had put his disclaimer in rather a different form +from what he had intended, and he joined in the burst of laughter which +followed. Another amusing contretemps occurred when the same gentleman +and I were visiting the parents who had pleaded for exemption from the +payment of fees. At one house there was a grown-up daughter who had +that morning left the service of the gentleman's mother—a fact +enlarged upon by my companion during the morning's drive. "Why is your +eldest daughter out of a place?" was the first question he put to the +woman. "She might be earning good wages, and be able to help you pay +the fees." "Oh!" came the unexpected reply, "she had to leave old Mrs. +—— this morning; she was that mean there was no living in the house +with her!" Knowing her interlocutor only as the man in authority, the +unfortunate woman scarcely advanced her cause by her plain speaking, +and I was probably the only member of the trio who appreciated the +situation. I am sure many people who were poorer than this mother paid +the fees rather than suffer the indignity of such cross-questioning by +the school visitors and the board—an unfortunate necessity of the +system, which disappeared with the abolition of school fees. +</P> + +<P> +It had been suggested by the Minister of Education of that period that +the children attending the State schools should be instructed in the +duties of citizenship, and that they should be taught something of the +laws under which they lived, and I was commissioned to write a short +and pithy statement of the case. It was to be simple enough for +intelligent children in the fourth class; 11 or 12—it was to lead from +the known to the unknown—it might include the elements of political +economy and sociology—it might make use of familiar illustrations from +the experience of a new country—but it must not be long. It was not +very easy to satisfy myself and Mr. Hartley—who was a severe +critic—but when the book of 120 pages was completed he was satisfied. +A preface I wrote for the second edition—the first 5,000 copies being +insufficient for the requirements of the schools—will give some idea +of the plan of the work:—"In writing this little book, I have aimed +less at symmetrical perfection than at simplicity of diction, and such +arrangement as would lead from the known to the unknown, by which the +older children in our public schools might learn not only the actual +facts about the laws they live under, but also some of the principles +which underlie all law." The reprinting gave me an opportunity to reply +to my critics that "political economy, trades unions, insurance +companies, and newspapers" were outside the scope of the laws we live +under. But I thought that in a new State where the optional duties of +the Government are so numerous, it was of great importance for the +young citizen to understand economic principles. As conduct is the +greater part of life, and morality, not only the bond of social union, +but the main source of individual happiness, I took the ethical part of +the subject first, and tried to explain that education was of no value +unless it was used for good purposes. As without some wealth, +civilization was impossible, I next sought to show that national and +individual wealth depends on the security that is given by law, and on +the industry and the thrift which that security encourages. Land tenure +is of the first importance in colonial prosperity, and consideration of +the land revenue and the limitations as to its expenditure led me to +the necessity for taxation and the various modes of levying it. +Taxation led me to the power which imposes, collects, and expends it. +This involved a consideration of those representative institutions +which make the Government at once the master and the servant of the +people. Under this Government our persons and our prosperity are +protected by a system of criminal, civil, and insolvent law—each +considered in its place. Although not absolutely included in the laws +we live under, I considered that providence, and its various outlets in +banks, savings banks, joint stock companies, friendly societies, and +trades unions, were matters too important to be left unnoticed; and +also those influences which shape character quite as much as statute +laws—public opinion, the newspaper, and amusements. As the use of my +little book was restricted solely to school hours, my hope that the +parents might be helped and encouraged by its teaching was doomed to +disappointment. But the children of 30 years ago, when "The Laws We +Live Under" was first published, are the men and women of to-day, and +who shall say but that among them are to be found some at least worthy +and true citizens, who owe to my little book their first inspiration to +"hitch their wagon to a star." Last year an enthusiastic young Swedish +teacher and journalist was so taken with this South Australian little +handbook of civics that he urged on me the duty of bringing it up to +date, and embracing women's suffrage, the relations of the States to +the Commonwealth, as well as the industrial legislation which is in +many ways peculiar to Australia, but although those in authority were +sympathetic no steps have been taken for its reproduction. Identified +as I had been for so many years with elementary education in South +Australia, my mind was well prepared to applaud the movement in favour +of the higher education of poorer children of both sexes by the +foundation of bursaries and scholarships, and the opening up of the +avenues of learning to women by admitting them to University degrees. +Victoria was the first to take this step, and all over the Commonwealth +the example has been followed. I am, however, somewhat disappointed +that University women are not more generally progressive in their +ideas. They have won something which I should have been very glad of, +but which was quite out of reach. All opportunities ought to be +considered as opportunities for service. As my brother David regarded +the possession of honours and wealth as demanding sacrifice for the +common good, so I regarded special knowledge and special culture as +means for advancing the culture of all. It is said to be human nature +when special privileges or special gifts are used only for egoistic +ends; but the complete development of the human being demands that +altruistic ideas should also be cultivated. We see that in China an +aristocracy of letters—for it is through passing difficult +examinations in old literature that the ruling classes are +appointed—is no protection to the poor and ignorant from oppression or +degradation. It is true that the classics in China are very old, but so +are the literatures of Greece and Rome, on which so many university +degrees are founded; and it ought to be impressed upon all seekers +after academic honours that personal advantage is not the be-all and +end-all of their pursuits. In our democratic Commonwealth, although +there are some lower titles bestowed by the Sovereign on colonists more +or less distinguished, these are not hereditary, so that an aristocracy +is not hereditary. There may be an upper class, based on landed estate +or one on business success, or one on learning, but all tend to become +conservative as conservatism is understood in Australia. Safety is +maintained by the free rise from the lower to the higher. But all the +openings to higher education offered in high school and university do +not tempt the working man's children who want to earn wages as soon as +the law lets them go to work. Nor do they tempt their parents to their +large share of the sacrifice which young Scotch lads and even American +lads make to get through advanced studies. The higher education is +still a sort of preserve of the well-to-do, and when one thinks of how +greatly this is valued it seems a pity that it is not open to the +talents, to the industry, to the enthusiasm of all the young of both +sexes. But one exception I must make to the aloofness of people with +degrees and professions from the preventible evils of the world, and +that is in the profession that is the longest and the most +exacting—the medical profession. The women doctors whom I have met in +Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney have a keen sense of their +responsibility to the less fortunate. That probably is because medicine +as now understood and practised is the most modern of the learned +professions, and is more human than engineering, which is also modern. +It takes us into the homes of the poor more intimately than even the +clergyman, and it offers remedies and palliatives as well as advice. +The law is little studied by women in Australia, but in the United +States there are probably a thousand or more legal practitioners. It is +the profession that I should have chosen when I was young if it had +been in any way feasible. I had no bent for the medical profession, and +still less for what every one thinks the most womanly of +avocations—that of the trained nurse. I could nurse my own relatives +more or less well, but did not distinguish myself in that way, and I +could not devote myself to strangers. The manner in which penniless +young men become lawyers in the United States seems impossible in +Australia. Judge Lindsay, son of a ruined southern family, studied law +and delivered newspapers in the morning, worked in a lawyer's office +through the day, and acted as janitor at night. The course appears to +be shorter, and probably less Latin and Greek were required in a +western State than here. But during the long vacation in summer, +students go as waiters in big hotels at seaside or other health +resorts, or take up some other seasonal trade. All the Columbian guards +at the Chicago Exhibition were students. They kept order, they gave +directions, they wheeled invalids in bath chairs, and they earned all +that was needed, for their next winter's course. In the long high +school holidays youths and maidens who are poor and ambitious work for +money. I have seen fairly well-paid professors who went back to the +father's farm and worked hard all harvest time—and students always did +so. It appears easier in America to get a job for three months' +vacation than in England or Australia, and the most surprising thing +about an American is his versatility. Teaching is with most American +men only a step to something better, so that almost all elementary and +the far greater proportion of high school teaching is in the hands of +women. In Australia our male teachers have to spend so many years +before they are fully equipped that they rarely leave the profession. +The only check on the supply is that the course is so long and +laborious that the youth prefers an easy clerkship. Women, in spite of +the chance of marriage, enter the profession in the United States in +greater numbers, and as the scale of salaries is by no means equal pay +for equal work, except in New York, money is saved by employing women. +I think that it is the student of arts (that English title which is as +vague and unmeaning as the Scottish one of humanities)—student of +ancient classical literature—who, whether man or woman, has least +perception of the modern spirit or sympathy with the sorrows of the +world. With all honour to the classical authors, there are two things +in which they were deficient—the spirit of broad humanity and the +sense of humour. All ancient literature is grave—nay, sad. It is also +aristocratic for learning was the possession of the few. While writing +this narrative I came upon a notable thing done by Miss Crystal +Eastman, a member of the New York Bar, and Secretary of the State +Commission on Employers' Liability. It is difficult for us to +understand how so many good things are blocked, not only in the Federal +Government, but in the separate States, by the written constitutions. +In Great Britain the Constitution consists of unwritten principles +embodied either in Parliamentary statutes or in the common law, and +yields to any Act which Parliament may pass, and the judiciary can +impose no veto on it. This is one reason why England is so far ahead of +the United States in labour legislation. Miss Eastman was the principal +speaker at the annual meeting in January, 1910, of the New York State +Bar Association. She is a trained economic investigator as well as a +lawyer, and her masterly analysis of conditions under the present +liability law held close attention, and carried conviction to many +present that a radical change was necessary. The recommendations for +the statute were to make limited compensation for all accidents, except +those wilfully caused by the victim, compulsory on all employers. With +regard to dangerous occupations the person who profits by them should +bear the greatest share of the loss through accident. As for the +constitutionality of such legislation Miss Eastman said—"If our State +Constitution cannot be interpreted so as to recognise such an idea of +justice then I think we should amend our Constitution. I see no reason +why we should stand in such awe of a document which expressly provides +for its own revision every ten years." The evils against which this +brave woman lawyer contends are real and grievous. Working people in +America who suffer from injury are unmercifully exploited by the +ambulance-chasing lawyers. Casualty insurance companies are said to be +weary of being diverted from their regular business to become a mere +fighting force in the Courts to prevent the injured or the dependents +from getting any compensation. The long-suffering public is becoming +aware that the taxpayers are compelled to bear the burden of supporting +the pitifully great multitude of incapacitated or rendered dependent +because of industrial accident or occupational diseases. Employers +insure their liability, and the poor man has to fight an insurance +company, and at present reform is blocked on the plea that it is +unconstitutional. There are difficulties even in Australia, and to +enquire into such difficulties would be good work for women lawyers. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SPECULATION, CHARITY, AND A BOOK. +</H3> + +<P> +In the meantime my family history went on. My nephew was sent to the +Northern Territory to take over the branch of the English and Scottish +Bank at Palmerston, and he took his sister from school to go with him +and stay three months in the tropics. He was only 21 at the time. Four +years after he went to inspect the branch, and took his sister with him +again. I think she loved Port Darwin more than he did, and she always +stood up for the climate. South Australia did a great work in building, +unaided by any other Australian State, the telegraph line from Port +Darwin to Adelaide, and at one time it was believed that rich +goldfields were to be opened in this great empty land, which the +British Government had handed over to South Australia, because Stuart +had been the first to cross the island continent, and the handful of +South Australian colonists bad connected telegraphically the north and +the south. The telegraph building had been contracted for by Darwent +and Dalwood, and my brother, through the South Australian Bank, was +helping to finance them. That was in 1876-7. This was the first, but +not the last by any means, of enterprises which contractors were not +able to carry out in this State, either from taking a big enterprise at +too low a rate or from lack of financial backing. The Government, as in +the recent cases of the Pinnaroo Railway and the Outer Harbour, had to +complete the halfdone work as the direct employer of labour and the +direct purchaser of materials. A great furore for goldmining in the +Northern Territory arose, and people in England bought city allotments +in Palmerston, which was expected to become the queen city of North +Australia, Port Darwin is no whit behind Sydney Harbour in beauty and +capacity. The navies of the world could ride safely in its waters. A +railway of 150 miles in length, the first section of the great +transcontinental line, which was to extend from Palmerston to Port +Augusta, was built to connect Pine Creek, where there was gold to be +found, with the seaboard. South Australia was more than ever a misnomer +for this State. Victoria lay more to the south than our province, and +now that we stretched far inside the tropics the name seemed +ridiculous. My friend Miss Sinnett suggested Centralia as the +appropriate name for the State, which by this gift was really the +central State; but in the present crisis, when South Australia finds +the task of keeping the Northern Territory white too arduous and too +costly, and is offering it on handsome terms to the Commonwealth, +Centralia might not continue to be appropriate. Our northern possession +has cost South Australia much. The sums of money sunk in prospecting +for gold and other metals have been enormous, and at present there are +more Chinese there than Europeans. In the early days, when the Wrens +were there, Eleanor was surprised when their wonderful Chinese cook +came to her and said, "Missie, I go along a gaol to-morrow. You take Ah +Kei. He do all light till I go out!" The cook had been tried and +condemned for larceny, but he was allowed to retain his situation till +the last hour. Instead of being kept in gaol pending his trial he +earned his wages and did his work. He had no desire to escape. He liked +Palmerston and the bank, and he went back to the latter when released. +He was an incorrigible thief, and got into trouble again; but as a cook +he was superlative. +</P> + +<P> +That decade of the eighties was a most speculative time all over +Australia and New Zealand. I was glad that leaving the English and +Scottish Bank enabled my brother to go into political and official +life, but it also allowed him to speculate far beyond what he could +have done if he had been manager of a bank. Everybody speculated—in +mines, in land, and in leases. I was earning by my pen a very decent +income, and I spent it, sometimes wisely and sometimes foolishly. I +could be liberal to church and to good causes. I was able to keep a +dear little State child at school for two years after the regulation +age, and I was amply repaid by seeing her afterwards an honoured wife +and mother, able to assist her children and their companions with their +lessons. I helped some lame dogs over the stile. One among them was a +young American of brilliant scholastic attainments, who was the victim +of hereditary alcoholism. His mother, a saintly and noble +prohibitionist worker, whom I afterwards met in America, had heard of +me, and wrote asking me to keep a watchful eye on her boy. This I did +for about 12 months, and found him employment. He held a science +degree, and was an authority on mineralogy, metallurgy, and kindred +subjects. During this speculative period he persuaded me to plunge +(rather wildly for me) in mining shares. I plunged to the extent of 500 +pounds, and I owe it to the good sense and practical ability of my +nephew that I lost no more heavily than I did, for he paid 100 pounds +to let me off my bargain. +</P> + +<P> +My protege continued to visit me weekly, and we wrote to one another +once a week or oftener. The books I lent to him I know to this day by +their colour and the smell of tobacco. I wrote to his mother regularly, +and consulted with his good friend, Mr. Waterhouse, over what was best +to be done. One bad outburst he had when he had got some money through +me to pay off liabilities. I recollect his penitent, despairing +confession, with the reference to Edwin Arnold's poem +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + He who died at Azun gave<BR> + This to those who dug his grave.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The time came when I felt I could hold him no longer, although that +escapade was forgiven, and I determined to send him to his mother—not +without misgivings about what she might have still to suffer. He wrote +to me occasionally. His health was never good, and I attribute the +craving for drink and excitement a good deal to physical causes; but at +the same time I am sure that he could have withstood it by a more +resolute will. The will is the character—it is the real man. When +people say that the first thing in education is to break the will, they +make a radical mistake. Train the will to work according to the +dictates of an enlightened conscience, for it is all we have to trust +to for the stability of character. My poor lad called me his Australian +mother. When I saw his real mother, I wondered more and more what sort +of a husband she had, or what atavism Edward drew from to produce a +character so unlike hers. I heard nothing from herself of what she went +through, but from her friends I gathered that he had several outbreaks, +and cost her far more than she could afford. She paid everything that +he owed in Adelaide, except her debt to me, but that I was repaid after +her death in 1905, and she always felt that I had been a true friend to +her wayward son. I recollect one day my friend coming on his weekly +visit with a face of woe to tell me he had seen a man in dirt and rags, +with half a shirt, who had been well acquainted with Charles Dickens +and other notables in London. My friend had fed him and clothed him, +but he wanted to return to England to rich friends. I wrote to a few +good folk, and we raised the money and sent the wastrel to the old +country. How grateful he appeared to be, especially to the kind people +who had taken him in; but he never wrote a line. We never heard from +him again. Years afterwards I wrote to his brother-in-law, asking where +the object of our charity now was, if he were still alive. The reply +was that his ingratitude did not surprise the writer—that he was a +hopeless drunkard, a remittance man, whom the family had to ship off as +soon as possible when our ill-judged kindness sent him to England. At +that time he was in Canada, but it was not worth while to give any +address. When Mr. Bowyear started the Charity Organization Society in +Adelaide, he said I was no good as a visitor; I was too credulous, and +had not half enough of the detective in me. But I had not much faith in +this remittance man. +</P> + +<P> +I have been strongly tempted to omit altogether the next book which I +wrote; but, as this is to be a sincere narrative of my life and its +work, I must pierce the veil of anonymity and own up to "An Agnostic's +Progress." I had been impressed with the very different difficulties +the soul of man has to encounter nowadays from those so triumphantly +overcome by Christian in the great work of John Bunyan in the first +part of "The Pilgrim's Progress." He cannot now get out of the Slough +of Despond by planting his foot on the stepping stones of the Promises. +He cannot, like Hopeful, pluck from his bosom the Key of Promise which +opens every lock in Doubting Castle when the two pilgrims are shut in +it by Giant Despair, when they are caught trespassing on his grounds. +Even assured Christians, we know, may occasionally trespass on these +grounds of doubt; but the weapons of modern warfare are not of the +seventeenth century. The Interpreter's House in the old allegory dealt +only with things found in the Bible, the only channel of revelation to +John Bunyan. To the modern pilgrim God reveals Himself in Nature, in +art, in literature, and in history. The Interpreter's Hand had to do +with all these things. Vanity Fair is not a place through which all +pilgrims must pass as quickly as possible, shutting their eyes and +stopping their ears so that they should neither see nor hear the wicked +things that are done and said there. Vanity Fair is the world in which +we all have to live and do our work well, or neglect it. Pope and Pagan +are not the old giants who used to devour pilgrims, but who can now +only gnash their teeth at them in impotent rage. They are live forces, +quite active, and with agents and supporters alert to capture souls. Of +all the influences which affected for evil my young life I perhaps +resented most Mrs. Sherwood's "Infant's Progress." There were three +children in it going from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City +by the route laid down by John Bunyan; but they were handicapped even +more severely than the good Christian himself with his heavy +burden—for that fell off his back at the first sight of the Cross and +Him who was nailed to it, accepted by the eye of Faith as the one +Sacrifice for the sins of the world—for the three little ones, Humble +Mind, Playful, and Peace, were accompanied always and everywhere by an +imp called Inbred Sin, who never ceased to tempt them to evil. +</P> + +<P> +The doctrine of innate human depravity is one of the most paralysing +dogmas that human fear invented or priestcraft encouraged. I did not +think of publishing "An Agnostic's Progress" at first. I wrote it to +relieve my own mind. I wanted to satisfy myself that reverent agnostics +were by no means materialists; that man's nature might or might not be +consciously immortal, but it was spiritual; that in the duties which +lay before each of us towards ourselves and towards our +fellow-creatures, there was scope for spiritual energy and spiritual +emotion. I was penetrated by Browning's great idea expressed over and +over again—the expansion of Paul's dictum that faith is not certainty, +but a belief without sufficient proof, a belief which leads to right +action and to self-sacrifice. Of the 70 years of life which one might +hope to live and work in, I had no mean idea. I asked in the newspaper, +"Is life so short?" and answered. "No." I expanded and spiritualized +the idea in a sermon, and I again answered emphatically "No." I saw the +continuation and the expansion of true ideas by succeeding generations. +To the question put sometimes peevishly, "Is life worth living?" I +replied with equal emphasis, "Yes." My mother told me of old times. I +recalled half a century of progress, and I hoped the forward movement +would continue. I read the manuscript of "An Agnostic's Progress" to +Mr. and Mrs. Barr Smith, and they thought so well of it that they +offered to take it to England on one of their many visits to the old +country, where they had no doubt it would find a publisher. Trubner's +reader reported most favourably of the book, and we thought there was +an immediate prospect of its publication; but Mr. Trubner died, and the +matter was not taken up by his successor, and my friends did what I had +expressly said they were not to do, and had it printed and published at +their own expense. There were many printer's errors in it, but it was +on the whole well reviewed, though it did not sell well. The Spectator +joined issue with me on the point that it is only through the wicket +gate of Doubt that we can come to any faith that is of value; but I am +satisfied that I took the right stand there. My mother was in no way +disquieted or disturbed by my writing the book, and few of my friends +read it or knew about it. I still appeared so engrossed with work on +The Register and The Observer that my time was quite well enough +accounted for. I tried for a prize of 100 pounds offered by The Sydney +Mail with a novel called "Handfasted," but was not successful, for the +judge feared that it was calculated to loosen the marriage tie—it was +too socialistic and consequently dangerous. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JOURNALISM AND POLITICS. +</H3> + +<P> +In reviewing books I took the keenest Interest in the "Carlyle +Biographies and Letters," because my mother recollected Jeanie Welch as +a child, and her father was called in always for my grandfather +Brodie's illnesses. I was also absorbed in the "Life and Letters of +George Eliot." The Barr Smiths gave me the "Life and Letters of +Balzac," and many of his books in French, which led me to write both +for The Register and for The Melbourne Review. I also wrote "A last +word," which was lost by The Centennial in Sydney when it died out. It +was also from Mrs. Barr Smith that I got so many of the works of +Alphonse Daudet in French, which enabled me to give a rejoinder to +Marcus Clark's assertion that Balzac was a French Dickens. Indeed, +looking through my shelves, I see so many books which suggested +articles and criticisms which were her gifts that I always connect her +with my journalistic career. +</P> + +<P> +Many people have consulted me about publishing poems, novels, and +essays. As I was known to have actually got books published in England, +and to be a professional journalist and reviewer, I dare say some of +those who applied to me for encouragement thought I was actuated by +literary jealousy; but people are apt to think they have a plot when +they have only an incident, or two or three incidents; and many who can +write clever and even brilliant letters have no idea of the +construction of a story that will arrest and sustain the reader's +attention. The people who consulted me all wanted money for their work. +They had such excellent uses for money. They had too little. They were +neither willing nor able to bear the cost of publication, and it was +absolutely necessary that their work should be good enough for a +business man to undertake it. I am often surprised that I found English +publishers myself, and the handicap of distance and other things is +even greater now. If stories are excessively Australian, they lose the +sympathies of the bulk of the public. If they are mildly Australian, +the work is thought to lack distinctiveness. Great genius can overcome +these things, but great genius is rare everywhere. Except for my friend +Miss Mackay (Mrs. F. Martin), I know no Australian novelist of genius, +and her work is only too rare in fiction. Mrs. Cross reaches her +highest level in "The Masked Man." but she does not keep it up, though +she writes well and pleasantly. Of course poetry does not pay anywhere +until a great reputation is made. Poetry must be its own exceeding +great reward. And yet I agree with Charles Kingsley that if you wish to +cultivate a really good prose style you should begin with verse. In my +teens I wrote rhymes and tried to write sonnets. I encouraged writing +games among my young people, and it is surprising how much cleverness +could be developed. I can write verses with ease, but very rarely could +I rise to poetry; and therefore I fear I was not encouraging to the +budding Australian poet. +</P> + +<P> +There was a column quite outside of The Register to which I liked to +contribute for love. That was "The Riddler," which appeared in The +Observer and in The Evening Journal on Saturdays. It brought me in +contact with Mr. William Holden, long the oldest journalist in South +Australia, who revelled in statistical returns and algebraical problems +and earth measurements, but who also appreciated a good charade or +double acrostic. I used to give some of the ingredients for his +"Christmas Mince Pie," and wrote many riddles of various sorts. My +charades were not so elegant as some arranged by Miss Clark, and not so +easily found out; and my double acrostics were not so subtle as those +given in competition nowadays, but they were in the eighties reckoned +excellent. My fame had reached the ears of Mrs. Alfred Watts (nee +Giles), who spent her early colonial life on Kangaroo Island, and she +asked me to write some double acrostics for the poor incurables. I +stared at her in amazement. "We want to be quite well to tackle double +acrostics and to have access to books. Does not Punch speak of the +titled lady, eager to win a guinea prize, who gave seven volumes of +Carlyle's works to seven upper servants, and asked each to search one +to find a certain quotation?" "Oh," said Mrs. Watts, "I don't mean for +the incurables to amuse themselves with. I mean for the benefit of the +home." +</P> + +<P> +In the end I prepared a book of charades and double acrostics, for the +printing and binding of which Mrs. Watts paid. It was entitled "Silver +Wattle," and the proceeds from the sale of this little book went to +help the funds of the home. For a second volume issued for the same +purpose Mrs. Strawbridge wrote some poems, Mrs. H. M. Davidson a +translation of Victor Huge, Miss Clark her beautiful "Flowers of +Greece," and her niece some pretty verses, which, combined with the +double acrostics, and acting charades supplied by me, made an +attractive volume. Mrs. Watts had something of a literary turn, which +found expression in "Memories of Early Days in South Australia," a book +printed for private circulation among her family and intimate friends. +Dealing with the years between 1837 and 1845 it was very interesting to +old colonists, particularly when they were able to identify the people +mentioned, sometimes by initials and sometimes by pseudonyms. The +author was herself an incurable invalid from an accident shortly after +her marriage, and felt keenly for all the inmates of the Fullarton Home. +</P> + +<P> +In 1877 my brother John—with whom I had never quarrelled in my life, +and who helped and encouraged me in everything that I did—retired from +the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank, and decided to contest a +seat for the Legislative Council. It was the last occasion on which the +Council was elected with the State as one district. Although he +announced his candidature only the night before nomination day, and did +not address a single meeting, he was elected third on the poll. He +afterwards became the Chief Secretary, and later Commissioner of Public +Works. He was an excellent worker on committees, and was full of ideas +and suggestions. Although not a good speaker, he rejoiced in my +standing on platform or in pulpit. He was nearly as democratic as I +was; and when he invented the phrase "effective voting" it was from the +sense that true democracy demanded not merely a chance, but a +certainty, that the vote given at the poll should be effective for some +one. My brother David inherited all the Conservatism of the Brodies for +generations back. Greatly interested in all abstruse problems and +abstract questions he had various schemes for the regeneration of +mankind. Two opposing theories concerning the working of bi-cameral +Legislatures supplied me with material for a Review article. One theory +was intensely Conservative, and emanated from my brother David, who was +a poor man. The other was held by the richest man of my acquaintance, +and was distinctly Liberal. My brother argued that the Upper House +should have the power to tax its own constituents, and was utterly +opposed to any extension of the franchise. My rich friend objected to +the limited franchise, and desired to have the State proclaimed one +electorate with proportional representation as a safeguard against +unwise legislation and as a means to assist reforms. The great blot, he +considered, on Australian Constitutions was the representation by +districts, especially for the House that controlled the public purse. +If districts were to be tolerated at all, they should be represented by +men who had a longer tenure of office than our Assembly's three years, +and who did not have so often to ask for votes, which frequently +depended on a railway or a jetty or a Rabbit Bill. So long as a +Government depends for its existence on the support of local +representatives it is tempted to spend public money to gratify them. +Both men were Freetraders, and both believed strongly in the justice of +land values taxation. +</P> + +<P> +My friend the late Professor Pearson had entered into active political +life in Melbourne, and was a regular writer for The Age. Perhaps no +other man underwent more obloquy from his old friends for taking the +side of Graham Berry, especially as he was a Freetrader, and the +popular party was Protectionist. He justified his action by saying that +a mistake in the fiscal policy of a country should not prevent a real +Democrat from siding with the party which opposed monopoly, especially +in land. He saw in "LATIFUNDIA"—huge estates—the ruin of the Roman +Empire, and its prevalence in the United Kingdom was the greatest +danger ahead of it. In these young countries the tendency to build up +large holdings was naturally fostered by what was the earliest of our +industries. Sheepfarming is not greatly pursued in the United States or +Canada, because of the rigorous winter—but Australia is the favourite +home of the merino sheep. Originally there was no need to buy land, or +even to pay rent to the Government for it; the land had no value till +settlement gave it. The squatter leased it on easy terms, and bought it +only when it had sufficient value to be desired by agriculturists or by +selectors who posed as agriculturists. When he bought it he generally +complained of the price these selectors compelled him to pay, but it +was then secure; and, with the growth of population and the railroads +and other improvements, these enforced purchasers, even in 1877, had +built up vast estates in single hands in every State in Australia. In +The Melbourne Review for April, 1877, Professor Pearson sketched a plan +of land taxation, which was afterwards carried out, in which the area +of land held was the test for graduated taxation. Henry George had not +then declared his gospel; and, although I felt that there was something +very faulty in the scheme, I did not declare in my article on the +subject that an acre in Collins street might be of more value than +50,000 acres of pastoral land 500 miles from the seaboard, and was +therefore more fitly liable to taxation for the advantage of the whole +community, who had given to that acre this exceptional value. I did not +declare it because I did not believe it. But I thought that the end +aimed at—the breaking up of large estates—could be better and more +safely effected, though not so quickly, by a change in the incidence of +succession duties. +</P> + +<P> +Some time after I saw a single copy of Henry George's "Progress and +Poverty" on Robertson's shelves, and bought it, and it was I who after +reading this book opened in the three most important Australian +colonies the question of the taxation of land values. An article I +wrote went into The Register, and Mr. Liston, of Kapunda, read it, and +spoke of it at a farmers' meeting. I had then a commission from The +Sydney Morning Herald to write on any important subject, and I wrote on +this. It appeared, like a previous article on Howell's "Conflicts of +Capital and Labour," as an unsigned article. A new review, The +Victorian, had been started by Mortimer Franlyn, which paid +contributors; and, now that I was a professional journalist, I thought +myself entitled to ask remuneration. I sent to the new periodical, +published in Melbourne, a fuller treatment of the book than had been +given to the two newspapers, under the title of "A Californian +Political Economist." This fell into the hands of Henry George himself, +in a reading room in San Francisco, and he wrote an acknowledgment of +it to me. In South Australia the first tax on unimproved land values +was imposed. It was small—only a halfpenny in the pound, but without +any exemption; and its imposition was encouraged by the fact that we +had had bad seasons and a falling revenue. The income tax in England +was originally a war tax, and they say that if there is not a war the +United States will never be able to impose an income tax. The separate +States have not the power to impose such a tax. Henry George said to me +in his home in New York:—"I wonder at you, with your zeal and +enthusiasm, and your power of speaking, devoting yourself to such a +small matter as proportional representation, when you see the great +land question before you." I replied that to me it was not a small +matter. I cannot, however, write my autobiography without giving +prominence to the fact that I was the pioneer in Australia in this as +in the other matter of proportional representation. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SORROW AND CHANGE. +</H3> + +<P> +In the long and cheerful life of my dear mother there at last came a +change. At 94 she fell and broke her wrist. The local doctor (a +stranger), who was called in, not knowing her wonderful constitution, +was averse from setting the wrist, and said that she would never be +able to use the hand. But I insisted, and in six, weeks she was able to +resume her knitting, and never felt any ill effects. At 95 she had a +fall, apparently without cause, and was never able to stand again. She +had to stay in bed for the last 13 months of her life, with a gradual +decay of the faculties which had previously been so keen. My mother +wanted me with her always. Her talk was all of times far back in her +life—not of Melrose, where she had lived for 25 years, but of +Scoryhall (pronounced Scole), where she had lived as a girl. I had been +shown through the house by my aunt Handyside in 1865, and I could +follow her mind wanderings and answer her questions. As she suffered so +little pain it was difficult for my mother to realize the seriousness +of her illness; and, tiring of her bedroom, she begged to be taken to +the study, where, with her reading and knitting, she had spent so many +happy hours while I did my writing. Delighted though she was at the +change, a return to her bed—as to all invalids—was a comfort, and she +never left it again. Miss Goodham—an English nurse and a charming +woman, who has since remained a friend and correspondent of the +family—was sent to help us for a few days at the last. Another sorrow +came to us at this time in the loss of my ward's husband, and Rose +Hood—nee Duval—returned to live near me with her three small +children. Her commercial training enabled her to take a position as +clerk in the State Children's Department, which she retained until her +death. The little ones were very sweet and good, but the supervision of +them during the day added a somewhat heavy responsibility to our +already overburdened household. In these days, when one hears so much +of the worthlessness of servants, it is a joy to remember how our +faithful maid—we kept only one for that large house—at her own +request, did all the laundry work for the family of five, and all +through the three years of Eleanor's illness waited on her with +untiring devotion. +</P> + +<P> +An amusing episode which would have delighted the heart of my dear +friend Judge Lindsay occurred about this time. The fruit from our +orange trees which grew along the wall bordering an adjoining paddock +was an irresistible temptation to wandering juveniles, and many and +grievous were the depredations. Patience, long drawn out, at last gave +way, and when the milkman caught two delinquents one Saturday afternoon +with bulging blouses of forbidden fruit it became necessary to make an +example of some one. The trouble was to devise a fitting punishment. A +Police Court, I had always maintained, was no place for children; +corporal punishment was out of the question; and the culprits stood +tremblingly awaiting their fate till a young doctor present suggested a +dose of Gregory's powder. His lawyer friend acquiesced, and Gregory's +powder it was. A moment's hesitation and the nauseous draught was +swallowed to the accompaniment of openly expressed sympathy, one dear +old lady remarking, "Poor children and not so much as a taste of +sugar." Probably, however, the unkindest cut of all was the carrying +away by the milkman of the stolen fruit! The cure was swift and +effective; and ever after the youth of the district, like the Pharisee +of old, passed by on the other side. +</P> + +<P> +My dear mother died about 8 o'clock on the evening of December 8, 1887, +quietly and painlessly. With her death, which was an exceedingly great +loss to me, practically ended my quiet life of literary work. +Henceforth I was free to devote my efforts to the fuller public work +for which I had so often longed, but which my mother's devotion to and +dependence on me rendered impossible. But I missed her untiring +sympathy, for with all her love for the old days and the old friends +there was no movement for the advancement of her adopted land that did +not claim her devoted attention. But though I was now free to take up +public work, the long strain of my mother's illness and death had +affected my usually robust health, and I took things quietly. I had +been asked by the University Shakspeare Society to give a lecture on +Donnelly's book, "The Great Cryptogram;" or "Who Wrote Shakspeare's +Plays?" and it was prepared during this period, and has frequently been +delivered since. October of the year following my mothers death found +me again in Melbourne, where I rejoiced in the renewal of a friendship +with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Walker, the former of whom had been connected +with the construction of the overland railway. They were delightful +literary people, and I had met them at the hospitable house of the +Barr-Smiths, and been introduced as "a literary lady." "Then perhaps," +said Mr. Walker, "you can give us the information we have long sought +in vain—who wrote 'Clara Morrison?'" Their surprise at my "I did" was +equalled by the pleasure I felt at their kind appreciation of my book, +and that meeting was the foundation of a lifelong friendship. Before my +visit closed I was summoned to Gippsland through the death by accident +of my dear sister Jessie—the widow of Andrew Murray, once editor of +The Argus—and the year 1888 ended as sadly for me as the previous one +had done. The following year saw the marriage of my nephew, Charles +Wren of the E.S. and A. Bank, to Miss Hall, of Melbourne. On his +deciding to live on in the old home, I, with Ellen Gregory, whom I had +brought out in 1867 to reside with relations, but who has remained to +be the prop and mainstay of my old age—and Mrs. Hood and her three +children, moved to a smaller and more suitable house I had in another +part of East Adelaide. A placid flowing of the river of life for a year +or two led on to my being elected, in 1892, President of the Girls' +Literary Society. This position I filled with joy to myself and, I +hope, with advantage to others, until some years later the society +ceased to exist. +</P> + +<P> +Crowded and interesting as my life had been hitherto, the best was yet +to be. My realization of Browning's beautiful line from "Rabbi Ben +Ezra"—"The last of life, for which the first was made," came when I +saw opening before me possibilities for public service undreamed of in +my earlier years. For the advancement of effective voting I had so far +confined my efforts to the newspapers. My brother John had suggested +the change of name from proportional representation to effective voting +as one more likely to catch the popular ear, and I had proposed a +modification of Hare's original plan of having one huge electorate, and +suggested instead the adoption of six-member districts. The State as +one electorate returning 42 members for the Assembly may be +magnificent, and may also be the pure essence of democracy, but it is +neither commonsense nor practicable. "Why not take effective voting to +the people?" was suggested to me. No sooner said than done. I had +ballot papers prepared and leaflets printed, and I began the public +campaign which has gone on ever since. During a visit to Melbourne as a +member of a charities conference it was first discovered that I had +some of the gifts of a public speaker. My friend, the Rev. Charles +Strong, had invited me to lecture before his working men's club at +Collingwood, and I chose as my subject "Effective Voting." +</P> + +<P> +When on my return Mr. Barr Smith, who had long grasped the principle of +justice underlying effective voting, and was eager for its adoption, +offered to finance a lecturing tour through the State, I jumped at the +offer. There was the opportunity for which I had been waiting for +years. I got up at unearthly hours to catch trains, and sometimes +succeeded only through the timely lifts of kindly drivers. Once I went +in a carrier's van, because I had missed the early morning cars. I +travelled thousands of miles in all weathers to carry to the people the +gospel of electoral reform. Disappointments were frequent, and +sometimes disheartening; but the silver lining of every cloud turned up +somewhere, and I look back on that first lecturing tour as a time of +the sowing of good seed, the harvest of which is now beginning to +ripen. I had no advance agents to announce my arrival, and at one town +in the north I found nobody at the station to meet me. I spent the most +miserable two and a half hours of my life waiting Micawber-like for +something to turn up; and it turned up in the person of the village +blacksmith. I spoke to him, and explained my mission to the town. He +had heard nothing of any meeting. Incidentally I discovered that my +correspondent was in Adelaide, and had evidently forgotten all about my +coming. "Well," I said to the blacksmith, "if you can get together a +dozen intelligent men I will explain effective voting to them." He +looked at me with a dumbfounded air, and then burst out, "Good G—, +madam, there are not three intelligent men in the town." But the old +order has changed, and in 1909 Mrs. Young addressed an enthusiastic +audience of 150 in the same town and on the same subject. The town, +moreover, is in a Parliamentary district, in which every candidate at +the recent general election—and there were seven of them—supported +effective voting. Far down in the south I went to a little village +containing seven churches, which accounted (said the local doctor) for +the extreme backwardness of its inhabitants. "They have so many church +affairs to attend to that there is no time to think of anything else." +At the close of this lecturing tour The Register undertook the public +count through its columns, which did so much to bring the reform before +the people of South Australia. Public interest was well aroused on the +matter before my long projected trip to America took shape. "Come and +teach us how to vote," my American friends had been writing to me for +years; but I felt that it was a big order for a little woman of 68 to +undertake the conversion to electoral reform of 60 millions of the most +conceited people in the world. Still I went. I left Adelaide bound for +America on April 4, 1893, as a Government Commissioner and delegate to +the Great World's Fair Congresses in Chicago. +</P> + +<P> +In Melbourne and Sydney on my way to the boat for San Francisco I found +work to do. Melbourne was in the throes of the great financial panic, +when bank after bank closed its doors; but the people went to church as +usual. I preached in the Unitarian Church on the Sunday, and lectured +in Dr. Strong's Australian Church on Monday. In Sydney Miss Rose Scott +had arranged a drawing-room meeting for a lecture on effective voting. +A strong convert I made on that occasion was Mr. (afterwards Sr.) +Walker. A few delightful hours I spent at his charming house on the +harbour with his family, and was taken by them to see many beauty +spots. Those last delightful days in Sydney left me with pleasant +Australian memories to carry over the Pacific. When the boat sailed on +April 17, the rain came down in torrents. Some interesting missionaries +were on board. One of them, the venerable Dr. Brown, who had been for +30 years labouring in the Pacific, introduced me to Sir John Thurston. +Mr. Newell was returning to Samoa after a two years' holiday in +England. He talked much, and well about his work. He had 104 students +to whom he was returning. He explained that they became missionaries to +other more benighted and less civilized islands, where their knowledge +of the traditions and customs of South Sea Islanders made them +invaluable as propagandists. The writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, +had prepared me to find in the Samoans a handsome and stalwart race, +with many amiable traits, and I was not disappointed. The beauty of the +scenery appealed to me strongly, and I doubt whether "the light that +never was on sea or land" could have rivalled the magic charm of the +one sunrise we saw at Samoa. During the voyage I managed to get in one +lecture, and many talks on effective voting. Had I been superstitious +my arrival in San Francisco on Friday, May 12, might have boded ill for +the success of my mission, but I was no sooner ashore than my friend +Alfred Cridge took me in charge, and the first few days were a whirl of +meetings, addresses and interviews. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. +</H3> + +<P> +Alfred Cridge, who reminded me so much of my brother David that I felt +at home with him immediately, had prepared the way for my lectures on +effective voting in San Francisco. He was an even greater enthusiast +than I. "America needs the reform more than Australia," he used to say. +But if America needs effective voting to check corruption, Australia +needs it just as much to prevent the degradation of political life in +the Commonwealth and States to the level of American politics. My +lectures in San Francisco, as elsewhere in America, were well attended, +and even better received. Party politics had crushed out the best +elements of political life, and to be independent of either party gave +a candidate, as an agent told Judge Lindsay when he was contesting the +governorship of Colorado, "as much chance as a snowball would have in +hell." So that reformers everywhere were eager to hear of a system of +voting that would free the electors from the tyranny of parties, and at +the same time render a candidate independent of the votes of heckling +minorities, and dependent only on the votes of the men who believed in +him and his politics. I met men and women interested in public +affairs—some of them well known, others most worthy to be known, and +all willing to lend the weight of their character and intelligence to +the betterment of human conditions at home and abroad. Among these were +Judge Maguire, a leader of the Bar in San Francisco and a member of the +State Legislature, who had fought trusts, "grafters," and "boodlers" +through the whole of his public career, and Mr. James Barry, proprietor +of The Star. +</P> + +<P> +"You come from Australia, the home of the secret ballot?" was the +greeting I often received, and that really was my passport to the +hearts of reformers all over America. From all sides I heard that it +was to the energy and zeal of the Singletaxers in the various States—a +well-organized and compact body—that the adoption of the secret ballot +was due. To that celebrated journalist, poetess, and economic writer, +Charlotte Perkins Stetson, who was a cultured Bostonian, living in San +Francisco, I owed one of the best women's meetings I ever addressed. +The subject was "State children and the compulsory clauses in our +Education Act," and everywhere in the States people were interested in +the splendid work of our State Children's Department and educational +methods. Intelligence and not wealth I found to be the passport to +social life among the Americans I met. At a social evening ladies as +well as their escorts were expected to remove bonnets and mantles in +the hall, instead of being invited into a private room as in +Australia—a custom I thought curious until usage made it familiar. The +homeliness and unostentatiousness of the middle class American were +captivating. My interests have always been in people and in the things +that make for human happiness or misery rather than in the beauties of +Nature, art, or architecture. I want to know how the people live, what +wages are, what the amount of comfort they can buy; how the people are +fed, taught, and amused; how the burden of taxation falls; how justice +is executed; how much or how little liberty the people enjoy. And these +things I learned to a great extent from my social intercourse with +those cultured reformers of America. Among these people I had not the +depressing feeling of immensity and hugeness which marred my enjoyment +when I arrived at New York. My literary lectures on the Brownings and +George Eliot were much appreciated, especially in the East, where I +found paying audiences in the fall or autumn of the year. These +lectures have been delivered many times in Australia; and, as the +result of the Browning lecture given in the Unitarian Schoolroom in +Wakefield street, Adelaide, I received from the pen of Mr. J. B. Mather +a clever epigram. The room was large and sparsely filled, and to the +modest back seat taken by my friend my voice scarcely penetrated. So he +amused himself and me by writing: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + I have no doubt that words of sense<BR> + Are falling from the lips of Spence.<BR> + Alas! that Echo should be drowning<BR> + Both words of Spence and sense of Browning.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +I found the Brownings far better appreciated in America than in +England, especially by American women. In spite of the fact that The +San Francisco Chronicle had interviewed me favourably on my arrival, +and that I knew personally some of the leading people on The Examiner, +neither paper would report my lectures on effective voting. The Star, +however, quite made up for the deficiencies of the other papers, and +did all it could to help me and the cause. While in San Francisco I +wrote an essay on "Electoral Reform" for a Toronto competition, in +which the first prize was $500. Mr. Cridge was also a competitor; but, +although many essays were sent in, for some reason the prize was never +awarded, and we had our trouble for nothing. On my way to Chicago I +stayed at a mining town to lecture on effective voting. I found the +hostess of the tiny hotel a brilliant pianist and a perfect linguist, +and she quoted poetry—her own and other people's—by the yard. A lady +I journeyed with told me that she had been travelling for seven years +with her husband and "Chambers's Encyclopedia." I thought they used the +encyclopaedia as a guide book until, in a sort of postscript to our +conversation, I discovered the husband to be a book agent, better known +in America as a "book fiend." +</P> + +<P> +Nobody had ever seen anything like the World's Fair. My friend Dr. +Bayard Holmes of Chigago, whose acquaintance I made through missing a +suburban train, expressed a common feeling when he said he could weep +at the thought that it was all to be destroyed—that the creation +evolved from the best brains of America should be dissolved. Much of +our human toil is lost and wasted, and much of our work is more +ephemeral than we think; but this was a conscious creation of hundreds +of beautiful buildings for a six months' existence. Nowhere else except +in America could the thing have been done, and nowhere else in America +but in Chicago. At the Congress of Charity and correction I found every +one interested in Australia's work for destitute children. It was +difficult for Miss Windeyer, of Sydney, and myself—the only +Australians present—to put ourselves in the place of many who believed +in institutions where children of low physique, low morals, and low +intelligence are massed together, fed, washed, drilled, taught by rule, +never individualized, and never mothered. I spoke from pulpits in +Chicago and Indianapolis on the subject, and was urged to plead with +the Governor of the latter State to use his influence to have at least +tiny mites of six years of age removed from the reformatory, which was +under the very walls of the gaol. But he was obdurate to my pleadings +and arguments, as he had been to those of the State workers. He +maintained that these tiny waifs of six were incorrigible, and were +better in institutions than in homes. The most interesting woman I met +at the conference was the Rev. Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, pastor of Bell +Street Chapel, Providence. I visited her at home, in that retreat of +Baptists, Quakers, and others from the hard persecution of the New +England Orthodoxy, the founders of which had left England in search of +freedom to worship God. Her husband was the Unitarian minister of +another congregation in the same town. At the meetings arranged by Mrs. +Spencer, Professor Andrews, one of the Behring Sea arbitrators, and +Professor Wilson were present; and they invited me to speak on +effective voting at the Brunn University. +</P> + +<P> +In Philadelphia I addressed seven meetings on the same subject. At six +of them an editor of a little reform paper was present. For two years +he had lived on brown bread and dried apples, in order that he could +save enough to buy a newspaper plant for the advocacy of reforms. In +his little paper he replied to the critics, who assured me that it was +no use worrying, as everything would come right in time. "Time only +brings wonders," he wrote, "when good and great men and women rise up +to move the world along. Time itself brings only decay and death. The +truth is 'Nothing will come right unless those who feel they have the +truth speak, and Work, and strain as if on them alone rested the +destinies of the world.'" I went to see a celebrated man, George W. +Childs, who had made a fortune out of The Philadelphia Ledger, and who +was one of the best employers in the States. He knew everybody, not +only in America but in Europe; and his room was a museum of gifts from +great folks all over the world. But, best of all, he, with his devoted +friend Anthony Drexel, had founded the Drexel Institute, which was +their magnificent educational legacy to the historic town. I saw the +Liberty Bell in Chicago—the bell that rang out the Declaration of +Independence, and cracked soon after—which is cherished by all good +Americans. It had had a triumphant progress to and from the World's +Fair, and I was present when once again it was safely landed in +Independence Hall, Philadelphia. I think the Americans liked me, +because I thought their traditions reputably old, and did not, like +European visitors, call everything crude and new. The great war in +America strengthened the Federal bond, while it loosened the attachment +to the special Satte in which the United States citizen lives. +Railroads and telegraphs have done much to make Americans homogeneous, +and the school system grapples bravely with the greater task of +Americanizing the children of foreigners, who arrive in such vast +numbers. Canada allowed the inhabitants of lower Canada to keep their +language, their laws, and their denominational schools; and the +consequence is that these Canadian-British subjects are more French +than the French, more conservative than the Tories, and more Catholic +than Irish or Italians. Education is absolutely free in America up to +the age of 18; but I never heard an American complain of being taxed to +educate other people's children. In Auburn I met Harriet Tribman, +called the "Moses of her people"—an old black woman who could neither +read nor write, but who had escaped from slavery when young, and had +made 19 journeys south, and been instrumental in the escape of 300 +slaves. To listen to her was to be transferred to the pages of "Uncle +Tom's Cabin." Her language was just that of Tom and old Jeff. A pious +Christian, she was full of good works still. Her shanty was a refuge +for the sick, blind, and maimed of her own people. I went all over +Harvard University under the guidance of Professor Ashley, to whom our +Chief Justice had given me a letter of introduction. He got up a +drawing-room meeting for me, at which I met Dr. Gordon Ames, pastor of +the Unitarian Church of the Disciples. He invited me to preach his +thanksgiving service for him on the following Thursday, which I was +delighted to do. Mrs. Ames was the factory inspector of women and +children in Massachusetts, and was probably the wisest woman I met in +my travels. She spoke to me of the evils of stimulating the religious +sentiment too young, and said that the hushed awe with which most +people spoke of God and His constant presence filled a child's mind +with fear. +</P> + +<P> +She related an experience with her own child, who on going to bed had +asked if God was in the room. The child was told that God was always +besides us. After being left in darkness the child was heard sobbing, +and a return to the nursery elicited the confession, "Oh, mamma, I +can't bear to be left with no one but God." Better the simple +anthropomorphism which makes God like the good father, the generous +uncle, the indulgent grandfather, or the strong elder brother. +</P> + +<P> +Such ideas as these of God were held by the heroines of the following +stories:—A little girl, a niece of the beloved Bishop Brooks, had done +wrong, and was told to confess her sin to God before she slept, and to +beg His forgiveness. When asked next day whether she had obeyed the +command, she said—"Oh, yes! I told God all about it, and God said, +'Don't mention it, Miss Brooks.'" A similar injunction was laid upon a +child brought up by a very severe and rather unjust aunt. Her reply +when asked if she had confessed her sin was "I told God what I had +done, and what you thought about it, and I just left it to Him." The +response of a third American girl (who was somewhat of a "pickle" and +had been reared among a number of boys) to the enquiry whether she had +asked forgiveness for a wrong done was—"Oh, yes; I told God exactly +what I had done, and He said, 'Great Scot, Elsie Murray, I know 500 +little girls worse than you.'" To me this was a much healthier state of +mind than setting children weeping for their sins, as I have done +myself. +</P> + +<P> +On my second visit to Boston I spent three weeks with the family of +William, Lloyd Garrison, son of the famous Abolitionist. The Chief +Justice had given me a letter of introduction to him, and I found him a +true-hearted humanitarian, as devoted to the gospel of single tax as +his father had been to that of anti-slavery. They lived in a beautiful +house in Brookline, on a terrace built by an enterprising man who had +made his money in New South Wales. Forty-two houses were perfectly and +equally warmed by one great furnace, and all the public rooms of the +ground floor, dining, and drawing rooms, library, and hall were +connected by folding doors, nearly always open, which gave a feeling of +space I never experienced elsewhere. Electric lighting and bells all +over the house, hot and cold baths, lifts, the most complete laundry +arrangements, and cupboards everywhere ensured the maximum of comfort +with the minimum of labour. But in this house I began to be a little +ashamed of being so narrow in my views on the coloured question. Mr. +Garrison, animated with the spirit of the true brotherhood of man, was +an advocate of the heathen Chinee, and was continually speaking of the +goodness of the negro and coloured and yellow races, and of the +injustice and rapacity of the white Caucasians. I saw the files of his +father's paper, The Liberator, from its beginning in 1831 till its +close, when the victory was won in 1865. Of the time spent in the +Lloyd-Garrison household "nothing now is left but a majestic memory," +which has been kept green by the periodical letters received from this +noble man up till the time of his death last year. He showed me the +monument erected to the memory of his father in Boston in the town +where years before the great abolitionist had been stoned by the mob. +Only recently it rejoiced my heart to know that a memorial to Lloyd +Garrison the younger had been unveiled in Boston, his native city; at +the same time that a similar honour was paid to his venerated leader, +"the prophet of San Francisco." +</P> + +<P> +I account it one of the greatest privileges of my visit to America that +Mrs. Garrison introduced me to Oliver Wendell Holmes, and by +appointment I had an hour and a half's chat with him in the last year +of his long life. He was the only survivor of a famous band of New +England writers, Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorn, Bryant, Lowell, +Whittier, and Whitman were dead. His memory was failing, and he forgot +some of his own characters; but Elsie Venner he remembered perfectly +and he woke to full animation when I objected to the fatalism of +heredity as being about as paralysing to effort as the fatalism of +Calvinism. As a medical man (and we are apt to forget the physician in +the author) he took strong views of heredity. As a worker among our +destitute children, I considered environment the greater factor of the +two, and spoke of children of the most worth less parents who had +turned out well when placed early in respectable and kindly homes. +Before I left, the author presented me with an autograph copy of one of +his books—a much-prized gift. He was reading Cotton Mather's +"Memorabilia," not for theology, but for gossip. It was the only +chronicle of the small beer of current events in the days of the witch +persecutions, and the expulsion of the Quakers, Baptists, and other +schismatics. I have often felt proud that of all the famous men I have +mentioned in this connection there was only one not a Unitarian, and +that was Whittier, the Quaker poet of abolition; and his theology was +of the mildest. +</P> + +<P> +Another notable man with whom I had three hours' talk was Charles +Dudley Warner, the humorous writer. I am not partial to American +humorists generally, but the delicate and subtle humour of Dudley +Warner I always appreciated. In our talk I saw his serious side, for he +was keen on introducing the indeterminate sentence into his own State, +on the lines of the Elmira and Concord Reformatories. He told me that +he never talked in train: but during the three hours' journey to New +York neither of us opened the books with which we had provided +ourselves, and we each talked of our separate interests, and enjoyed +the talk right through. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe I saw, but her +memory was completely gone. With Julia Ward Howe, the writer of "The +Battle Hymn of the Republic" I spent a happy time. She had been the +President of the New England Women's Club for 25 years, and was a +charming and interesting woman. I was said to be very like her, and, +indeed was often accosted by her name; but I think probably the reason +was partly my cap, for Howe always wears one, and few other American +ladies do. Whenever I was with her I was haunted by the beautiful lines +from the closing verse of the "Battle Hymn"— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born, across the sea,<BR> + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;<BR> + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,<BR> + While God is marching on.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +At her house I met many distinguished women. Mrs. J. F. Fields, the +widow of the well-known author-publisher; Madame Blaine Bentzam, a +writer for French reviews; Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, one of the most +charming of New England write is, and others. +</P> + +<P> +My best work in Canada was the conversion to effective voting of my +good friend Robert Tyson. For years now he has done yeoman service in +the cause, and has corresponded with workers all over the world on the +question of electoral reform. I visited Toronto, at the invitation of +Mr. William Howland, with whom I had corresponded for years. I was +invited to dinner with his father, Sir William Howland, who was the +first Lieutenant-Governor of Toronto after the federation of the +Dominion. I found it very difficult to remember the names of the many +interesting people I met there, although I could recollect the things +they spoke about. Mr. Howland took me on with him to an evening garden +party—quite a novel form of entertainment for me—where there were +other interesting people. One of these, a lady artist who had travelled +all round the world, took me on the next afternoon to an at-home at +Professor Goldwin Smith's. In a talk I had with this notable man he +spoke of his strong desire that Canada should become absorbed in the +States; but the feeling in Canada was adverse to such a change. Still, +you found Canadians everywhere, for many more men were educated than +could find careers in the Dominion. Sir Sandford Fleming, the most +ardent proportionalist in Canada, left Toronto on his trip to New +Zealand and Australia shortly after I arrived there. I spent a few +hours with him, and owed a great deal of my success in the Dominion to +his influence. I felt that I had done much good in Canada, and my time +was so occupied that the only thing I missed was leisure. +</P> + +<P> +Much of the time in New York was spent in interviews with the various +papers. I had a delightful few days at the house of Henry George, and +both he and his wife did everything in their power to make my visit +pleasant. Indeed, everywhere in America I received the greatest +kindness and consideration. I had been 11 months in the States and +Canada, and lived the strenuous life to the utmost. I had delivered +over 100 lectures, travelled thousands of miles, and met the most +interesting people in the world. I felt many regrets on parting with +friends, comrades, sympathizers, and fellow-workers. When I reflected +that on my arrival in San Francisco I knew only two persons in America +in the flesh, and only two more through correspondence, and was able to +look back on the hundreds of people who had personally interested me, +it seemed as if there was some animal magnetism in the world, and that +affinities were drawn together as if by magic. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BRITAIN, THE CONTINENT, AND HOME AGAIN. +</H3> + +<P> +I went by steamer to Glasgow, as I found the fares by that route +cheaper than to Liverpool. Municipal work in that city was then +attracting world-wide attention, and I enquired into the methods of +taxation and the management of public works, much to my advantage. The +co-operative works at Shields Hall were another source of interest to +me. At Peterborough I stayed with Mr. Hare's daughter, Katie, who had +married Canon Clayton. Never before did I breathe such an +ecclesiastical atmosphere as in that ancient canonry, part of the old +monastery, said to be 600 years old. While there I spoke to the Guild +of Co-operative Women on "Australia." In Edinburgh I had a drawing-room +meeting at the house of Mrs. Muir Dowie, daughter of Robert Chambers +and mother of Minnie Muriel Dowie, who wrote "Through the Carpathians," +and another at the Fabian Society, both on effective voting. Mrs. Dowie +and Priscilla Bright McLaren, sister of John Bright, were both keen on +the suffrage, and most interesting women. I had been so much associated +with the suffragists in America, with the veteran Susan B. Anthony at +their head, that English workers in the cause gave me a warm welcome. +</P> + +<P> +London under the municipal guidance of the County Council was very +different from the London I had visited 29 years earlier. Perhaps +Glasgow and Birmingham have gone further in municipalizing monopolies +than Londoners have, but the vastness of the scale on which London +moves makes it more interesting. Cr. Peter Burt, of Glasgow, had worked +hard to add publichouses to the list of things under municipal +ownership and regulation, and I have always been glad to see the +increasing attention paid to the Scandinavian methods of dealing with +the drink traffic. I have deplored the division among temperance +workers, which makes the prohibitionists hold aloof from this reform, +when their aid would at least enable the experiment to be tried. But in +spite of all hindrances the world moves on towards better things. It is +not now a voice crying in the wilderness. There are many thousands of +wise, brave, devoted men and women possessed with the enthusiasm of +humanity in every civilized country, and they must prevail. Professor +and Mrs. Westlake, the latter of whom was Mr. Hare's eldest daughter, +arranged a most successful drawing-room meeting for me at their home, +the River House, Chelsea, at which Mr. Arthur Balfour spoke. While he +thought effective voting probably suitable for America and Australia, +he scarcely saw the necessity for it in England. Party leaders so +seldom do like to try it on themselves, but many of them are prepared +to experiment on "the other fellow." In this State we find members of +the Assembly anxious to try effective voting on the Legislative +Council, Federal members on the State House, and vice versa. Other +speakers who supported me were Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Leonard +(now Lord) Courtney, Mr. Westlake, and Sir John Hall, of New Zealand. +The flourishing condition of the Proportional Representation Society in +England at present is due to the earnestness of the lastnamed +gentlemen, and its extremely able hon. secretary (Mr. John H. +Humphreys). +</P> + +<P> +A few days were spent with Miss Jane Hume Clapperton, author of +"Scientific Meliorism," and we had an interesting time visiting George +Eliot's haunts and friends. Through the Warwickshire lanes—where the +high hedges and the great trees at regular intervals made it impossible +to see anything beyond, except an occasional gate, reminding me of Mrs. +Browning's— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + And between the hedgerows green,<BR> + How we wandered—I and you;<BR> + With the bowery tops shut in,<BR> + And the gates that showed the view.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +—we saw the homestead known as "Mrs. Poyser's Farm," as it answers so +perfectly to the description in "Adam Bede." I was taken to see Mrs. +Cash, a younger friend of George Eliot, and took tea with two most +interesting, old ladies—one 82, and the other 80—who had befriended +the famous authoress when she was poor and stood almost alone. How I +grudged the thousands of acres of beautiful agricultural land given up +to shooting and hunting! We in Australia have no idea of the extent to +which field sports enter into the rural life of England. People excused +this love of sport to me on the ground that it is as a safety valve for +the energy of idle men. Besides, said one, hunting leads, at any rate, +to an appreciation of Nature; but I thought it a queer appreciation of +Nature that would lead keen fox hunters to complain of the "stinking" +violets that throw the hounds off the scent of the fox. I saw Ascot and +Epsom, but fortunately not on a race day. A horse race I have never +seen. George Moore's realistic novel "Esther Waters" does not overstate +the extent to which betting demoralizes not only the wealthier, but all +classes. There is a great pauper school in Sutton, where from 1,600 to +1,800 children are reared and educated. On Derby Day the children go to +the side of the railroad, and catch the coppers and silver coins thrown +to them by the passengers, and these are gathered together to give the +children their yearly treat. But this association in the children's +minds of their annual pleasure with Derby Day must, I often think, have +a demoralizing tendency. +</P> + +<P> +While in London I slipped in trying to avoid being run down by an +omnibus and dislocated my right shoulder. I was fortunate in being the +guest of Mr. and Mrs. Petherick at the time. I can never be +sufficiently grateful to them for their care of and kindness to me. +Only last year I went to Melbourne to meet them both again. It was the +occasion of the presentation to the Federal Government of the Petherick +Library, and I went over to sign and to witness the splendid deed of +gift. +</P> + +<P> +I have left almost to the last of the account of my English visit all +mention of the Baconians I met and from whom I gained valuable +information in corroboration of the Baconian authorship. In some +circles I found that, to suggest that Shakspeare did not write the +plays and poems was equal to throwing a bombshell among them. As a +Baconian I received an invitation to a picnic at the beautiful country +house of Mr. Edwin Lawrence, with whom I had a pleasant talk. The house +was built on a part of a royal forest, in which firs and pines were +planted at the time of the great Napoleonic wars when timber could not +be got from the Baltic and England had to trust to her own hearts of +oak and her own growth of pine for masts and planks. Mr. Lawrence had +written pamphlets and essays on the Baconian theory, and I found my +knowledge of the subject expanding and growing under his intelligent +talk. His wife's father (J. Benjamin Smith) had taught Cobden the +ethics of free trade. It was through the kind liberality of Miss +Florence Davenport Hill that a pamphlet, recording the speeches and +results of the voting at River House, Chelsea, was printed and +circulated. When I visited Miss Hill and her sister and found them as +eager for social and political reform as they had been 29 years +earlier, I had another proof of the eternal youth which large and high +interests keep within us in spite of advancing years. Miss Davenport +Hill had been a member of the London School Board for 15 years, and was +reelected after I left England. Years of her life had been devoted to +work for the children of the State, and she was a member of the Board +of Guardians for the populous union of St. Pancras. Everyone +acknowledged the great good that the admission of women to those boards +had done. I spent a pleasant time at Toynbee Hall, a University centre, +in the poorest part of London, founded by men. Canon and Mrs. Barrett +were intensely interested in South Australian work for State children. +Similar University centres which I visited in America, like Hull House, +in Chicago, were founded by women graduates. Mrs. Fawcett I met several +times, but Mrs. Garrett Anderson only once. When the suffrage was +granted to the women of South Australia I received a letter of +congratulation from Dr. Helen Blackburn, one of the first women to take +a medical degree. Nowadays women doctors are accepted as part of our +daily life, and it is to these brave pioneers of the women's cause, +Drs. Elizabeth Blackwell, Helen Rackburn, Garrett Anderson, and other +like noble souls, that the social and political prestige of women has +advanced so tremendously all over the English-speaking world. It only +remains now for a few women, full of the enthusiasm of humanity and +gifted with the power of public speaking, to gain another and important +step for the womanhood of the world in the direction of economic +freedom. Before leaving England I was gratified at receiving a cheque +from Mrs. Westlake, contributed by the English proportionalists, to +help me in the cause. This was the second gift of the kind I had +received, for my friends in San Francisco had already helped me +financially on my way to reform. Socially I liked the atmosphere of +America better than that of England, but politically England was +infinitely more advanced. Steadily and surely a safer democracy seems +to be evolving in the old country than in the Transatlantic Republic. I +left England at the end of September, 1894. +</P> + +<P> +My intended visit to Paris was cancelled through the death a short time +before of the only friend I wished to meet there, the Baroness +Blaze-de-Bury, and I went straight through to Bale. I made a detour to +Zurich, where I hoped to see people interested in proportional +representation who could speak English. An interesting fellow-worker in +the cause was Herr Karl Burkli, to whom I suggested the idea of +lecturing with ballots. The oldest advocate of proportional +representation on the Continent, M. Ernest Naville, I met at Geneva. In +that tiny republic in the heart of Europe, which is the home of +experimental legislation, I found effective voting already established +in four cantons, and the effect in these cantons had been so good (said +Ernest Naville) "that it is only a matter of time to see all the Swiss +cantons and the Swiss Federation adopt it." In Zurich Herr Burkli was +delighted that they had introduced progressive taxation into the +canton, but the effect had been to drive away the wealthy people who +came in search of quiet and healthy residence. Progressive taxation has +not by any means proved the unmixed blessing which so many of its +advocates claim it to be. In New Zealand, we are told, on the best +authority, that land monopoly and land jobbery were never so rampant in +the Dominion as since the introduction of the progressive land tax. One +wondered how the three million Swiss people lived on their little +territory, so much occupied by barren mountain, and lakes which supply +only a few fish. My Zurich friends told me that it was by their +unremitting industry and exceptional thrift, but others said that the +foreign visitors who go to the recreation ground of Europe circulate so +much money that instead of the prayer "Give us this day our daily +bread" the Swiss people ask, "Send us this day one foreigner." +</P> + +<P> +In Italy I saw the most intense culture in the world—no pleasure +grounds or deer parks for the wealthy. The whole country looked like a +garden with trellised vines and laden trees. Italian wine was grown, +principally for home consumption, and that was immense. Prohibitionists +would speak to deaf ears there. Wine was not a luxury, but a necessity +of life. It made the poor fare of dry bread and polenta (maize +porridge) go down more pleasantly. It was the greater abundance of +fruit and wine that caused the Italian poorer classes to look healthier +than the German. In Germany, which taxed itself to give cheap beet +sugar to the British consumer, the people paid 6d. a lb. for the little +they could afford to use; and in Italy it was nearly 8d.—a source of +revenue to the Governments, but prohibitive to the poor. There were no +sweet shops in Italy. England only could afford such luxuries. I +visited at Siena a home for deaf mutes, and found that each child had +wine at two of its daily meals—about a pint a day. It was the +light-red wine of the country, with little alcohol in it; but those who +warn us against looking on the wine when it is red will be shocked to +hear of these little ones drinking it like milk. Those, however, who +live in Italy say that not once a year do they see any one drunk in the +streets. +</P> + +<P> +I reached South Australia on December 12, 1894, after an absence of 20 +months. I found the women's suffrage movement wavering in the balance. +It had apparently come with a rush—as unexpected as it was welcome to +those whose strenuous exertions at last seemed likely to be crowned +with success. Though sympathetic to the cause, I had always been +regarded as a weakkneed sister by the real workers. I had failed to see +the advantage of having a vote that might leave me after an election a +disfranchised voter, instead of an unenfranchised woman. People talk of +citizens being disfranchised for the Legislative Council when they +really mean that they are unenfranchised. You can scarcely be +disfranchised if you have never been enfranchised; and I have regarded +the enfranchisement of the people on the roll as more important for the +time being than adding new names to the rolls. This would only tend to +increase the disproportion between the representative and the +represented. But I rejoiced when the Women's Suffrage Bill was carried, +for I believe that women have thought more and accepted the +responsibilities of voting to a greater extent than was ever expected +of them. During the week I was accorded a welcome home in the old +Academy of Music, Rundle street, where I listened with embarrassment to +the avalanche of eulogium that overwhelmed me. "What a good thing it +is, Miss Spence, that you have only one idea," a gentleman once said to +me on my country tour. He wished thus to express his feeling concerning +my singleness of purpose towards effective voting. But at this welcome +home I felt that others realized what I had often said myself. It is +really because I have so many ideas for making life better, wiser, and +pleasanter all of which effective voting will aid—that I seem so +absorbed in the one reform. My opinions on other matters I give for +what they are worth—for discussion, for acceptance or rejection. My +opinions on equitable representation I hold absolutely, subject to +criticism of methods but impregnable as to principle. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PROGRESS OF EFFECTIVE VOTING. +</H3> + +<P> +My journalistic work after my return was neither so regular nor so +profitable as before I left Adelaide. The bank failures had affected me +rather badly, and financially my outlook was anything but rosy in the +year 1895. There was, however, plenty of public work open to me, and, +in addition to the many lectures I gave in various parts of the State +on effective voting, I became a member of the Hospital Commission, +appointed that year by the Kingston Government to enquire into the +trouble at the Adelaide Hospital. That same year saw a decided step +taken in connection with effective voting, and in July a league was +formed, which has been in existence ever since. I was appointed the +first President, my brother John became secretary pro tem, and Mr. A. +W. Piper the first treasurer. I felt at last that the reform was taking +definite shape, and looked hopefully to its future. The following year +was especially interesting to the women of South Australia, and, +indeed, to suffragists all over the world, for at the general election +of 1896 women, for the first time in Australia, had the right to vote. +New Zealand had preceded us with this reform, but the first election in +this State found many women voters fairly well equipped to accept their +responsibilities as citizens of the State. But in the full realization +by the majority of women of their whole duties of citizenship I have +been distinctly disappointed. Not that they have been on the whole less +patriotic and less zealous than men voters; but, like their brothers, +they have allowed their interest in public affairs to stop short at the +act of voting, as if the right to vote were the beginning and the end +of political life. There has been too great a tendency on the part of +women to allow reform work—particularly women's branches of it—to be +done by a few disinterested and public-spirited women. Not only is the +home the centre of woman's sphere, as it should be, but in too many +cases it is permitted to be its limitation. The larger social life has +been ignored, and women have consequently failed to have the effect on +public life of which their political privilege is capable. +</P> + +<P> +At the close of a second lecturing tour through the State, during which +I visited and spoke at most of the village settlements, I received an +invitation from the Women's Land Reform League to attend a social +gathering at the residence of Miss Sutherland, Clark street, Norwood. +The occasion was my seventy-first birthday, and my friends had chosen +that day (October 31, 1896) to mark their appreciation of my public +services. There were about 30 of the members present, all interesting +by reason of their zealous care for the welfare of the State. Their +President (Mrs. C. Proud) presented me, on behalf of the members, with +a lady's handbag, ornamented with a silver plate, bearing my name, the +date of the presentation, and the name of the cause for which I stood. +From that day the little bag has been the inseparable companion of all +my wanderings, and a constant reminder of the many kind friends who, +with me, had realized that "love of country is one of the loftiest +virtues which the Almighty has planted in the human heart." That +association was the first in South Australia to place effective voting +on its platform. +</P> + +<P> +My long comradeship with Mrs. A. H. Young began before the close of the +year. A disfranchised voter at her first election, she was driven +farther afield than the present inadequate system of voting to look for +a just electoral method. She found it in effective voting, and from +that time devoted herself to the cause. Early in 1897 Mrs. Young was +appointed the first honorary secretary of the league. January of the +same year found us stirred to action by the success of Sir Edward +Braddon's first Bill for proportional representation in Tasmania. +Though limited in its application to the two chief cities of the island +State, the experiment was wholly successful. We had our first large +public meeting in the Co-operative Hall in January, and carried a +resolution protesting against the use of the block vote for the Federal +Convention elections. A deputation to the acting Premier +(Mr.—afterwards Sir Frederick—Holder) was arranged for the next +morning. But we were disappointed in the result of our mission, for Mr. +Holder pointed out that the Enabling Act distinctly provided for every +elector having 10 votes, and effective voting meant a single +transferable vote. I had written and telegraphed to the Hon. C. C. +Kingston when the Enabling Act was being drafted to beg him to consider +effective voting as the basis of election; but he did not see it then, +nor did he ever see it. In spite, however, of the short sightedness of +party leaders, events began to move quickly. +</P> + +<P> +Our disappointment over the maintenance of the block vote for the +election of 10 delegates to the Federal Convention led to my brother +John's suggestion that I should become a candidate. Startling as the +suggestion was, so many of my friends supported it that I agreed to do +so. I maintained that the fundamental necessity of a democratic +Constitution such as we hoped would evolve from the combined efforts of +the ablest men in the Australian States was a just system of +representation and it was as the advocate of effective voting that I +took my stand. My personal observation in the United States and Canada +had impressed me with the dangers inseparable from the election of +Federal Legislatures by local majorities—sometimes by +minorities—where money and influence could be employed, particularly +where a line in a tariff spelt a fortune to a section of the people, in +the manipulation of the floating vote. Parties may boast of their +voting strength and their compactness, but their voting strength under +the present system of voting is only as strong as its weakest link, +discordant or discontented minorities, will permit it to be. The +stronger a party is in the Legislature the more is expected from it by +every little section of voters to whom it owes its victory at the +polls. The impelling force of responsibility which makes all +Governments "go slow" creates the greatest discontent among impatient +followers of the rank and file, and where a few votes may turn the +scale at any general election a Government is often compelled to choose +between yielding to the demands of its more clamorous followers at the +expense of the general taxpayer or submitting to a Ministerial defeat. +</P> + +<P> +As much as we may talk of democracy in Australia, we are far from +realizing a truly democratic ideal. A State in a pure democracy draws +no nice and invidious distinctions between man and man. She disclaims +the right of favouring either property, education, talent, or virtue. +She conceives that all alike have an interest in good government, and +that all who form the community, of full age and untainted by crime, +should have a right to their share in the representation. She allows +education to exert its legitimate power through the press; talent in +every department of business, property in its social and material +advantages; virtue and religion to influence public opinion and the +public conscience. But she views all men as politically equal, and +rightly so, if the equality is to be as real in operation as in theory. +If the equality is actual in the representation of the citizens—truth +and virtue, being stronger than error and vice, and wisdom being +greater than folly, when a fair field is offered—the higher qualities +subdue the lower and make themselves felt in every department of the +State. But if the representation from defective machinery is not equal, +the balance is overthrown, and neither education, talent, nor virtue +can work through public opinion so as to have any beneficial influence +on politics. We know that in despotisms and oligarchies, where the +majority are unrepresented and the few extinguish the many, +independence of thought is crushed down, talent is bribed to do service +to tyranny, education is confined to a privileged class and denied to +the people, property is sometimes pillaged and sometimes flattered, and +even virtue is degraded by lowering its field and making subservience +appear to be patience and loyalty, and religion is not unfrequently +made the handmaid of oppression. Taxes fall heavily on the poor for the +benefit of the rich, and the only check proceeds from the fear of +rebellion. When, on the other hand, the majority extinguishes the +minority, the evil effects are not so apparent. The body oppressed is +smaller and generally wealthier, with many social advantages to draw +off attention from the political injustice under which they suffer; but +there is the same want of sympathy between class and class, moral +courage is rare, talent is perverted, genius is overlooked, education +is general, but superficial, and press and Pulpit often timid in +exposing or denouncing popular errors. An average standard of virtue is +all that is aimed at, and when no higher mark is set up there is great +fear of falling below the average. Therefore it is incumbent on all +States to look well to it that their representative systems really +secure the political equality they all profess to give, for until that +is done democracy has had no fair trial. +</P> + +<P> +In framing a new constitution the opportunity arose for laying the +foundation of just representation, and, had I been elected, my first +and last thought would have been given to the claims of the whole +people to electoral justice. But the 7,500 votes which I received left +me far enough from the lucky 10. Had Mr. Kingston not asserted both +publicly and privately that, if elected, I could not constitutionally +take my seat, I might have done better. There were rumours even that my +nomination paper would be rejected. But to obviate this, Mrs. Young, +who got it filled in, was careful to see that no name was on it that +had no right there, and its presentation was delayed till five minutes +before the hour of noon, in order that no time would be left to upset +its validity. From a press cutting on the declaration of the poll I +cull this item of news—"Several unexpected candidates were announced, +but the only nomination which evoked any expressions of approval was +that of Miss Spence." I was the first woman in Australia to seek +election in a political contest. From the two main party lists I was, +of course, excluded, but in the list of the "10 best men" selected by a +Liberal organization my name appeared. When the list was taken to the +printer—who, I think, happened to be the late Federal member, Mr. +James Hutchison—he objected to the heading of the "10 best men," as +one of them was a woman. He suggested that my name should be dropped, +and a man's put in its place. "You can't say Miss Spence is one of the +'10 best men.' Take her name out." "Not say she's one of the '10 best +men?'" the Liberal organizer objected, "Why she's the best man of the +lot." I had not expected to be elected, but I did expect that my +candidature would help effective voting, and I am sure it did. Later +the league arranged a deputation to Mr. Kingston, to beg him to use his +influence for the adoption of the principle in time for the first +Federal elections. We foresaw, and prophesied what has actually +occurred—the monopoly of representation by one party in the Senate, +and the consequent disfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters +throughout the Commonwealth. But, as before, Mr. Kingston declined to +see the writing on the wall. The Hon. D. M. Charleston was successful +in carrying through the Legislative Council a motion in favour of its +application to Federal elections, but Mr. Wynn in the Lower House had a +harder row to hoe, and a division was never taken. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Young and I spent a pleasant evening at Government House in July +of the same year, as Sir Fowell and Lady Buxton had expressed a desire +to understand the system. In addition to a large house party, several +prominent citizens were present, and all were greatly interested. On +leaving at 11 o'clock we found the gate closed against us, as the +porter was evidently unaware that visitors were being entertained. We +were amused at the indignation of the London-bred butler, who, on +coming to our rescue, cried with a perfect Cockney accent, "Gyte, gyte, +yer don't lock gytes till visitors is off." This was a memorable year +in the annals of our cause, for on his election to fill an +extraordinary vacancy for North Adelaide Mr. Glynn promised to +introduce effective voting into the House. This he did in July by +tabling a motion for the adoption of the principle, and we were pleased +to find in Mr. Batchelor, now the Minister for External Affairs in the +Federal Government, a stanch supporter. Among the many politicians who +have blown hot and cold on the reform as occasion arose, Mr. Batchelor +has steadily and consistently remained a supporter of what he terms +"the only system that makes majority rule possible." +</P> + +<P> +When Mrs. Young and I began our work together the question was +frequently asked why women alone were working for effective voting? The +answer was simple. There were few men with leisure in South Australia, +and, if there were, the leisured man was scarcely likely to take up +reform work. When I first seized hold of this reform women as platform +speakers were unheard of. Indeed, the prejudice was so strong against +women in public life that although I wrote the letters to The Melbourne +Argus it was my brother John who was nominally the correspondent. So +for 30 years I wrote anonymously to the press on this subject. I waited +for some man to come forward and do the platform work for me. We women +are accused of waiting and waiting for the coming man, but often he +doesn't come at all; and oftener still, when he does come, we should be +a great deal better without him. In this case he did not come at all, +and I started to do the work myself; and, just because I was a woman +working singlehanded in the cause, Mrs. Young joined me in the crusade +against inequitable representation. For many years, however, the cause +has counted to its credit men speakers and demonstrators of ability and +talent all over the State, who are carrying the gospel of +representative reform into every camp, both friendly and hostile. +</P> + +<P> +It was said of Gibbon when his autobiography was published that he did +not know the difference between himself and the Roman Empire. I have +sometimes thought that the same charge might be levelled against me +with regard to effective voting; but association with a reform for half +a century sometimes makes it difficult to separate the interests of the +person from the interests of the cause. Following on my return from +America effective voting played a larger part than ever in my life. I +had come back cheered by the earnestness and enthusiasm of American +reformers, and I found the people of my adopted country more than ever +prepared to listen to my teaching. Parties had become more clearly +defined, and the results of our system of education were beginning to +tell, I think, in the increased interest taken by individuals as well +as by societies in social and economic questions. I found interesting +people everywhere, in every mode of life, and in every class of +society. My friends sometimes accused me of judging people's +intelligence by the interest they took in effective voting; but, +although this may have been true to a certain extent, it was not wholly +correct. Certainly I felt more drawn to effective voters, but there are +friendships I value highly into which my special reform work never +enters. Just as the more recent years of my life have been coloured by +the growth of the movement which means more to me than anything else in +the world, so must the remaining chapters of this narrative bear the +imprint of its influence. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WIDENING INTERESTS. +</H3> + +<P> +During this period my work on the State Children's Council continued, +and I never found time hang heavily on my hands; so that when Mr. +Kingston met me one day later in the year, and told me he particularly +wished me to accept an appointment as a member of the Destitute Board, +I hesitated. "I am too old," I objected. "No, no, Miss Spence," he +replied laughingly, "it is only we who grow old—you have the gift of +perpetual youth." But I was nearly 72, and at any rate I thought I +should first consult my friends. I found them all eager that I should +accept the position. I had agitated long and often for the appointment +of women on all public boards, particularly where both sexes came under +treatment, and I accepted the post. Although often I have found the +work tiring, I have never regretted the step I took in joining the +board. Experience has emphasized my early desire that two women at +least should occupy positions on it. I hope that future Governments +will rectify the mistake of past years by utilizing to a greater extent +the valuable aid of capable and sympathetic women in a branch of public +work for which they are peculiarly fitted. Early in my career as a +member of the board I found grave defects in the daily bill of fare, +and set myself to the task of remedying them as far as lay in my power. +For 30 years the same kind of soup, day in and day out, followed by the +eternal and evergreen cabbage as a vegetable, in season and out of +season, found its way to the table. My own tastes and mode of life were +simplicity personified, but my stomach revolted against a dietary as +unvaried as it was unappetizing. An old servant who heard that I +attended the Destitute Asylum every week was loud in her lamentations +that "poor dear Miss Spence was so reduced that she had to go to the +Destitute every week for rations!" My thankfulness that she had +misconceived the position stirred me to leave no stone unturned for the +betterment of the destitute bill of fare. I was successful, and the +varied diet now enjoyed bears witness to the humanitarian views of all +the members of the board, who were as anxious to help in the reform as +I was. My heart has always gone out to the poor old folk whose faces +bear the impress of long years of strenuous toil and who at the close +of life at least should find a haven of restfulness and peace in the +State for whose advancement they have laboured in the past. +</P> + +<P> +She was a witty woman who divided autobiographies into two classes... +autobiographies and ought-not-to-biographies—but I am sure she never +attempted to write one herself. There is so much in one's life that +looms large from a personal point of view about which other people +would care little, and the difficulty often arises, not so much about +what to put in as what to leave out. +</P> + +<P> +How much my personal interests had widened during my absence from home +could be gauged somewhat by the enormous increase in my correspondence +after my return. American, Canadian, English, and Continental +correspondents have kept me for many years well informed on reform and +kindred subjects; and the letters I have received, and the replies they +have drawn from me, go far to make me doubt the accuracy of the +accepted belief that "letter writing has become a lost art." A full +mind with a facile pen makes letter writing a joy, and both of these +attributes I think I may fairly claim. My correspondence with Alfred +Cridge was kept up till his death a few years ago, and his son, +following worthily in the footsteps of a noble father, has taken up the +broken threads of the lifework of my friend, and is doing his utmost to +carry it to a successful issue. My love of reading, which has been a +characteristic feature of my life, found full scope for expression in +the piles of books which reached us from all parts of the world. It has +always been my desire to keep abreast of current literature, and this, +by means of my book club and other sources, I was able to do. Sometimes +my friends from abroad sent me copies of their own publications, Dr. +Bayard Holmes invariably forwarding to me a presentation copy of his +most valuable treatises on medical subjects. Mrs. Stetson's poems and +economic writings have always proved a source of inspiration to me, and +I have distributed her books wherever I have thought they would be +appreciated. Just at this time my financial position became brighter. I +was fortunate in being able to dispose of my two properties in East +Adelaide, and the purchasing of an annuity freed me entirely from money +and domestic worries. Perhaps the greatest joy of all was that I was +once more able to follow my charitable inclinations by giving that +little mite which, coming opportunely, gladdens the heart of the +disconsolate widow or smoothes the path of the struggling worker. +Giving up my home entirely, I went to live with my dear friend Mrs. +Baker, at Osmond terrace, where, perhaps, I spent the most restful +period of a somewhat eventful life. +</P> + +<P> +The inauguration of a Criminological Society in Adelaide was a welcome +sign to me of the growing public interest in methods of prison +discipline and treatment. I was one of the foundation members of the +society, and attended every meeting during its short existence. My one +contribution to the lectures delivered under its auspices was on +"Heredity and Environment." This was a subject in which I had long been +interested, holding the view that environment had more to do with the +building up of character than heredity had to do with its decadence. +How much or how little truth there is in the cynical observation that +the only believers in heredity nowadays are the fathers of very clever +sons I am not prepared to say. I do say, however, that with the cruel +and hopeless law of heredity as laid down by Zola and Ibsen I have +little sympathy. According to these pessimists, who ride heredity to +death, we inherit only the vices, the weaknesses, and the diseases of +our ancestors. If this, however, were really the case, the world would +be growing worse and not better, as it assuredly is, with every +succeeding generation. The contrary view taken of the matter by Ibsen's +fellowcountryman, Bjornsen, appears to me to be so much more +commonsense and humanizing. He holds that if we know that our ancestors +drank and gambled to excess, or were violent-tempered or immoral, we +can quite easily avoid the pitfall, knowing it to be there. Too readily +wrongdoers are prepared to lay their failings at the door of ancestors, +society, or some other blamable source, instead of attributing them, as +they should do, to their own selfish and weak indulgence and lack of +self-control. Heredity, though an enormous factor in our constitution, +need not be regarded as an over-mastering fate, for each human being +has an almost limitless parentage to draw upon. Each child has both a +father and a mother, and two grandparents on both sides, increasing as +one goes back. But, besides drawing on a much wider ancestry than the +immediate parents, we have more than we inherit, or where could the law +of progress operate? Each generation, each child who is born, comes +into a slightly different world, fed by more experience, blown upon by +fresh influences. And each individual comes into the world, not with a +body merely, but with a soul; and this soul is susceptible to +impressions, not only from the outer material world but from the other +souls also impressed by the old and the new, by the material and the +ideal. +</P> + +<P> +"The History of the Jukes" is continually cited as proving the power +and force of heredity. Most people who read the book through, however, +instead of merely accepting allusions one-sided and defective to it, +see clearly that it forms the strongest argument for change of +environment that ever was brought forward. The assumed name of Jukes is +given to the descendants of a worthless woman who emigrated to America +upwards of a century and a half ago, and from whom hundreds of +criminals, paupers, and prostitutes have descended. But how were the +Jukes' descendants dealt with during this period? No helping hand +removed the children from their vicious and criminal surroundings known +as one of the crime-cradles of the State of New York. Neither church +nor school took them under its protecting care. Born and reared in the +haunts of vice and crime, nothing but viciousness and criminality could +be expected as a result. Without going, so far as a wellknown ex-member +of our State Legislature, whose antagonism to the humanitarian +treatment of prisoners led him to the belief that "there wasn't nothin' +in 'erry-ditty,' it was all tommy rot," I still hold to the belief that +environment plays the larger part in the formation of character. Every +phase of criminal reform is, I candidly admit, dealing with effects +rather than causes. Effects, however, must be dealt with, and the more +humanely they are dealt with the better for society at large. So long +as society shuts its eyes to the social conditions under which the +masses of the people live, move, and have their being as tending +towards lowering rather than uplifting the individual and the +community, the supply of cases for criminal treatment will +unfortunately show little tendency to decrease. The work before +reformers of the world is to prevent the creation of criminals by +changing the environment of those with criminal tendencies as well as +to seek to alleviate the resulting disease by methods of criminal +reform. +</P> + +<P> +Many interesting lectures were given by prominent citizens under the +auspices of the society, which did a great deal to awaken the public +conscience on the important question of criminal reform. The Rev. J. +Day Thompson, who was then in the zenith of his intellectual power and +a noble supporter of all things that tended to the uplifting of +humanity, dealt with the land question in relation to crime. He gave a +telling illustration of his point—which I thought equally applicable +to the question of environment in relation to prison reform—that no +permanent good could result from social legislation until society +recognised and dealt with the root of the social evil, the land +question. "In a lunatic asylum," he said, "it is the custom to test the +sanity of patients by giving them a ladle with which to empty a tub of +water standing under a running tap. 'How do you decide?' the warder was +asked. 'Why, them as isn't idiots stops the tap.'" It was the Rev. J. +Day Thompson who first called me the "Grand Old Woman" of South +Australia. When he left Adelaide for the wider sphere of service open +to him in England I felt that we had lost one of the most cultured and +able men who had ever come among us, and one whom no community could +lose without being distinctly the poorer for his absence. +</P> + +<P> +Just at this time the visit of Dr. and Mrs. Mills created a little +excitement in certain circles. Their lectures on Christian science, +both public and private, were wonderfully well attended, and I missed +few of them. I have all my life endeavoured to keep an open mind on +these questions, and have been prepared to accept new ideas and new +modes of thought. But, although I found much that was charming in the +lectures that swayed the minds of so many of my friends, I found little +to convince me that Christian scientists were right and the rest of the +world wrong in their interpretation of the meaning of life. So far as +the cultivation of will power, as it is called, is concerned, I have no +quarrel with those who maintain that a power of self-control is the +basis of human happiness. So far as the will can be trained to obey +only those instincts that tend to the growth and maintenance of +self-respect—to prevent the subordination of our better feelings to +the overpowering effects of passion, greed, or injustice—it must help +to the development of one of the primary necessities of a sane +existence. When, however, the same agency is brought to bear on the +treatment of diseases in any shape or form I find my faith wavering. +Though there may be more things in earth and heaven than are dreamed of +in my philosophy, I was not prepared to follow the teachings set before +us by the interpreters of this belief, whose visit had made an +interesting break in the lives of many people. Truth I find everywhere +expressed, goodness in all things; but I neither look for nor expect +perfection in any one thing the world has ever produced. "Tell me where +God is," a somewhat, cynical sceptic asked of a child. "Tell me where +He is not," replied the child; and the same thing applies to goodness. +Do not tell me where goodness is, but point out to, me, if you can, +where it is not. It is for each one to find out for himself where the +right path lies, and to follow it with all his strength of mind and of +purpose. Pippa's song, "God's in His heaven-all's right with the +world," does not mean that the time has come for us to lay down our +arms in the battle of right against wrong. No! no; it is an inspiration +for us to gird our loins afresh, to "right the wrongs that need +resistance;" for, God being in His heaven, and the world itself being +right, makes it so much easier to correct mistakes that are due to +human agencies and shortcomings only. +</P> + +<P> +I found time to spend a pleasant week at Victor Harbour with my +friends, Mr. and Mrs. John Wyles. I remember one day being asked +whether I was not sorry I never married. "No," I replied, "for, +although I often envy my friends the happiness they find in their +children, I have never envied them their husbands." I think we must +have been in a frivolous mood; for a lady visitor, who was present, +capped my remark with the statement that she was quite sure Miss Spence +was thankful that when she died she would not be described as the +"relic" of any man. It was the same lady who on another occasion, when +one of the juvenile members of the party asked whether poets had to pay +for poetical licence, wittily replied, "No, my dear, but their readers +do!" Although so much of my time has been spent in public work, I have +by no means neglected or despised the social side of life. Visits to my +friends have always been delightful to me, and I have felt as much +interested in the domestic virtues of my many acquaintances as I have +been an admirer of their grasp of literature, politics, or any branch +of the arts or sciences in which they have been interested. This +seaside visit had been a welcome break in a year that had brought me a +new occupation as a member of the Destitute Board, had given me the +experience of a political campaign, had witnessed the framing of the +Constitution for the Commonwealth 'neath the Southern Cross, and had +seen effective voting advance from the academic stage into the realm of +practical politics. During the year Mrs. Young and I addressed together +26 meetings on this subject. One of the most interesting was at the +Blind School, North Adelaide. The keenness with which this audience +gripped every detail of the explanation showed us how splendidly they +had risen above their affliction. I was reminded of Helen Keller, the +American girl, who at the age of 21 months had lost sight and hearing, +and whom I had met in Chicago during my American visit, just before she +took her degree at Harvard University. +</P> + +<P> +To all peacelovers the years from 1898 to 1901 were shadowed by the +South African war. The din of battle was in our ears only to a less +degree than in those of our kinsmen in the mother country. War has +always been abhorrent to me, and there was the additional objection to +my mind in the case of the South African war in that it was altogether +unjustified. Froude's chapters on South Africa had impressed me on the +publication of his book "Oceana," after his visit here in the +seventies. His indictment of England for her treatment of the Boers +from the earliest days of her occupation of Cape Colony was too +powerful to be ignored. I felt it to be impossible that so great a +historian as Froude should make such grave charges on insufficient +evidence. The annexation of 1877, so bitterly condemned by him, +followed by the treaty of peace of 1881, with its famous "suzerainty" +clause, was, I think, but a stepping stone to the war which was said to +have embittered the last years of the life of Queen Victoria. The one +voice raised in protest against the annexation of 1877 in the British +House of Commons was that of Mr. Leonard (now Lord) Courtney. Not +afraid to stand alone, though all the world were against him, the war +at the close of the century found Leonard Courtney again taking his +stand against the majority of his countrymen, and this time it cost him +his Parliamentary seat. I have often felt proud that the leadership of +proportional representation in England should have fallen into the +hands of so morally courageous a man as Leonard Courtney has invariably +proved himself to be. +</P> + +<P> +We are apt to pride ourselves on the advance we have made in our +civilization; but our self-glorification received a rude shock at the +feelings of intolerance and race hatred that the war brought forth. +Freedom of speech became the monopoly of those who supported the war, +and the person who dared to express an opinion which differed from that +of the majority needed a great deal more than the ordinary allowance of +moral courage. Unfortunately the intolerance so characteristic of that +period is a feature, to a greater or lesser extent, of every +Parliamentary election in the Commonwealth. The clause in the Federal +Electoral Act which makes disturbance of a political meeting a penal +offence is a curious reflection on a so-called democratic community. +But, though its justification can scarcely be denied even by the +partisans of the noisier elements in a political crowd, its existence +must be deplored by every right-minded and truehearted citizen. In Miss +Rose Scott I found a sympathizer on this question of the war; and one +of the best speeches I ever heard her make was on Peace and +Arbitration. "Mafeking Day" was celebrated while we were in Sydney, and +I remember how we three—Miss Scott, Mrs. Young, and I—remained +indoors the whole day, at the charming home of our hostess, on Point +Piper road. The black band of death and desolation was too apparent for +us to feel that we could face the almost ribald excesses of that day. I +felt the war far less keenly than did my two friends; but it was bad +even for me. No one called, and the only companions of our chosen +solitude were the books we all loved so much, and +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + The secret sympathy,<BR> + The silver link, the silken tie,<BR> + Which heart to heart and mind to mind,<BR> + In body and in soul can bind.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +I had hoped that the Women's National Council, a branch of which was +formed in Adelaide a few years later, would have made a great deal of +the question of peace and arbitration, just as other branches have done +all over the world; and when the Peace Society was inaugurated a short +time ago I was glad to be able to express my sympathy with the movement +by becoming a member. As I was returning from a lecturing tour in the +south during this time, an old Scotch farm-wife came into the carriage +where I had been knitting in solitude. She was a woman of strong +feelings, and was bitterly opposed to the war. We chatted on the +subject for a time, getting along famously, until she discovered that I +was Miss Spence. "But you are a Unitarian!" she protested in a shocked +tone. I admitted the fact. "Oh, Miss Spence," she went on, "how can you +be so wicked as to deny the divinity of Christ?" I explained to her +what Unitarianism was, but she held dubiously aloof for a time. Then we +talked of other things. She told me of many family affairs, and when +she left me at the station she said, "All, well, Miss Spence, I've +learned something this morning, and that is that a Unitarian can be +just as good and honest as other folk." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND FEDERATION. +</H3> + +<P> +In the debates of the Federal Convention I was naturally much +interested. Many times I regretted my failure to win a seat when I saw +how, in spite of warnings against, and years of lamentable experience +of, a vicious system of voting, the members of the Convention went +calmly on their way, accepting as a matter of course the crude and +haphazard methods known to them, the unscientific system of voting so +dear to the heart of the "middling" politician and the party intriguer. +I believe Mr. Glynn alone raised his voice in favour of proportional +representation, in the Convention, as he has done consistently in every +representative assembly of which he has been a member. Instead of +seeing to it that the foundations of the Commonwealth were "broad based +upon the people's will" by the adoption of effective voting, and thus +maintaining the necessary connection between the representative and the +represented, these thinkers for the people at the very outset of +federation sowed the seeds of future discontent and Federal apathy. +Faced with disfranchisement for three or six years, possibly for +ever—so long as the present system of voting remains—it is +unreasonable to expect from the people as a whole that interest in the +national well-being which alone can lead to the safety of a progressive +nation. +</P> + +<P> +Proportional representation was for long talked of as a device for +representing minorities. It is only in recent years that the real scope +of the reform has been recognised. By no other means than the adoption +of the single transferable vote can the rule of the majority obtain. +The fundamental principle of proportional representation is that +majorities must rule, but that minorities shall be adequately +represented. An intelligent minority of representatives has great +weight and influence. Its voice can be heard. It can fully and truly +express the views of the voters it represents. It can watch the +majority and keep it straight. These clear rights of the minority are +denied by the use of the multiple vote. It has also been asked—Can a +Government be as strong as it needs to be when—besides the organized +Ministerial party and the recognised Opposition—there may be a larger +number of independent members than at present who may vote either way? +It is quite possible for a Government to be too strong, and this is +especially dangerous in Australia, where there are so many of what are +known as optional functions of government undertaken and administered +by the Ministry of the day, resting on a majority in the Legislature. +To maintain this ascendancy concessions are made to the personal +interests of members or to local or class interests of their +constituencies at the cost of the whole country. +</P> + +<P> +When introducing proportional representation into the Belgian Chamber +the Prime Minister (M. Bernhaert) spoke well and forcibly on the +subject of a strong Government:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +I, who have the honour of speaking to you to-day in the name of the +Government and who have at my back the strongest majority that was ever +known in Belgium, owe it to truth to say that our opinions have not a +corresponding preponderance in the country; and I believe that, if that +majority were always correctly expressed, we should gain in stability +what we might lose in apparent strength. Gentlemen, in the actual state +of things, to whom belongs the Government of the country? It belongs to +some two or three thousand electors, who assuredly are neither the best +nor the most intelligent, who turn the scale at each of our scrutin de +liste elections. I see to the right and to the left two large +armies—Catholics and Liberals—of force almost equal, whom nothing +would tempt to desert their standard, who serve it with devotion and +from conviction. Well, these great armies do not count, or scarcely +count. On the day of battle it is as if they do not exist. What counts, +what decides, what triumphs, is another body of electors altogether—a +floating body too often swayed by their passions, by their prejudices; +or, worse still, by their interests. These are our masters, and +according as they veer from right to left, or from left to right, the +Government of the country changes, and its history takes a new +direction. Gentlemen, is it well that it should be so? Is it well that +this country should be at the mercy of such contemptible elements as +these? +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +How often have I longed to see a Premier in this, my adopted country, +rise to such fervid heights of patriotism as this? +</P> + +<P> +M. Bernhaert is right. It is the party Government that is essentially +the weak Government. It cannot afford to estrange or offend any one who +commands votes. It is said that every prominent politician in the +British House of Commons is being perpetually tempted and tormented by +his friends not to be honest, and perpetually assailed by his enemies +in order to be made to appear to be dishonest. The Opposition is +prepared to trip up the Ministry at every step. It exaggerates +mistakes, misrepresents motives, and combats measures which it believes +to be good, if these are brought forward by its opponents. It bullies +in public and undermines in secret. It is always ready to step into the +shoes of the Ministry, to undergo similar treatment. This is the sort +of strength which is supposed to be imperilled if the nation were +equitably represented in the Legislature. In the present state of the +world, especially in the Australian States, where the functions of +government have multiplied and are multiplying, it is of the first +importance that the administration should be watched from all sides, +and not merely from the point of view of those who wish to sit on the +Treasury benches. The right function of the Opposition is to see that +the Government does the work of the country well. The actual practice +of the Opposition is to try to prevent it from doing the country's work +at all. In order that government should be honest, intelligent, and +economical, it needs helpful criticism rather than unqualified +opposition; and this criticism may be expected from the less compact +and more independent ranks in a legislative body which truly represents +all the people. Party discipline, which is almost inevitable in the +present struggle for ascendancy or defeat, is the most undemocratic +agency in the world. It is rather by liberating all votes and allowing +them to group themselves according to conviction that a real government +of the people by the people can be secured. When I look back on the +intention of the framers of the Commonwealth Constitution to create in +the Senate a States' rights House I am amazed at the remoteness of the +intention from the achievement. The Senate is as much a party House as +is the House of Representatives. Nothing, perhaps, describes the +position better than the epigrammatic if somewhat triumphant statement +of a Labour Senator some time ago. "The Senate was supposed to be a +place where the radical legislation of the Lower Chamber could be +cooled off, but they had found that the saucer was hotter than the cup." +</P> + +<P> +The long illness and death of my ward, Mrs. Hood, once more gave to my +life a new direction. History was repeating itself. Just as 40 years +earlier Mrs. Hood and her brothers had been left in my charge on the +death of their mother, so once again a dying mother begged me to accept +the guardianship of her three orphan children. Verging as they were on +the threshold of manhood and womanhood, they scarcely needed the care +and attention due to smaller children, but I realized I think to the +full, what so many parents have realized—that the responsibilities for +the training of children of an older growth are greater and more +burdensome than the physical care of the infant. The family belongings +were gathered in from the four quarters of the globe to which they had +been scattered on my giving up housekeeping, and we again began a +family life in Kent Town. Soon after we had settled, the motion in +charge of the Hon. D. M. Charleston in favour of the adoption of +proportional representation for Federal elections was carried to a +successful issue in the Legislative Council. The Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick +suggested the advisableness of preparing a Bill at this stage. A motion +simply affirming a principle, he said, was not likely to carry the +cause much further, as it left the question of the application of the +principle too much an open one. The league, he thought, should have +something definite to put before candidates, so that a definite answer +could be obtained from them. In New Zealand, Mr. O'Regan, a well-known +solicitor, had also introduced into the House of Representatives during +1898 a Bill for the adoption of effective voting. Unfortunately members +had become wedded to single electorates, and when a change was made it +was to second ballots—a system of voting which has for long been +discredited on the Continent. In France, it was stated in the debates +on electoral reform in 1909, for 20 years, under second ballots, only +once had a majority outside been represented by a majority inside the +Chamber, and the average representation for the two decades had +amounted to only 45 per cent. of the voters. Writing to me after the +New Zealand elections in 1909, the Hon. George Fowlds (Minister of +Education), who has long supported effective voting, said, "The only +result of the second ballot system in New Zealand has been to +strengthen the movement in favour of proportional representation." And +Mr. Paul, a Labour member in the Dominion, is making every effort to +have effective voting included in the platform of the New Zealand +Labour Party. Further encouragement to continue our work came when +Belgium adopted the principle of proportional representation in 1898. +</P> + +<P> +The closing year of the century found the Effective Voting League in +the thick of its first election campaign. There is little doubt that +the best time for advancing a political reform is during an election, +and it was interesting to note how many candidates came to our support. +We had an interesting meeting at Parliament House for members just +about that time. An opponent of the reform, who was present, complained +that we were late in beginning our meeting. "We always begin punctually +under the present system," he remarked. "Yes," some one replied, "but +we always finish so badly." "Oh, I always finish well enough," was the +pert rejoinder; "I generally come out on top." "Ah," retorted the +other, "I was thinking of the electors." But the doubter did not come +out on top at a subsequent election, and his defeat was probably the +means of his discovering defects in the old system that no number of +successes would have led him into acknowledging. From the two or three +members who had supported Mr. Glynn in the previous Parliament we +increased our advocates in the Assembly during the campaign to 14. The +agitation had been very persistent among the electors, and their +approval of the reform was reflected in the minds of their +representatives. We inaugurated during that year the series of +citizens' meetings convened by the Mayors of the city and suburbs, +which has been so successful a feature of our long campaign for +electoral justice, and at the present time very few of the mayoral +chairs are occupied by men who are not keen supporters of effective +voting. +</P> + +<P> +The Hon. Theodore Bruce's connection with the reform dates from that +year, when he presided at a meeting in the Adelaide Town Hall during +the temporary absence of the Mayor. A consistent supporter of effective +voting from that time, it was only natural that when in May, 1909, the +candidature of Mr. Bruce (who was then and is now a Vice-President of +the league). for a seat in the Legislative Council, gave us an +opportunity for working for his return, against a candidate who had +stated that he was not satisfied with the working of the system of +effective voting, we availed ourselves of it. So much has been written +and said about the attitude of the league with regard to Parliamentary +candidates that, as its President, I feel that I ought to take this +opportunity of stating our reasons for that attitude. From its +inception the league has declined to recognise parties in a contest at +all. Its sole concern has been, and must be to support effective +voters, to whatever party they may belong. To secure the just +representation of the whole electorate of whatever size, is the work of +the Effective Voting League, and, whatever the individual opinions of +the members may be, as an official body they cannot help any candidate +who opposes the reform for which they stand. +</P> + +<P> +I remember meeting at a political meeting during a subsequent general +election a lady whom I had known as an almost rabid Kingstonian. But +the party had failed to find a position for her son in the Civil +Service, although their own sons were in that way satisfactorily +provided for. So she had thrown in her lot with the other side, which +at the time happened to gain a few seats, and the lady was quite sure +that her influence had won the day for her former opponents. Leaning +forward to whisper as if her next remark were too delicate for the ears +of a gentleman sitting near, she said, "Do you know, I don't believe +the Premier has any backbone!" I laughed, and said that I thought most +people held the same belief. To my amusement and astonishment she then +asked quite seriously, "Do you think that is why he stoops so much?" +There was no doubt in her mind that the missing back bone had reference +to the physical and not to the moral malformation of the gentleman in +question. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES. +</H3> + +<P> +Early in the year 1900 the Hon. B. R. Wise, then Attorney-General of +New South Wales, suggested a campaign for effective voting in the +mother State, with the object of educating the people, so that +effective voting might be applied for the first Federal elections. Mrs. +Young and I left Adelaide on May 10 of that year to inaugurate the +movement in New South Wales. During the few hours spent in Melbourne +Professor Nanson, the Victorian leader of the reform, with another +earnest worker (Mr. Bowditch), called on us, and we had a pleasant talk +over the proposed campaign. The power of The Age had already been felt, +when, at the convention election, the 10 successful candidates were +nominees of that paper, and at that time it was a sturdy opponent of +proportional representation. The Argus, on the other hand, had done +yeoman service in the advocacy of the reform from the time that +Tasmania had so successfully experimented with the system. As we were +going straight through to Sydney, we were able only to suggest +arrangements for a possible campaign on our return. Our Sydney visit +lasted eight weeks, during which time we addressed between 20 and 30 +public meetings. Our welcome to the harbour city was most enthusiastic, +and our first meeting, held in the Protestant Hall, on the Wednesday +after our arrival, with the Attorney-General in the chair, was packed. +The greatest interest was shown in the counting of the 387 votes taken +at the meeting. Miss Rose Scott, however, had paved the way for the +successful public meeting by a reception at her house on the previous +Monday, at which we met Mr. Wise, Sir William McMillan, Mr. (afterwards +Sr. Walker), Mr. (now Sir A. J.) Gould, Mr. Bruce Smith, Mr. W. Holman, +and several other prominent citizens. The reform was taken up earnestly +by most of these gentlemen. Sir William McMillan was appointed the +first President of the league, which was formed before we left Sydney. +During the first week of our visit we dined with Dr. and Mrs. Garran, +who, with their son (Mr. Robert Garran, C.M.G., afterwards the +collaborateur of Sir John Quick in the compilation of the "Annotated +Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth"), were keen supporters of +effective voting. Among the host of well-known people who came after +dinner to meet us was Mr. (now Sir) George Reid, with whom we had an +interesting talk over the much-discussed "Yes-No" Policy. We had both +opposed the Bill on its first appeal to the people, and seized the +occasion to thank Mr. Reid for his share in delaying the measure. "You +think the Bill as amended an improvement?" he asked. "Probably," +replied Mrs. Young, "but as I didn't think the improvement great +enough, I voted against it both times." But I had not done so, and my +vote on the second occasion was in favour of the Bill. +</P> + +<P> +But, as Mr. Reid admitted, the dislike of most reformers for federation +was natural enough, for it was only to be expected that "reforms would +be difficult to get with such a huge, unwieldy mass" to be moved before +they could be won. And experience has proved the correctness of the +view expressed. Anything in the nature of a real reform, judging from +the experience of the past, will take a long time to bring about. I am +convinced that had not South Australia already adopted the principle of +the all-round land tax, the progressive form would have been the only +one suggested or heard of from either party. Politicians are so apt to +take the line of least resistance, and when thousands of votes of small +landowners are to be won through the advocacy of an exemption, +exemptions there will be. The whole system of taxation is wrong, it +seems to me, and though, as a matter of expediency, sometimes from +conviction, many people advocate the opposite course, I have long felt +that taxation should not be imposed according to the ability to pay so +much as according to benefits received from the State. We are +frequently warned against expecting too much from Federation during its +earlier stages, but experience teaches us that, as with human beings, +so with nations, a wrong or a right beginning is responsible to a great +extent for right or wrong development. I have the strongest hopes for +the future of Australia, but the people must never be allowed to forget +that eternal vigilance, as in the past, must still in the future be the +price we must pay for our liberty. Later, Mr. Reid presided at our +Parliament House meeting, and afterwards entertained us at afternoon +tea. But one of our pleasantest memories was of a day spent with the +great freetrader and Mrs. Reid at their Strathfield home. I was anxious +to hear Mr. Reid speak, and was glad when the opportunity arose on the +occasion of a no-confidence debate. But he was by no means at his best, +and it was not until I heard him in his famous freetrade speech on his +first visit to Adelaide that I realized how great an orator he was. At +the close of the no-confidence debate the triumphant remark of an +admirer that "Adelaide couldn't produce a speaker like that" showed me +that a prophet sometimes hath honour, even in his own country. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wise was a brilliant speaker, and a most cultured man, and a +delightful talker. Of Mrs. Parkes, then President of the Women's +Liberal League, I saw much. She was a fine speaker, and a very +clear-headed thinker. Her organizing faculty was remarkable, and her +death a year or two ago was a distinct loss to her party. Her home life +was a standing example of the fallacy of the old idea that a woman who +takes up public work must necessarily neglect her family. Mrs. Barbara +Baynton was a woman of a quite different type, clever and emotional, as +one would expect the author of the brilliant but tragic "Bush Studies" +to be. She was strongly opposed to Federation, as, indeed were large +numbers of clever people in New South Wales. Frank Fox (afterwards +connected with The Lone Hand), Bertram Stevens (author of "An Anthology +of Australian Verse"), Judge Backhouse (who was probably the only +Socialist Judge on the Australian Bench), were frequent visitors at +Miss Scott's, and were all interesting people. An afternoon meeting on +effective voting was arranged at the Sydney University, I think, by Dr. +Anderson Stuart. We were charmed with the university and its beautiful +surroundings. Among the visitors that afternoon was Mrs. David, a +charming and well-read woman, whose book describing an expedition to +Funafuti, is delightful. We afterwards dined with her and Professor +David, and spent a pleasant hour with them. +</P> + +<P> +I was not neglectful of other reforms while on this campaign, and found +time to interest myself in the State children's work with which my +friend, Mrs. Garran, was so intimately connected. We went to Liverpool +one day to visit the benevolent institution for men. There were some +hundreds of men there housed in a huge building reminiscent of the +early convict days. If not the whole, parts of it had been built by the +convicts, and the massive stone staircase suggested to our minds the +horrors of convict settlement. I have always resented the injury done +to this new country by the foundation of penal settlements, through +which Botany Bay lost its natural connotation as a habitat for +wonderful flora, and became known only as a place where convicts were +sent for three-quarters of a century. Barrington's couplet, written as +a prologue at the opening of the Playhouse, Sydney, in 1796, to a play +given by convicts— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + True patriots we, for be it understood<BR> + We left our country for our country's good—<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +was clever, but untrue. All experience proves that while it is a +terrible injury to a new country to be settled by convicts, it is a +real injury also to the people from whom they are sent, to shovel out +of sight all their failures, and neither try to lessen their numbers +nor to reclaim them to orderly civil life. It was not till Australia +refused any longer to receive convicts, as Virginia had previously +done, that serious efforts were made to amend the criminal code of +England, or to use reformatory methods first with young and afterwards +with older offenders. Another pleasant trip was one we took to +Parramatta. The Government launch was courteously placed at our +disposal to visit the Parramatta Home for Women, where also we found +some comfortable homes for old couples. The separation of old people +who would prefer to spend the last years of their life together is I +consider, an outrage on society. One of my chief desires has been to +establish such homes for destitute couples in South Australia, and to +every woman who may be appointed as a member of the Destitute Board in +future I appeal to do her utmost to change our methods of treatment +with regard to old couples, so that to the curse of poverty may not be +added the cruelty of enforced separation. Women in New South Wales were +striving for the franchise at that time, and we had the pleasure of +speaking at one of their big meetings. And what fine public meetings +they had in Sydney! People there seemed to take a greater interest in +politics than here, and crowded attendances were frequent at political +meetings, even when there was no election to stir them up. It was a +Sydney lady who produced this amusing Limerick in my honour:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + There was a Grand Dame of Australia<BR> + Who proved the block system a failure.<BR> + She taught creatures in coats<BR> + What to do with their votes,<BR> + This Effective Grand Dame of Australia!<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The third line will perhaps preclude the necessity for pointing out +that the author was an ardent suffragist! To an enlightened woman also +was probably due the retort to a gentleman's statement that "Miss +Spence was a good man lost," that, "On the contrary she thought she was +a good woman saved." "In what way?" he asked. "Saved for the benefit of +her country, instead of having her energies restricted to the +advantages of one home," was the reply. And for this I have sometimes +felt very thankful myself that I have been free to devote what gifts I +possess to what I consider best for the advantage and the uplifting of +humanity. Before leaving Sydney I tried once more to find a publisher +for "Gathered In," but was assured that the only novels worth +publishing in Australia were sporting or political novels. +</P> + +<P> +I was in my seventy-fifth year at the time of this visit, but the joy +of being enabled to extend the influence of our reform to other States +was so great that the years rolled back and left me as full of life and +vigour and zeal as I had ever been. Our work had by no means been +confined to the city and suburbs, as we spoke at a few country towns as +well. At Albury, where we stopped on our way back to Victoria, we were +greeted by a crowded and enthusiastic audience in the fine hall of the +Mechanics' Institute. We had passed through a snowstorm just before +reaching Albury, and the country was very beautiful in the afternoon, +when our friends drove us through the district. The Murray was in +flood, and the "water, water everywhere" sparkling in the winter +sunshine, with the snowcapped Australian Alps in the background, made +an exquisite picture. Albury was the only town we visited in our +travels which still retained the old custom of the town crier. Sitting +in the room of the hotel after dinner, we were startled at hearing our +names and our mission proclaimed to the world at large, to the +accompaniment t of a clanging bell and introduced by the old-fashioned +formula, "Oyez! oyez! oyez!" Our work in Victoria was limited, but +included a delightful trip to Castlemaine. We were impressed with the +fine Mechanics' Hall of that town, in which we spoke to a large +audience. But a few years later the splendid building, with many others +in the town, was razed to the ground by a disastrous cyclone. Returning +from Castlemaine, we had an amusing experience in the train. I had laid +aside my knitting, which is the usual companion of my travels, to teach +Mrs. Young the game of "Patience," but at one of the stations a foreign +gentleman entered the carriage, when we immediately put aside the +cards. After chatting awhile, he expressed regret that he had been the +cause of the banishment of our cards, and "Would the ladies not kindly +tell him his fortune also?" He was as much amused as we were when we +explained that we were reformers and not fortune tellers. I have been a +great lover of card games all my life; patience in solitude, and +cribbage, whist, and bridge have been the almost invariable +accompaniments of my evenings spent at home or with my friends. Reading +and knitting were often indulged in, but patience was a change and a +rest and relief to the mind. I have always had the idea that card games +are an excellent incentive to the memory. We had an afternoon meeting +in the Melbourne Town Hall to inaugurate a league in Victoria, at which +Dr. Barrett, the Rev. Dr. Bevan, Professor Nanson, and I were the +principal speakers. Just recently I wrote to the Victorian Minister who +had charge of the Preferential Voting Bill in the Victorian Parliament +to ask him to consider the merits of effective voting; but, like most +other politicians, the Minister did not find the time opportune for +considering the question of electoral justice for all parties. I +remained in Victoria to spend a month with my family and friends after +Mrs. Young returned to Adelaide. The death of my dear brother John, +whose sympathy and help had always meant so much to me, shortly after +my return, followed by that of my brother William in New Zealand, left +me the sole survivor of the generation which had sailed from Scotland +in 1839. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MORE PUBLIC WORK. +</H3> + +<P> +For the co-operative movement I had always felt the keenest sympathy. I +saw in it the liberation of the small wage-earner from the toils of the +middlemen. I thought moreover that the incentive to thrift so strongly +encouraged by co-operative societies would be a tremendous gain to the +community as well as to the individual. How many people owe a +comfortable old age to the delight of seeing their first small profits +in a co-operative concern, or their savings in a building society +accumulating steadily and surely, if but slowly? And I have always had +a disposition to encourage anything that would tend to lighten the +burden of the worker. So that when in 1901 Mrs. Agnes Milne placed +before me a suggestion for the formation of a women's co-operative +clothing factory, I was glad to do what I could to further an extension +in South Australia of the movement, which, from its inception in older +countries, had made so strong an appeal to my reason. A band of women +workers were prepared to associate for the mutual benefit of the +operatives in the shirtmaking and clothing trades. Under the title of +the South Australian Co-operative Clothing Company, Limited, they +proposed to take over and carry on a small private factory, owned by +one of themselves, which had found it difficult to compete against +large firms working with the latest machinery. I was sure of finding +many sympathizers among my friends, and was successful in disposing of +a fair number of shares. The movement had already gained support from +thinking working women, and by the time we were ready to form ourselves +into a company we were hopeful of success. I was appointed, and have +since remained the first President of the board of directors; and, +unless prevented by illness or absence from the State, I have never +failed to be present at all meetings. The introduction of Wages Boards +added to the keen competition between merchants, had made the task of +carrying on successfully most difficult, but we hoped that as the idea +gained publicity we should benefit proportionately. It was a great blow +to us, when at the close of the first year we were able to declare a +dividend of 1/ a share, the merchants closed down upon us and reduced +their payments by 6d. or 9d. per dozen. But in spite of drawbacks we +have maintained the struggle successfully, though sometimes at +disheartening cost to the workers and officials of the society. I feel, +however, that the reward of success due to this plucky band of women +workers will come in the near future, for at no other time probably has +the position looked more hopeful than during the present year. +</P> + +<P> +During this same year the Effective Voting League made a new departure +in its propaganda work by inviting Sir Edward Braddon to address a +meeting in the Adelaide Town Hall. As Premier of Tasmania, Sir Edward +had inaugurated the reform in the gallant little island State, and he +was able to speak with authority on the practicability and the justice +of effective voting. His visit was followed a year later by one from +Sr. Keating, another enthusiastic Tasmanian supporter, whose lecture +inspired South Australian workers to even greater efforts, and carried +conviction to the minds of many waverers. At that meeting we first +introduced the successful method of explanation by means of limelight +slides. The idea of explaining the whole system by pictures had seemed +impossible, but every step of the counting can be shown so simply and +clearly by this means as to make an understanding of the system a +certainty. To the majority of people an appeal to reason and +understanding is made much more easily through the eye than through the +ear. The year 1902 saw an advance in the Parliamentary agitation of the +reform, when the Hon. Joseph (now Senator) Vardon introduced a Bill for +the first time into the Legislative Council. The measure had been +excellently prepared by Mr. J. H. Vaughan, LL.B., with the assistance +of the members of the executive of the Effective Voting League, among +whom were Messrs. Crawford Vaughan and E. A. Anstey. The Bill sought to +apply effective voting to existing electoral districts, which, though +not nearly so satisfactory as larger districts, nevertheless made the +application of effective voting possible. With the enlargement of the +district on the alteration of the Constitution subsequent to federation +becoming an accomplished fact, the league was unanimous in its desire +to seek the line of least resistance by avoiding a change in the +Constitution that an alteration in electoral boundaries would have +necessitated. +</P> + +<P> +To Mr. Vardon, when he was a candidate for Legislative honours in 1900 +the usual questions were sent from the league; but, as he had not +studied the question he declined to pledge himself to support the +reform. Realizing, however, the necessity of enquiring into all public +matters, he decided to study the Hare system, but the league declined +to support him without a written pledge. Still he was elected, and +immediately afterwards studied effective voting, became convinced of +its justice, and has remained a devoted advocate. Our experience with +legislators had usually been of the opposite nature. Pledged adherents +to effective voting during an election campaign, as members they no +longer saw the necessity for a change in a method of voting which had +placed them safely in Parliament; but in Mr. Vardon we found a man +whose conversion to effective voting was a matter of principle, and not +a question of gathering votes. That was why the league selected him as +its Parliamentary advocate when effective voting first took definite +shape in the form of a Bill. When, later, Mr. E. H. Coombe, M.P., took +charge of the Bill in the Assembly although the growth in public +opinion in favour of effective voting had been surprising, the +coalition between the Liberal and Labour parties strengthened their +combined position and weakened the allegiance of their elected members +to a reform which would probably affect their vested interests in the +Legislature. Mr. Coombe had not been an easy convert to proportional +representation. He had attended my first lecture at Gawler, but saw +difficulties in the way of accepting the Hare system as propounded by +me. His experiments were interesting. Assuming a constituency of 100 +electors with 10 members, he filled in 60 Conservative and 40 Liberal +voting papers. The proportion of members to each party should be six +Conservatives and four Liberals, and when he found that by no amount of +manipulation could this result be altered he became a convert to +effective voting. His able advocacy of the reform is too well known to +need further reference; but I should like now to thank those members, +including Mr. K. W. Duncan, who have in turn led the crusade for +righteous representation in both Houses of Parliament, for of them may +it truly be said that the interests of the people as a whole were their +first consideration. Before I left for America I saw the growing power +and strength of the Labour Party. I rejoiced that a new star had arisen +in the political firmament. I looked to it as a party that would +support every cause that tended towards righteousness. I expected it, +as a reform party, to take up effective voting, because effective +voting was a reform. I hoped that a party whose motto was "Trust the +people" would have adopted a reform by means of which alone it would be +possible for the people to gain control over its Legislature and its +Government. Alas! for human hopes that depend on parties for their +realization! As time after time I have seen defections from the ranks +of proportionalists, and people have said to me:—"Give it up, Miss +Spence. Why trouble longer? Human nature is too bad," I have answered, +"No; these politicians are but the ephemeral creations of a day or a +month, or a year; this reform is for all time, and must prevail, and I +will never give it up." +</P> + +<P> +During my many visits to Melbourne and Sydney I had been much impressed +with the influence and the power for good of the local branches of the +world-famed National Council of Women. I had long hoped for the +establishment of a branch in South Australia, and was delighted to fall +in with a suggestion made by the Countess of Aberdeen +(Vice-President-at-large of the International Council), through Lady +Cockburn, that a council should be formed in South Australia. The +inaugural meeting in September, 1902, was splendidly attended, and it +was on a resolution moved by me that the council came into existence. +Lady Way was the first President, and I was one of the Vice-Presidents. +I gave several addresses, and in 1904 contributed a paper on +"Epileptics." In dealing with this subject I owed much to the splendid +help I received from my dear friend Miss Alice Henry, of Victoria, now +in Chicago, whose writings on epileptics and weak-minded children have +contributed largely to the awakening of the public conscience to a +sense of duty towards these social weaklings. In 1905 I contributed a +paper to the quinquennial meeting of the International Council of +Women, held at Berlin, on the laws relating to women and children in +South Australia, and gave an account of the philanthropic institutions +of the State, with special reference to the State Children's Council +and Juvenile Courts. The work of the National Council in this State was +disappointing to many earnest women, who had hoped to find in it a +means for the social, political, and philanthropic education of the +women of South Australia. Had the council been formed before we had +obtained the vote there would probably have been more cohesion and a +greater sustained effort to make it a useful body. But as it was there +was so apparent a disinclination to touch "live" subjects that interest +in the meetings dwindled, and in 1906 I resigned my position on the +executive in order to have more time to spare for other public work. +</P> + +<P> +A problem which was occasioning the State Children's Council much +anxious thought was how to deal effectively with the ever-increasing +number of the "children of the streets". Boys and girls alike, who +should either be at school or engaged at some useful occupation, were +roaming the streets and parks, uncontrolled and sometimes +uncontrollable. We recognised that their condition was one of moral +peril, and graduation to criminality from these nurseries of crime so +frequently occurred that State interference seemed absolutely +imperative to save the neglected unfortunates for a worthier +citizenship. It is much easier and far more economical to save the +child than to punish the criminal. One of the most effective means of +clearing the streets would be to raise the compulsory age for school +attendance up to the time of employment. That truancy was to a great +extent responsible for these juvenile delinquents was proved by the +fact that more then one-half of the lads sent to Magill had committed +the crimes for which they were first convicted while truanting. +Moreover, an improvement was noticed immediately on the amendment of +the compulsory attendance clauses in the Education Act. Truancy—the +wicket gate of the road to ruin in youth—should be barred as +effectively as possible, and the best way to bar it is to make every +day a compulsory school day, unless the excuse for absence be +abundantly sufficient. Another aspect of the neglected children +problem, which Federal action alone will solve, is in dealing with +cases of neglect by desertion. At present each State is put to great +trouble and expense through defaulting parents. Federal legislation +would render it possible to have an order for payment made in one State +collected and remitted by an officer in another State. By this means +thousands of pounds a year could be saved to the various States, and +many a child prevented from becoming a burden to the people at large. +These are some of the problems awaiting solution and the women of South +Australia will do well to make the salvation of these neglected waifs a +personal care and responsibility. Perhaps no other work of the State +Children's Council has more practically shown their appreciation of the +capabilities of the children under their care than the establishment of +the State children's advancement fund. This is to enable State children +who show any aptitude, to pursue their education through the +continuation schools to the University. To private subscriptions for +this purpose the Government have added a subsidy of 50 pounds, and +already some children are availing themselves of this splendid +opportunity to rise in the world. The longer I live the prouder I feel +that I have been enabled to assist in this splendid work for the +benefit of humanity. +</P> + +<P> +The years as they passed left me with wider interests in, deeper +sympathies with, and greater knowledge of the world and its people. +Each year found "one thing worth beginning, one thread of life worth +spinning." The pleasure I derived from the more extended intellectual +activity of my later years was due largely to my association with a +band of cultured and earnest women interested in social, political, and +other public questions—women who, seeing "the tides of things," +desired so to direct them that each wave of progress should carry the +people to a higher place on the sands of life. To the outside world +little is known of the beginnings and endings of social movements, +which, taken separately, perhaps appear of small consequence, but which +in the aggregate count for a great deal in what is popularly known as +the forward movement. To such as these belonged an interesting +association of women, which, meeting at first informally, grew +eventually into a useful organization for the intellectual and moral +development of those who were fortunate enough to be associated with +it. This was the "Social Students' Society," of which Miss A. L. +Tomkinson was the secretary and I the first President. One of the +addresses I gave was on "Education," and among others whose addresses +helped us considerably was the Director of Education (Mr. A. Williams). +Speakers from all parties addressed the association, and while the +society existed a good deal of educational work was done. Much interest +was taken in the question of public playgrounds for children, and we +succeeded in interesting the City Council in the movement; but, owing +to lack of funds, the scheme for the time being was left in abeyance. +</P> + +<P> +In the agitation for the public ownership of the tramways, I was glad +to take a share. The private ownership of monopolies is indefensible, +and my American experiences of the injustice of the system strengthened +my resolve to do my utmost to prevent the growth of the evil in South +Australia. My attitude on the question alienated a number of friends, +both from me personally and from effective voting, so intolerant had +people become of any opposition to their own opinions. The result of +the referendum was disappointing, and, I shall always consider, a grave +reflection on a democratic community which permits a referendum to be +taken under a system of plural voting which makes the whole proceeding +a farce. But the citizens of Adelaide have need to be grateful to the +patriotic zeal of those who, led by the late Cornelius Proud fought for +the public ownership of the tramways. +</P> + +<P> +These years of activity were crossed by sickness and sorrow. For the +first time in a long life, which had already extended almost a decade +beyond the allotted span, I became seriously ill. To be thus laid low +by sickness was a deep affliction to one of my active temperament; but, +if sickness brings trouble, it often brings joy in the tender care and +appreciation of hosts of friends, and this joy I realized to the +fullest extent. The following year (1904) was darkened by the tragic +death of my ward, and once more my home was broken up, and with Miss +Gregory I went to live with my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Quilty, in +North Norwood. From then on my life has flowed easily and pleasantly, +marred only by the sadness of farewells of many old friends and +comrades on my life's journey, who one by one have passed "through +Nature to eternity." +</P> + +<P> +Much as I have written during the past 40 years, it was reserved for my +old age to discover within me the power of poetical expression. I had +rhymed in my youth and translated French verse, but until I wrote my +one sonnet, poetry had been an untried field. The one-sided pessimistic +pictures that Australian poets and writers present are false in the +impression they make on the outside world and on ourselves. They lead +us to forget the beauty and the brightness of the world we live in. +What we need is, as Matthew Arnold says of life, "to see Australia +steadily and see it whole." It is not wise to allow the "deadbeat"—the +remittance man, the gaunt shepherd with his starving flocks and herds, +the free selector on an arid patch, the drink shanty where the +rouseabouts and shearers knock down their cheques, the race meeting +where high and low, rich and poor, are filled with the gambler's ill +luck—fill the foreground of the picture of Australian life. These +reflections led me to a protest, in the form of a sonnet published in +The Register some years ago:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + When will some new Australian poet rise<BR> + To all the height and glory of his theme?<BR> + Nor on the sombre side for ever dream<BR> + Our hare, baked plains, our pitiless blue skies,<BR> + 'Neath which the haggard bushman strains his eyes<BR> + To find some waterhole or hidden stream<BR> + To save himself and flocks in want extreme!<BR> + This is not all Australia! Let us prize<BR> + Our grand inheritance! Had sunny Greece<BR> + More light, more glow, more freedom, or more mirth?<BR> + Ours are wide vistas bathed in purest air—<BR> + Youth's outdoor pleasures, Age's indoor peace—<BR> + Where could we find a fairer home on earth<BR> + Which we ourselves are free to make more fair?<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Just as years before my interest had been kindled in the establishment +of our system of State education, and later in the University and +higher education, so more recently has the inauguration of the Froebel +system of kindergarten training appealed most strongly to my reason and +judgment. There was a time in the history of education, long after the +necessity for expert teaching in primary and secondary schools had been +recognised, when the training of the infant mind was left to the least +skilled assistant on the staff of a school. With the late Mr. J. A. +Hartley, whose theory was that the earliest beginnings of education +needed even greater skill in the teacher than the higher branches, I +had long regarded the policy as mistaken; but modern educationists have +changed all that, and the training of tiny mites of two or three +summers and upwards is regarded as of equal importance with that of +children of a larger growth. South Australia owes its free kindergarten +to the personal initiative and private munificence of the Rev. Bertram +Hawker, youngest son of the late Hon. G. C. Hawker. I had already met, +and admired the kindergarten work of, Miss Newton when in Sydney, and +was delighted when she accepted Mr. Hawker's invitation to inaugurate +the system in Adelaide. Indeed, the time of her stay here during +September, 1905, might well have been regarded as a special visitation +of educational experts, for, in addition to Miss Newton, the directors +of education from New South Wales and Victoria (Messrs. G. H. Knibbs +and F. Tate) took part in the celebrations. Many interesting meetings +led up to the formation of the Kindergarten Union. My niece, Mrs. J. P. +Morice, was appointed hon. secretary, and I became one of the +Vice-Presidents. On joining the union I was proud of the fact that I +was the first member to pay a subscription. The free kindergarten has +come to South Australia to stay, and is fast growing into an integral +part of our system of education. I have rejoiced in the progress of the +movement, and feel that the future will witness the realization of my +ideal of a ladder that will reach from the kindergarten to the +University, as outlined in articles I wrote for The Register at that +time. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE EIGHTIETH MILESTONE AND THE END. +</H3> + +<P> +On October 31, 1905, I celebrated my eightieth birthday. Twelve months +earlier, writing to a friend, I said:—"I entered my eightieth year on +Monday, and I enjoy life as much as I did at 18; indeed, in many +respects I enjoy it more." The birthday gathering took place in the +schoolroom of the Unitarian Church, the church to which I had owed so +much happiness through the lifting of the dark shadows of my earlier +religious beliefs. Surrounded by friends who had taken their share in +the development of my beloved State, I realized one of the happiest +times of my life. I had hoped that the celebration would have helped +the cause of effective voting, which had been predominant in my mind +since 1859. By my interests and work in so many other directions—in +literature, journalism, education, philanthropy, and religion—which +had been testified to by so many notable people on that occasion, I +hoped to prove that I was not a mere faddist, who could be led away by +a chimerical fantasy. I wanted the world to understand that I was a +clear-brained, commonsense woman of the world, whose views on effective +voting and other political questions were as worthy of credence as her +work in other directions had been worthy of acceptance. The greetings +of my many friends from all parts of the Commonwealth on that day +brought so much joy to me that there was little wonder I was able to +conclude my birthday poem "Australian spring" with the lines:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + With eighty winters o'er my head,<BR> + Within my heart there's Spring.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Full as my life was with its immediate interests, the growth and +development of the outside world claimed a good share of my attention. +The heated controversies in the motherland over the preachings and +teaching of the Rev. R. J. Campbell found their echo here, and I was +glad to be able to support in pulpit and newspaper the stand made by t +he courageous London preacher of modern thought. How changed the +outlook of the world from my childhood's days, when Sunday was a day of +strict theological habit, from which no departure could be permitted! +The laxity of modern life, by comparison is, I think, somewhat +appalling. We have made the mistake of breaking away from old beliefs +and convictions without replacing them with something better. We do not +make as much, or as good, use of our Sundays as we might do. There is a +medium between the rigid Sabbatarianism of our ancestors and the +absolute waste of the day of rest in mere pleasure and frivolity. All +the world is deploring the secularizing of Sunday. Not only is +churchgoing perfunctory or absent, but in all ranks of life there is a +disposition to make it a day of rest and amusement—sometimes the +amusement rather than the rest. Sunday, the Sabbath, as Alex McLaren +pointed out to me, is not a day taken from us, but a day given to us. +"Behold, I have given you the Sabbath!" For what? For rest for man and +beast, but also to be a milestone in our upward and onward progress—a +day for not only wearing best clothes, but for reading our best books +and thinking our best thoughts. I have often grieved at the small +congregations in other churches no less than in my own, and the grief +was aggravated by the knowledge that those who were absent from church +were not necessarily otherwise well employed. I derived so much +pleasure from the excellent and cultured sermons of my friend the Rev. +John Reid during his term of office here that I regretted the fact that +others who might gain equally from them were not there to hear them. I +would like to see among the young people a finer conception of the +duties of citizenship, which, if not finding expression in church +attendance, may develop in some way that will be noble and useful to +society. +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime the work of the Effective Voting League had been rather +at a standstill. Mrs. Young's illness had caused her resignation, and +until she again took up the work nothing further was done to help Mr. +Coombe in his Parliamentary agitation. In 1908, however, we began a +vigorous campaign, and towards the close of the year the propaganda +work was being carried into all parts of the State. Although I was then +83, I travelled to Petersburg to lecture to a good audience. On the +same night Mrs. Young addressed a fine gathering at Mount Gambier, and +from that time the work has gone on unceasingly. The last great effort +was made through the newspaper ballot of September, 1909, when a public +count of about 10,000 votes was completed with all explanations during +the evening. The difficulties that were supposed to stand in the way of +a general acceptance of effective voting have been entirely swept away. +Tasmania and South Africa have successfully demonstrated the +practicability, no less than the justice, of the system. Now we get to +the bedrock of the objections raised to its adoption, and we find that +they exist only in the minds of the politicians themselves; but the +people have faith in effective voting, and I believe the time to be +near when they will demand equitable representation in every +Legislature in the world. The movement has gone too far to be checked, +and the electoral unrest which is so common all over the world will +eventually find expression in the best of all electoral systems, which +I claim to be effective voting. +</P> + +<P> +Among the many friends I had made in the other States there was none I +admired more for her public spiritedness than Miss Vida Goldstein. I +have been associated with her on many platforms and in many branches of +work. Her versatility is great, but there is little doubt that her +chief work lies in helping women and children. Her life is practically +spent in battling for her sex. Although I was the first woman in +Australia to become a Parliamentary candidate, Miss Goldstein has since +exceeded my achievement by a second candidature for the Senate. It was +during her visit here last May-June as a delegate to the State +Children's Congress that she inaugurated the Women's Non-party +Political Association, which is apparently a growing force. In a +general way the aims of the society bear a strong resemblance to those +of the social students' society, many of its members having also +belonged to the earlier association. It was a hopeful sign to me that +it included among its members people of all political views working +chiefly in the interests of women and children. Of this Society also I +became the first President, and the fact that on its platform was +included proportional representation was an incentive for me to work +for it. The education of women on public and social questions, so that +they will be able to work side by side with the opposite sex for the +public good will, I think, help in the solution of social problems that +are now obstacles in the path of progress. In addition to other +literary work for the year 1909 I was asked by Miss Alice Henry to +revise my book on State children in order to make it acceptable and +applicable to American conditions. It was a big undertaking, but I +think successful. The book, as originally written had already done good +work in Western Australia, where the conditions of infant mortality +were extremely alarming, and in England also; and there is ample scope +for such a work in America, which is still far behind even the most +backward Australian State in its care for dependent children. +</P> + +<P> +As a President of three societies, a Vice-President of two others, a +member of two of the most important boards in the State for the care of +the destitute, the deserted, and the dependent, with a correspondence +that touches on many parts of the Empire, and two continents besides, +with my faculty for the appreciation of good literature still +unimpaired, with my domestic interests so dear to me, and my constant +knitting for the infants under the care of the State Inspector—I find +my life as an octogenarian more varied in its occupations and interests +than ever before. Looking back from the progressive heights of 1910 +through the long vista of years, numbering upwards of four-fifths of a +century, I rejoice at the progress the world has made. Side by side +with the development of my State my life has slowly unfolded itself. My +connection with many of the reforms to which is due this development +has been intimate, and (I think I am justified in saying) oftentimes +helpful. While other States of the Commonwealth and the Dominion of New +Zealand have made remarkable progress, none has eclipsed the rapid +growth of the State to which the steps of my family were directed in +1839. Its growth has been more remarkable, because it has been +primarily due to its initiation of many social and political reforms +which have since been adopted by other and older countries. "Australia, +lead us further," is the cry of reformers in America. We have led in so +many things, and though America may claim the honour of being the +birthplace of the more modern theory of land values taxation, I rejoice +that South Australia was the first country in the world with the +courage and the foresight to adopt the tax on land values without +exemption. That she is still lagging behind Tasmania and South Africa +in the adoption of effective voting, as the only scientific system of +electoral reform, is the sorrow of my old age. The fact that South +Australia has been the happy hunting ground of the faddist has +frequently been urged as a reproach against this State. Its more +patriotic citizens will rejoice in the truth of the statement, and +their prayer will probably be that not fewer but more advanced thinkers +will arise to carry this glorious inheritance beneath the Southern +Cross to higher and nobler heights of physical and human development +than civilization has yet dreamed of or achieved. The Utopia of +yesterday is the possession of today, and opens the way to the Utopia +of to-morrow. The haunting horror of older civilizations—divorcing the +people from their natural inheritance in the soil, and filling the +towns with myriads of human souls dragged down by poverty, misery, and +crime—is already casting its shadow over the future of Australia; but +there is hope in the fact that a new generation has arisen untrammelled +by tradition, which, having the experience of older countries before +it, and benefiting from the advantages of the freer life and the +greater opportunities afforded by a new country, gives promise of +ultimately finding the solution of the hitherto unsolved problem of +making country life as attractive to the masses as that of the towns +and cities. As time goes on the effect of education must tell, and the +generations that are to come will be more enlightened and more +altruistic, and the tendency of the world will be more and more, even +as it is now, towards higher and nobler conceptions of human happiness. +I have lived through a glorious age of progress. Born in "the wonderful +century," I have watched the growth of the movement for the uplifting +of the masses, from the Reform Bill of 1832 to the demands for adult +suffrage. As a member of a church which allows women to speak in the +pulpit, a citizen of a State which gives womanhood a vote for the +Assembly, a citizen of a Commonwealth which fully enfranchises me for +both Senate and Representatives, and a member of a community which was +foremost in conferring University degrees on women, I have benefited +from the advancement of the educational and political status of women +for which the Victorian era will probably stand unrivalled in the +annals of the world's history. I have lived through the period of +repressed childhood, and witnessed the dawn of a new era which has made +the dwellers in youth's "golden age" the most important factor in human +development. I have watched the growth of Adelaide from the condition +of a scattered hamlet to that of one of the finest cities in the +southern hemisphere; I have seen the evolution of South Australia from +a province to an important State in a great Commonwealth. All through +my life I have tried to live up to the best that was in me, and I +should like to be remembered as one who never swerved in her efforts to +do her duty alike to herself and her fellow-citizens. Mistakes I have +made, as all are liable to do, but I have done my best. And when life +has closed for me, let those who knew me best speak and think of me as +One who never turned her back, but marched breast forward, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Never doubted clouds would break,<BR> + Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,<BR> + Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,<BR> + Sleep to wake.<BR> + No nobler epitaph would I desire.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's An Autobiography, by Catherine Helen Spence + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY *** + +***** This file should be named 4220-h.htm or 4220-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/4220/ + +Produced by Col Choat. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Autobiography + +Author: Catherine Helen Spence + +Posting Date: July 2, 2009 [EBook #4220] +Release Date: July, 2003 +First Posted: December 8, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY *** + + + + +Produced by Col Choat. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +An Autobiography + + +by + +Catherine Helen Spence + + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND. + CHAPTER II. TOWARDS AUSTRALIA. + CHAPTER III. A BEGINNING AT SEVENTEEN + CHAPTER IV. LOVERS AND FRIENDS. + CHAPTER V. NOVELS AND A POLITICAL INSPIRATION. + CHAPTER VI. A TRIP TO ENGLAND. + CHAPTER VII. MELROSE REVISITED. + CHAPTER VIII. I VISIT EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + CHAPTER IX. MEETING WITH J. S. MILL AND GEORGE ELIOT. + CHAPTER X. RETURN FROM THE OLD COUNTRY. + CHAPTER XI WARDS OF THE STATE. + CHAPTER XII. PREACHING, FRIENDS, AND WRITING. + CHAPTER XIII. MY WORK FOR EDUCATION. + CHAPTER XIV. SPECULATION, CHARITY, AND A BOOK. + CHAPTER XV. JOURNALISM AND POLITICS. + CHAPTER XVI. SORROW AND CHANGE. + CHAPTER XVII. IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. + CHAPTER XVIII. BRITAIN, THE CONTINENT, AND HOME AGAIN. + CHAPTER XIX. PROGRESS OF EFFECTIVE VOTING. + CHAPTER XX. WIDENING INTERESTS. + CHAPTER XXI PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND FEDERATION. + CHAPTER XXII. A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES. + CHAPTER XXIII. MORE PUBLIC WORK. + CHAPTER XXIV. THE EIGHTIETH MILESTONE AND THE END. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND. + + +Sitting down at the age of eighty-four to give an account of my life, I +feel that it connects itself naturally with the growth and development +of the province of South Australia, to which I came with my family in +the year 1839, before it was quite three years old. But there is much +truth in Wordsworth's line, "the child is father of the man," and no +less is the mother of the woman; and I must go back to Scotland for the +roots of my character and Ideals. I account myself well-born, for My +father and my mother loved each other. I consider myself well +descended, going back for many generations on both sides of intelligent +and respectable people. I think I was well brought up, for my father +and mother were of one mind regarding the care of the family. I count +myself well educated, for the admirable woman at the head of the school +which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen +and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times. In fact. +like my own dear mother, Sarah Phin was a New Woman without knowing it. +The phrase was not known in the thirties. + +I was born on October 31, 1825, the fifth of a family of eight born to +David Spence and Helen Brodie, in the romantic village of Melrose, on +the silvery Tweed, close to the three picturesque peaks of the Eildon +Hills, which Michael Scott's familiar spirit split up from one mountain +mass in a single night, according to the legend. It was indeed poetic +ground. It was Sir Walter Scott's ground. Abbotsford was within two +miles of Melrose, and one of my earliest recollections was seeing the +long procession which followed his body to the family vault at Dryburgh +Abbey. There was not a local note in "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" or +in the novels. "The Monastery" and "The Abbot," with which I was not +familiar before I entered my teens. There was not a hill or a burn or a +glen that had not a song or a proverb, or a legend about it. Yarrow +braes were not far off. The broom of the Cowdenknowes was still nearer, +and my mother knew the words as well as the tunes of the minstrelsy of +the Scottish Border. But as all readers of the life of Scott know, he +was a Tory, loving the past with loyal affection, and shrinking from +any change. My father, who was a lawyer (a writer as it was called), +and his father who was a country practitioner, were reformers, and so +it happened that they never came into personal relations with the man +they admired above all men in Scotland. It was the Tory doctor who +attended to his health, and the Tory writer who was consulted about his +affairs. + +I look back to a happy childhood. The many anxieties which reached both +my parents were quite unknown to the children till the crisis in 1839. +I do not know that I appreciated the beauty of the village I lived in +so much with my own bodily eyes as through the songs and the +literature, which were current talk. The old Abbey, with its 'prentice +window, and its wonders in stonecarving, that Scott had written about +and Washington Irving marvelled at--"Here lies the race of the House of +Yair" as a tombstone--had a grand roll in it. In the churchyard of the +old Abbey my people on the Spence side lay buried. In the square or +market place there no longer stood the great tree described in The +Monastery as standing just after Flodden Field, where the flowers of +the forest had been cut down by the English; but in the centre stood +the cross with steps up to it, and close to the cross was the well, to +which twice a day the maids went to draw water for the house until I +was nine years old, when we had pipes and taps laid on. The cross was +the place for any public speaking, and I recalled, when I was +recovering from the measles, the maid in whose charge I was, wrapped me +in a shawl and took me with her to hear a gentleman from Edinburgh +speak in favour of reform to a crowd gathered round. He said that the +Tories had found a new name--they called themselves Conservatives +because it sounded better. For his part he thought conserves were +pickles, and he hoped all the Tories would soon find themselves in a +pretty pickle. There were such shouts of laughter that I saw this was a +great joke. + +We had gasworks in Melrose when I was 10 or 11, and a great joy to us +children the wonderful light was. I recollect the first lucifer +matches, and the wonder of them. My brother John had got 6d. from a +visiting, uncle as a reward for buying him snuff to fill his cousin's +silver snuffbox, and he spent the money in buying a box of lucifers, +with the piece of sandpaper doubled, through which each match was to be +smartly drawn, and he took all of us and some of his friends to the +orchard, we called the wilderness, at the back of my grandfather +Spence's house, and lighted each of the 50 matches, and we considered +it a great exhibition. 'MY grandfather (old Dr. Spence) died before the +era of lucifer matches. He used to get up early and strike a fire with +flint and steel to boil the kettle and make a cup of tea to give to his +wife in bed. He did it for his first wife (Janet Park), who was +delicate, and he did the same for his second wife until her last fatal +illness. It was a wonderful thing for a man to do in those days. He +would not call the maid; he said young things wanted plenty of sleep. +He had been a navy doctor, and was very intelligent. He trusted much to +Nature and not too much to drugs. On the Sunday of the great annular +eclipse of the sun in 1835, which was my brother John's eleventh +birthday, he had a large double tooth extracted--not by a dentist, and +gas was then unknown or any other anaesthetic, so he did not enjoy the +eclipse as other people did. It took place in the afternoon, and there +was no afternoon church. + +In summer we had two services--one in the forenoon and one in the +afternoon. In winter we had two services at one sitting, which was a +thing astonishing to English visitors. The first was generally called a +lecture--a reading with comments, of a passage of Scripture--a dozen +verses or more--and the second a regularly built sermon, with three or +four heads, and some particulars, and a practical summing up. + +Prices and cost of living had fallen since my mother had married in +1815, three months after the battle of Waterloo. At that time tea cost +8/0 a lb., loaf sugar, 1/4, and brown sugar 11 1/2d. Bread and meat +were then still at war prices, and calico was no cheaper than linen, +and that was dear. She paid 3/6 a yard for fine calico to make +petticoats. Other garments were of what was called home made linen. +White cotton stockings at 4/9, and thinner at 3/9 each; silk stockings +at 11/6. I know she paid 36/ for a yard of Brussels net to make caps +of. It was a new thing to have net made in the loom. When a woman +married she must wear caps at least in the morning. In 1838 my mother +bought a chest of tea (84 lb.) for 20 pounds, a trifle under 5/0 a lb.; +the retail price was 6/0--it was a great saving; and up to the time of +our departure brown sugar cost 7 1/2d., and loaf sugar 10d. It is no +wonder that these things were accounted luxuries. When a decent Scotch +couple in South Australia went out to a station in the country in the +forties and received their stores, the wife sat down at her +quarter-chest of tea and gazed at her bag of sugar, and fairly wept to +think of her old mother across the ocean, who had such difficulty in +buying an ounce of tea and a pound of sugar. My mother even saw an old +woman buy 1/4oz. of tea and pay 11/2d. for it, and another woman buy +1/4lb. of meat. + +We kept three maids. The cook got 8 pounds a year, the housemaid 7 +pounds, and the nursemaid 6 pounds, paid half-yearly, but the summer +half-year was much better paid than the winter, because there was the +outwork in the fields, weeding and hoeing turnips and potatoes, and +haymaking. The winter work in the house was heavier on account of the +fires and the grate cleaning, but the wages were less. My mother gave +the top wages in the district, and was considerate to her maids, but I +blush yet to think how poorly those good women who made the comfort of +my early home were paid for their labours. You could get a washerwoman +for a shilling or 1/6 a day, but you must give her a glass of whisky as +well as her food. You could get a sewing girl for a shilling or less, +without the whisky. And yet cheap as sewing was it was the pride of the +middle-elms women of those days that they did it all themselves at +home. Half of the time of girls' schools was given to sewing when +mother was taught. Nearly two hours a day was devoted to it in my time. + +A glass of whisky in Scotland in the thirties cost less than a cup of +tea. I recollect my father getting a large cask of whisky direct from +the distillery which cost 6/6 a gallon, duty paid. A bottle of inferior +whisky could be bought at the grocer's for a shilling. It is surprising +how much alcoholic beverages entered into the daily life, the business, +and the pleasures of the people in those days. No bargain could be made +without them. Christenings, weddings, funerals--all called for the +pouring out of strong drink. If a lady called, the port and sherry +decanters were produced, and the cake basket. If a gentleman, probably +it was the spirit decanter. After the 3 o'clock dinner there was whisky +and hot water and sugar, and generally the came after the 10 o'clock +supper. Drinking habits were very prevalent among men, and were not in +any way disgraceful, unless excessive. But there was less drinking +among women than there is now, because public opinion was strongly +against it. Without being abstainers, they were temperate. With the +same heredity and the same environment, you would see all the brothers +pretty hard drinkers and all the sisters quite straight. Such is the +effect of public opinion. Nothing else has been so powerful in changing +these customs as the cheapening of tea and coffee and cocoa, but +especially tea. + +My brothers went to the parish school, one of the best in the county. +The endowment from the tiends or tithes, extorted by John Knox from the +Lords of the congregations, who had seized on the church lands, was +more meagre for the schoolmasters than for the clergy. I think Mr. +Thomas Murray had only 33 pounds in Money, a schoolhouse, and a +residence and garden, and he had to make up a livelihood from school +fees, which began at 2/ a quarter for reading, 3/6 when writing was +taught, and 51 for arithmetic. Latin, I think, cost 10/6 a quarter, but +it included English. Mr. Murray adopted a phonic system of teaching +reading, not so complete as the late Mr. Hartley formulated for our +South Australian schools, and was most successful with it. He not only +used maps, but he had blank maps-a great innovation. My mother was only +taught geography during the years in which she was "finished" in +Edinburgh, and never saw a map then. She felt interested in geography +when her children were learning it. No boy in Mr. Murray's school was +allowed to be idle; every spare minute was given to arithmetic. In the +parish school boys of all classes were taught. Sir David Brewster's +sons went to it; but there were fewer girls, partly because no +needlework was taught there, and needlework was of supreme importance. +Mr. Murray was session clerk, for which he received 5 pounds a year. On +Saturday afternoons he might do land measuring, like Goldsmith's +schoolmaster in "The Deserted Village"-- + + Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, + And even the rumour ran that he could gauge. + +My mother felt that her children were receiving a much better education +than she had had. The education seemed to begin after she left school. +Her father united with six other tenant farmers in buying the third +edition of "The Encyclopedia Britannica," seven for the price of six. +Probably it was only in East Lothian that seven such purchasers could +be found, and my mother studied it well, as also the unabridged +Johnson's Dictionary in two volumes. She learned the Greek letters, so +that she could read the derivations, but went no further. She saw the +fallacy of Mr. Pitt's sinking fund when her father believed in it. To +borrow more than was needed so as to put aside part on compound +interest, would make the price of money rise. And why should not +private people adopt the same way of getting rid of debts? The father +said it would not do for them at all--it was only practicable for a +nation. The things I recollect of the life in the village of Melrose, +of 700 inhabitants, have been talked over with my mother, and many +embodied in a little MS. volume of reminiscences of her life. I hold +more from her than from my father; but, as he was an unlucky +speculator, I inherit from him Hope, which is invaluable to a social or +political reformer. School holidays were only a rarity in harvest time +for the parish school. At Miss Phin's we had, besides, a week at +Christmas. The boys had only New Year's Day. Saturday was only a +half-holiday. We all had a holiday for Queen Victoria's coronation, and +I went with a number of school fellows to see Abbotsford, not for the +first time in my life. + +Two mail coaches--the Blucher and the Chevy Chase--ran through Melrose +every day. People went to the post office for their letters, and paid +for them on delivery. My two elder sisters--Agnes, who died of +consumption at the age of 16, and Jessie, afterwards Mrs. Andrew +Murray, of Adelaide and Melbourne, went to boarding school with their +aunt, Mary Spence, lit Upper Wooden, halfway between Jedburgh and +Kelso. Roxburghshire is rich in old monasteries. The border lands were +more safe in the hands of the church than under feudal lords engaged in +perpetual fighting, and the vassals of the abbeys had generally +speaking, a more secure existence. Kelso. Jedburgh, and Dryburgh Abbeys +lay in fertile districts, and I fancy that when these came into the +hands of the Lords of the congregation, the vassals looked back with +regret on the old times. I was not sent to Wooden, but kept at home, +and I went to a dayschool called by the very popish name of St. Mary's +Convent, though it was quite sufficiently Protestant. My mother had the +greatest confidence in the lady who was at the head of it. She had been +a governess in good situations, and had taught herself Latin, so that +she might fit the boys of the family to take a good place in the +Edinburgh High School. She discovered that she had an incurable +disease, a form of dropsy, which compelled her to lie down for some +time every day, and this she considered she could not do as a +governess. So she determined to risk her savings, and start a boarding +and day school in Melrose, a beautiful and healthy neighbourhood, and +with the aid of a governess, impart what was then considered the +education of a gentlewoman to the girls in the neighbourhood. She took +with her her old mother, and a sister who managed the housekeeping, and +taught the pupils all kinds of plain and fancy needlework. She +succeeded, and she lived till the year 1866, although most of her +teaching was done from her sofa. When my mother was asked what it was +that made Phin so successful, and so esteemed, she said it was her +commonsense. The governesses were well enough, but the invalid old lady +was the life and soul of the school. There were about 14 boarders, and +nearly as many day scholars there, so long as there was no competition. +When that came there was a falling off, but my young sister Mary and I +were faithful till the day when after nine years at the same school, I +went with Jessie to Wooden, to Aunt Mary's, to hear there that my +father was ruined, and had to leave Melrose and Scotland for ever, and +that we must all go to Australia. That was in April, 1839. + +As I said, I had a very happy childhood. The death of my eldest sister +at 16, and of my youngest sister at two years old, did not sink into +the mind of a child as it did into that of my parents, and although +they were seriously alarmed about my health when I was 12 years old, +when I developed symptoms similar to those of Agnes at the same age, I +was not ill enough to get at all alarmed. I was annoyed at having to +stay away from school for three months. When the collapse came Jessie +had a dear friend of some years' standing, and I had one whom had known +only for some months, but I had spent a month with her in Edinburgh at +Christmas, 1838, and we exchanged letters weekly through the box which +came from Edinburgh with my brother John's, washing. It was too +expensive for us to write by the post. Well, neither of our friends +wrote a word to us. With regard to mine it was not to be wondered at +much--she was only 13--but the other was more surprising. It was not +till 1865 that an old woman told me that when Miss F. B. came to return +some books and music to her to give to my aunt in Melrose, "she just +sat in the chair and cried as if her heart would break." She was not +quite a free agent. Very few single women were free agents in 1839. We +were hopelessly ruined, our place would know us no more. + +The only long holidays I had in the year I spent at Thornton Loch, in +East Lothian, 40 miles away. I did not know that my father was a heavy +speculator in foreign wheat, and I thought his keen interest in the +market in Mark lane was on account of the Thornton Loch crops, in which +first my grandfather and afterwards the three Maiden aunts were deeply +concerned. My mother's father, John Brodie, was one of the most +enterprising agriculturists in the most advanced district of Great +Britain. He won a prize of two silver salvers from the Highland Society +for having the largest area of drilled wheat sown. He was called up +twice to London to give evidence before Parliamentary committees on the +corn laws, and he naturally approved of them, because, with three large +farms held on 19 years' leases at war prices, the influx of cheap wheat +from abroad would mean ruin. He proved that he paid 6,000 pounds a year +for these three farms--two he worked himself, the third was for his +eldest son; but he was liable for the rent. On his first London trip, +my aunt Margaret accompanied him, and on his second he took my mother. +That was in the year 1814, and both of them noted from the postchaise +that farming was not up to what was done in East Lothian. + +My grandfather Brodie was a speculating man, and he lost nearly all his +savings through starting, along with others, an East Lothian Bank, +because the local banker had been ill used by the British Linen +Company. He put in only 1,000 pounds; but was liable for all, and, as +many of his fellow shareholders were defaulters, it cost 15,000 pounds +before all was over, and if it had not been that he left the farm in +the capable hands of Aunt Margaret, there would have been little or +nothing left for the family. When he had a stroke of paralysis he +wanted to turn over Thornton Loch, the only farm he then had, to his +eldest son, but there were three daughters, and one of them said she +would like to carry it on, and she did so. She was the most successful +farmer in the country for 30 years, and then she transferred it to a +nephew. The capacity for business of my Aunt Margaret, the wit and +charm of my brilliant Aunt Mary, and the sound judgment and accurate +memory of my own dear mother, showed me early that women were fit to +share in the work of this world, and that to make the world pleasant +for men was not their only mission. My father's sister Mary was also a +remarkable and saintly woman, though I do not think she was such a born +teacher as Miss Phin. When my father was a little boy, not 12 years +old, an uncle from Jamaica came home for a visit. He saw his sister +Janet a dying woman, with a number of delicate-looking children, and he +offered to take David with him and treat him like his own son. No +objections were made. The uncle was supposed to be well-to-do, and he +was unmarried, but he took fever and died, and was found to be not rich +but insolvent. The boy could read and write, and he got something to do +on a plantation till his father sent money to pay his passage home. He +must have been supposed to be worth something, for he got a cask of rum +for his wages, which was shipped home, and when the duty had been paid +was drunk in the doctor's household. But the boy had been away only 21 +months, and he returned to find his mother dead, and two or three +little brothers and sisters dead and buried, and his father married +again to his mother's cousin, Katherine Swanston, an old maid of 45, +who, however, two years afterwards was the mother of a fine big +daughter, so that Aunt Helen Park's scheme for getting the money for +her sister's children failed. In spite of my father's strong wish to be +a farmer, and not a writer or attorney, there was no capital to start a +farm upon, so he was indentured to Mr. Erskine, and after some years +began business in Melrose for himself, and married Lelen (Helen?) +Brodie. His elder brother John went as a surgeon in the Royal +Navy--before he was twenty-one. The demand for surgeons was great +during the war time. He was made a Freemason before the set age, +because in case of capture friends from the fraternity might be of +great use. He did not like his original profession, especially when +after the peace he must be a country practitioner like his father, at +every one's beck and call, so he was articled to his brother, and lived +in the house till he married and settled at Earlston, five miles off. +Uncle John Spence was a scholarly man, shy but kindly, who gave to us +children most of the books we possessed. They were not in such +abundance as children read nowadays, but they were read and re-read. + +In these early readings the Calvinistic teaching of the church and the +shorter catechism was supported and exemplified. The only secular books +to counteract them were the "Evenings at Home" and Miss Edgeworth's +"Tales for Young and Old!" The only cloud on my young life was the +gloomy religion, which made me doubt of my own salvation and despair of +the salvation of any but a very small proportion of the people in the +world. Thus the character of God appeared unlovely, and it was wicked +not to love God; and this was my condemnation. I had learned the +shorter catechism with the proofs from Scripture, and I understood the +meaning of the dogmatic theology. Watts's hymns were much more easy to +learn, but the doctrine was the same. There was no getting away from +the feeling that the world was under a curse ever since that unlucky +appleeating in the garden of Eden. Why, oh! why had not the sentence of +death been carried out at once, and a new start made with more prudent +people? The school in which as a day scholar I passed nine years of my +life was more literary than many which were more pretentious. +Needlework was of supreme importance, certainly, but during the hour +and a half every day, Saturday's half-holiday not excepted, which was +given to it by the whole school at once (odd half-hours were also put +in), the best readers took turns about to read some book selected by +Miss Phin. We were thus trained to pay attention. History, biography, +adventures, descriptions, and story books were read. Any questions or +criticisms about our sewing, knitting, netting, &c., were carried on in +a low voice, and we learned to work well and quickly, and good reading +aloud was cultivated. First one brother and then another had gone to +Edinburgh for higher education than could be had at Melrose Parish +School, and I wanted to go to a certain institution, the first of the +kind, for advanced teaching for girls, which had a high reputation. I +was a very ambitious girl at 13. I wanted to be a teacher first, and a +great writer afterwards. The qualifications for a teacher would help me +to rise to literary fame, so I obtained from my father a promise that I +should go to Edinburgh next year; but he could not keep it. He was a +ruined man. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +TOWARDS AUSTRALIA. + + +Although my mother's family had lost heavily by him, her mother gave us +500 pounds to make a start in South Australia. An 80-acre section was +built for 80 pounds, and this entitled us to the steerage passage of +four adults. This helped for my elder sister and two brothers (my +younger brother David was left for his education with his aunts in +Scotland), but we had to have another female, so we took with us a +servant girl--most ridiculous, it seems now. I was under the statutory +age of 15. The difference between steerage and intermediate fares had +to be made up, and we sailed from Greenock in July, 1839, in the barque +Palmyra, 400 tons, bound for Adelaide, Port Phillip, and Sydney. The +Palmyra was advertised to carry a cow and an experienced surgeon. +Intermediate passengers had no more advantage of the cow than steerage +folks, and except for the privacy of separate cabins and a pound of +white biscuit per family weekly, we fared exactly as the other +immigrants did, though the cost was double. Twice a week we had either +fresh meat or tinned meat, generally soup and boudle, and the biscuit +seemed half bran, and sometimes it was mouldy. But our mother thought +it was very good for us to endure hardship, and so it was. + +There were 150 passengers, mostly South Australian immigrants, in the +little ship. The first and second class passengers were bound for Port +Philip and Sydney in greater proportion than for Adelaide There was in +the saloon the youthful William Milne, and in the intermediate was Miss +Disher, his future wife. He became President of the Legislative +Council, and was knighted. There was my brother, J. B. Spence, who also +sat in the Council, and was at one time Chief Secretary. There was +George Melrose, a successful South Australian pastoralist; there was my +father's valued clerk, Thomas Laidlaw, who was long in the Legislative +Council of New South Wales and the leading man in the town of Yass. +"Honest Torn of Yass" was his soubriquet. Bound for Melbourne there +were Mr. and Mrs. Duncan, of Melrose, and Charles Williamson, from +Hawick, who founded a great business house in Collins Street. There +were Langs from Selkirk, and McHaffies, who became pastoralists. Our +next cabin mate, who brought out a horse, had the Richmond punt when +there was no bridge there. All the young men were reading a thick book +brought out by the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge about sheep, +but they could dance in the evenings to the strains of Mr. Duncan's +violin, and although I was not 14, I was in request as a partner, as +ladies were scarce. Jessie Spence and Eliza Disher, who were grown up, +were the belles of the Palmyra. Of all the passengers in the ship the +young doctor, John Logan Campbell, has had the most distinguished +career. Next to Sir George Grey he has had most to do with the +development of New Zealand. He is now called the Grand Old Man of +Auckland. He had his twenty-first birthday, this experienced surgeon(!) +in the same week as I had my fourteenth, while the Palmyra was lying +off Holdfast Bay (now Glenelg) before we could get to the old Port +Adelaide to discharge. My brother saw him in 1883, but I have not set +eye on him since that week in 1839. We have corresponded frequently +since my brother's death. In his book "Poenama," written for his +children, there is a picture of the Palmyra, with an account of the +voyage and the only sensational incident in it. We had a collision in +the Irish Sea, and our foremast was broken, so that we had to return to +Greenock for repairs, and then obtained the concession of white biscuit +for the second class for one day in the week. Sir John Campbell's gift +of a beautiful park to the citizens of Auckland was made while my +brother John was alive. Just recently he has given money and plans for +building and equipping the first free kindergarten in Auckland--perhaps +in New Zealand--and as this includes a training college for the +students it is very complete. These Palmyra passengers have made their +mark on the history of Australia and New Zealand. It is surprising what +a fine class of people immigrated to Australia in these days to face +all the troubles of a new country. + +The first issue of The Register was printed in London, and gave a +glowing account of the province that was to be--its climate, its +resources, the sound principles on which it was founded. It is +sometimes counted as a reproach that South Australia was founded by +doctrinaires and that we retain traces of our origin; to me it is our +glory. In the land laws and the immigration laws it struck out a new +path, and sought to found a new community where the sexes should be +equal, and where land, labour, and capital should work harmoniously +together. Land was not to be given away in huge grants, as had been +done in New South Wales and Western Australia, to people with influence +or position, but was to be sold at the high price of 20/ an acre. The +price should be not too high to bring out people to work on the land. +The Western Australian settlers had been wellnigh starved, because +there was no labour to give real value to the paper or parchment deeds. +The cheapest fare third class was from 17 pounds to 20 pounds, and the +family immigration, which is the best, was quite out of the reach of +those who were needed. The immigrants were not bound to work for any +special individual or company, unless by special contract voluntarily +made. They were often in better circumstances after the lapse of a few +years than the landbuyers, and, in the old days, the owner of an +80-acre section worked harder and for longer hours than any hired man +would do, or could be expected to do. + +In the South Australian Public Library there is a curious record--the +minutes and proceedings of the South Australian Literary Society, in +the years 1831-5. As the province was non-existent at that time, this +cultivation of literature seems premature, but the members, 40 in +number, were its founders, and pending the passage of the Bill by the +Imperial Parliament, they met fortnightly in London to discuss its +prospects, and to read papers on exploration and on matters of future +development and government. The first paper was on education for the +new land, and was read by Richard Davies Hanson. The South Australian +Company and Mr. George Fife Angas came to the rescue by buying a +considerable area of land and making up the amount of capital which was +required. It is interesting to note that the casting vote in the House +of Lords which decided that the province of South Australia should come +into existence was given by the Duke of Wellington. Adelaide was to +have been called Wellington, but somehow the Queen Consort's name +carried the day. The name of the conquerer of Waterloo is immortalized +in the capital of the Dominion of New Zealand, in the North Island, +which, like South Australia, was founded on the Wakefield principle of +selling land for money to be applied for immigration. The 40 signatures +in the records of the South Australian Literary Society are most +interesting to an old colonist like myself, and the names of many of +them are perpetuated in those of our rivers and our streets:--Torrens, +Wright, Brown, Gilbert, Gouger, Hanson, Kingston, Wakefield, Morphett, +Childers, Hill (Rowland), Stephens, Mawn, Furniss, Symonds. The second +issue of The Register was printed in Adelaide. It was also The +Government Gazette. It gave the proclamation of the province, which was +made under the historic gum tree near Holdfast Bay, now Glenelg. It +also records the sales of the town acres which had not been allotted to +the purchasers of preliminary sections. These were of 134 acres, and a +town acre, at the price of 12/6 an acre. This was a temptation to +invest at the very first, because afterwards the price was 20/ an acre, +without any city lot. From this cheap investment came the frequent +lamentation, "Why did not I buy Waterhouse's corner for 12/6?" But +there was more than 12/6 needed. The investment was of 80 pounds, which +secured the ownership of the corner block facing King William street +and Rundle street, and besides 134 acres of valuable suburban land. + +There were connected with The Register from the earliest days the +enterprising head of the house. Robert Thomas, who must have been well +aided by his intelligent wife. The sons and daughters took their place +in colonial society. Mr. George Stevenson left the staff of The Globe +and Traveller, a good old London Paper, to try his fortunes in the new +Province founded on the Wakefield principle, as Private Secretary to +the first Governor (Capt. John Hindmarsh, R.N.). It is matter of +history how the Governor and the Commissioner of Lands differed and +quarrelled, the latter having the money and the former the power of +government, and it was soon found that Mr. Stevenson could wield a +trenchant pen. He had been on the "Traveller" branch of the London +paper what would be called now a travelling correspondent. The Governor +was replaced by Col. Gawler, and Mr. Stevenson went on The Register as +editor. Mrs. Stevenson was a clever woman, and could help her husband. +She knew Charles Dickens, and still better, the family of Hogarth, into +which he married. My father and mother were surprised to find so good a +paper and so well printed in the infant city. Then there were A. H. +Davis, of the Reedbeds, and Nathaniel Hailes, who wrote under the +cognomen of "Timothy Short," who had been publisher and bookseller. +There was first Samuel Stephens, who came out in the first ship for the +South Australian Company, and married a fellow passenger, Charlotte +Hudson Beare, and died two years after, and then Edward, manager of the +South Australian Bank, and later, John Stephens who founded The Weekly +Observer, and afterwards bought The Register. These all belonged to a +literary family. + +People came out on the smallest of salaries with big families--H. T. H. +Beare on 100 pounds a year as architect, for the South Australian +Company, and he had 18 children by two wives. I do not know what salary +Mr. William Giles came out on with nine children and a young second +wife, but I am sure it was less than 300 pounds. His family in all +counted 21. But things were bad in the old country before the great +lift given by railways, and freetrade, which made England the carrier +for the world; and the possibilities of the new country were shown in +that first issue of The Register in London in the highest colours. Not +too high by any means in the light of what has been accomplished in 73 +years, but there was a long row to hoe first, and few of the pioneers +reaped the prizes. But, in spite of hardships and poverty and struggle, +the early colonial life was interesting, and perhaps no city of its +size at the time contained as large a population of intelligent and +educated people as Adelaide. + +Mrs. Oliphant, writing in 1885 at the age of 57, says that reading the +"Life of George Eliot" made her think of an autobiography, and this was +written at the saddest crisis of her life. She survived her husband and +all her children, and had just lost the youngest, the posthumous boy. +For them and for the family of a brother she had carried on the +strenuous literary work--fiction, biography, criticism, and +history--and when she died at the age of 69 she had not completed the +history of a great publishing house--that of Blackwood. Her life +tallies with mine on many points, but it is not till I have completed +my 84 years that her sad narrative impels me to set down what appears +noteworthy in a life which was begun in similar circumstances, but +which was spent mainly in Australia. The loss of memory which I see in +many who are younger than myself makes me feel that while I can +recollect I should fix the events and the ideals of my life by pen and +ink. Like Mrs. Oliphant, I was born (three years earlier) in the south +of Scotland. Like her I had an admirable mother but she lost hers at +the age of 60, while I kept mine till she was nearly 97. Like Mrs. +Oliphant, I was captivated by the stand made by the Free Church as a +protest against patronage, and like her I shook off the shackles of the +narrow Calvinism of Presbyterianism, and emerged into more light and +liberty. But unlike Mrs. Oliphant, I have from my earliest youth taken +an interest in politics, and although I have not written the tenth part +of what she has done, I have within the last 20 years addressed many +audiences in Australia and America, and have preached over 100 sermons. +My personal influence has been exercised through the voice more +strongly than by the pen, and in the growth and development of South +Australia, to which I came with my parents and brothers and sisters +when I was just 14, and the province not three years old, there have +been opportunities for usefulness which might not have offered if I had +remained in Melrose, in Sir Walter Scott's country. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A BEGINNING AT SEVENTEEN + + +Perhaps my turn for economics was partly inherited from my mother, and +emphasized by my father having been an unlucky speculator in foreign +wheat, tempted thereto by the sliding scale, which varied from 33/ a +quarter, when wheat was as cheap as it was in 1837, to 1/ a quarter, +when it was 70/ in 1839. It was supposed that my father had made his +fortune when he took his wheat out of bond but losses and deterioration +during seven years, and interest on borrowed money--credit having been +strained to the utmost--brought ruin and insolvency, and he had to go +to South Australia, followed by his wife and family soon after. It +seems strange that this disaster should be the culmination of the +peace, after the long Napoleonic war. When my father married in 1815 he +showed he was making 600 pounds a year, with 2,000 pounds book debts, +as a writer or attorney and as agent for a bank. But the business fell +off, the book debts could not be collected; the bank called up the +advances; and for 24 years there was a struggle. My mother would not +have her dowry of 1,500 pounds and other money left by an aunt settled +on herself--neither her father nor herself approved of it--the wife's +fortune should come and go with her husband's. My father first +speculated in hops and lost heavily. He took up unlucky people, whom +other business men had drained. I suppose he caught at straws. He had +the gentlest of manners--"the politest man in Melrose," the old +shoemaker called him. My paternal grandfather was Dr. William Spence, +of Melrose. His father was minister of the Established Church at +Cockburn's Path, Berwickshire. His grandfather was a small landed +proprietor, but he had to sell Spence's mains, and the name was changed +to Chirnside. So (as my father used to say) he was sprung from the tail +of the gentry; while my mother was descended from the head of the +commonalty. The Brodies had been tenant farmers in East Lothian for six +or seven generations, though they originally came from the north. My +grandfather Brodie thought abrogation of the Corn Laws meant ruin for +the farmers, who had taken 19 years' leases at war prices. But during +the war times both landlords and farmers coined money, while the +labourers had high prices for food and very little increase in their +wages. I recollect both grandfathers well, and through the accurate +memory of my mother t can tell how middle-class people in lowland +Scotland lived and dressed and travelled, entertained visitors, and +worshipped God. She told me of the "dear years" 1799 and 1800, and what +a terrible thing a bad crop was, when the foreign ports were closed by +Napoleon. She told me that but for the shortlived Peace of Amiens she +never heard of anything but war till the Battle of Waterloo settled it +three months before her marriage. From her own intimate relations with +her grandmother, Margaret Fernie Brodie, who was born in 1736, and died +in 1817, she knew how two generations before her people lived and +thought. So that I have a grasp on the past which many might envy, and +yet the present and the future are even more to me, as they were to my +mother. On her death in 1887 I wrote a quatrain for her memorial, and +which those who knew her considered appropriate-- + + HELEN BRODIE SPENCE + Born at Whittingham, Scotland, 1791. + Died at College Town, Adelaide, South Australia, 1887. + + Half a long life 'mid Scotland's heaths and pines, + And half among our South Australian vines; + Though loving reverence bound her to the past, + Eager for truth and progress to the last. + +Although my mother had the greatest love for Sir Walter Scott, and the +highest appreciation of his poems and novels, she never liked Melrose. +She liked Australia better after a while. Indeed, when we arrived in +November, 1839, to a country so hot, so dry, so new, we felt like the +good old founder of The Adelaide Register, Robert Thomas, when he came +to the land described in his own paper as "flowing with milk and +honey." Dropped anchor at Holdfast Bay. "When I saw the place at which +we were to land I felt inclined to go and cut my throat." When we sat +down on a log in Light square, waiting till my father brought the key +of the wooden house In Gilles street, in spite of the dignity of my 14 +years just attained, I had a good cry. There had been such a drought +that they had a dearth, almost a famine. People like ourselves with 80 +acre land orders were frightened to attempt cultivation in an unknown +climate, with seed wheat at 25/ a bushel or more, and stuck to the +town. We lived a month in Gilles street, then we bought a large +marquee, and pitched it on Brownhill Creek, above where Mitcham now +stands, bought 15 cows and a pony and cart, and sold the milk in town +at 1/ a quart. But how little milk the cows gave in those days! After +seven months' encamping, in which the family lived chiefly on rice--the +only cheap food, of which we bought a ton--we came with our herd to +West terrace, Adelaide. My father got the position of Town Clerk at 150 +pounds a year twelve months after our arrival, and kept it till the +municipal corporation was ended, as the City of Adelaide was too poor +to maintain the machinery; but 75 pounds was the rent of the house and +yards. We sold the cows, and my brothers went farming, and we took +cheaper quarters in Halifax street. + +The Town Clerkship, however, was the means of giving me a lesson in +electoral methods. Into the Municipal Bill, drawn up under the +superintendence of Rowland Hill (afterward the great post office +reformer, but then the Secretary of the Colonization Commissioner for +South Australia), he had introduced a clause providing for proportional +representation at the option of the ratepayers. The twentieth part of +the Adelaide ratepayers by uniting their votes upon one man instead of +voting for 18, could on the day before the ordinary election appear and +declare this their intention, and he would be a Councillor on their +votes. In the first election, November, 1840, two such quorums elected +two Councillors. The workmen in Borrow and Goodear's building elected +their foreman, and another quorum of citizens elected Mr. William +Senden; and this was the first quota representation in the world. My +father explained this unique provision to me at the time, and showed +its bearings for minority representation. + +After the break up of the municipality and the loss of his income my +father lost health and spirits. The brothers did not succeed in the +country. My sister had married Andrew Murray, an apparently prosperous +man, in 1841, but the protecting of the Government bills bought for +remitting to England, and other causes, brought down every mercantile +firm in Adelaide except A. L. Elder, who had not been long established; +and Murray & Greig came down too. Mr. Murray was a ready writer, and +got work on The South Australian, the newspaper which supported Capt. +Grey's policy of retrenchment and stoppage of public works; so, with a +small salary, he managed to live. When I left Scotland I brought with +me a letter of recommendation from my teacher, Miss Sarah Phin, +concerning my qualifications and my turn for teaching. I don't know if +it really did me any good, for the suspicious look and the question +about how old I was at the time embarrassed me. Of course I was only 13 +1/2 and probably my teacher over-estimated me a little, but here is, +the letter, yellow with the dust of over 70 years. + + +Melrose. June 20, 1839. + +My dearest Catherine--Our mutual friend, Mrs. Duncan, told me that you +were not to sail for Australia till next month, and I have been +thinking if my poor testimonial to your worth and abilities could be of +any service to you I ought to give it but how can I trust myself?--for +could any one read what I feel my heart dictates it would be thought +absurd. You were always one of the greatest ornaments of my school, +best girl and the best scholar, and from the time you could put three +letters together you have evinced a turn for teaching--so clear-headed +and so patient, and so thoroughly upright in word and deed, and your +knowledge of the Scriptures equal to that of many students of Divinity, +so should you ever become a teacher you have nothing to fear. You will +be able to undertake both the useful and the ornamental branches of +education--French, Italian, and Music you thoroughly understand. I feel +conscious that you will succeed. Please to remember me to your +excellent mother, and with love to Miss Spence and my darling Mary, +believe me, my beloved Catherine, your affectionate friend and teacher. +Sarah Phin. + + +My knowledge of music was not great, even in those days, but I could +teach beginners for two or three years with fair success. We thought +that my mother and the two eldest girls could start a school, and +brought out with us a good selection of schoolbooks, bought from Oliver +J. Boyd. Edinburgh, superior to the English books obtainable here, +which we used up in time; but we dared not launch out into such a +venture in 1840, and my sister Jessie had no desire to teach at all. +The years at Brownhill Creek and West terrace were the most unhappy of +my life. I suffered from the want of some intellectual activity, and +from the sense of frustrated ambition and religious despair. The few +books we had, or which we could borrow, I read over and over again. +Aikin's "British Poets," a gift from Uncle John Spence, and Goldsmith's +complete works, a school prize of my brother William's, were thoroughly +mastered, and the Waverley novels down to "Quentin Durward" were well +absorbed. I read in Chambers's Journal of daily governesses getting a +shilling an hour, and I told my friend, Mrs. Haining, that I would go +out for 6d. an hour. Although she disliked that way of putting it, it +was really on that basis that I had made my beginning when I reached +the age of 17. In the meantime I had taught my younger sister Mary +(afterwards Mrs. W. J. Wren) all I knew, and in the columns of The +South Australian I wrote an occasional letter or a few verses. Through +Mr. George Tinline we made the acquaintance of Mrs. Samuel Stephens her +brother, Thomas Hudson Beare, and his family, who had all come out in +the Duke of York, and lived six months on Kangaroo Island before South +Australia was proclaimed a British province. I have been mixed up so +much with this family that it is often supposed that they were +relatives, but it was not so. Samuel Stephens had died from an accident +two years after his marriage to a lady much older and much richer than +himself, and she was living on two acres in North Adelaide, bought with +her money at the first sale of city lands in 1837, and Mr. Tinline +boarded with her till his marriage. The nephews, and especially the +nieces, of the old lady interested me--Lucy, the eldest, a handsome +girl, was about two years younger than myself; Arabella, about the age +of my sister Mary; Elizabeth, the baby Beare, who was the first white +person to set foot on South Australian soil after the foundation of the +province, died from a burning accident when quite young. The only +survivor of that first family now is William L. Beare (84), held in +honour as one of our earliest pioneers. By a second marriage there were +nine more children. Several died young, but some still survive. + +It was not till 1843 that I went as a daily governess at the rate of +6d. an hour, and gave two hours five days a week to the families of the +Postmaster-General, the Surveyor-General, and the Private Secretary. +Thus I earned three guineas a month. I don't recollect taking holidays, +except a week at Christmas. I enjoyed the work, and I was proud of the +payment. My mother said she never felt the bitterness of poverty after +I began to earn money, and the shyness which, in spite of all her +instructions and encouragement, I had felt with all strangers, +disappeared when I felt independent. When a girl is very poor, and +feels herself badly dressed, she cannot help being shy, especially if +she has a good deal of Scotch pride. I think mother felt more sorry for +me in those early days than for the others, because I was so ambitious, +and took religious difficulties so hard. How old I felt at 17. Indeed, +at 14 I felt quite grown up. In 1843 I felt I had begun the career in +Australia that I had anticipated in Scotland. I was trusted to teach +little girls, and they interested me, each individual with a +difference. I had seen things I had written in print. If I was one of +the oldest in feeling of the young folk in South Australia in my teens, +I am the youngest woman in feeling in my eighties; so I have had +abundant compensation. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOVERS AND FRIENDS. + + +It is always supposed that thoughts of love and marriage are the chief +concerns in a girl's life, but it was not the case with me. I had only +two offers of marriage in my life, and I refused both. The first might +have been accepted if it had not been for the Calvinistic creed that +made me shrink from the possibility of bringing children into the world +with so little chance of eternal salvation, so I said. "No" to a very +clever young man, with whom I had argued on many points, and with whom, +if I had married him, I should have argued till one of us died! I was +17, and had just begun to earn money. I told him why I had refused him, +and that it was final. In six weeks he was engaged to another woman. My +second offer was made to me when I was 23 by a man aged 55, with three +children. He was an artist, whose second wife and several children had +been murdered by the Maoris near Wanganui during the Maori insurrection +of the forties, and he had come to Adelaide with the three survivors. +The massacre of that family was only one of the terrible tragedies of +that time, but it was not the less shocking. The Maoris had never been +known to kill a woman, and when the house was attacked, Mr. Gilfillan +got out of a back window to call the soldiers to their help. Though +struck on the back of the head and the neck and scarred for life--owing +to which he was always compelled to wear his hair long--he succeeded in +his mission. His wife put her own two children through the window, and +they toddled off hand in hand until they met their father returning +with the soldiers. The eldest daughter, a girl of 13, escaped with a +neighbour's child, a baby in arms. She was seen by the Maoris, struck +on the forehead with a stone axe, and left unconscious. The crying of +the baby roused her, and she went to the cowyard and milked a cow to +get milk for the hungry child, and there she was found by the soldiers. +She was queer in her ways and thoughts afterwards, and, it was said, +always remained 13 years old. She died in November last, aged 74. Her +stepmother and the baby and her own brother and sister were murdered +one by one as they tried to escape by the same window that had led the +rest of the family to safety. One of the toddling survivors still lives +in New Zealand. Now, these are all the chances of marriage I have had +in my life. Dickens, in "David Copperfield," speaks of an old maid who +keeps the remembrance of some one who might have made her an offer, the +shadowy Pidger, in her heart until her death. I cannot forget these two +men. I am constantly meeting with the children, grandchildren, and even +great-grandchildren of the first. As for the other, Andrew Murray gave +me a fine landscape painted by John A. Gilfillan as a slight +acknowledgment of services rendered to his newspaper when he left it to +go to Melbourne, and it hangs up in my sitting room for all to see. Mr. +Gilfillan had a commission to paint "The Landing of Capt. Cook" with +the help of Portraits and miniatures of the principal personages, and +some sketches of his of Adelaide in 1849 are in the Adelaide Art +Gallery. If the number of lovers has been few, no woman in Australia +has been richer in friends. This narrative will show what good +friends--men as well as women--have helped me and sympathized in my +work and my aims. I believe that if I had been in love, especially if I +had been disappointed in love, my novels would have been stronger and +more interesting; but I kept a watch over myself, which I felt I knew I +needed, for I was both imaginative and affectionate. I did not want to +give my heart away. I did not desire a love disappointment, even for +the sake of experience. I was 30 years old before the dark veil of +religious despondency was completely lifted from my soul, and by that +time I felt myself booked for a single life. People married young if +they married at all in those days. The single aunts put on caps at 30 +as a sort of signal that they accepted their fate; and, although I did +not do so, I felt a good deal the same. + +I went on with daily teaching for some years, during which my father's +health declined, but before his death two things had happened to cheer +him. My brother John left Myponga and came to town, and obtained a +clerkship in the South Australian Bank at 100 pounds a year. It was +whilst occupying a position in the bank that he had some slight +connection with the notorious Capt. Starlight, afterwards the hero of +"Robbery Under Arms," for through his hands much of the stolen money +passed. In 1900, when Mrs. Young and I were leaving Melbourne on our +visit to Sydney, we were introduced to "Rolf Boldrewood," the author of +that well-known story. His grave face lit up with a smile when my +friend referred to the author of her son's hero. "Ah!" and he shook his +head slowly. "I'm not quite sure about the wisdom of making heroes of +such sorry stuff," he replied. I thought I could do better with a +school. I was 20, and my sister Mary nearly 16, and my mother could +help. My school opened in May, 1846, a month before my father's death, +and he thought that our difficulties were over. My younger brother, +David Wauchope, had been left behind for his education with the three +maiden aunts, but he came out about the end of that year, and began +life in the office of the Burra Mine at a small salary. My eldest +brother William, was not successful in the country, and went to Western +Australia for some years, and later to New Zealand, where he died in +his eightieth year, soon after the death of my brother John in his +seventy-ninth, leaving me the only survivor of eight born and of six +who grew to full age. My eldest sister Agnes died of consumption at the +age of 16; and, as my father's mother and four of his brothers and +sisters had died of this malady, it was supposed to be in the family. +The only time I was kept out of school during the nine years at Miss +Phin's was when I was 12 when I had a cough and suppuration of the +glands of the neck. As this was the way in which Agnes's illness had +begun, my parents were alarmed, though I had no idea of it. I was +leeched and blistered and drugged; I was put into flannel for the only +time in my life; I was sent away for change of air; but no one could +discover that the cough was from the lungs. It passed away with the +cold weather, and I cannot say that I have had any illness since. My +father died of decline, but, if he had been more fortunate, I think he +would have lived much longer. Probably my mother's life was prolonged +beyond that of a long-lived family by her coming to Australia in middle +life; and if I ever had any tendency to consumption, the climate must +have helped me. There were no special precautions against infection in +those days: but no other member of the family took it, and the alarm +about me was three years after Agnes's death. + +But to go on to those early days of the forties. There were two +families with whom we were intimate. Mr. George Tinline (who had been +clerk to my fathers' old friend, William Rutherford, of Jedburgh), who +was in the bank of South Australia when in 1839, my father went to put +our small funds in safety, introduced us to a beautiful young widow, +Mrs. Sharpe, and her sisters Eliza and Harriet, and her brother, John +Taylor. Harriet afterwards married Edward Stirling, a close friend of +my brother-in-law, Andrew Murray, and I was a great deal interested in +the Stirlings and their eight children. Mr. William Bakewell, of +Bartley & Bakewell, solicitors, married Jane Warren of Springfield, +Barossa, and I was a familiar friend of their five children. In one +house I was "Miss Spence, the storyteller," in the other "Miss Spence, +the teller of tales!" Some of the tales appeared long after as +Christmas stories in The Adelaide Observer, but my young hearers +preferred the oral narrative, with appropriate gestures and emphasis, +and had no scruple about making faces, to anything printed in books. I +took great liberties with what I had read and sometimes invented all. +It was a part of their education, probably--certainly, it was a part of +mine, and it gave me a command of language which helped me when I +became a public speaker. My brother-in-law's newspaper furnished an +occasional opportunity to me, though no doubt he considered that he +could fill his twice-a-week journal without my help. He was, however, +helpful in other ways. He was one of the subscribers to a Reading Club, +and through him I had access to newspapers and magazines. The South +Australian Institute was a treasure to the family. I recollect a +newcomer being astonished at my sister Mary having read Macaulay's +History. "Why, it was only just out when I left England," said he. +"Well, it did not take longer to come out than you did," was her reply. +We were all omnivorous readers, and the old-fashioned accomplishment of +reading aloud was cultivated by both brothers and sisters. I was the +only one who could translate French at sight, thanks to Miss Phin's +giving me so much of Racine and Moliere and other good French authors +in my school days. + +But more important than all this was the fact that we took hold of the +growth and development of South Australia, and identified ourselves +with it. Nothing is insignificant in the history of a young community, +and--above all--nothing seems impossible. I had learned what wealth +was, and a great deal about production and exchange for myself in the +early history of South Australia--of the value of machinery, of roads +and bridges, and of ports for transport and export. I had seen the +4-lb. loaf at 4/ and at 4d. I had seen Adelaide the dearest and the +cheapest place to live in. I had seen money orders for 2/6, and even +for 6d., current when gold and silver were very scarce. Even before the +discovery of copper South Australia had turned the corner. We had gone +on the land and become primary producers, and before the gold +discoveries in Victoria revolutionized Australia and attracted our male +population across the border, the Central State was the only one which +had a large surplus of wheat and hay to send to the goldfields. + +Edward Wilson of The Argus, riding overland to Adelaide about 1848, was +amazed to see from Willunga onward fenced and cultivated farms, with +decent homesteads and machinery up to date. The Ridley stripper enabled +our people to reap and thresh the corn when hands were all too few for +the sickle. He said he felt as if the garden of Paradise must have been +in King William street and that the earliest difference in the +world--that between Cain and Abel--was about the advantages of the +80-acre system. Australia generally had already to realize the fact +that the pastoral industry was not enough for its development, and +South Australia had seemed to solve the problem through the doctrinaire +founders, of family immigration, small estates, and the development of +agriculture, horticulture, and viticulture. We owed a great deal in the +latter branches to our German settlers--sent out originally by Mr. G. +F. Angas, whose interest was aroused by their suffering persecution for +religious dissent--who saw that Australia had a better climate than +that of the Fatherland. We owed much to Mr. George Stevenson, who was +an enthusiastic gardener and fruitgrower, and lectured on these +subjects, but the contrast between the environs of Adelaide and those +of Sydney and Melbourne were striking, and Mr. Wilson never lost an +opportunity of calling on the Victorian Legislature and the Victorian +public to develop their own wonderful resources. When you take gold out +of the ground there is less gold to win. When you grow golden grain or +ruddy grapes this year you may expect as much and as good next year. My +brother David went with the thousands to buy their fortunes at the +diggings, but my brother John stuck to the Bank of South Australia. My +brother-in-law's subscribers and his printers had gone off and left him +woefully embarrassed. He went to Melbourne. My friend John Taylor left +his sheep in the wilderness and came to Adelaide to the aid of The +Register. He had been engaged to Sophia Stephens, who died, and her +father John Stephens also died soon after; and Mr. Taylor shouldered +the management of the paper until the time of stress was over. + +When Andrew Murray obtained employment on The Argus as commercial +editor, he left his twice-a-week newspaper in the charge of Mr. W. W. +Whitridge, my brother John, and myself. If anything was needed to be +written on State aid to religion I was to do it, as Mr. Whitridge was +opposed to it. This lasted three months. The next quarter there were no +funds for the editor, so John and I carried it on, and then let it die. +At that time I believed in State aid, which had been abolished by the +first elected Parliament of South Australia, although that Parliament +consisted of one-third nominees pledged to vote for its continuance. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +NOVELS AND A POLITICAL INSPIRATION. + + +It was the experience of a depopulated province which led me to write +my first book, "Clara Morison--A Tale of South Australia during the +Gold Fever." I entrusted the M.S. to my friend John Taylor, with whom I +had just had the only tiff in my life. He, through his connection with +The Register, knew that I was writing in The South Australian, trying +to keep it alive, till Mr. Murray decided to let it go, and he told +this to other people. At a subscription ball to which my brother John +took me and my younger sister Mary, she found she had been pointed out +and talked of as the lady who wrote for the newspapers. I did not like +it even to be supposed of myself, but Mary was indignant, and I wrote +an injured letter to my friend. He apologized, and said he thought I +would be proud of doing disinterested work, and he was sorry the +mistake had been made regarding the sister who did it. Of course, I +forgave him. He was the last man in the world to give pain to anyone, +and I highly admired him for his disinterested work on The Register. He +reluctantly accepted 1,000 pounds when the paper was sold. He must have +lost much more through neglect of his own affairs at such a critical +time. He was taking a holiday with his sister Eliza in England and +France, where the beautiful widowed sister was settled as Madam Dubois, +and I asked him to take "Clara Morison" to Smith, Elder & Co.'s, in +London, and to say nothing to anybody about it; but before it was +placed he had to return to Adelaide, and in pursuance of my wishes, +left it with my other good friend, Mr. Bakewell, who also happened to +be visiting England with his family at the time--1853-4. I had an idea +that, as there was so much interest in Australia and its gold, I might +get 100 pounds for the novel. Mr. Bakewell wrote a preface from which I +extract a passage:--"The writer's aim seems to have been to present +some picture of the state of society in South Australia in the years +1851-2, when the discovery of gold in the neighbouring province of +Victoria took place. At this time, the population of South Australia +numbered between seventy and eighty thousand souls, the greater part of +whom were remarkable for their intelligence, their industry, and their +enterprise, which, in the instance of the Burra Burra, and other copper +mines had met with such signal success. When it became known that gold +in vast quantities could be found within 300 miles of their own +territory, they could not remain unmoved. The exodus was almost +complete, and entirely without parallel. In those days there was no +King in Israel, and every woman did what was right in her own sight." +Another reason I had for writing the book. Thackeray had written about +an emigrant vessel taking a lot of women to Australia, as if these were +all to be gentlemen's wives--as if there was such a scarcity of +educated women there, that anything wearing petticoats had the prospect +of a great rise in position. I had hoped that Smith, Elder, & Co. would +publish my book, but their reader--Mr. Williams, who discovered +Charlotte Bronte's genius when she sent them "The Professor," and told +her she could write a better, which she did ("Jane Eyre")--wrote a +similar letter to me, declining "Clara Morison," as he had declined +"The Professor," but saying I could do better. J. W. Parker & Son +published it in 1854, as one of the two-volume series, of which "The +Heir of Redcliffe" had been most successful. The price was to be 40 +pounds; but, as it was too long for the series, I was charged 10 pounds +for abridging it. It was very fairly received and reviewed. I think I +liked best Frederick Sinnett's notice in The Argus--that it was the +work of an observant woman--a novelist who happened to live in +Australia, but who did not labour to bring in bushrangers and convicts, +and specially Australian features. While I was waiting to hear the fate +of my first book, I began to write a second, "Tender and True," of +which Mr. Williams thought better, and recommended it to Smith, Elder, +and Co., who published it in two volumes in 1856, and gave me 20 pounds +for the copyright. This is the only one of my books that went through +more than one edition. There were two or three large editions issued, +but I never got a penny more. I was told that nothing could be made out +of shilling editions; but that book was well reviewed and now and then +I have met elderly people who read the cheap edition and liked it. The +motif of the book was the jealousy which husbands are apt to feel of +their wives' relations. As if the most desirable wife was an amiable +orphan--if an heiress, so much the better. But the domestic virtues +which make a happy home for the husband are best fostered in a centre +where brothers and sisters have to give and take; and a good daughter +and sister is likely to make a good wife and mother. I have read quite +recently that the jokes against the mother-in-law which are so many and +so bitter in English and American journalism are worn out, and have +practically ceased; but Dickens and Thackeray set the fashion, and it +lasted a long time. + +While "Clara Morison" was making her debut, I paid my first visit to +Melbourne. I went with Mr. and Mrs. Stirling in a French ship consigned +to him, and we were 12 days on the way, suffering from the limited +ideas that the captain of a French merchantman had of the appetites of +Australians at sea. I intended to pay a six weeks' visit to my sister +and her family, but she was so unwell that I stayed for eight months. I +found that Melbourne in the beginning of 1854 was a very expensive +place to live in, and consequently a very inhospitable place. Mr. +Murray's salary sounded a good one, 500 pounds a year, but it did not +get much comfort. His sister was housekeeper at Charles Williamson & +Co.'s, and that was the only place where I could take off my bonnet and +have a meal. From the windows I watched the procession that welcomed +Sir Charles Hotham, the first Governor of the separated colony of +Victoria. He was received with rejoicing, but he utterly failed to +satisfy the people. He thought anything was good enough for them. One +festivity I was invited to--a ball given on the opening of the new +offices of The Argus in Collins street--and there I met Mr. Edward +Wilson, a most interesting personality, the giver of the entertainment. +He was then vigorously championing the unlocking of the land and the +developing of other resources of Victoria than the gold. It had +surprised him when he travelled overland to Adelaide to see from +Willunga 30 miles of enclosed and cultivated farms, and it surprised me +to see sheepruns close to Melbourne. With a better rainfall and equally +good soil, Victoria had neither the farms nor the vineyards nor the +orchards nor the gardens that had sprung up under the 80-acre section +and immigration systems of South Australia. It had been an outlying +portion of New South Wales, neglected and exploited for pastoral +settlement only. The city, however, had been well planned, like that of +Adelaide, but the suburbs were allowed to grow anyhow. In Adelaide the +belt of park lands kept the city apart from all suburbs. Andrew Murray +was as keen for the development of Victoria agriculturally and +industrially as Mr. Wilson, and they worked together heartily. Owing to +the state of my sister's health I was much occupied with her and her +children; but in August she was well, and I returned with Mr. Taylor +and his sister in the steamer Bosphorus, when it touched at Melbourne +on the way home. He brought me 30 pounds for my book, and the assurance +that it would be out soon, and that I should have six copies to give to +my friends. Novel writing had not been to me a lucrative occupation. I +had given up teaching altogether at the age of 25, and I felt that, +though Australia was to be a great country, there was no market for +literary work, and the handicap of distance from the reading world was +great. + +My younger sister married in 1855 William J. Wren, then an articled +clerk in Bartley & Bakewell's office, and afterwards a partner with the +present Sir James Boucaut. Mr. Wren's health was indifferent, and +caused us much anxiety. My brother John married Jessie Cumming in 1858, +and they were spared together for many years. As the Wrens went on a +long voyage to Hongkong and back for the sake of my brother-in-law's +health, my mother and I had the charge of their little boy. But in that +year, 1859, my mind received its strongest political inspiration, and +the reform of the electoral system became the foremost object of my +life. John Stuart Mill's advocacy of Thomas Hare's system of +proportional representation brought back to my mind Rowland Hill's +clause in the Adelaide Municipal Bill with wider and larger issues. It +also showed me how democratic government could be made real, and safe, +and progressive. I confess that at first I was struck chiefly by its +conservative side, and I saw that its application would prevent the +political association, which corresponded roughly with the modern +Labour Party, from returning five out of six members of the Assembly +for the City of Adelaide. But for blunders on ballot papers the whole +ticket of six would have been elected. They also elected the three +members for Burra, and Clare. I had then no footing on the Adelaide +press, but I was Adelaide correspondent for The Melbourne Argus--that +is to say, my brother was the correspondent, but I wrote the +letters--he furnished the news. I read Mill's article one Monday night, +and wrote what was meant for a leader on Tuesday morning, and went to +read it to my brother at breakfast time, and posted it forthwith. I +knew The Argus had been dissatisfied with the recent elections, and +fancied that the editor would hail with joy the new idea; but I +received the reply that The Argus was committed to the representation +of majorities; and, though the idea was ingenious, he did not even +offer to print it as a letter. About two years later Mr. Lavington +Glyde, M.P., brought forward in the Assembly Mr. Fawcett's abstract of +Hare's great scheme, and I seized the opportunity of writing a series +of letters to The Register, signed by my initials. Mr. Glyde, seeing +the House did not like his suggestions, dropped the matter, but I did +not. I was no longer correspondent to The Argus--the telegraph stopped +that altogether. My wonderful maiden aunts made up to me and my mother +the 50 pounds a year that I had received as correspondent, and did as +much for their brother, Alexander Brodie, of Morphett Vale, from 1,000 +pounds they had sent to invest in South Australia. It was as easy to +get 10 per cent. then as to get 4 per cent. now; indeed I think the +money earned 12 per cent. at first. My brother John was accountant to +the South Australian Railways, then not a very great department--I +think the line stretched as far as Kapunda to the north from Port +Adelaide. He was as much captivated by Mr. Hare's idea as I was, and he +said that if I would write a pamphlet he would pay for the printing of +1,000 copies, to be sent to all the members of Parliament and other +leading people in city and country. I called my pamphlet "A Plea for +Pure Democracy," and when writing it I felt the democratic strength of +the position as I had not felt it in reading Hare's own book. It cost +my brother 15 pounds, but he never grudged it. + +While the pamphlet was in the press, I heard of the dangerous illness +of my friend Lucy Anne Duval (nee Beare), one of the original +passengers in the Duke of York, the first ship which arrived here. I +went to consult Mr. Taylor and Mr. Stirling at their office. I saw only +Mr. Stirling. I said, "I should like to go and nurse her," and he said. +"If you will go, I'll pay your expenses;" and I went and stayed with +her for three weeks, till she died, and left five children, three of +them quite young. There were Duvals in England in good circumstances, +and I wrote pleading for the three little ones, though every one said +it was quite useless; but an uncle by marriage was touched, and sent +100 pounds a year for the benefit of the three children, and I was +constituted the guardian. The youngest died within two years, but the +allowance was not decreased, and I was able to get some schooling for +an elder boy. This was my first guardianship. + +My pamphlet did not set the Torrens on fire. It did not convert The +Register, but Mr. Fred Sinnett, who was conducting The Telegraph, was +much impressed, especially as he had the greatest reverence for John +Stuart Mill, and thought him a safe man to follow. I had another novel +under way at the time, and Mr. Sinnett thought it would help The +Telegraph to bring it out as a serial story in the weekly edition; and +I seized my opportunity to bring in Mr. Hare and proportional +representation. In England Mr. Hare, Mr. Mill, Rowland Hill, and his +brother, and Professor Craik, all considered my "Plea for Pure +Democracy" the best argument from the popular side that had appeared. I +got the kindest of letters from them, and my brother considered my +labour and his money well spent. Professor Craik, writing to Miss +Florence Davenport Hill about the "Plea for Pure Democracy," says--"It +is really a pity that the pamphlet should not be reproduced in this +country--modified, of course, to the slight extent that would be +necessary. It is really a very remarkable piece of exposition--the best +for popular effect by far on this subject that has come in my way. I +rejoice to hear that there is a chance of Mr. Hare's plan being adopted +in South Australia." I may be allowed to observe that there is still a +chance, but not yet a reality. My aunts at Thornton Loch were applied +to by my English admirers to see if they would be at the cost of an +English edition; but, though they were goodness itself to our material +needs, they thought it was throwing money away to bring out a pamphlet +on an unpopular subject that would not sell. Why, even in South +Australia, though the price was marked at one shilling, not a single +shilling had been paid for a single copy; and in South Australia I was +known! Not so well known, however. I wrote under initials only, and +many thought my letters and pamphlets were the work of Charles Simeon +Hare, one of the tallest talkers in South Australia, who said Mr. +Thomas Hare was his cousin. My novels were anonymous up to the third, +which was not then written. If my name would have done the cause any +good it would have been given, but it was too obscure then. + +The original title of my third book was "Uphill Work," and it took up +the woman question as it appeared to me at the time--the difficulty of +a woman earning a livelihood, even when she had as much ability, +industry, and perseverance as a man. My friend Mrs. Graham, who had +been receiving 100 pounds a year and many presents and much +consideration from the Alstons, of Charles Williamson & Co., had to +return to Scotland to cheer her father's last years. After his death +she became housekeeper to the Crichton Asylum for the Insane, with 600 +or 700 patients, at a salary of 30 pounds a year. This started me on +the story of two girls educated well and soundly by an eccentric uncle, +but not accomplished in the showy branches, who, fearing that the elder +and favourite niece would marry a young neighbour, and that the other +might be a confirmed invalid, disinherited them, and left his estate to +a natural son with a strict proviso against his marrying either of his +cousins. In that case the property was to go to a benevolent +institution named. Jane Melville applied for the situation of +housekeeper to this institution at 30 pounds a year, but was refused +because she was too young and inexperienced. After all sorts of +disappointments she took a situation to go out to Australia, and her +sister accompanied her as a lady's maid in the same family. You may +wonder how I brought in proportional representation, but I managed it. +I think, on the whole, it is a stronger book than either of the others. +The volume has two interesting associations, one which connects it with +Mrs. Oliphant. My friend Mrs. Graham knew I had sent it to England for +publication, and when she read the anonymous "Doctor's Family" she was +sure it was mine, and was delighted with it. When I read of the brave +Australian girl Nettie, taking on herself the burden of the flabby +sister and her worthless husband and their children, I wished that I +had written such a capital story. In a subsequent tale of Mrs. +Oliphant's, "In Trust," a father disinherits the elder girl from a fear +of an unworthy marriage, but he leaves a letter to be opened when Rosy +is 21, which--should Anne not marry Cosmo Douglas--restores her to her +own mother's fortune, which was in his power. There was no saving +clause in my book. The nieces were left only 20 pounds a year each. Mr. +Williams did not think "Uphill Work" as good as "Tender and True," and +it was hung up till circumstances most unexpectedly brought me to +England, and I tried Bentley, and found that his reader approved, but +wished me to change the name, as the first critic would say it was +uphill work to read it. Then let it be "Mr. Haliburton's Will." That +would clash with "Mrs Haliburton's Troubles." So the name was changed +to Hogarth, and the title became "Mr. Hogarth's Will." It was well +reviewed, and I got 35 pounds as my half-share of the profits on a +three-volume edition, besides 50 pounds from The Telegraph. But the +book was to have more effect in unexpected quarters than I could +imagine. When staying with my aunts in Scotland I had a letter from Mr. +Edward Wilson's secretary, saying that he had wished to write an +article for The Fortnightly on "The Representation of Classes," which +was his cure for the excesses of democracy; but, as he could not see, +and his doctor had forbidden him even to dictate, he had reluctantly +abandoned the idea. He had, however, heard that I was in Scotland, and, +though my idea was different from his, he believed that I could write +the article from some letters reprinted from The Argus and a few hints +from himself, and that I could adapt them to English conditions. I +gladly undertook the work, and satisfied Mr. Wilson. Just before I left +for Australia I went to Mr. Wilson's, and we went through the proofs +together. Mr. Wilson, being a wealthy man, did not ask any payment from +The Fortnightly, but he gave me 10 pounds and thanked me for stepping +in to his assistance when he needed it. He said that my novel had been +the subject of a great deal of discussion in his house. I asked, "Why?" +He replied, "The uncle and the nieces, of course." I thought no more of +it till the death of Mr. Wilson revealed that he had left his estate to +the charities of Melbourne. Then my brother told me that when he was in +England in 1877 Mr. Wilson had told him that it was seldom that a novel +had any influence over a man's conduct, but that reading his sister's +novel had set him thinking, and had made him alter his will. He did not +think it to the advantage of his nieces to be made rich, and he would +leave his money to Victoria and Melbourne, where he had made it. I was +the innocent cause of disappointing the nieces, for I think I made it +clear that the uncle did very wrongly. But when I see 5,000 pounds a +year distributed among Melbourne charities, and larger gifts for the +building of a new hospital, I cannot help thinking that these are the +results of Mr. Wilson reading "Mr. Hogarth's Will" and it may be that +other similar trusts are the results of Mr. Wilson's action. + +Another literary success I had during that visit to England. I went to +Smith, Elder, & Co. to ask if I could not get anything for the shilling +edition of "Tender and True," and was answered in the negative; but I +had not talked ten minutes with Mr. Williams before he said that if I +would put these ideas into shape, he thought he could get an article +accepted by The Cornhill Magazine. "An Australian's Impressions of +England" was approved by the editor, and appeared in The Cornhill for +January 1866, and for that I received 12 pounds, the best-paid work I +had ever had up to that time. The Saturday Review said of "Mr. +Hogarth's Will" that there was no haziness about money matters in it +such as is too common among lady writers. Mr. Bentley advised me to +give my name, and not to sell my copyright; but the latter has been of +no value to me; 500 copies of a three-volume novel exhausted the likely +demand. I got 12 copies to give to friends, and one copy I gave to Mr. +Hare. His daughters were a little amused to see their father in a +novel, and as the book was in the circulating library their friends and +acquaintances used to ask, "Is that really your papa that it is +intended for?" I did not at the time think of facing anybody in +England, but I had been both amused and annoyed with the portraits I +was supposed to have drawn from real people in and about +Adelaide--often people I had never seen and had not beard of. "But +Harris is Ellis to the life," said my old Aunt Brodie of Morphett Vale. +"Miss Withing is my sister-in-law," said another. Neither of these +people had I seen. Of course, Mr. Reginald was Mr. John Taylor, the +only squatter I knew, but I myself was not identified with my heroine +Clara Morison. I was Margaret Elliott, the girl who was studying law +with her brother Gilbert; but my brother and my cousin Louisa Brodie +were supposed to be figuring in my book as lovers. In a small society +it was easy to affix the characteristics to some one whom it was +possible the author might have met; but I shrank from the idea that I +was capable of "taking off" people of my acquaintance, and for many +reasons would have liked if the book had not been known to be mine in +South Australia. There must, however, have been some lifelike +presentment of my characters, or they could not have been recognised. +About this time I read and appreciated Jane Austen's novels--those +exquisite miniatures, which no doubt her contemporaries identified +without much interest. Her circle was as narrow as mine--indeed, +narrower. She was the daughter of a clergyman in the country. She +represented well-to-do grownup people, and them alone. The humour of +servants, the sallies of children, the machinations of villains, the +tricks of rascals, are not on her canvas; but she differentiated among +equals with a firm hand, and with a constant ripple of amusement. The +life I led had more breadth and wider interests. The life of Miss +Austen's heroines, though delightful to read about, would have been +deadly dull to endure. So great a charm have Jane Austen's books had +for me that I have made a practice of reading them through regularly +once a year. + +As we grew to love South Australia, we felt that we were in an +expanding society, still feeling the bond to the motherland, but eager +to develop a perfect society, in the land of our adoption. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A TRIP TO ENGLAND. + + +I have gone on with the story of my three first novels consecutively, +anticipating the current history of myself and South Australia. There +were three great steps taken in the development of Australia. The first +was when McArthur introduced the merino sheep; the second when +Hargreaves and others discovered gold; and the latest when cold-storage +was introduced to make perishable products available for the European +markets. The second step created a sudden revolution; but the others +were gradual, and the area of alluvial diggings in Victoria made +thousands of men without capital or machinery rush to try their +fortunes--first from the adjacent colonies, and afterwards from the +ends of the earth. Law and order were kept on the goldfields of Mount +Alexander, Bendigo, and Ballarat by means of a strong body of police, +and the high licence fees for claims paid for their services, so that +nothing like the scenes recorded of the Californian diggings could be +permitted. But for the time ordinary industries were paralysed. +Shepherds left their flocks, farmers their land, clerks their desks, +and artisans their trades. Melbourne grew apace in spite of the highest +wages known being exacted by masons and carpenters. Pastoralists +thought ruin stared them in the face till they found what a market the +goldfields offered for their surplus stock. Our South Australian +farmers left their holdings in the hands of their wives and children +too young to take with them, but almost all of them returned to grow +grain and produce to send to Victoria. It was astonishing what the +women had done during their absence. The fences were kept repaired and +the stock attended to, the grapes gathered, and the wine made. In these +days it was not so easy to get 80 acres or more in Victoria; so, with +what the farmers brought from their labours on the goldfields, they +extended their holdings and improved their homes. For many years the +prices in Melbourne regulated prices in Adelaide, but when the land was +unlocked and the Victorian soil and climate were found to be as good as +ours it was Mark lane that fixed prices over all Australia for primary +products. After the return of most of the diggers there was a great +deal of marrying and giving in marriage. The miners who had left the +Burra for goldseeking gradually came back, and the nine remarkable +copper mines of Moonta and Wallaroo attracted the Cornishmen, who +preferred steady wages and homes to the diminishing chances of Ballarat +and Bendigo where machinery and deep sinking demanded capital, and the +miners were paid by the week. These new copper mines were found in the +Crown leases held by Capt. (afterwards Sir Walter) Hughes. He had been +well dealt with by Elder, Smith, & Co., and gave them the opportunity +of supporting him. At that time my friends Edward Stirling and John +Taylor were partners in that firm, and they shared in the success. Mr. +Bakewell belonged to the legal firm which did their business, so that +my greatest friends seemed to be in it. I think my brother John +profited less by the great advance of South Australia than he deserved +for sticking to the Bank of South Australia. He got small rises in his +salary, but the cost of living was so enhanced that at the end of seven +years it did not buy much more than the 100 pounds he had begun with. +My eldest maiden aunt died, and left to her brother and sister in South +Australia all she had in her power. My mother bought a brick cottage in +Pulteney street and a Burra share with her legacy--both excellent +investments--and my brother left the bank and went into the aerated +water business with James Hamilton Parr. + +We made the acquaintance of the family of Mrs. Francis Clark, of +Hazelwood, Burnside. She was the only sister of five clever +brothers--Matthew Davenport, Rowland, Edwin, Arthur, and Frederick +Hill. Rowland is best known, but all were remarkable men. She was so +like my mother in her sound judgment, accurate observation, and kind +heart, that I was drawn to her at once. But it was Miss Clark who +sought an introduction to me at a ball, because her uncle Rowland had +written to her that "Clara Morison," the new novel, was a capital story +of South Australian life. She was the first person to seek me out on +account of literary work, and I was grateful to her. I think all the +brothers Hill wrote books, and Rosamond and Florence Davenport Hill had +just published "Our Exemplars." My friendship with Miss Clark led to +much work together, and the introduction was a great widening of +interests for me. There were four sons and three daughters--Miss Clark +and Howard were the most literary, but all had great ability and +intelligence. They were Unitarians, and W. J. Wren, my brother-in-law, +was also a Unitarian, and had been one of the 12 Adelaide citizens who +invited out a minister and guaranteed his salary. I was led to hear +what the Rev. J. Crawford Woods had to say for that faith, and told my +old minister (Rev. Robert Haining) that for three months I would hear +him in the morning and Mr. Woods in the evening, and read nothing but +the Bible as my guide; and by that time I would decide. I had been +induced to go to the Sacrament at 17, with much heart searching, but +when I was 25 I said I could not continue a communicant, as I was not a +converted Christian. This step greatly surprised both Mr. and Mrs. +Haining, as I did not propose to leave the church. The result of my +three months' enquiry was that I became a convinced Unitarian, and the +cloud was lifted from the universe. I think I have been a most cheerful +person ever since. My mother was not in any way distressed, though she +never separated from the church of her fathers. My brother was as +completely converted as I was, and he was happy in finding a wife like +minded. My sister, Mrs. Wren, also was satisfied with the new faith; so +that she and her husband saw eye to eye. It was a very live +congregation in those early days. We liked our pastor, and we admired +his wife, and there were a number of interesting and clever people who +went to the Wakefield Street Church. + +It was rather remarkable that my sister's husband and my brother's wife +arrived on the same day in two different ships--one in the Anglier from +England, and the other in the Three Bells from Glasgow--in 1851; but I +did not make the acquaintance of either till 1854 and 1855. Jessie +Cumming and Mary Spence shook hands and formed a friendship over +Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus." My brother-in-law (W. J. Wren) had fine +literary tastes, especially for poetry. The first gift to his wife +after marriage was Elizabeth Browning's poems in two volumes and Robert +Browning's "Plays and Dramatic Lyrics" in two volumes, and Mary and I +delighted in them all. In those days I considered my sister Mary and my +sister-in-law the most brilliant conversationalists I knew. My elder +sister, Mrs. Murray, also talked very well--so much so that her +husband's friends and visitors fancied she must write a lot of his +articles; but none of the three ladies went beyond writing good +letters. I think all of them were keener of sight than I was--more +observant of features, dress, and manners; but I took in more by the +ear. As Sir Walter Scott says, "Speak that I may know thee." To my +mind, dialogue is more important for a novel than description; and, if +you have a firm grasp of your characters, the dialogue will be true. +With me the main difficulty was the plot; and I was careful that this +should not be merely possible, but probable. I have heard scores of +people say that they have got good plots in their heads, and when +pressed to tell them they proved to be only incidents. You need much +more than an incident, or even two or three, with which to make a book. +But when I found my plot the story seemed to write itself, and the +actors to fit in. + +When the development of the Moonta Mine made some of my friends rich +they were also liberal. Edward Stirling said that if I wanted a trip to +England I should have it at his cost, but it seemed impossible. After +the death of Mr. Wren my mother and I went to live with my sister, and +put two small incomes together, so as to be able to bring up and +educate her two children, a boy and a girl. My brother John had left +the railway, and for nine years had been Official Assignee and Curator +of Intestate Estates; and in 1863 he had been appointed manager of the +new Adelaide branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. My +friend, Mr. Taylor, had helped well to get the position for one he +thought the fittest man in the city. He had lost his wife, Miss Mary +Ann Dutton when on a visit to England, and at this time was engaged to +Miss Harriet McDermott. His sisters both were very cold about the +engagement. They did not like second marriages at all, and considered +it a disrespect to the first wife's memory, even though a decent +interval had elapsed. When he wrote to me about it I took quite a +different view. He said it was the kindest and the wisest letter I had +ever written in my life, and he knew I had loved his late wife very +much. He came to thank me, and to tell me that he had always wished +that I should be in England at the time he was there, and that he was +going in a P. & 0. boat immediately after his marriage. Although Mr. +Stirling had promised to pay my passage, I hesitated about going. There +were my mother, who was 72, and my guardianship of the Duvals to think +about. I had also undertaken the oversight of old Mrs. Stephens, the +widow of one of the early proprietors of The Register. These objections +were all overruled. I still hesitated. "I cannot go unless I have money +to spend," I urged. "Let me do that," was the generous reply.--"I have +left you 500 pounds in my will. Let me have the pleasure of giving you +something while I live." I was not too proud to owe that memorable +visit to England to my two good friends. John Taylor had put into my +hands on board the Goolwa, in which I sailed, a draft for 200 pounds +for my spending money, and in the new will he made after his marriage +he bequeathed me 300 pounds. I said "Goodby" to him, with good wishes +for his health and happiness. I never saw him again. He took a sickly +looking child on his knee when crossing the Isthmus of Suez--there was +no canal in 1864--to relieve a weary mother. The child had smallpox, +and my friend took it and died of it. He was being buried beside his +first wife at Brighton when the Goolwa sailed up the Channel after a +passage of 14 weeks--as long as that of the Palmyra 25 years +before--and the first news we heard was that Miss Taylor had lost a +brother, the children a favourite uncle, and I, a friend. It was a sad +household, but the Bakewells were in London on business connected with +some claims of discovery of the Moonta Mines, and they took me to their +house in Palace Gardens. Kensington, till I could arrange to go to my +aunt's in Scotland. All our plans about seeing people and places +together were, of course, at an end. I was to go "a lone hand." Mrs. +Taylor had a posthumous son, who never has set foot in Australia. She +married a second time, an English clergyman named Knight, and had +several sons, but she has never revisited Adelaide, although she has +many relatives here. So the friend who loved Australia, and was eager +to do his duty by it--who thoroughly approved of the Hare system of +representation, and thought I did well to take it up, was snatched away +in the prime of life. I wonder if there is any one alive now to whom +his memory is as precious. The Register files may preserve some of his +work. + +At Palace Gardens the Bakewell family were settled in a furnished house +belonging to Col. Palmer, one of the founders of South Australia, +though never a resident. Palmer place, North Adelaide, bears his name. +Thackeray's house we had to pass when we went out of the street in the +direction of the city. His death had occurred in the previous year. I +had an engagement with Miss Julia Wedgwood, through an introduction +given by Miss Sophia Sinnett, an artist sister of Frederick Sinnett's. +I was called for and sent home. I was not introduced to the family. It +was a fine large house with men servants and much style. Miss Wedgwood, +who was deaf, used an ear trumpet very cleverly. I found her as +delightful as Miss Sinnett had represented her to be, and I discovered +that Miss Sinnett had been governess to her younger sisters, but that +there was real regard for her. I don't know that I ever spent a more +delightful evening. She had just had Browning's "Dramatis Personae," +and we read together "Rabbi Ben Ezira" and "Prospice." She knew about +the Hare scheme of representation, supported by Mill and Fawcett and +Craik. She was a good writer, with a fine critical faculty. Everything +signed by her name in magazines or reviews was thenceforward +interesting to me. I promised her a copy of my "Plea for Pure +Democracy," which she accepted and appreciated. By the father's side +she was a granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of British +pottery as a fine art. Her mother was a daughter of Sir James +Mackintosh. Mrs. Wedgwood was so much pleased with my pamphlet that she +wanted to be introduced to me, and when I returned to London I had the +pleasure of making her acquaintance. Miss Wedgwood gave me a +beautifully bound copy of "Men and Women," of which she had a +duplicate, which I cherish in remembrance of her. + +During my stay I was visited by Mr. Hare. I had to face up to the +people I had written to with no idea of any personal communication, and +I must confess that I felt I must talk well to retain their good +opinion. I promised to pay a visit to the Hares when I came to London +for the season. He was a widower with eight children, whom he had +educated with the help of a governess, but he was the main factor in +their training. The two eldest daughters were married--Mrs. Andrews, +the eldest, had helped him in his calculations for his great book on +"Representation." His second daughter was artistic, and was married to +John Westlake, an eminent lawyer, great in international law, a pupil +of Colenso, who was then in London, and who was the best-abused man in +the church. Another visitor was George Cowan, a great friend of my late +brother-in-law, Mr. W. J. Wren, who wrote to him till his death, when +the pen was taken up by my sister Mary till her death, and then I +corresponded with him till his death. He came to London a raw Scotch +lad, and met Mr. Wren at the Whittington Club. Both loved books and +poetry, and both were struggling to improve themselves on small +salaries. George Cowan had been entrusted with the printed slips of +"Uphill Work," and had tried it at two publishers without success. I +had to delay any operations till I returned to London, and promised to +visit the Cowans there. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MELROSE REVISITED. + + +Jack Bakewell and Edward Lancelot Stirling went to see me off by the +night train to Dunbar Station, five miles from Thornton-Loch, and I got +there in time for breakfast. The old house was just the same except for +an oriel window in the drawing room looking out on the North Sea, and +the rocks which lay between it and Colhandy path (where my +great-grandfather Spence had preached and his wife had preferred +Wesley), and Chirnside, or Spence's Mains in the same direction. All +the beautiful gardens, the farm village, where about 80 souls lived, +the fields and bridges were just as I remembered them. My aunt Margaret +was no longer the vigorous business-like woman whom I recollected +riding or driving in her little gig an over the farm of 800 English +acres which my great-grandfather had rented since 1811. Not the Miss +Thompson whom I had introduced into "Uphill Work." She had had a severe +stroke of paralysis, and was a prisoner to the house, only being lifted +from her bed to be dressed, and to sit in a wheeled chair and be taken +round the garden on fine days. The vigorous intellect was somewhat +clouded, and the power of speech also; but she retained her memory. She +was always at work with her needle (for her hands were not affected) +for the London children, grandnieces, and nephews who called her +grandmamma, for she had had the care of their Parents during 11 years +of her brother Alexander's widowhood. But Aunt Margaret could play a +capital game of whist--long whist. I could see that she missed it much +on Sunday. It was her only relaxation. She had given up the farm to +James Brodie, who had married her cousin Jane, the eldest of the two +children she had mothered, and he had to come to the farm once or twice +a week, having a still larger farm of his own in East Lothian, and a +stock farm in Berwickshire also to look after. The son of the old farm +steward, John Burnet, was James Brodie's steward, and I think the farm +was well managed, but not so profitable as in old times. Aunt Mary +said, in her own characteristic way, "she always knew that her sister +was a clever woman, but that the cleverest thing she had done was +taking up farming and carrying it on for 30 years when it was +profitable, and turning it over when it began to fall off." But she +turned it over handsomely, and did not interfere in the management. My +Aunt Mary deserves a chapter for herself. She was my beau ideal of what +a maiden aunt should be, though why she was never married puzzles more +than me. Between my mother and her there was a love passing the love of +sisters--my father liked her better than his own sisters. When my +letter announcing my probable visit reached her she misread it, and +thought it was Helen herself who was to come; and when she found out +her mistake she shed many tears. I was all very well in my way, but I +was not Helen. It was not the practice in old times to blazon an +engagement, or to tell of an offer that had been declined; but my +mother firmly believed that her sister Mary, the cleverest and, as she +thought, the handsomest of the five sisters, had never in her life had +an offer of marriage, although she had a love disappointment at 30. She +had fixed her affections on a brilliant but not really worthy man, and +she had to tear him out of her heart with considerable difficulty. It +cost her a severe illness, out of which she emerged with what she +believed to be a change of heart. She was a converted Christian. I +myself don't think there was so much change. She was always a noble, +generous woman, but she found great happiness in religion. Aunt Mary's +disappointment made her most sympathetic to all love stories, and +without any disappointment at all, I think I may say the same of +myself. She was very popular with the young friends of her youngest +brother, who might have experienced calf love; so very real, but so +very ineffectual. One of these said to her:--"Oh, Miss Mary, you're +just a delight, you are so witty." Another, when she spoke of some man +who talked such delightful nonsense, said, "If you would only come to +Branxholme I'd talk nonsense to you the haill (whole) day." + +When I arrived at the old home I found Aunt Mary vigorously rubbing her +hand and wrist (she had slipped downstairs in a neighbour's house, and +broken her arm, and had to drive home before she could have it set). No +one from the neighbour's house went to accompany her; no one came to +enquire; no message was sent. When she recovered so far as to be able +to be out, she met at Dunbar the gentleman and lady also driving in +their conveyance. They greeted each other, and aunt could not resist +the temptation to say:--"I am so glad to see you, and so glad that you +have spoken to me, for I thought you were so offended at my taking the +liberty of breaking my arm in your house that you did not mean to speak +to me again." This little expression of what the French call malice, +not the English meaning, was the only instance I can recollect of Aunt +Mary's not putting the kindest construction on everybody's words and +actions. But when I think of the love that Aunt Mary gathered to +herself from brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, and +friends--it seems as if the happiest wife and mother of a large family +could not reckon up as rich stores of affection. She was the unfailing +correspondent of those members of the family who were separated by land +and ocean from the old home, the link that often bound these together, +the most tolerant to their failings, the most liberal in her aid--full +of suggestions, as well as of sympathy. Now, in my Aunt Margaret's +enfeebled state, she was the head of the house and the director of all +things. Although she had differed from the then two single sisters and +the family generally at the time of the disruption of the Church of +Scotland, and gone over to the Free Church, the more intensely +Calvinistic of the two, though accepting the same standards--the +Westminster Confession and the Shorter Catechism--all the harsher +features fell off the living texture of her faith like cold water off a +duck's back. From natural preference she chose for her devotions those +parts of the Bible which I selected with deliberate intention. She +wondered to find so much spiritual kinship with me, when I built on +such a different foundation. When I suggested that the 109th Psalm, +which she read as the allotted portion in "Fletcher's Family +Devotions," was not fit to be read in a Christian household, she said +meekly--"You are quite right, I shall mark it, and never read it again." + +My mother always thought me like her sister Mary, and when I asked Mr. +Taylor if he saw any resemblance between us, he said, with cruel +candour--"Oh, no. Your Aunt Mary is a very handsome woman." But in ways +and manners, both my sister Mary and myself had considerable +resemblances to our mother's favourite sister; and I can see traces of +it in my own nieces. There can be no direct descent from maiden aunts, +though the working ants and bees do not inherit their industrious +habits from either male or female parents, but from their maiden aunts. +Galton's theory, that potentialities not utilized by individuals or by +their direct descendants may miss a generation or two, opens a wide +field of thought, and collaterals may draw from the original source +what was never suspected. And the Brodies intermarried in such a way as +to shock modern ideas. When my father was asked if a certain Mr. +Dudgeon, of Leith, was related to him, he said--"He is my mother's +cousin and my stepmother's cousin, and my father-in-law's cousin, and +my mother-in-law's cousin." Except for Spences and Wauchopes there was +not a relative of my father that was not related to my mother. +Grandfather Brodie married his cousin, and Grandfather Spence married +his late wife, Janet Parks cousin Katherine Swanston. I cannot see that +these close marriages produced degenerates, either physical or mental, +in the case of my own family. + +Of the twelve months I spent in the old country, I spent six with the +dear old aunts. How proud Aunt Mary was of my third novel, with the +sketch of Aunt Margaret in it, of the Cornhill article, and the request +from Mr. Wilson to write for The Fortnightly. I introduced her to new +books and especially to new poets; she had never heard of Browning and +Jean Ingelow. She was so much cleverer than her neighbours that I often +wondered how she could put up with them. How conservative these farmers +and farmers' wives and daughters were, to be sure. These big tenants +considered themselves quite superior to tradesmen, even to merchants, +unless they were in a big way. There was infinitely more difference +between their standard of living and that of their labourers than +between theirs and that of the aristocratic landlords. James Barnet, +the farm steward, said to me--"you have brought down the price of wheat +with your Australian grain, and you do big things in wool, but you can +never touch us in meat." This was quite true in 1865. I expected to see +some improvement in the farm hamlet, but the houses built by the +landlord were still very poor and bare. The wages had risen a little +since 1839, but not much. The wheaten loaf was cheaper, and so was tea +and sugar, but the poor were still living on porridge and bannocks of +barley and pease meal instead of tea and white bread. It was +questionable if they were as well nourished. There were 100 souls +living on the farms of Thornton and Thornton Loch. + +A short visit from Mrs. Graham to me at Thornton Loch opened up to Aunt +Mary some of my treasures of memory. She asked me to recite "Brother in +the Lane," Hood's "Tale of a Trumpet," "Locksley Hall." "The Pied +Piper," and Jean Ingelow's "Songs of Seven." She made me promise to go +to see her, and find out how much she had to do for her magnificent +salary of 30 pounds a year; but she impressed Aunt Mary much. Mrs. +Graham had found that the Kirkbeen folks, among whom she lived, were +more impressed by the six months' experiences of two maiden ladies, who +had gone to Valparaiso to join a brother who died, than with her fresh +and racy descriptions of four young Australian colonies. She had seen +Melbourne from 1852 to 1855--a wonderful growth and development. The +only idea the ladies from Valparaiso formed about Australia was that it +was hot and must be Roman Catholic, and consequently the Sabbath must +be desecrated. It was in vain that my friend spoke of the Scots Church +and Dr. Cairns's Church. Heat and Roman Catholicism were inseparably +connected in their minds. + +Visiting Uncle and Aunt Handyside and grown-up cousins, whom I left +children, I saw a lot of good farming and the easy circumstances which +I always associated with tenants' holdings in East Lothian. Next farm +to Fenton was Fentonbarns, a Show place, which was held by George Hope, +a cousin of my grandmother's He was an exceptional man--a radical, a +freetrader, and a Unitarian. Cobden died that year. Uncle Handyside was +surprised that George Hope did not go into mourning for him. John +Bright still lived, and he was the bete noire of the Conservatives in +that era; and the abolition of the corn laws was held to be the cause +of the agricultural distress--not the high rent of agricultural land. +George Hope was a striking personality. When my friend J. C. Woods was +minister at St. Mark's Unitarian Church, Edinburgh, Mr. Hope used to be +called the Bishop, though he lived 16 miles off. When the first Mrs. +Woods died, leaving an infant son, it was Mrs. Hope who cared for it +till it could go to his relatives in Ireland. Later he stood for +Parliament himself. In the paper I wrote over the name of Edward Wilson +for The Fortnightly I noted how the House of Commons represented the +people--or misrepresented them. The House consisted of peers and sons +of peers, military and naval officers, bankers, brewers, and +landownership was represented enormously, but there were only two +tenant farmers in the House. It was years after my return to Australia +that I heard of his unsuccessful candidature, and that when he sought +to take another lease of Fentonbarns, he was told that under no +circumstances would his offer be entertained. Fentonbarns had been +farmed by, three generations of Hopes for 100 years, and to no owner by +parchment titles could it have been more dear. George Hope's friend, +Russell, of The Scotsman, fulminated against the injustice of refusing +a lease to the foremost agriculturist in Scotland--and when you say +that you may say of the United Kingdom--because the tenant held certain +political opinions and had the courage to express them. My uncle +Handyside, however, always maintained that his neighbour was the most +honourable man in business that he knew, and far from being an atheist +or even a deist, he had family prayers, and on the occasion of a death +in the family, the funeral service was most impressive. He was one of +the salt of the earth, and the atmosphere was clearer around him for +his presence. + +But I must give some space to my visit to Melrose, my childhood's home. +My father's half-sister Janet Reid was alive and though her two sons +were, one at St. Kitts and the other at Grand Canary, she lived with an +old husband and her only daughter in Melrose still.. I can never forget +the look of tender pity cast on me as I was sitting in our old seat in +church, looking at seats filled by another generation. The +paterfamilias, so wonderfully like his father of 1839, and sons and +daughters, sitting in the place of uncles and aunts settled elsewhere. +They grieved that I had been banished from the romantic associations +and the high civilization of Melrose to rough it in the wilds, while my +heart was full of thankfulness that I had moved to the wider spaces and +the more varied activities of a new and progressive colony. My dear old +teacher was still alive, though the school had been closed for many +years. She lived at St. Mary's with her elder sister, who had taught me +sewing and had done the housekeeping, but she herself was almost blind, +and a girl came every day to read to her for two or three hours. She +told me what a good thing it was that she knew all the Psalms in the +prose version by heart, for in the sleepless nights which accompany old +age so often they were such a comfort to her in the night watches. I +had sent her my two novels when they were published, "Clara Morison" +and "Tender and True." She would have been glad if they had been more +distinctly religious in tone. Indeed, the novel I began at 19 would +have suited her better, but my brother's insistence on reading it every +day as I wrote it somehow made me see what poor stuff it was, and I did +not go far with it. But Miss Phin was, on the whole, pleased with my +progress, and glad that I was able to go to see her and talk of old +times. How very small the village of Melrose looked! How little +changed! The distances to the neighbouring villages of Darnick and +Newstead, and across the Tweed to Gattonsville, seemed so shrunken. It +was not so far to Abbotsford as to Norwood. The very Golden Hills +looked lower than my childish recollection of them. Aunt Janet Reid +rejoiced over me sufficiently. "You are not like your mother in the +face, but, oh, Katie, you are like dear Mrs. David in your ways. How I +was determined to hate her when she came to Melrose first. I was not 13 +and she was taking away the best of my brothers, the one that I liked +best; but it did not take long before I was as fond of her as of David +himself." + +I also had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Murray, the parish +schoolmaster, who taught my three brothers, then retired, living with +his daughter, Louisa, an old schoolfellow at Miss Phin's. There was an +absurd idea current in 1865 that all visiting Australians were rich and +I could not disabuse people of that notion. Of all the two families of +Brodies and Spences who came out in 1839 there was only my brother John +who could be called successful. He was then manager of the Adelaide +branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. If it had not +been for help from the wonderful aunts from time to time both families +would have been stranded. I had the greatest faith in the future of +Australia, but I felt that for such gifts as I possessed there was no +market at home. Possibly I should have tried literature earlier if I +had remained in Scotland, but I am not at all sure that I could have +succeeded as well. For the first time in my life I had as much money as +I wanted. I am surprised now that I spent that 200 pounds when I had so +much hospitality. In fact, except for a week in Paris, I never had any +hotel expenses. I had got the money to enjoy it and I did. This was +what my friend wished. I made a few presents. I bought some to take +home with me. I spent money on dress freely, so as to present a proper +appearance when visiting. I was liberal with veils, though I hate the +practice. To a woman who had to look on both sides of a shilling since +1839 this experience was new and delightful. Among other people I went +to see was Mrs. C----. the widow of the Tory writer and branch bank +manager, who was my father's successful rival. He was not speculative +like my father. He was a keen business man and had a great hunger for +land. + +On the gravestones around Melrose Abbey are many names with the +avocation added--John Smith, builder; William Hogg, mason--but many +with the word portioner. They were small proprietors, but they were not +distinguished for the careful cultivation which in France is known as +"LA PETITE CULTURE." No; the portions were most carelessly handled, and +in almost every instance they were "bonded" or mortgaged. I recollect +in old days these portioners used to make moonlight, flittings and +disappear, or they sold off their holdings openly and went to America, +meaning the United States. The tendency was to buy up these portions, +and a considerable estate could be built up by any shrewd man who had +money, or the command of it. Before we left Melrose in 1839, Mr. C---- +had possession of a good deal of land. When he died he left property of +the value of 90,000 pounds, an unheard-of estate for a country writer +before the era of freetrade and general expansion. He had asked so much +revenue from the railway company when the plan was to cut through the +gardens we as children used to play in, that the company made a +deviation and left the garden severely alone. The eldest daughter had +married a landed proprietor, the second was single, the third married +to a wealthy man in the west, the fourth the richest widow in Scotland. +One son had land, and the other son land, and another business +training. All was material success, and I am sure I did not grudge it +to them, but when I took stock of real things I had not the least +glimmering of a wish to exchange. One generally desires a little more +money than one has; but even that may cost too much. I think my dear +old Aunt Reid felt that the Spences had gone down in my father's +terrible smash in 1839, and the C---- family had steadily gone up, and +she was pleased that a niece from Australia, who had written two books +and a wonderful pamphlet, and, more important still in the eyes of Mrs. +Grundy, had money to spend and to give, was staying with her in +Melrose, and wearing good and well made clothes. Old servants--the old +laundress--old schoolfellows were visited. My father's old clerk, Allan +Freer, had a good business in Melrose, though not equal to that of the +Tory firm. I think the portioners were all sold out before he could +enter the field, and the fate of these Melrose people has thoroughly +emphasized for me the importance of having our South Australian +workmen's blocks, the glory of Mr. Cotton's life, maintained always on +the same footing of perpetual lease dependent on residence. If the +small owner has the freehold, he is tempted to mortgage it, and then in +most instances the land is lost to him, and added to the possessions of +the man who has money. With a perpetual lease, there is the same +security of tenure as in the freehold--indeed, there is more security, +because he cannot mortgage. I did not see the land question as clearly +on this 1865 visit, as I did later; but the extinction of the old +portioners and the wealth acquired by the moneyed man of Melrose gave +me cause for thinking. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +I VISIT EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + +A visit to Glasgow and to the relatives of my sister-in-law opened out +a different vista to me. This was a great manufacturing and commercial +city, which had far outgrown Edinburgh in population and wealth; but +the Edinburgh people still boasted of being the Athens of the north, +the ancient capital with the grandest historic associations. In Glasgow +I fell in with David Murray and his wife (of D. & W. Murray +Adelaide)--not quite so important a personage as be became later. Not a +relative of mine; but a family connection, for his brother William +married Helen Cumming, Mrs. J. B. Spence's sister. David Murray was +always a great collector of paintings, and especially of prints, which +last he left to the Adelaide Art Gallery. He was a close friend of my +brother John's until the death of the latter. One always enjoys meeting +with Adelaide people in other lands, and comparing the most recent +items of news. I went to Dumfries according to promise, and spent many +days with my old friend Mrs. Graham, but stayed the night always with +her sister, Mrs. Maxwell, wife of a printer and bookseller in the town. +Dumfries was full of Burns's relies and memorials. Mr. Gilfillan had +taken the likeness of Mrs. Burns and her granddaughter when he was a +young man, and Mrs. Maxwell corresponded with the granddaughter. It was +also full of associations with Carlyle. His youngest sister, Jean the +Craw, as she was called on account of her dark hair and complexion was +Mrs. Aitkin, a neighbour and close friend of Mrs. Maxwell. I was taken +to see her, and I suppose introduced as a sort of author, and she +regretted much that this summer Tom was not coming to visit her at +Dumfries. She was a brisk, cheery person, with some clever daughters, +who were friends of the Maxwell girls. When the Froude memorials came +out no one was more indignant than Jean the Craw--"Tom and his wife +always understood each other. They were not unhappy, though after her +death he reproached himself for some things." + +I found that my friend had just as much to do from morning to night as +she could do, and I hoped with a great hope that "Uphill Work" would be +published, and all the world would see how badly capable and +industrious women were paid. I fancied that a three-volume novel would +be read, marked, and inwardly digested by everybody! But Mrs. Graham +was appreciated by the matron, the doctors, and by the people of +Dumfries, as she had not been in the village of Kirkbeen. Her +picturesque descriptions of life in the various colonies interested +home-staying folk, for she had the keenest observing faculties. There +was an old cousin of Uncle Handyside's who always turned the +conversation on to Russia, where he had visited successful brothers; +but his talk was not incisive. My cousin Agnes asked me when I supposed +this visit was paid, and I said a few years ago, probably, when she +laughed and said--"Nicol Handyside spent six weeks in Russia 30 years +ago, and he has been talking about it ever since." One visit I paid in +Edinburgh to an old lady from Melrose, who lived with a married +daughter. She had always been very deaf, and the daughter was out. With +great difficulty I got her to see by my card that my name was Spence. +"Are you Jessie Spence?" I shook my head. "No; Katie." "Are you Mary +Spence?" Another headshake, "No; I am Katie." "Then who are you?" She +could understand the negative by the headshaking, but not anything +else. I wanted a piece of paper or a slate badly, but the daughter came +in and made her mother understand that I was the middle Spence girl, +and then the old lady said, "It is a very hot country you come from," +her only idea apparently of wonderful Australia. And to think that in +times long past some intriguing aunts tried very hard to arrange a +marriage between my father and the deaf young lady who had about 600 +pounds a year in land in and near Melrose. She might have been my +mother! The idea was appalling! None of her children inherited the +deafness, and they took a fair proportion of good looks from their +father, for the mother was exceedingly homely. A brightlooking grandson +was on the rug looking through a bound volume of Punch, as my nephew in +Australia loved to do. The two mothers were school companions and +playmates. + +My return to London introduced me to a wider range of society. I had +admissions to the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons from Sir +Charles Dilke, Professor Pearson's friend, and I had invitations to +stay for longer or shorter periods with people various in means, in +tastes, and in interests. To Mr. Hare I was especially drawn, and I +should have liked to join him and his family in their yearly walking +tour, which was to be through the Tyrol and Venice; but Aunt Mary +protested for two good and sufficient reasons. The first was that I +could not walk 16 or 20 miles a day, even in the mountains, which Katie +Hare said was so much easier than on the plains; and the second was +that to take six weeks out of my visit to the old country was a great +deal too much. If it could have done any good to proportional +representation I might have stood out; but it could not. For that I +have since travelled thousands of miles by sea and by land; and, though +not on foot, I have undergone much bodily fatigue and mental strain, +but in these early days of the movement it had only entered the +academic stage. My "Plea for Pure Democracy" had been written at a +white heat of enthusiasm. I do not think I ever before or since reached +a higher level. I took this reform more boldly than Mr. Mill, who +sought by giving extra votes for property and university degrees or +learned professions to cheek the too great advance of democracy. I was +prepared to trust the people; and Mr. Hare was also confident that, if +all the people were equitably represented in Parliament, the good would +be stronger than the evil. The wise would be more effectual than the +foolish. I do not think any one whom I met took the matter up so +passionately as I did; and I had a feeling that in our new colonies the +reform would meet with less obstruction than in old countries bound by +precedent and prejudiced by vested interests. Parliament was the +preserve of the wealthy in the United Kingdom. There was no property +qualification for the candidate in South Australia, and we had manhood +suffrage. + +South Australia was the first community to give the secret ballot for +political elections. It had dispensed with Grand Juries. It had not +required a member of either House to stand a new election if he +accepted Ministerial office. Every elected man was eligible for office. +South Australia had been founded by doctrinaires, and occasionally a +cheap sneer had been levelled at it on that account; but, to my mind, +that was better than the haphazard way in which other colonies grew. +When I visited Sir Rowland Hill he was recognised as the great post +office reformer. To me he was also one of the founders of our province, +and the first pioneer of quota representation. When I met Matthew +Davenport Hill I respected him because he tried to keep delinquent boys +out of gaol, and promoted the establishment of reform schools; but I +also was grateful to him for suggesting to his brother the park lands +which surround Adelaide, and give us both beauty and health. To Col. +Light, who laid out the city so well, we owe the many open spaces and +squares; but he did not originate the idea of the park lands. Much of +the work of Mr. Davenport Hill and of his brother Frederick I took up +later with their niece (Miss C. E. Clark), and their ideas have been +probably more thoroughly carried out in South Australia than anywhere +else; but in 1865 I was learning a great deal that bore fruit +afterwards. + +I fear it would make this narrative too long if I went into detail +about the interesting people I met. Florence and Rossamund Davenport +Hill introduced me to Miss Frances Power Cobbe, whose "Intuitive +Morals" I admired so much. At Sir Rowland Hill's I met Sir Walter +Crofter, a prison reformer; Mr. Wells, Editor of "All the Year Round;" +Charles Knight, who had done so much for good and cheap literature; +Madame Bodichon (formerly Barbara Smith), the great friend and +correspondent of George Eliot, who was interesting to me because by +introducing the Australian eucalyptus to Algeria she had made an +unhealthy marshy country quite salubrious. She had a salon, where I met +very clever men and women--English and French--and which made me wish +for such things in Adelaide. The kindness and hospitality that were +shown to me--an absolute stranger--by all sorts of people were +surprising. Mr. and Mrs. Westlake took me on Sunday to see Bishop +Colenso. He showed me the photo of the enquiring Zulu who made him +doubt the literal truth of the early books of the Bible, and presented +me with the people's edition of his work on the Pentateuch. + +In all my travels and visits I saw little of the theatre or concert +room, and some of the candid confessions of Mrs. Oliphant might stand +for my own. I had read so many plays before I saw one that the +unreality of much of the acted drama impressed me unfavourably. The +asides in particular seemed impossible, and I think the more carefully +the pieces are put on the stage the more critical I become concerning +their probability; and when I hear the praise of the beautiful and +expensive theatrical wardrobes which, in the case of actresses seem to +set the fashion for the wealthy and well-born, I feel that it is a +costly means of making the story more unlikely. I seem to lose the +identity of the heroine who in two hours wears three or four different +toilettes complete. As Mrs. Oliphant did not identify the "nobody in +white tights" who rendered from "Twelfth Night" the lovely lines +beginning "That strain again; it had a dying fall" with the Orsino she +had imagined when reading the play, so I, who knew "She Stoops to +Conquer" almost by heart, was disappointed when I saw it on the stage. +I was taken to the opera once by Mr. and Mrs. Bakewell, and heard Patti +in "Don Giovanni," at Covent Garden, but opera of all kinds is wasted +on me. I liked some of the familiar airs and choruses, but all opera +needs far more make-believe than I am capable of. It is a pity that I +am so insensible to the youngest and the most progressive of the fine +arts. I am, however, in the good company of Mrs. Oliphant, who, +speaking of the musical parties in Eton, where she lived so long, for +the education of tier boys, writes in words that suit me perfectly: "In +one of these friends' houses a family quartet played what were rather +new and terrible to me--long sonatas and concerted pieces which filled +my soul with dismay. It is a dreadful confession to make, and proceeds +from want of education and instruction, but I fear any appreciation of +music I have is purely literary. I love a song and a 'tune;' the +humblest fiddler has sometimes given me the greatest pleasure, and +sometimes gone to my heart; but music, properly so called, the only +music that many of my friends would listen to, is to me a wonder and a +mystery. My mind wanders through adagios and andantes, gaping, longing +to understand. Will no one tell me what it means? I want to find the +old unhappy far off things which Wordsworth imagined in the Gaelic song +of the 'Highland Lass.' I feel out of it, uneasy, thinking all the time +what a poor creature I must be. I remember the mother of the sonata +players approaching me with beaming countenance on the occasion of one +of these performances, expecting the compliment which I faltered forth, +doing my best not to look insincere. 'And I have this every evening of +my life,' cried the triumphant mother. 'Good heavens, and you have +survived it all' was my internal response." But the worst thing is when +you do not expect a musical evening and this superior music is sprung +on you. Mrs. Webster and I were once invited to meet some very +interesting people, some of the best conversationalists in Melbourne, +and we were given high-class music instead, and scarcely could a remark +be exchanged when a warning finger was held up and silence insisted on. +I could not sing, but sometimes I attempted to hum a tune. I recollect +during my first visit to Melbourne, my little nephew Johnnie, delighted +in the rhymes and poems which I recited; but one day when I was ironing +I began to sing, and he burst out with "Don't sing, auntie; let me hear +the voice of your words." So for my own delectation I began +Wordsworth's "Leechgatherer"-- + + There was a roaring in the wind all night, + The rain came heavily and fell in floods; + But now the sun is rising calm and bright. + The birds are singing in the distant woods; + Over his own sweet voice the stock dove broods. + The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters, + And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters. + +"Oh, that's pretty, auntie; say it again," I said it again, and yet +again, at his request, till he could almost repeat it. And he was not +quite 4 years old. He is still alive, and has not become a poet, which +was what I expected in those early days. He could repeat great screeds +of Browning's "Pied Piper of Hamelin," which was his especial +favourite. Music has often cheated me of what is to me the keenest +pleasure in life. Like Samuel Johnson, I enjoy greatly "good talk," +though I never took such a dominant part in it. There are two kinds of +people who reduce me to something like silence--those who know too +little and those who know too much. My brother-in-law's friend, Mr. +Cowan, was a great talker, and a good one, but he scarcely allowed me a +fair share. He was also an admirable correspondent. + +One predominant talker I met at Mr. Edwin Hill's--William Ellis, a +special friend of the Hills, and a noteworthy man. One needs to look +back 60 years to become conscious of how much English education was in +the hands of the church. Not only the public schools and the university +were overshadowed by the Established Church, but what schools were +accessible to the poor were a sort of appanage to the rectory, and the +teachers were bound to work for the good of the church and the +convenience of the incumbent. The commercial schools, which were +independent of the church, to which Non-conformists sent their boys, +were satirised by Dickens, and they deserved the satire. The masters +were generally incompetent, and the assistant teachers or ushers were +the most miserable in regard to payment and status. William Ellis +expended large sums of money, and almost all his leisure, in +establishing secular schools that were good for something. He called +them Birkbeck schools, thus doing honour to the founder of mechanics' +institutes, and perhaps the founder of the first of these schools; and +he taught what he called social science in them himself. He was the +Senor Ferrer of England; and, though he escaped martyrdom in the more +enlightened country he was looked on suspiciously by those who +considered education that was not founded on revealed religion and +permeated by its doctrines as dangerous and revolutionary. + +But there was one great personage who saw the value of those teachings +on things that make for human happiness and intellectual freedom, and +that was the Prince Consort. He asked William Ellis to give some +lessons to the eldest of the Royal children--the Princess Victoria, +Prince Edward (our present King), and Prince Alfred, afterwards Duke of +Saxe-Coburg. Mr. Ellis said all three were intelligent, and Princess +Victoria exceptionally so. What a tragedy it was--more so than that of +many an epic or drama--that the Princess Royal and the husband of her +choice, who had educated themselves and each other to take the reins of +the German Empire, and had drawn up so many Plans for the betterment of +the general conditions of the people, should, on their accession to +power, have met death standing on the steps of the throne; and that +only a powerless widow should have been left without much authority +over her masterful son. But my firm belief is that in many of the +excellent things that the Kaiser William has done for his people, he is +working on the plans that had been committed to writing by the Crown +Prince and Princess. Her father's memory was so dear to the Crown +Princess that anything he had suggested to her was cherished all her +life; and I do not doubt that these early lessons on the right relation +of human beings to each other--the social science which regards human +happiness as depending on justice and toleration--is even now bearing +fruit in the Fatherland. Shortsighted mortals see the immediate +failures, but in the larger eye of the Infinite and the Eternal there +is always progress towards better things from every honest attempt to +remedy injustice, and to increase knowledge. + +I arranged for a week in Paris with my young friends, Rosa and Symonds +Clark, of Hazelwood, and we travelled as far as Paris with the Hare +family, who went on to the Tyrol. We enjoyed the week. Louis Napoleon +appeared then to be quite secure on his throne, and we saw the fetes +and illuminations for his birthday. What a day and night of rain it +was! But the thousands of people, joyful and good-humoured under +umbrellas or without them--gave us a favourable impression of Parisian +crowds. In London I had been with Mr. Cowan in the crush to the +theatre. It was contrary to his principles to book seats, and I never +was so frightened in my life. I thought a London crowd rough and +merciless. I was the only one of the party who could speak any French, +and I spoke it badly, and had great difficulty in following French +conversations; but we got into a hotel where no English was spoken, and +managed to pull through. But we did not know a soul, and I think we did +not learn so much from our week's sightseeing as we should have done if +Miss Katie Hare had stayed the week with us. + +I then paid a visit to Birmingham, and spent a week at the sittings of +the British Association. By subscribing a guinea I was made an +Associate, and some of the sessions were very interesting, but much too +deep for me. I sat out a lecture on the Higher Mathematics, by +Professor Henry Smith, to whom Professor Pearson gave me an +introduction, in hopes that I might visit Oxford; but he was going +abroad, and I could not go to Oxford if I knew nobody--especially +alone. I went, however, to Carr's Lane Chapel, where a humble friend +had begged me to go, because there she had been converted, and there +the Rev. R. W. Dale happened to preach on "Where prayer was wont to be +made." He said that consecration was not due to a Bishop or to any +ecclesiastical ceremony, but to the devout prayers and praise of the +faithful souls within it--that thousands over Scotland and England, and +others in America, Australia, and New Zealand, look back to words which +they had heard and praises and prayers in which they had joined as the +holiest times in their lives. I thought of my good Mrs. Ludlow, and +thanked God for her. When Mr. Cowan took me to the church in Essex +place where he and his friend Wren used to hear Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P. for +Oldham, preach, a stranger, a young American, was there. I found out +afterwards he was Moncure Conway, and he gave us a most striking +discourse. There was going on in Birmingham at this time a controversy +between the old Unitarians and the new. In the Church of the Messiah +the old ministers gave a series of sermons on the absolute truth of the +New Testament miracles. The Old Testament he was quite willing to give +up, but he pinned his faith on those wrought by Christ and His +apostles. Some of the congregation told me they had never thought of +doubting them before, but the more Mr. B. defended them as the bulwarks +of Christianity, the more they felt that our religion rested on other +foundations. I saw a good deal of the industrial life of Birmingham, +and had a sight of the Black Country by day and by night. Joseph +Chamberlain was then a young man; I believe he was a Sunday school +teacher. The Unitarian Sunday Schools taught writing and arithmetic as +well as reading. In the terrible lack of national day schools many of +the poor had no teaching at all but what was given on Sundays, and no +time on other days of the week to learn anything. I could not help +contrasting the provision made by the parish schools of Scotland out of +the beggarly funds or tithes given for church and schools out of the +spoils of the Ancient Church by the Lords of the Congregation. +Education was not free, but it was cheap, and it was general. Scotchmen +made their way all over the world better than Englishmen mainly because +they were better educated. The Sunday school was not so much needed, +and was much later in establishing itself in Scotland. Good Hannah More +taught girls to read the Bible under a spreading tree in her garden +because no church would give her a place to teach in. "If girls were +taught to read where would we get servants?" It was an early cry. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MEETING WITH J. S. MILL AND GEORGE ELIOT. + + +I leave to the last of my experiences in the old world in 1865-6 my +interviews with John Stuart Mill and George Eliot. Stuart Mill's wife +was the sister of Arthur and of Alfred Hardy, of Adelaide, and the +former had given to me a copy of the first edition of Mill's "Political +Economy," with the original dedication to Mrs. John Taylor, who +afterwards became Mill's wife, which did not appear in subsequent +editions; but, as he had two gift copies of the same edition, Mr. Hardy +sent it on to me with his almost illegible handwriting:--"To Miss +Spence from the author, not, indeed, directly, but in the confidence +felt by the presenter that in so doing he is fulfilling the wish of the +author--viz., circulating his opinions, more especially in such +quarters as the present, where they will be accurately considered and +tested." I had also seen the dedication to Harriet Mill's beloved +memory of the noble book on "Liberty." Of her own individual work there +was only one specimen extant--an article on the "Enfranchisement of +women," included in Mill's collected essays--very good, certainly, but +not so overpoweringly excellent as I expected. Of course, it was an +early advocacy of the rights of women, or rather a revival of Mary +Wollstoneeraft's grand vindication of the rights of the sex; and this +was a reform which Mill himself took up more warmly than proportional +representation, and advocated for years before Mr. Hare's revelation. +For myself, I considered electoral reform on the Hare system of more +value than the enfranchisement of women, and was not eager for the +doubling of the electors in number, especially as the new voters would +probably be more ignorant and more apathetic than the old. I was +accounted a weak-kneed sister by those who worked primarily for woman +suffrage, although I was as much convinced as they were that I was +entitled to a vote, and hoped that I might be able to exercise it +before I was too feeble to hobble to the poll. I have unfortunately +lost the letter Mr. Mill wrote to me about my letters to The Register, +and my "Plea for Pure Democracy," but it gave him great pleasure to see +that a new idea both of the theory and practice of politics had been +taken up and expanded by a woman, and one from that Australian colony, +of which he had watched and aided the beginnings, as is seen by the +name of Mill terrace, North Adelaide, to-day. Indeed, both Hare and +Mill told me their first converts were women; and I felt that the +absolute disinterestedness of my "Plea," which was not for myself, but +only that the men who were supposed to represent me at the polling +booth should be equitably represented themselves, lent weight to my +arguments. I have no axe to grind--no political party to serve; so that +it was not until the movement for the enfranchisement of women grew too +strong to be neglected that I took hold of it at all; and I do not +claim any credit for its success in South Australia and the +Commonwealth, further than this--that by my writings and my spoken +addresses I showed that one woman had a steady grasp on politics and on +sociology. In 1865, when I was in England, Mr. Mill was permanently +resident at Avignon, where his wife died, but he had to come to England +to canvass for a seat in Parliament for Westminster as an Independent +member, believed at that time to be an advanced Radical, but known to +be a philosopher, and an economist of the highest rank in English +literature. I had only one opportunity of seeing him personally, and I +did not get so much out of him as I expected--he was so eager to know +how the colony and colonial people were developing. He asked me about +property in land and taxation, and the relations between employers and +employes, and I was a little amused and a little alarmed when he said +he was glad to get information from such a good authority. I had to +disclaim such knowledge; but he said he knew I was observant and +thoughtful, and what I had seen I had seen well. He was particularly +earnest about woman's suffrage, and Miss Taylor, his stepdaughter, said +she thought he had made a mistake in asking for the vote for single +women only and widows with property and wives who had a separate +estate; it would have been more logical to have asked for the vote on +the same terms as were extended to men. The great man said +meekly--"Well, perhaps I have made a mistake, but I thought with a +property qualification the beginning would awake less antagonism." He +said to me that if I was not to return to London till January we were +not likely to meet again. He walked with me bareheaded to the gate, and +it was farewell for both. + +Wise man as Mill was he did not foresee that his greatest object, the +enfranchisement of women, would be carried at the antipodes long before +there was victory either in England or America. When I received, in +1869 from the publisher, Mr. Mill's last book, "The Subjection of +Women," I wrote thanking him for the gift. The reply was as +follows:--"Avignon, November 28, 1869--Dear Madam--Your letter of +August 16 has been sent to me here. The copy of my little book was +intended for you, and I had much pleasure in offering it. The movement +against women's disabilities generally, and for the suffrage in +particular, has made great progress in England since you were last +there. It is likely, I think, to be successful in the colonies later +than in England, because the want of equality in social advantages +between women and men is less felt in the colonies owing, perhaps, to +women's having less need of other occupations than those of married +life--I am, dear Madam, yours very truly, J. S. Mill." I have always +held that, though the Pilgrim Fathers ignored the right of the Pilgrim +Mothers to the credit of founding the American States--although these +women had to take their full share of the toils and hardships and +perils of pioneer and frontier life, and had in addition to put up with +the Pilgrim Fathers themselves--Australian colonization was carried out +by men who were conscious of the service of their helpmates, and +grateful for it. In New Zealand and South Australia, founded on the +Wakefield system, where the sexes were almost equal in number, and the +immigration was mainly that of families, the first great triumphs for +the political enfranchisement of women were won, and through South +Australia the women of the Commonwealth obtained the Federal vote for +both Houses: whereas even in the sparsely inhabited western states in +the United States which have obtained the State vote the Federal vote +is withheld from them. But Mill died in 1873, 20 years before New +Zealand or Colorado obtained woman's suffrage. + +In treating of my one interview with Mr. Mill I have carried the +narrative down to 1869. With regard to my single meeting with George +Eliot, I have to begin in 1865, and conclude even later. Before I left +England Mr. Williams, of Smith, Elder, & Co., offered me an +introduction to George Henry Lewes, and I expressed the hope that it +might also include an introduction to George Eliot, whose works I so +admired. Mr. Lewes being away from home when I called, I requested that +the introductory letter of Mr. Williams should be taken to George Eliot +herself. She received me in the big Priory drawing room, with the grand +piano, where she held her receptions and musical evenings; but she +asked me if I had any business relating to the article which Mr. +Williams had mentioned, and I had to confess that I had none. For once +I felt myself at fault. I did not get on with George Eliot. She said +she was not well, and she did not look well. That strong pale face, +where the features were those of Dante or Savanarola, did not soften as +Mill's had done. The voice, which was singularly musical and +impressive, touched me--I am more susceptible to voices than to +features or complexion--but no subject that I started seemed to fall in +with her ideas, and she started none in which I could follow her lead +pleasantly. It was a short interview, and it was a failure. I felt I +had been looked on as an inquisitive Australian desiring an interview +upon any pretext; and indeed, next day I had a letter from Mr. +Williams, in which he told me that, but for the idea that I had some +business arrangement to speak of, she would not have seen me at all. So +I wrote to Mr. Williams that, as I had been received by mistake, I +should never mention the interview; but that impertinent curiosity was +not at all my motive in going that unlucky day to The Priory. + +Years passed by. I read everything, poetry and prose, that came from +George Eliot's pen, and was so strong an admirer of her that Mr. W. L. +Whitham, who took charge of the Unitarian Church while our pastor (Mr. +Woods) had a long furlough in England, asked me to lecture on her works +to his Mutual Improvement Society, and I undertook the task with joy. +Mr. H. G. Turner asked for the MS. to publish in the second number of +The Melbourne Review, a very promising quarterly for politics and +literature. I thought that, if I sent the review to George Eliot with a +note it might clear me from the suspicion of being a mere vulgar +lionhunter. Her answer was as follows:--"The Priory, North Bank, +Regent's Park, September 4, 1876. Dear Madam--Owing to an absence of +some months, it was only the other day that I read your kind letter of +April 17; and, although I have long been obliged to give up answering +the majority of letters addressed to me, I felt much pleased that you +had given me an opportunity of answering one from you; for I have +always remembered your visit with a regretful feeling that I had +probably caused you some pain by a rather unwise effort to give you a +reception which the state of my health at the moment made altogether +blundering and infelicitous. The mistake was all on my side, and you +were not in the least to blame. I also remember that your studies have +been of a serious kind, such as were likely to render a judgment on +fiction and poetry, or, as the Germans, with better classification, +say, in 'DICHTUNG' in general, quite other than the superficial +haphazard remarks of which reviews are generally made. You will all the +better understand that I have made it a rule not to read writing about +myself. I am exceptionally sensitive and liable to discouragement; and +to read much remark about my doings would have as depressing an effect +on me as staring in a mirror--perhaps, I may say, of defective glass. +But my husband looks at all the numerous articles that are forwarded to +me, and kindly keeps them out of my way--only on rare occasions reading +to me a passage which he thinks will comfort me by its evidence of +unusual insight or sympathy. Yesterday he read your article in The +Melbourne Review, and said at the end--'This is an excellently written +article, which would do credit to any English periodical' adding the +very uncommon testimony, 'I shall keep this.' Then he told me of some +passages in it which gratified me by that comprehension of my +meaning--that laying of the finger on the right spot--which is more +precious than praise, and forthwith he went to lay The Melbourne Review +in the drawer he assigns to any writing about me that gives him +pleasure. For he feels on my behalf more than I feel on my own, at +least in matters of this kind. If you come to England again when I +happen to be in town I hope that you will give me the pleasure of +seeing you under happier auspices than those of your former visit.--I +am, dear madam, yours sincerely, M. G. Lewes." The receipt of this kind +and candid letter gave me much pleasure; and, although on the strength +of that, I cannot boast of being a correspendent of that great woman, I +was able to say that I had seen and talked with her, and that she +considered me a competent critic of her work. Mrs. Oliphant says that +George Eliot's life impelled her to make an involuntary +confession--"How have I been handicapped in life? Should I have done +better if I had been kept, like her, in a mental green-house and taken +care of? I have always had to think of other people and to plan +everything for my own pleasure, it is true, very often, but always in +subjection to the necessity which bound me to them. To bring up the +boys--my own and Frank's--for the service of God was better than to +write a fine novel, if it had been in my power to do so." The heart +knows its own bitterness. There might have been some points in which +George Eliot might have envied Mrs. Oliphant. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +RETURN FROM THE OLD COUNTRY. + + +Before leaving Scotland I arranged that my friend, Mrs. Graham of the +strenuous life and 30 pounds a year, should undertake the care of my +aunts, to their mutual satisfaction. My last days in England were spent +in either a thick London fog or an equally undesirable Scotch mist, +which shrouded everything in obscurity, and made me long for the sunny +skies and the clear atmosphere of Australia. I told my friends that in +my country it either rained or let it alone. Indeed, the latest news +from all Australia was that it had let it alone very badly, and that +the overstocking of stations during the preceding good seasons had led +to enormous losses. Sheepfarmers made such large profits in good +seasons that they were apt to calculate that it was worth while to run +the risk of drought; but experience has shown that overstocking does +not really pay. The making of dams, the private and public provision of +water in the underground reservoirs by artesian bores, and the +facilities for travelling stock by such ways have all lessened the +risks which the pioneer pastoralists ran bravely in the old days. An +Australian drought can never be as disastrous in the twentieth century +as it was in 1866; and South Australia, the Central State, has from the +first been a pioneer in development as well as in exploration. The hum +of the reaping machine first awoke the echoes in our wheatfields. The +stump-jumping plough and the mullenicer which beats down the scrub or +low bush so that it can be burnt, were South Australian inventions, +copied elsewhere, which have turned land accounted worthless into +prolific wheat fields. + +If South Australia was the first of the States to exhaust her +agricultural soil, she was the first to restore it by means of +fertilizers and the seed drill. When I see the drilled wheat fields I +recollect my grandfather's two silver salvers--the Prizes from the +Highland Society for having the largest area of drilled wheat in +Scotland--and when I see the grand crops on the Adelaide Plains I +recall the opinion that, with anything like a decent rainfall, that +soil could grow anything. In 1866 the northern areas had not been +opened. The farmers were continuing the process of exhausting the land +by growing wheat--wheat--wheat, with the only variety wheaten hay. I +recollect James Burnet's amazement when I said that our horses were fed +on wheaten hay. "What a waste of the great possibilities of a grain +harvest!" He was doubtful when I said that with plenty of wheaten hay +the horses needed no corn. South Australia, except about Mount Gambier, +does not grow oats, though Victoria depends on oaten hay. The British +agriculturist thinks that meadow hay is the natural forage for horses +and cattle, and for winter turnips are the standby. It was a little +amusing to me that I could speak with some authority to skilled and +experienced agriculturists, who felt our rivalry at Mark lane, but who +did not dream that with the third great move of Australia towards the +markets of the world through cold storage we could send beef, mutton, +lamb, poultry, eggs, and all kinds of fruit to the consumers of Europe, +and especially of England and its metropolis. I did not see it, any +more than the people to whom I talked. I still thought that for meat +and all perishable commodities the distance was an insuperable +obstacle, and that, except for live stock from America, or canned meat +from Australia, the United Kingdom would continue self-supporting on +these lines. + +I returned to Australia, when this island continent was in the grip of +one of the most severe and protracted droughts in its history. The war +between Prussia and Austria had begun and ended; the failure of Overend +and Gurney and others brought commercial disaster; and my brother, with +other bankers, had anxious days and sleepless nights. Some rich men +became richer; many poor men went down altogether. Our recovery was +slow but sure. In the meantime I found life at home very dull after my +interesting experiences abroad. There was nothing to do for +proportional representation except to write an occasional letter to the +press. So I started another novel, which was published serially in The +Observer. Mr. George Bentley, who published it subsequently in book +form, changed its title from "Hugh Lindsay's Guest" to "The Author's +Daughter." But my development as a public speaker was more important +than the publication of a fourth novel. Much had been written on the +subject of public speaking by men, but so far nothing concerning the +capacities of women in that direction. And yet I think all teachers +will agree that girls in the aggregate excel boys in their powers of +expression, whether in writing, or in speech, though boys may surpass +them in such studies as arithmetic and mathematics. Yet law and custom +have put a bridle on the tongue of women, and of the innumerable +proverbs relating to the sex, the most cynical are those relating to +her use of language. Her only qualification for public speaking in old +days was that she could scold, and our ancestors imposed a salutary +cheek on this by the ducking stool in public, and sticks no thicker +than the thumb for marital correction in private. The writer of the +Proverbs alludes to the perpetual dropping of a woman's tongue as an +intolerable nuisance, and declares that it is better to live on the +housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. A later writer, +describing the virtuous woman, said that on her lips is the law of +kindness, and after all this is the real feminine characteristic. As +daughter, sister, wife, and mother--what does not the world owe to the +gracious words, the loving counsel, the ready sympathy which she +expresses? Until recent years, however, these feminine Rifts have been +strictly kept for home consumption, and only exercised for the woman's +family and a limited circle of friends. In 1825, when I first opened my +eyes on the world, there were indeed women who displayed an interest in +public affairs. My own mother not only felt the keenest solicitude +regarding the passing of the Reform Bill, but she took up her pen, and +with two letters to the local press, under the signature of "Grizel +Plowter," showed the advantages of the proposed measure. But public +speaking was absolutely out of the question for women, and though I was +the most ambitious of girls, my desire was to write a great book--not +at all to sway an audience. When I returned from my first visit to +England in 1866, I was asked by the committee of the South Australian +Institute to write a lecture on my impressions of England, different +from the article which had appeared in The Cornhill Magazine under that +title, but neither the committee nor myself thought of the possibility +of my delivering it. My good friend, the late Mr. John Howard Clark, +Editor of The Register, kindly offered to read it. I did not go to hear +it, but I was told that he had difficulty in reading my manuscript, and +that, though he was a beautiful reader, it was not very satisfactory. +So I mentally resolved that if I was again asked I should offer to read +my own MS. Five years afterwards I was asked for two literary lectures +by the same committee, and I chose as my subjects the works of +Elizabeth Browning and those of her husband, Robert Browning. Now, I +consider that the main thing for a lecturer is to be heard, and a +rising young lawyer (now our Chief Justice) kindly offered to take the +back seat, and promised to raise his hand if he could not hear. It was +not raised once, so I felt satisfied. I began by saying that I +undertook the work for two reasons--first, to make my audience more +familiar with the writings of two poets very dear to me; and second, to +make easier henceforward for any woman who felt she had something to +say to stand up and say it. I felt very nervous, and as if my knees +were giving way; but I did not show any nervousness. I read the +lecture, but most of the quotations I recited from memory. Not having +had any lessons in elocution, I trusted to my natural voice, and felt +that in this new role the less gesticulation I used the better. Whether +the advice of Demosthenes is rightly translated or not--first +requisite, action; second, action; third, action--I am sure that +English word does not express the requisite for women. I should rather +call it earnestness--a conviction that what you say is worth saying, +and worth saying to the audience before you. I had a lesson on the +danger of overaction from hearing a gentleman recite in public "The +dream of Eugene Aram," in which he went through all the movements of +killing and burying the murdered man. When a tale is crystallized into +a poem it does not require the action of a drama. However little action +I may use I never speak in public with gloves on. They interfere with +the natural eloquence of the hand. After these lectures I occasionally +was asked to give others on literary subjects. + +At this time I began to study Latin with my nephew, a boy of 14. He was +then an orphan, my youngest and beloved sister Mary having recently +died and left her two children to my care. My teacher thought me the +more apt pupil, but it was really due more to my command of English +than to my knowledge of Latin that I was able to get at the meaning of +Virgil and Horace. When it came to Latin composition I was no better +than the boy of 14. Before the death of my sister the family invested +in land in Trinity street, College Town, and built a house. Mother had +planned the house she moved into when I was six months old, and she +delighted in the task, though she said it seemed absurd to build a +house in her seventy-ninth year. But she lived in it from January, +1870, till December, 1887, and her youngest daughter lived in it for +only ten months. Before that time I had embarked with my friend, Miss +Clark, on one of the greatest enterprises of my life--one which led to +so much that my friends are apt to say that, if I am recollected at +all, it will be in connection with the children of the State and not +with electoral reform. But I maintain now, as I maintained then, that +the main object of my life is proportional representation, or, to use +my brother John's term, effective voting. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WARDS OF THE STATE. + + +In a little book which the State Children's Council requested me to +write as a memorial of the great work of Miss C. E. Clark on her +retirement at the age of 80, I have given an account of the movement +from the beginning down to 1907, which had its origin in South +Australia under the leadership of Miss Clark. When I was on my way cut +from England, Miss Clark wrote a letter to The Register, suggesting +that the destitute, neglected, or orphaned children should be removed +from the Destitute Asylum and placed in natural homes with respectable +people; but the great wave which came over England about that time for +building industrial schools and reformatories affected South Australia +also, and the idea was that, though the children should be removed from +the older inmates, it should be to an institution. Land was bought and +plans were drawn up for an industrial school at Magill, five miles from +Adelaide, when Miss Clark came to me and asked me to help her to take a +different course. She enlisted Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Colton and Mrs. +(afterwards Lady) Davenport in the cause, and we arranged for a +deputation to the Minister; Howard Clark, Neville Blyth, and Mr. C. B. +Young joined us. We offered to find country homes and provide lady +visitors, but our request was simply scouted. As we did not offer to +bear any of the cost it would be absurd to give us any share in the +administration. Children would only be given homes for the sake of the +money paid, and Oliver Twist's was held up as the sort of +apprenticeship likely to be secured for pauper children. So we had to +play the waiting game. The school built to accommodate 230 children was +on four floors, though there was 40 acres of good land. It was so +popular that, though only 130 went in at first, in two years it was so +full that there was talk of adding a wing. This was our opportunity, +and the same men and women went on another deputation, and this time we +prevailed, and were allowed to place out the overflow as an experiment; +and not only the Boarding-out Committee, but the official heads of the +Destitute Department, were surprised and delighted with the good homes +we secured for 5/ a week, and with the improvement in health, in +intelligence, and in happiness that resulted from putting children into +natural homes. What distinguishes work for children in Australia from +what is done elsewhere is that it is national, and not philanthropic. +The State is in loco-parentis, and sees that what the child needs are a +home and a mother--that, if the home and the mother are good, the child +shall be kept there; but that vigilant inspection is needed, voluntary +or official--better to have both. Gradually the Magill School was +emptied, and the children were scattered. Up to the age of 13 the home +was subsidized, but when by the education law the child was free from +school attendance, and went to service, the supervision continued until +the age of 18 was reached. For nearly 14 years, from 1872 to 1886, the +Boarding-out Society pursued its modest labours as auxiliary to the +Destitute Board. Our volunteer visitors reported in duplicate--one copy +for the official board, and one for the unofficial committee. When the +method was inaugurated, Mr. T. S. Reed. Chairman of the Board, was +completely won over. We had nothing to do with the reformatories, +except that our visitors went to see those placed out at service in +their neighbourhood. + +Our success attracted attention elsewhere. The late Dr. Andrew Garran, +who was on The Register when I went to England, had moved to Sydney in +my absence, and was on the staff of The Sydney Morning Herald. When +Miss Clark went to England in 1877, after her mother`s death, Dr. +Garran wrote to me for some account of our methods, and of their +success, physical, moral, and financial. Dr. Garran came out with Mr. +G. F. Angas and the Australian Constitution in 1851 in search of health +and work, both of which he found here. The first pages of my four +volumes of newspaper cuttings are filled with two long articles, "The +Children of the State," and this started the movement in New South +Wales, led by Mrs. Garran, nee Sabine, and Mrs. Jefferis wife of the +leading Congregational minister, moved from Adelaide to Sydney. +Professor Henry Pearson asked me a year or two later to give similar +information to The Melbourne Age. Subsequently I wrote on this subject, +by request, to Queensland, New Zealand, and I think also Tasmania, +where we were imitated first, but where there are still to be found +children of the State in institutions. In Victoria and New South Wales +a vigorous policy emptied these buildings, which were used for other +public purposes, and the children were dispersed. The innovation which +at first was scouted as utopian, next suspected as leading to neglect, +or even unkindness--for people would only take these children for what +they could make out of them--was found to be so beneficial that nobody +in Australia would like to return to the barrack home or the barrack +school. If the inspection had been from the first merely official, +public opinion would have been suspicious and sceptical, but when +ladies saw the children in these homes, and watched how the dull faces +brightened, and the languid limbs became alert after a few weeks of +ordinary life--when the cheeks became rosier, and the eyes had new +light in them; when they saw that the foster parents took pride in +their progress at school, and made them handy about the house, as they +could never be at an institution, where everything is done at the sound +of a bell or the stroke of a clock--these ladies testified to what they +knew, and the public believed in them. In other English-speaking +countries boarding-out in families is sometimes permitted; but here, +under the Southern Cross, it is the law of the land that children shall +not be brought up in institutions, but in homes: that the child whose +parent is the State shall have as good schooling as the child who has +parents and guardians; that every child shall have, not the discipline +of routine and redtape, but free and cheerful environment of ordinary +life, preferably in the country--going to school with other young +fellow citizens, going to church with the family in which he is placed, +having the ordinary ditties, the ordinary difficulties, the ordinary +pleasures of common life; but guarded from injustice, neglect, and +cruelty by effective and kindly supervision. This movement, originated +in South Australia, and with all its far-reaching developments and +expansions, is due to the initiative of one woman of whom the State is +justly proud--Miss Caroline Emily Clark. + +Even while we were only a Boarding-out Committee, it was found +necessary to have one paid inspector; but there was great +dissatisfaction with the Boys' Reformatory which had been located in an +old leaky hulk, where the boys could learn neither seamanship nor +anything else--and with some other details of the management of the +destitute poor, and a commission with the Chief Justice as Chairman, +was appointed to make enquiries and suggest reforms. The result was the +separation of the young from the old absolutely; and a new body, the +State Children's Council, of 12 men and women of nearly equal +proportions, had authority over the reformatories, as well as what was +called the industrial school, which was to be reduced to a mere +receiving home, and all the children placed out, either on subsidy or +at service. Most of the old committee were appointed; but, to my great +joy, Dr. Edward C. Stirling and Mr. James Smith, the most enlightened +man on the Destitute Board, were among the new members. We had a paid +stall, with a most able secretary--Mr. J. B. Whiting. + +Dr. Stirling was unanimously voted in as President, and we felt we +began our new duties under the most promising auspices. But, alas, in +two years there was so much friction between the council and the +Ministry that we all resigned in a body, except Mrs. Colton (who was in +England) and Mrs. Farr. We were fighting the battle of the unpaid +boards, and we were so strong in the public estimation that we might +have won the victory. The Government had relieved children on the +petition of parents, contrary to the strong recommendation of the +council. Although the commission had declared that the reformatory boys +should be removed at once from the hulk Fitzjames, they were still kept +there, and the only offer of accommodation given was to share the +Magill Industrial School with the reformatory girls. Now, this the +council would not hear of, for we felt that the Government plans for +separate entrances and separate staircases were absolutely futile and +ridiculous for keeping apart these two dangerous classes in a single +building. The Government gave way on the point of providing a separate +building for the reformatory girls; and the committee, with the +exception of Dr. Stirling and Mr. James Smith--our two strongest +members--were reappointed. The official staff was increased by the +appointment of clerks and inspectors, many of them women, who have +always given every satisfaction, and who justify the claim made that +women's work is conscientious and thorough. + +More departments were gradually added to our sphere of action. The +separate trial of juvenile delinquents was strongly advocated by the +council. Miss Clark and Mr. C. H. Goode were particularly keen on the +introduction of Children's Courts. In this reform South Australia led +the world, and in the new Act of 1896, after six years of tentative +work, it became compulsory to try offenders under 18 at the Children's +Court in the city and suburbs, and in the Magistrate's room in the +country. The methods of organization and control vary in the different +States of the Commonwealth, but on one point the six are all +agreed--that dependent and delinquent children are a national asset and +a national responsibility, and any forward step anywhere has every +chance of being copied. The result of Children's Courts and probation +has been that, while the population of the State has greatly increased, +the committals to the Gaol and for penal servitude have steadily +decreased, and the Boys' Reformatory has been reduced to one-third of +the number in earlier days. There are, of course, many factors in all +directions of social betterment, but the substitution of homes for +institutions, and of probation carefully watched for summary +punishment, are, in my opinion, the largest factors in, this State. The +affection between children and their foster parents is often lifelong; +and we see thousands who were taken from bad parents and evil +environments taking their place in the industrial world, and filling it +well. The movement in South Australia initiated by Miss Clark spread +from State to State, and the happy thought of the President and +Secretary of the Council that I should write an account of +"Boarding-out and its Developments" as a memorial of her great work +bore fruit in the legislation of the United Kingdom itself. A letter I +received from Mr. Herbert Samuel, then Under-Secretary of State in the +British Government, was gratifying, both to the council and to +me:--"Home Office, Whitehall, S.W., August 5, 1907. Dear Madam--I have +just read your little book on 'State Children in Australia;' and, +although a stranger to you, would venture to write to thank you for the +very valuable contribution you have made to the literature on the +subject. The present Government in England are already engaged in +promoting the more kindly and more effective methods of dealing with +destitute, neglected, or delinquent children, which are already so +widely adopted in South Australia. We are passing through Parliament +this year a Bill to enable a system of probation officers, both paid +and voluntary, to be established throughout the country, for dealing +not indeed with child offenders alone, but with adult offenders also, +who may be properly amenable to that treatment. And next year we +propose to introduce a comprehensive Children's Bill, which has been +entrusted to my charge, in which we hope to be able to include some of +the reforms you have at heart. In the preparation of that Bill the +experience of your colony and the account of it which you have +published will be of no small assistance. Yours sincerely, Herbert +Samuel." + +Another department of our work for the protection of infant life, and +this we took over from the Destitute Board, where some unique +provisions had been initiated by Mr. James Smith. The Destitute Asylum +was the last refuge of the old and incapacitated poor, but it never +opened its doors to the able bodied. In the Union Workhouse in England +room is always found for friendless and penniless to come there for +confinement, who leave as soon as they are physically strong enough to +take their burden--their little baby--in their arms and face the world +again. In Adelaide these women were in 1868 divided into two classes, +one for girls who had made their first slip--girls weak, but very +rarely wicked--so as to separate them, from women who came for a second +or third time, who were cared for with their infants in the general +asylum. Mr. James Smith obtained in 1881 legislation to empower the +Destitute Board to make every woman sign an agreement to remain with +her infant, giving it the natural nourishment, for six months. This has +saved many infant lives, and has encouraged maternal affection. The +Destitute Board kept in its hands the issuing of licences, and +appointed a lady to visit the babies till they were two years old, and +did good work; but when that department was properly turned over to the +State Children's Council there was even more vigilance exercised, and +the death rate among these babies, often handicapped before birth, and +always artificially fed after, was reduced to something less than the +average of all babies. We have been fortunate in our chief inspectress +of babies. Her character has uplifted the licensed foster mothers, and +the two combined have raised the real mothers. It is surprising how few +such babies are thrown on the State. The department does not pay any +board or find any clothing for these infants. It, however, pays for +supervision and pays for a lady doctor, so that there need be no excuse +for not calling in medical assistance if it is felt to be needed. +Occasionally a visitor from other States or from England is allowed as +a great favour to see, not picked cases, but the ordinary run, of the +homes of foster mothers, and the question, "Where and how do you get +such women?" is asked. We have weeded out the inferiors, and our +instructions with regard to feeding and care are so definite, and found +to be so sound, that the women take a pride in the health and the +beauty of the little ones; and besides they keep up the love of the +real mother by the care they give them. A recent Act has raised the age +of supervision of illegitimate babies from two to seven years, and this +has necessitated the appointment of an additional inspectress. In South +Australia baby farming has been extinguished, and in the other States +legislation on similar lines has been won, and they are in process of +gradually weeding out bad and doubtful foster mothers. And the foster +fathers are often as fond of the babies as their wives--and as +softhearted. "Did you see that the poor girl had on broken boots this +weather?" said he. "Yes, it's a Pity; but we are poor folks +ourselves--we can't help it," said she. "Let her off the 6/ for a +fortnight, so as she can get a pair of sound boots for her feet, we'll +worry through without it." And they did. The extreme solicitude of the +State Children's Department, as carried out by its zealous officers, +for the life and the wellbeing of their babies serves them in Public +extenuation, and the children are often so pretty and engaging that +they win love all round. A grown-up son in the home was very fond of +little Lily. "Mother will you get Lily a cream coat, such as I see +other babies wearing, and I will pay for it." + +A most pathetic story I can tell of a girl respectably connected in the +country, who had been cast off in disgrace, and came to town to take a +place, committing her infant to a good foster mother. When he was old +enough to move about, and was just trying to walk, the mother was taken +dangerously ill to the Adelaide Hospital. The foster mother thought the +girl's father should be sent for, and wrote to him giving her own +address, but not disclosing her connection with the patient. The father +of the girl came, and was told that he had better be accompanied by his +informant, who could prepare the sick woman for the interview. The +little boy was running about, and the old man took him on his knee +while the woman got ready to go out. "You must come with us, Sonny," +said she. "I can't leave you alone in the house." "A very fine little +chap. Your youngest, I suppose. I can see he is a great pet." "No," +said the woman slowly, "he is not my son, he is your grandson." "Good +God, my grandson," Then, clasping the little fellow to his heart, he +said, "I'll never part with him!" The mother recovered, and was taken +home with her child and forgiven. Such is often the work of the good +foster mother. In all the successes of the irresponsible committee and +of the responsible State Children's Council the greatest factor has +been the character of the good women who have been mothers to the +little ones. The fears that only self-interest could induce them to +take on the neglected and uncontrollable children were not borne out by +experience, and in the ease of these babies not really illegitimate--it +is the parents who deserve that title, no infant can--the mother's +instinct came out very strong. At a conference of workers among +dependent children, held in Adelaide in May, 1909, when all six States +were represented, a Western Australian representative said that the +average family home was not so good for its natural circle that it +could be depended on for strangers; but our answer was that, both for +the children of the State and for the babies who were not State +children, we insisted on something better than the average home, and +through our inspection we sought to improve it still further. We have +not reached perfection by any means. When we begin to think we have, we +are sure to fall back. Another good office the State Children's +Department fills is that of advice gratis. One of the most striking +chapters in Gen. Booth's "Darkest England" dealt with the helplessness +of the poor and the ignorant in the face of difficulties, of injustice, +and of extortion. When I was in Chicago in 1893 I saw that the first +university settlement, that of Hull House, presided over by Miss Jane +Addams (St. Jane some of her friends call her) was the centre to is +which the poor American, German, Italian, or other alien went for +advice as well as practical help. A word in season was often of more +value than dollars. To be told what to do or what not to do at a crisis +when decision is so important may be salvation for the pocket or for +the character. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +PREACHING, FRIENDS, AND WRITING. + + +My life now became more interesting and varied. A wider field for my +journalistic capabilities was open to me, and I also took part in the +growth of education, both spiritual and secular. The main promoters of +the ambitious literary periodical The Melbourne Review, to which I +became a contributor, were Mr. Henry Gyles Turner (the banker), Mr. +Alexander Sutherland, M.A. (author of "The History of Australia" and +several other books), and A. Patchett Martin (the litterateur). It +lived for nine years, and produced a good deal of creditable writing, +but it never was able to pay its contributors, because it never +attained such a circulation as would attract advertisements. The +reviews and magazines of the present day depend on advertisements. They +cheapen the price so as to gain a circulation, which advertisers cater +for. I think my second article was on the death of Sir Richard Hanson +(one of the original South Australian Literary Society, which met in +London before South Australia existed). At the time of his death he was +Chief Justice. He was the author of two books of Biblical +criticism--"The Jesus of History" and "Paul and the Primitive +Church"--and I undertook to deal with his life and work. About that +time there was one of those periodic outbursts of Imperialism in the +Australian colonies--not popular or general, but among politicians--on +the question of how the colonies could obtain practical recognition in +the Legislature of the United Kingdom. Each of the colonies felt that +Downing street inadequately represented its claims and its aspirations, +and there were several articles in "The Melbourne Review" suggesting +that these colonies should be allowed to send members to the House of +Commons. This, I felt, would be inadmissible; for, unless we were +prepared to bear our share of the burdens, we had no right to sit in +the taxing Assembly of the United Kingdom. The only House in which the +colonies, small or great, could be represented was the House of Lords; +and it appeared to me that, with a reformed House of Lords, this would +be quite practicable. An article in Fraser's Magazine, "Why not the +Lords, too?" had struck me much, and the lines on which it ran greatly +resemble those laid down by Lord Rosebery for lessening in number and +improving in character the unwieldy hereditary House of Peers; but +neither that writer nor Lord Rosebery grasped the idea that I made +prominent in an article I wrote for The Review, which was that the +reduction of the peers to 200, or any other number ought to be made on +the principle of proportional representation, because otherwise the +majority of the peers, being Conservative, an election on ordinary +lines would result in a selection of the most extreme Conservatives in +the body. My mother had pointed out to me that the 16 representative +Scottish peers elected by those who have not a seat as British peers, +for the duration of each Parliament, were the most Tory of the Tories, +and that the same could be said of the 28 representative peers for +Ireland elected for life. So, though the House of Lords contains a +respectable minority of Liberals, under no system of exclusively +majority representation could any of them be chosen among the 200. I +had the same idea of life peers to be added from the ranks of the +professions, of science, and of literature, unburdened by the weight +and cost of an hereditary title, that Lord Rosebery has; and into such +a body I thought that representatives of the great self-governing +colonies could enter, so that information about our resources, our +politics, and our sociology might be available, and might permeate the +press. But, greatly to my surprise, my article was sent back, but was +afterwards accepted by Fraser's Magazine. This was better for me, for +what would have been published for nothing in The Melbourne Review +brought me 8/15/0 from a good English magazine. I continued to write +for this review, until it ceased to exist, in 1885, literary and +political articles. The former included a second one on "George Eliot's +Life and Work," and one on "Honore de Balzac," which many of my friends +thought my best literary effort. + +It was through Miss Martha Turner that I was introduced to her brother +and to The Melbourne Review. She was at that time pastor of the +Unitarian Church in Melbourne. She had during the long illness of the +Rev. Mr. Higginson helped her brother with the services. At first she +wrote sermons for him to deliver, but on some occasions when he was +indisposed she read her own compositions. Fine reader as Mr. H. G. +Turner is he did not come up to her, and especially he could not equal +her in the presentment of her own thoughts. The congregation on the +death of Mr. Higginson asked Miss Turner to accept the pastorate. She +said she could conduct the services, but she absolutely declined to do +the pastoral duties--visiting especially. She was licensed to conduct +marriage services and baptized (or, as we call it, consecrated) +children to the service of Almighty God and to the service of man. +During the absence of our pastor for a long holiday in England Mr. C. +L. Whitham afterwards an education inspector, took his place for two +years, and he arranged for an exchange of three weeks with Miss Turner. +She is the first woman I ever heard in the pulpit. I was thrilled by +her exquisite voice, by her earnestness, and by her reverence. I felt +as I had never felt before that if women are excluded from the +Christian pulpit you shut out more than half of the devoutness that is +in the world. Reading George Eliot's description of Dinah Morris +preaching Methodisim on the green at Hayslope had prepared me in a +measure, but when I heard a highly educated and exceptionally able +woman conducting the services all through, and especially reading the +Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments with so much intelligence that +they seemed to take on new meaning, I felt how much the world had been +losing for so many centuries. She twice exchanged with Adelaide--the +second time when Mr. Woods had returned--and it was the beginning to me +of a close friendship. + +Imitation, they say, is the sincerest flattery; and when a similar +opportunity was offered to me during an illness of Mr. Woods, when no +layman was available, I was first asked to read a sermon of Martineau's +and then I suggested that I might give something of my own. My first +original sermon was on "Enoch and Columbus," and my second on "Content, +discontent, and uncontent." I suppose I have preached more than a +hundred times, in my life, mostly in the Wakefield Street pulpit; but +in Melbourne and Sydney I am always asked for help; and when I went to +America in 1893-4 I was offered seven pulpits--one in Toronto, Canada, +and six in the United States. The preparation of my sermons--for, after +the first one I delivered, they were always original--has always been a +joy and delight to me, for I prefer that my subjects as well as their +treatment shall be as humanly helpful as it is possible to make them. +In Sydney particularly I have preached to fine audiences. On one +occasion I remember preaching in a large hall, as the Unitarian Church +could not have held the congregation. It was during the campaign that +Mrs. Young and I conducted in Sydney--in 1900, and we had spent the +day--a delightful one--with the present Sir George and Lady Reid at +their beautiful home at Strathfield, and returned in time to take the +evening service at Sydney. I spoke on the advantages of international +peace, and illustrated my discourse with arguments, drawn from the +South African War, which was then in progress. I seized the opportunity +afforded me of speaking some plain home truths on the matter. I was +afterwards referred to by The Sydney Bulletin as "the gallant little +old lady who had more moral courage in her little finger than all the +Sydney ministers had in their combined anatomies." For one of my +sermons I wrote an original parable which pleased my friends so much +that I include it in the account of my life's work. "And it came to +pass after the five days of Creation which were periods of unknown +length of time that God took the soul, the naked soul, with which He +was to endow the highest of his creatures--into Eden to look with him +on the work which He had accomplished. And the Soul could see, could +hear, could understand, though there were neither eyes, nor ears, nor +limbs, nor bodily organs, to do its bidding. And God said, 'Soul, thou +shalt have a body as these creatures, that thou seest around thee have. +Thou art to be king, and rule over them all. Thy mission is to subdue +the earth, and make it fruitful and more beautiful than it is even now, +in thus its dawn. Which of all these living creatures wouldst thou +resemble?' And the Soul looked, and the Soul listened, and the Soul +understood. The beauty of the birds first attracted him and their songs +were sweet, and their loving care of their young called forth a +response in the Prophetic Soul. But the sweet singers could not subdue +the earth--nay, even the strongest voice could not. Then the Soul gazed +on the lion in his strength; on the deer in his beauty. He saw the +large-eyed bull with the cow by his side, licking her calf. The stately +horse, the huge elephant, the ungainly camel--could any of these subdue +the earth? He looked down, and they made it shake with their heavy +tread, but the Soul knew that the earth could not be subdued by them. +Then he saw a pair of monkeys climbing a tree--the female had a little +one in her arms. Where the bird had wings, and the beasts four legs +planted on the ground, the monkeys had arms, and, at the end of each, +hands, with five fingers; they gathered nuts and cracked them, and +picked out the kernels, throwing the shells away--the mother caressed +her young one with gentle fingers. The Soul saw also the larger ape +with its almost upright form. 'Ah!' sighed the Soul, 'they are not +beautiful like the other creatures, neither are they so strong as many +of them. But their forelimbs, with hands and fingers to grasp with, are +what I need to subdue the earth, for they will be the servants who can +best obey my will. Let me stand upright and gaze upward, and this is +the body that I choose.' And God said, 'Soul, thou hast chosen well, +Thou shalt be larger and stronger than these creatures thou seest thou +shalt stand upright, and look upward and onward. And the Soul can +create beauty for itself, when it shines through the body.' And it was +so, and Adam stood erect and gave names to all other creatures." + +In the seventies the old education system, or want of system, was +broken up, and a complete department of public instruction was +constructed. Mr. J. A. Hartley, head master of Prince Alfred College, +was placed at the head of it, and a vigorous policy was adopted. When +the Misses Davenport Hill came out to visit aunt and cousins, I visited +with them and Miss Clark the Grote Street Model School, and I was +delighted with the new administration. I hoped that the instruction of +the children of the people would attract the poor gentlewomen who were +so badly paid as governesses in families or in schools; but my hope has +not been at all adequately fulfilled. The Register had been most +earnest in its desire for a better system of public education. The late +Mr. John Howard Clark, its then editor, wanted some articles on the +education of girls, and he applied to me to do them, and I wrote two +leading articles on the subject, and another on the "Ladder of +Learning." from the elementary school to the university, as exemplified +in my native country where ambitious lads cultivated literature on a +little oatmeal. For an Adelaide University was in the air, and took +form owing to the benefactions of Capt. (afterwards Sir Walter Watson) +Hughes, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Elder. But the opposition to +Mr. Hartley, which set in soon after his appointment, and his supposed +drastic methods and autocratic attitude, continued. I did not knew Mr. +Hartley personally, but I knew he had been an admirable head teacher, +and the most valuable member of the Education Board which preceded the +revolution. I knew, too, that the old school teachers were far inferior +to what were needed for the new work, and that you cannot make an +omelette without breaking eggs. A letter which I wrote to Mr. Hartley, +saying that I desired to help him in any way in my power, led to a +friendship which lasted till his lamented death in 1896. I fancied at +the time that my aid did him good, but I think now that the opposition +had spent its force before I put in my oar by some letters to the +press. South Australians became afterwards appreciative of the work +done by Mr. Hartley, and proud of the good position this State took in +matters educational among the sister States under the Southern Cross. + +It was due to Mrs. Webster's second visit to Adelaide to exchange with +Mr. Woods that I made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. E. Barr Smith. +They went to the church and were shown into my seat, and Mrs. Smith +asked me to bring the eloquent preacher to Torrens Park to dine there. +I discovered that they had long wanted to know me, but I was out of +society. I recollect afterwards going to the office to see Mr. Smith on +some business or other, when he was out, and meeting Mr. Elder instead. +He pressed on me the duty of going to see Mrs. Black, a lady from +Edinburgh, who had come out with her sons and daughter. Mr. Barr Smith +came in, and his brother-in-law said, "I have just been telling Miss +Spence she should go and call on the Blacks." "Tom," said Mr. Barr +Smith, "we have been just 20 years making the acquaintance of Miss +Spence. About the year 1899 Miss Spence will be dropping in on the +Blacks." What a house Torrens Park was for books. There was no other +customer of the book shops equal to the Torrens Park family. Rich men +and women often buy books for themselves, and for rare old books they +will give big prices; but the Barr Smiths bought books in sixes and in +dozens for the joy of giving them where they would be appreciated. On +my literary side Mrs. Barr Smith, a keen critic herself, fitted in with +me admirably, and what I owed to her in the way of books for about 10 +years cannot be put on paper, and in my journalistic work she +delighted. Other friendships, both literary and personal, were formed +in the decade which started the elementary schools and the University. +The first Hughes professor of English literature was the Rev. John +Davidson of Chalmers Church, married to Harriet, daughter of Hugh +Miller, the self-taught ecologist and journalist. + +On the day of the inauguration of the University the Davidsons asked +Miss Clark and myself to go with them, and there I met Miss Catherine +Mackay (now Mrs. Fred Martin), from Mount Gambier. I at first thought +her the daughter of a wealthy squatter of the south-east, but when I +found she was a litterateur trying to make a living by her pen, +bringing out a serial tale, "Bohemian Born," and writing occasional +articles, I drew to her at once. So long as the serial tale lasted she +could hold her own; but no one can make a living at occasional articles +in Australia, and she became a clerk in the Education Office, but still +cultivated literature in her leisure hours. She has published two +novels--"An Australian Girl" and "The Silent Sea"--which so good a +judge as F. W. H. Myers pronounced to be on the highest level ever +reached in Australian fiction, and in that opinion I heartily concur. I +take a very humble second place beside her, but in the seventies I +wrote "Gathered In," which I believed to be my best novel--the novel +into which I put the most of myself, the only novel I wrote with tears +of emotion. Mrs. Oliphant says that Jeanie Deans is more real to her +than any of her own creations, and probably it is the same with me, +except for this one work. From an old diary of the fifties, when my +first novels were written I take this extract:--"Queer that I who have +such a distinct idea of what I approve in flesh-and-blood men should +only achieve in pen and ink a set of impossible people, with an absurd +muddy expression of gloom, instead of sublime depth as I intended. Men +novelists' women are as impossible creations as my men, but there is +this difference--their productions satisfy them, mine fail to satisfy +me." But in my last novel--still unpublished--felt quite satisfied that +I had at last achieved my ambition to create characters that stood out +distinctly and real. Miss Clark took the MS. to England, but she could +not get either Bentley or Smith Elder, or Macmillan to accept it. + +On the death of Mr. John Howard Clark, which took place at this time, +Mr. John Harvey Finlayson was left to edit The Register, and I became a +regular outside contributor to The Register and The Observer. He +desired to keep up and if possible improve the literary side of the +papers, and felt that the loss of Mr. Clark might be in some measure +made up if I give myself wholeheartedly to the work. Leading articles +were to be written at my own risk. If they suited the policy of the +paper they would be accepted, otherwise not. What a glorious opening +for my ambition and for my literary proclivities came to me in July, +1878, when I was in my fifty-third year! Many leading articles were +rejected, but not one literary or social article. Generally these last +appeared in both daily and weekly papers. I recollect the second +original social article I wrote was on "Equality as an influence on +society and manners," suggested by Matthew Arnold. The much-travelled +Smythe, then, I think, touring with Charles Clark, wrote to Mr. +Finlayson from Wallaroo thus:--"In this dead-alive place, where one +might fire a mitrailleuse down the principal street without hurting +anybody, I read this delightful article in yesterday's Register. When +we come again to Adelaide, and we collect a few choice spirits, be sure +to invite the writer of this article to join us." I felt as if the +round woman had got at last into the round hole which fitted her; and +in my little study, with my books and my pigeon holes, and my dear old +mother sitting with her knitting on her rocking chair at the low +window, I had the knowledge that she was interested in all I did. I +generally read the MS to her before it went to the office. What is more +remarkable, perhaps, is that the excellent maid who was with us for 12 +years, picked out everything of mine that was in the papers and read +it. A series of papers called "Some Social Aspects of Early Colonial +Life" I contributed under the pseudonym of "A Colonist of 1839." From +1878 till 1893, when I went round the world via America, I held the +position of outside contributor on the oldest newspaper in the State, +and for these 14 years I had great latitude. My friend Dr. Garran, then +editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, accepted reviews and articles from +me. Sometimes I reviewed the same books for both, but I wrote the +articles differently, and made different quotations, so that I scarcely +think any one could detect the same hand in them; but generally they +were different books and different subjects, which I treated. I tried +The Australasian with a short story, "Afloat and Ashore," and with a +social article on "Wealth, Waste, and Want." I contributed to The +Melbourne Review, and later to The Victorian Review, which began by +paying well, but filtered out gradually. I found journalism a better +paying business for me than novel writing, and I delighted in the +breadth of the canvas on which I could draw my sketches of books and of +life. I believe that my work on newspapers and reviews is more +characteristic of me, and intrinsically better work than what I have +done in fiction; but when I began to wield the pen, the novel was the +line of least resistance. When I was introduced in 1894 to Mrs. Croly, +the oldest woman journalist in the United States, as an Australian +journalist, I found that her work, though good enough, was essentially +woman's work, dress, fashions, functions, with educational and social +outlooks from the feminine point of view. My work might show the bias +of sex, but it dealt with the larger questions which were common to +humanity; and when I recall the causes which I furthered, and which in +some instances I started, I feel inclined to magnify the office of the +anonymous contributor to the daily press. And I acknowledge not only +the kindness of friends who put some of the best new books in my way, +but the large-minded tolerance of the Editors of The Register, who gave +me such a free hand in the treatment of books, of men, and of public +questions. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +MY WORK FOR EDUCATION. + + +I was the first woman appointed on a Board of Advice under the +Education Department, and found the work interesting. The powers of the +board were limited to an expenditure of 5 pounds for repairs without +applying to the department and to interviewing the parents of children +who had failed to attend the prescribed number of days, as well as +those who pleaded poverty as an excuse for the non-payment of fees. I +always felt that the school fees were a heavy burden on the poor, and +rejoiced accordingly when free education was introduced into South +Australia. This was the second State to adopt this great reform, +Victoria preceding it by a few years. I objected to the payment of fees +on another ground. I felt they bore heavily on the innocent children +themselves through the notion of caste which was created in the minds +of those who paid fees to the detriment of their less fortunate school +companions. And again, education that is compulsory should be free. +Other women have since become members of School Boards, but I was the +pioneer of that branch of public work for women in this State. It is a +privilege that American women have been fighting for for many years--to +vote for and to be eligible to sit on School Boards. In many of the +States this has been won to their great advantage. In this present year +of 1910 Mrs. Ella, Flagg Young, at the age of 65, has been elected by +the Chigago Board, Director of the Education of that great city of over +two millions of inhabitants at a salary of 2,000 pounds a year, with a +male university professor as an assistant. At an age when we in South +Australia are commanding our teachers to retire, in Chicago, which is +said by Foster Fraser to cashier men at 40, this elderly woman has +entered into her great power. + +It is characteristic of me that I like to do thoroughly what I +undertake to do at all, and when, on one occasion I had not received +the usual summons to attend a board meeting, I complained of the +omission to the Chairman. "I do not want," I said, "to be a merely +ornamental member of this board. I want to go to all the meetings." He +replied, courteously, "It is the last thing that we would say of you, +Miss Spence, that you are ornamental!" It was half a minute before he +discovered that he had put his disclaimer in rather a different form +from what he had intended, and he joined in the burst of laughter which +followed. Another amusing contretemps occurred when the same gentleman +and I were visiting the parents who had pleaded for exemption from the +payment of fees. At one house there was a grown-up daughter who had +that morning left the service of the gentleman's mother--a fact +enlarged upon by my companion during the morning's drive. "Why is your +eldest daughter out of a place?" was the first question he put to the +woman. "She might be earning good wages, and be able to help you pay +the fees." "Oh!" came the unexpected reply, "she had to leave old Mrs. +---- this morning; she was that mean there was no living in the house +with her!" Knowing her interlocutor only as the man in authority, the +unfortunate woman scarcely advanced her cause by her plain speaking, +and I was probably the only member of the trio who appreciated the +situation. I am sure many people who were poorer than this mother paid +the fees rather than suffer the indignity of such cross-questioning by +the school visitors and the board--an unfortunate necessity of the +system, which disappeared with the abolition of school fees. + +It had been suggested by the Minister of Education of that period that +the children attending the State schools should be instructed in the +duties of citizenship, and that they should be taught something of the +laws under which they lived, and I was commissioned to write a short +and pithy statement of the case. It was to be simple enough for +intelligent children in the fourth class; 11 or 12--it was to lead from +the known to the unknown--it might include the elements of political +economy and sociology--it might make use of familiar illustrations from +the experience of a new country--but it must not be long. It was not +very easy to satisfy myself and Mr. Hartley--who was a severe +critic--but when the book of 120 pages was completed he was satisfied. +A preface I wrote for the second edition--the first 5,000 copies being +insufficient for the requirements of the schools--will give some idea +of the plan of the work:--"In writing this little book, I have aimed +less at symmetrical perfection than at simplicity of diction, and such +arrangement as would lead from the known to the unknown, by which the +older children in our public schools might learn not only the actual +facts about the laws they live under, but also some of the principles +which underlie all law." The reprinting gave me an opportunity to reply +to my critics that "political economy, trades unions, insurance +companies, and newspapers" were outside the scope of the laws we live +under. But I thought that in a new State where the optional duties of +the Government are so numerous, it was of great importance for the +young citizen to understand economic principles. As conduct is the +greater part of life, and morality, not only the bond of social union, +but the main source of individual happiness, I took the ethical part of +the subject first, and tried to explain that education was of no value +unless it was used for good purposes. As without some wealth, +civilization was impossible, I next sought to show that national and +individual wealth depends on the security that is given by law, and on +the industry and the thrift which that security encourages. Land tenure +is of the first importance in colonial prosperity, and consideration of +the land revenue and the limitations as to its expenditure led me to +the necessity for taxation and the various modes of levying it. +Taxation led me to the power which imposes, collects, and expends it. +This involved a consideration of those representative institutions +which make the Government at once the master and the servant of the +people. Under this Government our persons and our prosperity are +protected by a system of criminal, civil, and insolvent law--each +considered in its place. Although not absolutely included in the laws +we live under, I considered that providence, and its various outlets in +banks, savings banks, joint stock companies, friendly societies, and +trades unions, were matters too important to be left unnoticed; and +also those influences which shape character quite as much as statute +laws--public opinion, the newspaper, and amusements. As the use of my +little book was restricted solely to school hours, my hope that the +parents might be helped and encouraged by its teaching was doomed to +disappointment. But the children of 30 years ago, when "The Laws We +Live Under" was first published, are the men and women of to-day, and +who shall say but that among them are to be found some at least worthy +and true citizens, who owe to my little book their first inspiration to +"hitch their wagon to a star." Last year an enthusiastic young Swedish +teacher and journalist was so taken with this South Australian little +handbook of civics that he urged on me the duty of bringing it up to +date, and embracing women's suffrage, the relations of the States to +the Commonwealth, as well as the industrial legislation which is in +many ways peculiar to Australia, but although those in authority were +sympathetic no steps have been taken for its reproduction. Identified +as I had been for so many years with elementary education in South +Australia, my mind was well prepared to applaud the movement in favour +of the higher education of poorer children of both sexes by the +foundation of bursaries and scholarships, and the opening up of the +avenues of learning to women by admitting them to University degrees. +Victoria was the first to take this step, and all over the Commonwealth +the example has been followed. I am, however, somewhat disappointed +that University women are not more generally progressive in their +ideas. They have won something which I should have been very glad of, +but which was quite out of reach. All opportunities ought to be +considered as opportunities for service. As my brother David regarded +the possession of honours and wealth as demanding sacrifice for the +common good, so I regarded special knowledge and special culture as +means for advancing the culture of all. It is said to be human nature +when special privileges or special gifts are used only for egoistic +ends; but the complete development of the human being demands that +altruistic ideas should also be cultivated. We see that in China an +aristocracy of letters--for it is through passing difficult +examinations in old literature that the ruling classes are +appointed--is no protection to the poor and ignorant from oppression or +degradation. It is true that the classics in China are very old, but so +are the literatures of Greece and Rome, on which so many university +degrees are founded; and it ought to be impressed upon all seekers +after academic honours that personal advantage is not the be-all and +end-all of their pursuits. In our democratic Commonwealth, although +there are some lower titles bestowed by the Sovereign on colonists more +or less distinguished, these are not hereditary, so that an aristocracy +is not hereditary. There may be an upper class, based on landed estate +or one on business success, or one on learning, but all tend to become +conservative as conservatism is understood in Australia. Safety is +maintained by the free rise from the lower to the higher. But all the +openings to higher education offered in high school and university do +not tempt the working man's children who want to earn wages as soon as +the law lets them go to work. Nor do they tempt their parents to their +large share of the sacrifice which young Scotch lads and even American +lads make to get through advanced studies. The higher education is +still a sort of preserve of the well-to-do, and when one thinks of how +greatly this is valued it seems a pity that it is not open to the +talents, to the industry, to the enthusiasm of all the young of both +sexes. But one exception I must make to the aloofness of people with +degrees and professions from the preventible evils of the world, and +that is in the profession that is the longest and the most +exacting--the medical profession. The women doctors whom I have met in +Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney have a keen sense of their +responsibility to the less fortunate. That probably is because medicine +as now understood and practised is the most modern of the learned +professions, and is more human than engineering, which is also modern. +It takes us into the homes of the poor more intimately than even the +clergyman, and it offers remedies and palliatives as well as advice. +The law is little studied by women in Australia, but in the United +States there are probably a thousand or more legal practitioners. It is +the profession that I should have chosen when I was young if it had +been in any way feasible. I had no bent for the medical profession, and +still less for what every one thinks the most womanly of +avocations--that of the trained nurse. I could nurse my own relatives +more or less well, but did not distinguish myself in that way, and I +could not devote myself to strangers. The manner in which penniless +young men become lawyers in the United States seems impossible in +Australia. Judge Lindsay, son of a ruined southern family, studied law +and delivered newspapers in the morning, worked in a lawyer's office +through the day, and acted as janitor at night. The course appears to +be shorter, and probably less Latin and Greek were required in a +western State than here. But during the long vacation in summer, +students go as waiters in big hotels at seaside or other health +resorts, or take up some other seasonal trade. All the Columbian guards +at the Chicago Exhibition were students. They kept order, they gave +directions, they wheeled invalids in bath chairs, and they earned all +that was needed, for their next winter's course. In the long high +school holidays youths and maidens who are poor and ambitious work for +money. I have seen fairly well-paid professors who went back to the +father's farm and worked hard all harvest time--and students always did +so. It appears easier in America to get a job for three months' +vacation than in England or Australia, and the most surprising thing +about an American is his versatility. Teaching is with most American +men only a step to something better, so that almost all elementary and +the far greater proportion of high school teaching is in the hands of +women. In Australia our male teachers have to spend so many years +before they are fully equipped that they rarely leave the profession. +The only check on the supply is that the course is so long and +laborious that the youth prefers an easy clerkship. Women, in spite of +the chance of marriage, enter the profession in the United States in +greater numbers, and as the scale of salaries is by no means equal pay +for equal work, except in New York, money is saved by employing women. +I think that it is the student of arts (that English title which is as +vague and unmeaning as the Scottish one of humanities)--student of +ancient classical literature--who, whether man or woman, has least +perception of the modern spirit or sympathy with the sorrows of the +world. With all honour to the classical authors, there are two things +in which they were deficient--the spirit of broad humanity and the +sense of humour. All ancient literature is grave--nay, sad. It is also +aristocratic for learning was the possession of the few. While writing +this narrative I came upon a notable thing done by Miss Crystal +Eastman, a member of the New York Bar, and Secretary of the State +Commission on Employers' Liability. It is difficult for us to +understand how so many good things are blocked, not only in the Federal +Government, but in the separate States, by the written constitutions. +In Great Britain the Constitution consists of unwritten principles +embodied either in Parliamentary statutes or in the common law, and +yields to any Act which Parliament may pass, and the judiciary can +impose no veto on it. This is one reason why England is so far ahead of +the United States in labour legislation. Miss Eastman was the principal +speaker at the annual meeting in January, 1910, of the New York State +Bar Association. She is a trained economic investigator as well as a +lawyer, and her masterly analysis of conditions under the present +liability law held close attention, and carried conviction to many +present that a radical change was necessary. The recommendations for +the statute were to make limited compensation for all accidents, except +those wilfully caused by the victim, compulsory on all employers. With +regard to dangerous occupations the person who profits by them should +bear the greatest share of the loss through accident. As for the +constitutionality of such legislation Miss Eastman said--"If our State +Constitution cannot be interpreted so as to recognise such an idea of +justice then I think we should amend our Constitution. I see no reason +why we should stand in such awe of a document which expressly provides +for its own revision every ten years." The evils against which this +brave woman lawyer contends are real and grievous. Working people in +America who suffer from injury are unmercifully exploited by the +ambulance-chasing lawyers. Casualty insurance companies are said to be +weary of being diverted from their regular business to become a mere +fighting force in the Courts to prevent the injured or the dependents +from getting any compensation. The long-suffering public is becoming +aware that the taxpayers are compelled to bear the burden of supporting +the pitifully great multitude of incapacitated or rendered dependent +because of industrial accident or occupational diseases. Employers +insure their liability, and the poor man has to fight an insurance +company, and at present reform is blocked on the plea that it is +unconstitutional. There are difficulties even in Australia, and to +enquire into such difficulties would be good work for women lawyers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +SPECULATION, CHARITY, AND A BOOK. + + +In the meantime my family history went on. My nephew was sent to the +Northern Territory to take over the branch of the English and Scottish +Bank at Palmerston, and he took his sister from school to go with him +and stay three months in the tropics. He was only 21 at the time. Four +years after he went to inspect the branch, and took his sister with him +again. I think she loved Port Darwin more than he did, and she always +stood up for the climate. South Australia did a great work in building, +unaided by any other Australian State, the telegraph line from Port +Darwin to Adelaide, and at one time it was believed that rich +goldfields were to be opened in this great empty land, which the +British Government had handed over to South Australia, because Stuart +had been the first to cross the island continent, and the handful of +South Australian colonists bad connected telegraphically the north and +the south. The telegraph building had been contracted for by Darwent +and Dalwood, and my brother, through the South Australian Bank, was +helping to finance them. That was in 1876-7. This was the first, but +not the last by any means, of enterprises which contractors were not +able to carry out in this State, either from taking a big enterprise at +too low a rate or from lack of financial backing. The Government, as in +the recent cases of the Pinnaroo Railway and the Outer Harbour, had to +complete the halfdone work as the direct employer of labour and the +direct purchaser of materials. A great furore for goldmining in the +Northern Territory arose, and people in England bought city allotments +in Palmerston, which was expected to become the queen city of North +Australia, Port Darwin is no whit behind Sydney Harbour in beauty and +capacity. The navies of the world could ride safely in its waters. A +railway of 150 miles in length, the first section of the great +transcontinental line, which was to extend from Palmerston to Port +Augusta, was built to connect Pine Creek, where there was gold to be +found, with the seaboard. South Australia was more than ever a misnomer +for this State. Victoria lay more to the south than our province, and +now that we stretched far inside the tropics the name seemed +ridiculous. My friend Miss Sinnett suggested Centralia as the +appropriate name for the State, which by this gift was really the +central State; but in the present crisis, when South Australia finds +the task of keeping the Northern Territory white too arduous and too +costly, and is offering it on handsome terms to the Commonwealth, +Centralia might not continue to be appropriate. Our northern possession +has cost South Australia much. The sums of money sunk in prospecting +for gold and other metals have been enormous, and at present there are +more Chinese there than Europeans. In the early days, when the Wrens +were there, Eleanor was surprised when their wonderful Chinese cook +came to her and said, "Missie, I go along a gaol to-morrow. You take Ah +Kei. He do all light till I go out!" The cook had been tried and +condemned for larceny, but he was allowed to retain his situation till +the last hour. Instead of being kept in gaol pending his trial he +earned his wages and did his work. He had no desire to escape. He liked +Palmerston and the bank, and he went back to the latter when released. +He was an incorrigible thief, and got into trouble again; but as a cook +he was superlative. + +That decade of the eighties was a most speculative time all over +Australia and New Zealand. I was glad that leaving the English and +Scottish Bank enabled my brother to go into political and official +life, but it also allowed him to speculate far beyond what he could +have done if he had been manager of a bank. Everybody speculated--in +mines, in land, and in leases. I was earning by my pen a very decent +income, and I spent it, sometimes wisely and sometimes foolishly. I +could be liberal to church and to good causes. I was able to keep a +dear little State child at school for two years after the regulation +age, and I was amply repaid by seeing her afterwards an honoured wife +and mother, able to assist her children and their companions with their +lessons. I helped some lame dogs over the stile. One among them was a +young American of brilliant scholastic attainments, who was the victim +of hereditary alcoholism. His mother, a saintly and noble +prohibitionist worker, whom I afterwards met in America, had heard of +me, and wrote asking me to keep a watchful eye on her boy. This I did +for about 12 months, and found him employment. He held a science +degree, and was an authority on mineralogy, metallurgy, and kindred +subjects. During this speculative period he persuaded me to plunge +(rather wildly for me) in mining shares. I plunged to the extent of 500 +pounds, and I owe it to the good sense and practical ability of my +nephew that I lost no more heavily than I did, for he paid 100 pounds +to let me off my bargain. + +My protege continued to visit me weekly, and we wrote to one another +once a week or oftener. The books I lent to him I know to this day by +their colour and the smell of tobacco. I wrote to his mother regularly, +and consulted with his good friend, Mr. Waterhouse, over what was best +to be done. One bad outburst he had when he had got some money through +me to pay off liabilities. I recollect his penitent, despairing +confession, with the reference to Edwin Arnold's poem + + He who died at Azun gave + This to those who dug his grave. + +The time came when I felt I could hold him no longer, although that +escapade was forgiven, and I determined to send him to his mother--not +without misgivings about what she might have still to suffer. He wrote +to me occasionally. His health was never good, and I attribute the +craving for drink and excitement a good deal to physical causes; but at +the same time I am sure that he could have withstood it by a more +resolute will. The will is the character--it is the real man. When +people say that the first thing in education is to break the will, they +make a radical mistake. Train the will to work according to the +dictates of an enlightened conscience, for it is all we have to trust +to for the stability of character. My poor lad called me his Australian +mother. When I saw his real mother, I wondered more and more what sort +of a husband she had, or what atavism Edward drew from to produce a +character so unlike hers. I heard nothing from herself of what she went +through, but from her friends I gathered that he had several outbreaks, +and cost her far more than she could afford. She paid everything that +he owed in Adelaide, except her debt to me, but that I was repaid after +her death in 1905, and she always felt that I had been a true friend to +her wayward son. I recollect one day my friend coming on his weekly +visit with a face of woe to tell me he had seen a man in dirt and rags, +with half a shirt, who had been well acquainted with Charles Dickens +and other notables in London. My friend had fed him and clothed him, +but he wanted to return to England to rich friends. I wrote to a few +good folk, and we raised the money and sent the wastrel to the old +country. How grateful he appeared to be, especially to the kind people +who had taken him in; but he never wrote a line. We never heard from +him again. Years afterwards I wrote to his brother-in-law, asking where +the object of our charity now was, if he were still alive. The reply +was that his ingratitude did not surprise the writer--that he was a +hopeless drunkard, a remittance man, whom the family had to ship off as +soon as possible when our ill-judged kindness sent him to England. At +that time he was in Canada, but it was not worth while to give any +address. When Mr. Bowyear started the Charity Organization Society in +Adelaide, he said I was no good as a visitor; I was too credulous, and +had not half enough of the detective in me. But I had not much faith in +this remittance man. + +I have been strongly tempted to omit altogether the next book which I +wrote; but, as this is to be a sincere narrative of my life and its +work, I must pierce the veil of anonymity and own up to "An Agnostic's +Progress." I had been impressed with the very different difficulties +the soul of man has to encounter nowadays from those so triumphantly +overcome by Christian in the great work of John Bunyan in the first +part of "The Pilgrim's Progress." He cannot now get out of the Slough +of Despond by planting his foot on the stepping stones of the Promises. +He cannot, like Hopeful, pluck from his bosom the Key of Promise which +opens every lock in Doubting Castle when the two pilgrims are shut in +it by Giant Despair, when they are caught trespassing on his grounds. +Even assured Christians, we know, may occasionally trespass on these +grounds of doubt; but the weapons of modern warfare are not of the +seventeenth century. The Interpreter's House in the old allegory dealt +only with things found in the Bible, the only channel of revelation to +John Bunyan. To the modern pilgrim God reveals Himself in Nature, in +art, in literature, and in history. The Interpreter's Hand had to do +with all these things. Vanity Fair is not a place through which all +pilgrims must pass as quickly as possible, shutting their eyes and +stopping their ears so that they should neither see nor hear the wicked +things that are done and said there. Vanity Fair is the world in which +we all have to live and do our work well, or neglect it. Pope and Pagan +are not the old giants who used to devour pilgrims, but who can now +only gnash their teeth at them in impotent rage. They are live forces, +quite active, and with agents and supporters alert to capture souls. Of +all the influences which affected for evil my young life I perhaps +resented most Mrs. Sherwood's "Infant's Progress." There were three +children in it going from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City +by the route laid down by John Bunyan; but they were handicapped even +more severely than the good Christian himself with his heavy +burden--for that fell off his back at the first sight of the Cross and +Him who was nailed to it, accepted by the eye of Faith as the one +Sacrifice for the sins of the world--for the three little ones, Humble +Mind, Playful, and Peace, were accompanied always and everywhere by an +imp called Inbred Sin, who never ceased to tempt them to evil. + +The doctrine of innate human depravity is one of the most paralysing +dogmas that human fear invented or priestcraft encouraged. I did not +think of publishing "An Agnostic's Progress" at first. I wrote it to +relieve my own mind. I wanted to satisfy myself that reverent agnostics +were by no means materialists; that man's nature might or might not be +consciously immortal, but it was spiritual; that in the duties which +lay before each of us towards ourselves and towards our +fellow-creatures, there was scope for spiritual energy and spiritual +emotion. I was penetrated by Browning's great idea expressed over and +over again--the expansion of Paul's dictum that faith is not certainty, +but a belief without sufficient proof, a belief which leads to right +action and to self-sacrifice. Of the 70 years of life which one might +hope to live and work in, I had no mean idea. I asked in the newspaper, +"Is life so short?" and answered. "No." I expanded and spiritualized +the idea in a sermon, and I again answered emphatically "No." I saw the +continuation and the expansion of true ideas by succeeding generations. +To the question put sometimes peevishly, "Is life worth living?" I +replied with equal emphasis, "Yes." My mother told me of old times. I +recalled half a century of progress, and I hoped the forward movement +would continue. I read the manuscript of "An Agnostic's Progress" to +Mr. and Mrs. Barr Smith, and they thought so well of it that they +offered to take it to England on one of their many visits to the old +country, where they had no doubt it would find a publisher. Trubner's +reader reported most favourably of the book, and we thought there was +an immediate prospect of its publication; but Mr. Trubner died, and the +matter was not taken up by his successor, and my friends did what I had +expressly said they were not to do, and had it printed and published at +their own expense. There were many printer's errors in it, but it was +on the whole well reviewed, though it did not sell well. The Spectator +joined issue with me on the point that it is only through the wicket +gate of Doubt that we can come to any faith that is of value; but I am +satisfied that I took the right stand there. My mother was in no way +disquieted or disturbed by my writing the book, and few of my friends +read it or knew about it. I still appeared so engrossed with work on +The Register and The Observer that my time was quite well enough +accounted for. I tried for a prize of 100 pounds offered by The Sydney +Mail with a novel called "Handfasted," but was not successful, for the +judge feared that it was calculated to loosen the marriage tie--it was +too socialistic and consequently dangerous. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +JOURNALISM AND POLITICS. + + +In reviewing books I took the keenest Interest in the "Carlyle +Biographies and Letters," because my mother recollected Jeanie Welch as +a child, and her father was called in always for my grandfather +Brodie's illnesses. I was also absorbed in the "Life and Letters of +George Eliot." The Barr Smiths gave me the "Life and Letters of +Balzac," and many of his books in French, which led me to write both +for The Register and for The Melbourne Review. I also wrote "A last +word," which was lost by The Centennial in Sydney when it died out. It +was also from Mrs. Barr Smith that I got so many of the works of +Alphonse Daudet in French, which enabled me to give a rejoinder to +Marcus Clark's assertion that Balzac was a French Dickens. Indeed, +looking through my shelves, I see so many books which suggested +articles and criticisms which were her gifts that I always connect her +with my journalistic career. + +Many people have consulted me about publishing poems, novels, and +essays. As I was known to have actually got books published in England, +and to be a professional journalist and reviewer, I dare say some of +those who applied to me for encouragement thought I was actuated by +literary jealousy; but people are apt to think they have a plot when +they have only an incident, or two or three incidents; and many who can +write clever and even brilliant letters have no idea of the +construction of a story that will arrest and sustain the reader's +attention. The people who consulted me all wanted money for their work. +They had such excellent uses for money. They had too little. They were +neither willing nor able to bear the cost of publication, and it was +absolutely necessary that their work should be good enough for a +business man to undertake it. I am often surprised that I found English +publishers myself, and the handicap of distance and other things is +even greater now. If stories are excessively Australian, they lose the +sympathies of the bulk of the public. If they are mildly Australian, +the work is thought to lack distinctiveness. Great genius can overcome +these things, but great genius is rare everywhere. Except for my friend +Miss Mackay (Mrs. F. Martin), I know no Australian novelist of genius, +and her work is only too rare in fiction. Mrs. Cross reaches her +highest level in "The Masked Man." but she does not keep it up, though +she writes well and pleasantly. Of course poetry does not pay anywhere +until a great reputation is made. Poetry must be its own exceeding +great reward. And yet I agree with Charles Kingsley that if you wish to +cultivate a really good prose style you should begin with verse. In my +teens I wrote rhymes and tried to write sonnets. I encouraged writing +games among my young people, and it is surprising how much cleverness +could be developed. I can write verses with ease, but very rarely could +I rise to poetry; and therefore I fear I was not encouraging to the +budding Australian poet. + +There was a column quite outside of The Register to which I liked to +contribute for love. That was "The Riddler," which appeared in The +Observer and in The Evening Journal on Saturdays. It brought me in +contact with Mr. William Holden, long the oldest journalist in South +Australia, who revelled in statistical returns and algebraical problems +and earth measurements, but who also appreciated a good charade or +double acrostic. I used to give some of the ingredients for his +"Christmas Mince Pie," and wrote many riddles of various sorts. My +charades were not so elegant as some arranged by Miss Clark, and not so +easily found out; and my double acrostics were not so subtle as those +given in competition nowadays, but they were in the eighties reckoned +excellent. My fame had reached the ears of Mrs. Alfred Watts (nee +Giles), who spent her early colonial life on Kangaroo Island, and she +asked me to write some double acrostics for the poor incurables. I +stared at her in amazement. "We want to be quite well to tackle double +acrostics and to have access to books. Does not Punch speak of the +titled lady, eager to win a guinea prize, who gave seven volumes of +Carlyle's works to seven upper servants, and asked each to search one +to find a certain quotation?" "Oh," said Mrs. Watts, "I don't mean for +the incurables to amuse themselves with. I mean for the benefit of the +home." + +In the end I prepared a book of charades and double acrostics, for the +printing and binding of which Mrs. Watts paid. It was entitled "Silver +Wattle," and the proceeds from the sale of this little book went to +help the funds of the home. For a second volume issued for the same +purpose Mrs. Strawbridge wrote some poems, Mrs. H. M. Davidson a +translation of Victor Huge, Miss Clark her beautiful "Flowers of +Greece," and her niece some pretty verses, which, combined with the +double acrostics, and acting charades supplied by me, made an +attractive volume. Mrs. Watts had something of a literary turn, which +found expression in "Memories of Early Days in South Australia," a book +printed for private circulation among her family and intimate friends. +Dealing with the years between 1837 and 1845 it was very interesting to +old colonists, particularly when they were able to identify the people +mentioned, sometimes by initials and sometimes by pseudonyms. The +author was herself an incurable invalid from an accident shortly after +her marriage, and felt keenly for all the inmates of the Fullarton Home. + +In 1877 my brother John--with whom I had never quarrelled in my life, +and who helped and encouraged me in everything that I did--retired from +the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank, and decided to contest a +seat for the Legislative Council. It was the last occasion on which the +Council was elected with the State as one district. Although he +announced his candidature only the night before nomination day, and did +not address a single meeting, he was elected third on the poll. He +afterwards became the Chief Secretary, and later Commissioner of Public +Works. He was an excellent worker on committees, and was full of ideas +and suggestions. Although not a good speaker, he rejoiced in my +standing on platform or in pulpit. He was nearly as democratic as I +was; and when he invented the phrase "effective voting" it was from the +sense that true democracy demanded not merely a chance, but a +certainty, that the vote given at the poll should be effective for some +one. My brother David inherited all the Conservatism of the Brodies for +generations back. Greatly interested in all abstruse problems and +abstract questions he had various schemes for the regeneration of +mankind. Two opposing theories concerning the working of bi-cameral +Legislatures supplied me with material for a Review article. One theory +was intensely Conservative, and emanated from my brother David, who was +a poor man. The other was held by the richest man of my acquaintance, +and was distinctly Liberal. My brother argued that the Upper House +should have the power to tax its own constituents, and was utterly +opposed to any extension of the franchise. My rich friend objected to +the limited franchise, and desired to have the State proclaimed one +electorate with proportional representation as a safeguard against +unwise legislation and as a means to assist reforms. The great blot, he +considered, on Australian Constitutions was the representation by +districts, especially for the House that controlled the public purse. +If districts were to be tolerated at all, they should be represented by +men who had a longer tenure of office than our Assembly's three years, +and who did not have so often to ask for votes, which frequently +depended on a railway or a jetty or a Rabbit Bill. So long as a +Government depends for its existence on the support of local +representatives it is tempted to spend public money to gratify them. +Both men were Freetraders, and both believed strongly in the justice of +land values taxation. + +My friend the late Professor Pearson had entered into active political +life in Melbourne, and was a regular writer for The Age. Perhaps no +other man underwent more obloquy from his old friends for taking the +side of Graham Berry, especially as he was a Freetrader, and the +popular party was Protectionist. He justified his action by saying that +a mistake in the fiscal policy of a country should not prevent a real +Democrat from siding with the party which opposed monopoly, especially +in land. He saw in "LATIFUNDIA"--huge estates--the ruin of the Roman +Empire, and its prevalence in the United Kingdom was the greatest +danger ahead of it. In these young countries the tendency to build up +large holdings was naturally fostered by what was the earliest of our +industries. Sheepfarming is not greatly pursued in the United States or +Canada, because of the rigorous winter--but Australia is the favourite +home of the merino sheep. Originally there was no need to buy land, or +even to pay rent to the Government for it; the land had no value till +settlement gave it. The squatter leased it on easy terms, and bought it +only when it had sufficient value to be desired by agriculturists or by +selectors who posed as agriculturists. When he bought it he generally +complained of the price these selectors compelled him to pay, but it +was then secure; and, with the growth of population and the railroads +and other improvements, these enforced purchasers, even in 1877, had +built up vast estates in single hands in every State in Australia. In +The Melbourne Review for April, 1877, Professor Pearson sketched a plan +of land taxation, which was afterwards carried out, in which the area +of land held was the test for graduated taxation. Henry George had not +then declared his gospel; and, although I felt that there was something +very faulty in the scheme, I did not declare in my article on the +subject that an acre in Collins street might be of more value than +50,000 acres of pastoral land 500 miles from the seaboard, and was +therefore more fitly liable to taxation for the advantage of the whole +community, who had given to that acre this exceptional value. I did not +declare it because I did not believe it. But I thought that the end +aimed at--the breaking up of large estates--could be better and more +safely effected, though not so quickly, by a change in the incidence of +succession duties. + +Some time after I saw a single copy of Henry George's "Progress and +Poverty" on Robertson's shelves, and bought it, and it was I who after +reading this book opened in the three most important Australian +colonies the question of the taxation of land values. An article I +wrote went into The Register, and Mr. Liston, of Kapunda, read it, and +spoke of it at a farmers' meeting. I had then a commission from The +Sydney Morning Herald to write on any important subject, and I wrote on +this. It appeared, like a previous article on Howell's "Conflicts of +Capital and Labour," as an unsigned article. A new review, The +Victorian, had been started by Mortimer Franlyn, which paid +contributors; and, now that I was a professional journalist, I thought +myself entitled to ask remuneration. I sent to the new periodical, +published in Melbourne, a fuller treatment of the book than had been +given to the two newspapers, under the title of "A Californian +Political Economist." This fell into the hands of Henry George himself, +in a reading room in San Francisco, and he wrote an acknowledgment of +it to me. In South Australia the first tax on unimproved land values +was imposed. It was small--only a halfpenny in the pound, but without +any exemption; and its imposition was encouraged by the fact that we +had had bad seasons and a falling revenue. The income tax in England +was originally a war tax, and they say that if there is not a war the +United States will never be able to impose an income tax. The separate +States have not the power to impose such a tax. Henry George said to me +in his home in New York:--"I wonder at you, with your zeal and +enthusiasm, and your power of speaking, devoting yourself to such a +small matter as proportional representation, when you see the great +land question before you." I replied that to me it was not a small +matter. I cannot, however, write my autobiography without giving +prominence to the fact that I was the pioneer in Australia in this as +in the other matter of proportional representation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SORROW AND CHANGE. + + +In the long and cheerful life of my dear mother there at last came a +change. At 94 she fell and broke her wrist. The local doctor (a +stranger), who was called in, not knowing her wonderful constitution, +was averse from setting the wrist, and said that she would never be +able to use the hand. But I insisted, and in six, weeks she was able to +resume her knitting, and never felt any ill effects. At 95 she had a +fall, apparently without cause, and was never able to stand again. She +had to stay in bed for the last 13 months of her life, with a gradual +decay of the faculties which had previously been so keen. My mother +wanted me with her always. Her talk was all of times far back in her +life--not of Melrose, where she had lived for 25 years, but of +Scoryhall (pronounced Scole), where she had lived as a girl. I had been +shown through the house by my aunt Handyside in 1865, and I could +follow her mind wanderings and answer her questions. As she suffered so +little pain it was difficult for my mother to realize the seriousness +of her illness; and, tiring of her bedroom, she begged to be taken to +the study, where, with her reading and knitting, she had spent so many +happy hours while I did my writing. Delighted though she was at the +change, a return to her bed--as to all invalids--was a comfort, and she +never left it again. Miss Goodham--an English nurse and a charming +woman, who has since remained a friend and correspondent of the +family--was sent to help us for a few days at the last. Another sorrow +came to us at this time in the loss of my ward's husband, and Rose +Hood--nee Duval--returned to live near me with her three small +children. Her commercial training enabled her to take a position as +clerk in the State Children's Department, which she retained until her +death. The little ones were very sweet and good, but the supervision of +them during the day added a somewhat heavy responsibility to our +already overburdened household. In these days, when one hears so much +of the worthlessness of servants, it is a joy to remember how our +faithful maid--we kept only one for that large house--at her own +request, did all the laundry work for the family of five, and all +through the three years of Eleanor's illness waited on her with +untiring devotion. + +An amusing episode which would have delighted the heart of my dear +friend Judge Lindsay occurred about this time. The fruit from our +orange trees which grew along the wall bordering an adjoining paddock +was an irresistible temptation to wandering juveniles, and many and +grievous were the depredations. Patience, long drawn out, at last gave +way, and when the milkman caught two delinquents one Saturday afternoon +with bulging blouses of forbidden fruit it became necessary to make an +example of some one. The trouble was to devise a fitting punishment. A +Police Court, I had always maintained, was no place for children; +corporal punishment was out of the question; and the culprits stood +tremblingly awaiting their fate till a young doctor present suggested a +dose of Gregory's powder. His lawyer friend acquiesced, and Gregory's +powder it was. A moment's hesitation and the nauseous draught was +swallowed to the accompaniment of openly expressed sympathy, one dear +old lady remarking, "Poor children and not so much as a taste of +sugar." Probably, however, the unkindest cut of all was the carrying +away by the milkman of the stolen fruit! The cure was swift and +effective; and ever after the youth of the district, like the Pharisee +of old, passed by on the other side. + +My dear mother died about 8 o'clock on the evening of December 8, 1887, +quietly and painlessly. With her death, which was an exceedingly great +loss to me, practically ended my quiet life of literary work. +Henceforth I was free to devote my efforts to the fuller public work +for which I had so often longed, but which my mother's devotion to and +dependence on me rendered impossible. But I missed her untiring +sympathy, for with all her love for the old days and the old friends +there was no movement for the advancement of her adopted land that did +not claim her devoted attention. But though I was now free to take up +public work, the long strain of my mother's illness and death had +affected my usually robust health, and I took things quietly. I had +been asked by the University Shakspeare Society to give a lecture on +Donnelly's book, "The Great Cryptogram;" or "Who Wrote Shakspeare's +Plays?" and it was prepared during this period, and has frequently been +delivered since. October of the year following my mothers death found +me again in Melbourne, where I rejoiced in the renewal of a friendship +with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Walker, the former of whom had been connected +with the construction of the overland railway. They were delightful +literary people, and I had met them at the hospitable house of the +Barr-Smiths, and been introduced as "a literary lady." "Then perhaps," +said Mr. Walker, "you can give us the information we have long sought +in vain--who wrote 'Clara Morrison?'" Their surprise at my "I did" was +equalled by the pleasure I felt at their kind appreciation of my book, +and that meeting was the foundation of a lifelong friendship. Before my +visit closed I was summoned to Gippsland through the death by accident +of my dear sister Jessie--the widow of Andrew Murray, once editor of +The Argus--and the year 1888 ended as sadly for me as the previous one +had done. The following year saw the marriage of my nephew, Charles +Wren of the E.S. and A. Bank, to Miss Hall, of Melbourne. On his +deciding to live on in the old home, I, with Ellen Gregory, whom I had +brought out in 1867 to reside with relations, but who has remained to +be the prop and mainstay of my old age--and Mrs. Hood and her three +children, moved to a smaller and more suitable house I had in another +part of East Adelaide. A placid flowing of the river of life for a year +or two led on to my being elected, in 1892, President of the Girls' +Literary Society. This position I filled with joy to myself and, I +hope, with advantage to others, until some years later the society +ceased to exist. + +Crowded and interesting as my life had been hitherto, the best was yet +to be. My realization of Browning's beautiful line from "Rabbi Ben +Ezra"--"The last of life, for which the first was made," came when I +saw opening before me possibilities for public service undreamed of in +my earlier years. For the advancement of effective voting I had so far +confined my efforts to the newspapers. My brother John had suggested +the change of name from proportional representation to effective voting +as one more likely to catch the popular ear, and I had proposed a +modification of Hare's original plan of having one huge electorate, and +suggested instead the adoption of six-member districts. The State as +one electorate returning 42 members for the Assembly may be +magnificent, and may also be the pure essence of democracy, but it is +neither commonsense nor practicable. "Why not take effective voting to +the people?" was suggested to me. No sooner said than done. I had +ballot papers prepared and leaflets printed, and I began the public +campaign which has gone on ever since. During a visit to Melbourne as a +member of a charities conference it was first discovered that I had +some of the gifts of a public speaker. My friend, the Rev. Charles +Strong, had invited me to lecture before his working men's club at +Collingwood, and I chose as my subject "Effective Voting." + +When on my return Mr. Barr Smith, who had long grasped the principle of +justice underlying effective voting, and was eager for its adoption, +offered to finance a lecturing tour through the State, I jumped at the +offer. There was the opportunity for which I had been waiting for +years. I got up at unearthly hours to catch trains, and sometimes +succeeded only through the timely lifts of kindly drivers. Once I went +in a carrier's van, because I had missed the early morning cars. I +travelled thousands of miles in all weathers to carry to the people the +gospel of electoral reform. Disappointments were frequent, and +sometimes disheartening; but the silver lining of every cloud turned up +somewhere, and I look back on that first lecturing tour as a time of +the sowing of good seed, the harvest of which is now beginning to +ripen. I had no advance agents to announce my arrival, and at one town +in the north I found nobody at the station to meet me. I spent the most +miserable two and a half hours of my life waiting Micawber-like for +something to turn up; and it turned up in the person of the village +blacksmith. I spoke to him, and explained my mission to the town. He +had heard nothing of any meeting. Incidentally I discovered that my +correspondent was in Adelaide, and had evidently forgotten all about my +coming. "Well," I said to the blacksmith, "if you can get together a +dozen intelligent men I will explain effective voting to them." He +looked at me with a dumbfounded air, and then burst out, "Good G--, +madam, there are not three intelligent men in the town." But the old +order has changed, and in 1909 Mrs. Young addressed an enthusiastic +audience of 150 in the same town and on the same subject. The town, +moreover, is in a Parliamentary district, in which every candidate at +the recent general election--and there were seven of them--supported +effective voting. Far down in the south I went to a little village +containing seven churches, which accounted (said the local doctor) for +the extreme backwardness of its inhabitants. "They have so many church +affairs to attend to that there is no time to think of anything else." +At the close of this lecturing tour The Register undertook the public +count through its columns, which did so much to bring the reform before +the people of South Australia. Public interest was well aroused on the +matter before my long projected trip to America took shape. "Come and +teach us how to vote," my American friends had been writing to me for +years; but I felt that it was a big order for a little woman of 68 to +undertake the conversion to electoral reform of 60 millions of the most +conceited people in the world. Still I went. I left Adelaide bound for +America on April 4, 1893, as a Government Commissioner and delegate to +the Great World's Fair Congresses in Chicago. + +In Melbourne and Sydney on my way to the boat for San Francisco I found +work to do. Melbourne was in the throes of the great financial panic, +when bank after bank closed its doors; but the people went to church as +usual. I preached in the Unitarian Church on the Sunday, and lectured +in Dr. Strong's Australian Church on Monday. In Sydney Miss Rose Scott +had arranged a drawing-room meeting for a lecture on effective voting. +A strong convert I made on that occasion was Mr. (afterwards Sr.) +Walker. A few delightful hours I spent at his charming house on the +harbour with his family, and was taken by them to see many beauty +spots. Those last delightful days in Sydney left me with pleasant +Australian memories to carry over the Pacific. When the boat sailed on +April 17, the rain came down in torrents. Some interesting missionaries +were on board. One of them, the venerable Dr. Brown, who had been for +30 years labouring in the Pacific, introduced me to Sir John Thurston. +Mr. Newell was returning to Samoa after a two years' holiday in +England. He talked much, and well about his work. He had 104 students +to whom he was returning. He explained that they became missionaries to +other more benighted and less civilized islands, where their knowledge +of the traditions and customs of South Sea Islanders made them +invaluable as propagandists. The writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, +had prepared me to find in the Samoans a handsome and stalwart race, +with many amiable traits, and I was not disappointed. The beauty of the +scenery appealed to me strongly, and I doubt whether "the light that +never was on sea or land" could have rivalled the magic charm of the +one sunrise we saw at Samoa. During the voyage I managed to get in one +lecture, and many talks on effective voting. Had I been superstitious +my arrival in San Francisco on Friday, May 12, might have boded ill for +the success of my mission, but I was no sooner ashore than my friend +Alfred Cridge took me in charge, and the first few days were a whirl of +meetings, addresses and interviews. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. + + +Alfred Cridge, who reminded me so much of my brother David that I felt +at home with him immediately, had prepared the way for my lectures on +effective voting in San Francisco. He was an even greater enthusiast +than I. "America needs the reform more than Australia," he used to say. +But if America needs effective voting to check corruption, Australia +needs it just as much to prevent the degradation of political life in +the Commonwealth and States to the level of American politics. My +lectures in San Francisco, as elsewhere in America, were well attended, +and even better received. Party politics had crushed out the best +elements of political life, and to be independent of either party gave +a candidate, as an agent told Judge Lindsay when he was contesting the +governorship of Colorado, "as much chance as a snowball would have in +hell." So that reformers everywhere were eager to hear of a system of +voting that would free the electors from the tyranny of parties, and at +the same time render a candidate independent of the votes of heckling +minorities, and dependent only on the votes of the men who believed in +him and his politics. I met men and women interested in public +affairs--some of them well known, others most worthy to be known, and +all willing to lend the weight of their character and intelligence to +the betterment of human conditions at home and abroad. Among these were +Judge Maguire, a leader of the Bar in San Francisco and a member of the +State Legislature, who had fought trusts, "grafters," and "boodlers" +through the whole of his public career, and Mr. James Barry, proprietor +of The Star. + +"You come from Australia, the home of the secret ballot?" was the +greeting I often received, and that really was my passport to the +hearts of reformers all over America. From all sides I heard that it +was to the energy and zeal of the Singletaxers in the various States--a +well-organized and compact body--that the adoption of the secret ballot +was due. To that celebrated journalist, poetess, and economic writer, +Charlotte Perkins Stetson, who was a cultured Bostonian, living in San +Francisco, I owed one of the best women's meetings I ever addressed. +The subject was "State children and the compulsory clauses in our +Education Act," and everywhere in the States people were interested in +the splendid work of our State Children's Department and educational +methods. Intelligence and not wealth I found to be the passport to +social life among the Americans I met. At a social evening ladies as +well as their escorts were expected to remove bonnets and mantles in +the hall, instead of being invited into a private room as in +Australia--a custom I thought curious until usage made it familiar. The +homeliness and unostentatiousness of the middle class American were +captivating. My interests have always been in people and in the things +that make for human happiness or misery rather than in the beauties of +Nature, art, or architecture. I want to know how the people live, what +wages are, what the amount of comfort they can buy; how the people are +fed, taught, and amused; how the burden of taxation falls; how justice +is executed; how much or how little liberty the people enjoy. And these +things I learned to a great extent from my social intercourse with +those cultured reformers of America. Among these people I had not the +depressing feeling of immensity and hugeness which marred my enjoyment +when I arrived at New York. My literary lectures on the Brownings and +George Eliot were much appreciated, especially in the East, where I +found paying audiences in the fall or autumn of the year. These +lectures have been delivered many times in Australia; and, as the +result of the Browning lecture given in the Unitarian Schoolroom in +Wakefield street, Adelaide, I received from the pen of Mr. J. B. Mather +a clever epigram. The room was large and sparsely filled, and to the +modest back seat taken by my friend my voice scarcely penetrated. So he +amused himself and me by writing: + + I have no doubt that words of sense + Are falling from the lips of Spence. + Alas! that Echo should be drowning + Both words of Spence and sense of Browning. + +I found the Brownings far better appreciated in America than in +England, especially by American women. In spite of the fact that The +San Francisco Chronicle had interviewed me favourably on my arrival, +and that I knew personally some of the leading people on The Examiner, +neither paper would report my lectures on effective voting. The Star, +however, quite made up for the deficiencies of the other papers, and +did all it could to help me and the cause. While in San Francisco I +wrote an essay on "Electoral Reform" for a Toronto competition, in +which the first prize was $500. Mr. Cridge was also a competitor; but, +although many essays were sent in, for some reason the prize was never +awarded, and we had our trouble for nothing. On my way to Chicago I +stayed at a mining town to lecture on effective voting. I found the +hostess of the tiny hotel a brilliant pianist and a perfect linguist, +and she quoted poetry--her own and other people's--by the yard. A lady +I journeyed with told me that she had been travelling for seven years +with her husband and "Chambers's Encyclopedia." I thought they used the +encyclopaedia as a guide book until, in a sort of postscript to our +conversation, I discovered the husband to be a book agent, better known +in America as a "book fiend." + +Nobody had ever seen anything like the World's Fair. My friend Dr. +Bayard Holmes of Chigago, whose acquaintance I made through missing a +suburban train, expressed a common feeling when he said he could weep +at the thought that it was all to be destroyed--that the creation +evolved from the best brains of America should be dissolved. Much of +our human toil is lost and wasted, and much of our work is more +ephemeral than we think; but this was a conscious creation of hundreds +of beautiful buildings for a six months' existence. Nowhere else except +in America could the thing have been done, and nowhere else in America +but in Chicago. At the Congress of Charity and correction I found every +one interested in Australia's work for destitute children. It was +difficult for Miss Windeyer, of Sydney, and myself--the only +Australians present--to put ourselves in the place of many who believed +in institutions where children of low physique, low morals, and low +intelligence are massed together, fed, washed, drilled, taught by rule, +never individualized, and never mothered. I spoke from pulpits in +Chicago and Indianapolis on the subject, and was urged to plead with +the Governor of the latter State to use his influence to have at least +tiny mites of six years of age removed from the reformatory, which was +under the very walls of the gaol. But he was obdurate to my pleadings +and arguments, as he had been to those of the State workers. He +maintained that these tiny waifs of six were incorrigible, and were +better in institutions than in homes. The most interesting woman I met +at the conference was the Rev. Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, pastor of Bell +Street Chapel, Providence. I visited her at home, in that retreat of +Baptists, Quakers, and others from the hard persecution of the New +England Orthodoxy, the founders of which had left England in search of +freedom to worship God. Her husband was the Unitarian minister of +another congregation in the same town. At the meetings arranged by Mrs. +Spencer, Professor Andrews, one of the Behring Sea arbitrators, and +Professor Wilson were present; and they invited me to speak on +effective voting at the Brunn University. + +In Philadelphia I addressed seven meetings on the same subject. At six +of them an editor of a little reform paper was present. For two years +he had lived on brown bread and dried apples, in order that he could +save enough to buy a newspaper plant for the advocacy of reforms. In +his little paper he replied to the critics, who assured me that it was +no use worrying, as everything would come right in time. "Time only +brings wonders," he wrote, "when good and great men and women rise up +to move the world along. Time itself brings only decay and death. The +truth is 'Nothing will come right unless those who feel they have the +truth speak, and Work, and strain as if on them alone rested the +destinies of the world.'" I went to see a celebrated man, George W. +Childs, who had made a fortune out of The Philadelphia Ledger, and who +was one of the best employers in the States. He knew everybody, not +only in America but in Europe; and his room was a museum of gifts from +great folks all over the world. But, best of all, he, with his devoted +friend Anthony Drexel, had founded the Drexel Institute, which was +their magnificent educational legacy to the historic town. I saw the +Liberty Bell in Chicago--the bell that rang out the Declaration of +Independence, and cracked soon after--which is cherished by all good +Americans. It had had a triumphant progress to and from the World's +Fair, and I was present when once again it was safely landed in +Independence Hall, Philadelphia. I think the Americans liked me, +because I thought their traditions reputably old, and did not, like +European visitors, call everything crude and new. The great war in +America strengthened the Federal bond, while it loosened the attachment +to the special Satte in which the United States citizen lives. +Railroads and telegraphs have done much to make Americans homogeneous, +and the school system grapples bravely with the greater task of +Americanizing the children of foreigners, who arrive in such vast +numbers. Canada allowed the inhabitants of lower Canada to keep their +language, their laws, and their denominational schools; and the +consequence is that these Canadian-British subjects are more French +than the French, more conservative than the Tories, and more Catholic +than Irish or Italians. Education is absolutely free in America up to +the age of 18; but I never heard an American complain of being taxed to +educate other people's children. In Auburn I met Harriet Tribman, +called the "Moses of her people"--an old black woman who could neither +read nor write, but who had escaped from slavery when young, and had +made 19 journeys south, and been instrumental in the escape of 300 +slaves. To listen to her was to be transferred to the pages of "Uncle +Tom's Cabin." Her language was just that of Tom and old Jeff. A pious +Christian, she was full of good works still. Her shanty was a refuge +for the sick, blind, and maimed of her own people. I went all over +Harvard University under the guidance of Professor Ashley, to whom our +Chief Justice had given me a letter of introduction. He got up a +drawing-room meeting for me, at which I met Dr. Gordon Ames, pastor of +the Unitarian Church of the Disciples. He invited me to preach his +thanksgiving service for him on the following Thursday, which I was +delighted to do. Mrs. Ames was the factory inspector of women and +children in Massachusetts, and was probably the wisest woman I met in +my travels. She spoke to me of the evils of stimulating the religious +sentiment too young, and said that the hushed awe with which most +people spoke of God and His constant presence filled a child's mind +with fear. + +She related an experience with her own child, who on going to bed had +asked if God was in the room. The child was told that God was always +besides us. After being left in darkness the child was heard sobbing, +and a return to the nursery elicited the confession, "Oh, mamma, I +can't bear to be left with no one but God." Better the simple +anthropomorphism which makes God like the good father, the generous +uncle, the indulgent grandfather, or the strong elder brother. + +Such ideas as these of God were held by the heroines of the following +stories:--A little girl, a niece of the beloved Bishop Brooks, had done +wrong, and was told to confess her sin to God before she slept, and to +beg His forgiveness. When asked next day whether she had obeyed the +command, she said--"Oh, yes! I told God all about it, and God said, +'Don't mention it, Miss Brooks.'" A similar injunction was laid upon a +child brought up by a very severe and rather unjust aunt. Her reply +when asked if she had confessed her sin was "I told God what I had +done, and what you thought about it, and I just left it to Him." The +response of a third American girl (who was somewhat of a "pickle" and +had been reared among a number of boys) to the enquiry whether she had +asked forgiveness for a wrong done was--"Oh, yes; I told God exactly +what I had done, and He said, 'Great Scot, Elsie Murray, I know 500 +little girls worse than you.'" To me this was a much healthier state of +mind than setting children weeping for their sins, as I have done +myself. + +On my second visit to Boston I spent three weeks with the family of +William, Lloyd Garrison, son of the famous Abolitionist. The Chief +Justice had given me a letter of introduction to him, and I found him a +true-hearted humanitarian, as devoted to the gospel of single tax as +his father had been to that of anti-slavery. They lived in a beautiful +house in Brookline, on a terrace built by an enterprising man who had +made his money in New South Wales. Forty-two houses were perfectly and +equally warmed by one great furnace, and all the public rooms of the +ground floor, dining, and drawing rooms, library, and hall were +connected by folding doors, nearly always open, which gave a feeling of +space I never experienced elsewhere. Electric lighting and bells all +over the house, hot and cold baths, lifts, the most complete laundry +arrangements, and cupboards everywhere ensured the maximum of comfort +with the minimum of labour. But in this house I began to be a little +ashamed of being so narrow in my views on the coloured question. Mr. +Garrison, animated with the spirit of the true brotherhood of man, was +an advocate of the heathen Chinee, and was continually speaking of the +goodness of the negro and coloured and yellow races, and of the +injustice and rapacity of the white Caucasians. I saw the files of his +father's paper, The Liberator, from its beginning in 1831 till its +close, when the victory was won in 1865. Of the time spent in the +Lloyd-Garrison household "nothing now is left but a majestic memory," +which has been kept green by the periodical letters received from this +noble man up till the time of his death last year. He showed me the +monument erected to the memory of his father in Boston in the town +where years before the great abolitionist had been stoned by the mob. +Only recently it rejoiced my heart to know that a memorial to Lloyd +Garrison the younger had been unveiled in Boston, his native city; at +the same time that a similar honour was paid to his venerated leader, +"the prophet of San Francisco." + +I account it one of the greatest privileges of my visit to America that +Mrs. Garrison introduced me to Oliver Wendell Holmes, and by +appointment I had an hour and a half's chat with him in the last year +of his long life. He was the only survivor of a famous band of New +England writers, Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorn, Bryant, Lowell, +Whittier, and Whitman were dead. His memory was failing, and he forgot +some of his own characters; but Elsie Venner he remembered perfectly +and he woke to full animation when I objected to the fatalism of +heredity as being about as paralysing to effort as the fatalism of +Calvinism. As a medical man (and we are apt to forget the physician in +the author) he took strong views of heredity. As a worker among our +destitute children, I considered environment the greater factor of the +two, and spoke of children of the most worth less parents who had +turned out well when placed early in respectable and kindly homes. +Before I left, the author presented me with an autograph copy of one of +his books--a much-prized gift. He was reading Cotton Mather's +"Memorabilia," not for theology, but for gossip. It was the only +chronicle of the small beer of current events in the days of the witch +persecutions, and the expulsion of the Quakers, Baptists, and other +schismatics. I have often felt proud that of all the famous men I have +mentioned in this connection there was only one not a Unitarian, and +that was Whittier, the Quaker poet of abolition; and his theology was +of the mildest. + +Another notable man with whom I had three hours' talk was Charles +Dudley Warner, the humorous writer. I am not partial to American +humorists generally, but the delicate and subtle humour of Dudley +Warner I always appreciated. In our talk I saw his serious side, for he +was keen on introducing the indeterminate sentence into his own State, +on the lines of the Elmira and Concord Reformatories. He told me that +he never talked in train: but during the three hours' journey to New +York neither of us opened the books with which we had provided +ourselves, and we each talked of our separate interests, and enjoyed +the talk right through. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe I saw, but her +memory was completely gone. With Julia Ward Howe, the writer of "The +Battle Hymn of the Republic" I spent a happy time. She had been the +President of the New England Women's Club for 25 years, and was a +charming and interesting woman. I was said to be very like her, and, +indeed was often accosted by her name; but I think probably the reason +was partly my cap, for Howe always wears one, and few other American +ladies do. Whenever I was with her I was haunted by the beautiful lines +from the closing verse of the "Battle Hymn"-- + + In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born, across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + +At her house I met many distinguished women. Mrs. J. F. Fields, the +widow of the well-known author-publisher; Madame Blaine Bentzam, a +writer for French reviews; Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, one of the most +charming of New England write is, and others. + +My best work in Canada was the conversion to effective voting of my +good friend Robert Tyson. For years now he has done yeoman service in +the cause, and has corresponded with workers all over the world on the +question of electoral reform. I visited Toronto, at the invitation of +Mr. William Howland, with whom I had corresponded for years. I was +invited to dinner with his father, Sir William Howland, who was the +first Lieutenant-Governor of Toronto after the federation of the +Dominion. I found it very difficult to remember the names of the many +interesting people I met there, although I could recollect the things +they spoke about. Mr. Howland took me on with him to an evening garden +party--quite a novel form of entertainment for me--where there were +other interesting people. One of these, a lady artist who had travelled +all round the world, took me on the next afternoon to an at-home at +Professor Goldwin Smith's. In a talk I had with this notable man he +spoke of his strong desire that Canada should become absorbed in the +States; but the feeling in Canada was adverse to such a change. Still, +you found Canadians everywhere, for many more men were educated than +could find careers in the Dominion. Sir Sandford Fleming, the most +ardent proportionalist in Canada, left Toronto on his trip to New +Zealand and Australia shortly after I arrived there. I spent a few +hours with him, and owed a great deal of my success in the Dominion to +his influence. I felt that I had done much good in Canada, and my time +was so occupied that the only thing I missed was leisure. + +Much of the time in New York was spent in interviews with the various +papers. I had a delightful few days at the house of Henry George, and +both he and his wife did everything in their power to make my visit +pleasant. Indeed, everywhere in America I received the greatest +kindness and consideration. I had been 11 months in the States and +Canada, and lived the strenuous life to the utmost. I had delivered +over 100 lectures, travelled thousands of miles, and met the most +interesting people in the world. I felt many regrets on parting with +friends, comrades, sympathizers, and fellow-workers. When I reflected +that on my arrival in San Francisco I knew only two persons in America +in the flesh, and only two more through correspondence, and was able to +look back on the hundreds of people who had personally interested me, +it seemed as if there was some animal magnetism in the world, and that +affinities were drawn together as if by magic. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +BRITAIN, THE CONTINENT, AND HOME AGAIN. + + +I went by steamer to Glasgow, as I found the fares by that route +cheaper than to Liverpool. Municipal work in that city was then +attracting world-wide attention, and I enquired into the methods of +taxation and the management of public works, much to my advantage. The +co-operative works at Shields Hall were another source of interest to +me. At Peterborough I stayed with Mr. Hare's daughter, Katie, who had +married Canon Clayton. Never before did I breathe such an +ecclesiastical atmosphere as in that ancient canonry, part of the old +monastery, said to be 600 years old. While there I spoke to the Guild +of Co-operative Women on "Australia." In Edinburgh I had a drawing-room +meeting at the house of Mrs. Muir Dowie, daughter of Robert Chambers +and mother of Minnie Muriel Dowie, who wrote "Through the Carpathians," +and another at the Fabian Society, both on effective voting. Mrs. Dowie +and Priscilla Bright McLaren, sister of John Bright, were both keen on +the suffrage, and most interesting women. I had been so much associated +with the suffragists in America, with the veteran Susan B. Anthony at +their head, that English workers in the cause gave me a warm welcome. + +London under the municipal guidance of the County Council was very +different from the London I had visited 29 years earlier. Perhaps +Glasgow and Birmingham have gone further in municipalizing monopolies +than Londoners have, but the vastness of the scale on which London +moves makes it more interesting. Cr. Peter Burt, of Glasgow, had worked +hard to add publichouses to the list of things under municipal +ownership and regulation, and I have always been glad to see the +increasing attention paid to the Scandinavian methods of dealing with +the drink traffic. I have deplored the division among temperance +workers, which makes the prohibitionists hold aloof from this reform, +when their aid would at least enable the experiment to be tried. But in +spite of all hindrances the world moves on towards better things. It is +not now a voice crying in the wilderness. There are many thousands of +wise, brave, devoted men and women possessed with the enthusiasm of +humanity in every civilized country, and they must prevail. Professor +and Mrs. Westlake, the latter of whom was Mr. Hare's eldest daughter, +arranged a most successful drawing-room meeting for me at their home, +the River House, Chelsea, at which Mr. Arthur Balfour spoke. While he +thought effective voting probably suitable for America and Australia, +he scarcely saw the necessity for it in England. Party leaders so +seldom do like to try it on themselves, but many of them are prepared +to experiment on "the other fellow." In this State we find members of +the Assembly anxious to try effective voting on the Legislative +Council, Federal members on the State House, and vice versa. Other +speakers who supported me were Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Leonard +(now Lord) Courtney, Mr. Westlake, and Sir John Hall, of New Zealand. +The flourishing condition of the Proportional Representation Society in +England at present is due to the earnestness of the lastnamed +gentlemen, and its extremely able hon. secretary (Mr. John H. +Humphreys). + +A few days were spent with Miss Jane Hume Clapperton, author of +"Scientific Meliorism," and we had an interesting time visiting George +Eliot's haunts and friends. Through the Warwickshire lanes--where the +high hedges and the great trees at regular intervals made it impossible +to see anything beyond, except an occasional gate, reminding me of Mrs. +Browning's-- + + And between the hedgerows green, + How we wandered--I and you; + With the bowery tops shut in, + And the gates that showed the view. + +--we saw the homestead known as "Mrs. Poyser's Farm," as it answers so +perfectly to the description in "Adam Bede." I was taken to see Mrs. +Cash, a younger friend of George Eliot, and took tea with two most +interesting, old ladies--one 82, and the other 80--who had befriended +the famous authoress when she was poor and stood almost alone. How I +grudged the thousands of acres of beautiful agricultural land given up +to shooting and hunting! We in Australia have no idea of the extent to +which field sports enter into the rural life of England. People excused +this love of sport to me on the ground that it is as a safety valve for +the energy of idle men. Besides, said one, hunting leads, at any rate, +to an appreciation of Nature; but I thought it a queer appreciation of +Nature that would lead keen fox hunters to complain of the "stinking" +violets that throw the hounds off the scent of the fox. I saw Ascot and +Epsom, but fortunately not on a race day. A horse race I have never +seen. George Moore's realistic novel "Esther Waters" does not overstate +the extent to which betting demoralizes not only the wealthier, but all +classes. There is a great pauper school in Sutton, where from 1,600 to +1,800 children are reared and educated. On Derby Day the children go to +the side of the railroad, and catch the coppers and silver coins thrown +to them by the passengers, and these are gathered together to give the +children their yearly treat. But this association in the children's +minds of their annual pleasure with Derby Day must, I often think, have +a demoralizing tendency. + +While in London I slipped in trying to avoid being run down by an +omnibus and dislocated my right shoulder. I was fortunate in being the +guest of Mr. and Mrs. Petherick at the time. I can never be +sufficiently grateful to them for their care of and kindness to me. +Only last year I went to Melbourne to meet them both again. It was the +occasion of the presentation to the Federal Government of the Petherick +Library, and I went over to sign and to witness the splendid deed of +gift. + +I have left almost to the last of the account of my English visit all +mention of the Baconians I met and from whom I gained valuable +information in corroboration of the Baconian authorship. In some +circles I found that, to suggest that Shakspeare did not write the +plays and poems was equal to throwing a bombshell among them. As a +Baconian I received an invitation to a picnic at the beautiful country +house of Mr. Edwin Lawrence, with whom I had a pleasant talk. The house +was built on a part of a royal forest, in which firs and pines were +planted at the time of the great Napoleonic wars when timber could not +be got from the Baltic and England had to trust to her own hearts of +oak and her own growth of pine for masts and planks. Mr. Lawrence had +written pamphlets and essays on the Baconian theory, and I found my +knowledge of the subject expanding and growing under his intelligent +talk. His wife's father (J. Benjamin Smith) had taught Cobden the +ethics of free trade. It was through the kind liberality of Miss +Florence Davenport Hill that a pamphlet, recording the speeches and +results of the voting at River House, Chelsea, was printed and +circulated. When I visited Miss Hill and her sister and found them as +eager for social and political reform as they had been 29 years +earlier, I had another proof of the eternal youth which large and high +interests keep within us in spite of advancing years. Miss Davenport +Hill had been a member of the London School Board for 15 years, and was +reelected after I left England. Years of her life had been devoted to +work for the children of the State, and she was a member of the Board +of Guardians for the populous union of St. Pancras. Everyone +acknowledged the great good that the admission of women to those boards +had done. I spent a pleasant time at Toynbee Hall, a University centre, +in the poorest part of London, founded by men. Canon and Mrs. Barrett +were intensely interested in South Australian work for State children. +Similar University centres which I visited in America, like Hull House, +in Chicago, were founded by women graduates. Mrs. Fawcett I met several +times, but Mrs. Garrett Anderson only once. When the suffrage was +granted to the women of South Australia I received a letter of +congratulation from Dr. Helen Blackburn, one of the first women to take +a medical degree. Nowadays women doctors are accepted as part of our +daily life, and it is to these brave pioneers of the women's cause, +Drs. Elizabeth Blackwell, Helen Rackburn, Garrett Anderson, and other +like noble souls, that the social and political prestige of women has +advanced so tremendously all over the English-speaking world. It only +remains now for a few women, full of the enthusiasm of humanity and +gifted with the power of public speaking, to gain another and important +step for the womanhood of the world in the direction of economic +freedom. Before leaving England I was gratified at receiving a cheque +from Mrs. Westlake, contributed by the English proportionalists, to +help me in the cause. This was the second gift of the kind I had +received, for my friends in San Francisco had already helped me +financially on my way to reform. Socially I liked the atmosphere of +America better than that of England, but politically England was +infinitely more advanced. Steadily and surely a safer democracy seems +to be evolving in the old country than in the Transatlantic Republic. I +left England at the end of September, 1894. + +My intended visit to Paris was cancelled through the death a short time +before of the only friend I wished to meet there, the Baroness +Blaze-de-Bury, and I went straight through to Bale. I made a detour to +Zurich, where I hoped to see people interested in proportional +representation who could speak English. An interesting fellow-worker in +the cause was Herr Karl Burkli, to whom I suggested the idea of +lecturing with ballots. The oldest advocate of proportional +representation on the Continent, M. Ernest Naville, I met at Geneva. In +that tiny republic in the heart of Europe, which is the home of +experimental legislation, I found effective voting already established +in four cantons, and the effect in these cantons had been so good (said +Ernest Naville) "that it is only a matter of time to see all the Swiss +cantons and the Swiss Federation adopt it." In Zurich Herr Burkli was +delighted that they had introduced progressive taxation into the +canton, but the effect had been to drive away the wealthy people who +came in search of quiet and healthy residence. Progressive taxation has +not by any means proved the unmixed blessing which so many of its +advocates claim it to be. In New Zealand, we are told, on the best +authority, that land monopoly and land jobbery were never so rampant in +the Dominion as since the introduction of the progressive land tax. One +wondered how the three million Swiss people lived on their little +territory, so much occupied by barren mountain, and lakes which supply +only a few fish. My Zurich friends told me that it was by their +unremitting industry and exceptional thrift, but others said that the +foreign visitors who go to the recreation ground of Europe circulate so +much money that instead of the prayer "Give us this day our daily +bread" the Swiss people ask, "Send us this day one foreigner." + +In Italy I saw the most intense culture in the world--no pleasure +grounds or deer parks for the wealthy. The whole country looked like a +garden with trellised vines and laden trees. Italian wine was grown, +principally for home consumption, and that was immense. Prohibitionists +would speak to deaf ears there. Wine was not a luxury, but a necessity +of life. It made the poor fare of dry bread and polenta (maize +porridge) go down more pleasantly. It was the greater abundance of +fruit and wine that caused the Italian poorer classes to look healthier +than the German. In Germany, which taxed itself to give cheap beet +sugar to the British consumer, the people paid 6d. a lb. for the little +they could afford to use; and in Italy it was nearly 8d.--a source of +revenue to the Governments, but prohibitive to the poor. There were no +sweet shops in Italy. England only could afford such luxuries. I +visited at Siena a home for deaf mutes, and found that each child had +wine at two of its daily meals--about a pint a day. It was the +light-red wine of the country, with little alcohol in it; but those who +warn us against looking on the wine when it is red will be shocked to +hear of these little ones drinking it like milk. Those, however, who +live in Italy say that not once a year do they see any one drunk in the +streets. + +I reached South Australia on December 12, 1894, after an absence of 20 +months. I found the women's suffrage movement wavering in the balance. +It had apparently come with a rush--as unexpected as it was welcome to +those whose strenuous exertions at last seemed likely to be crowned +with success. Though sympathetic to the cause, I had always been +regarded as a weakkneed sister by the real workers. I had failed to see +the advantage of having a vote that might leave me after an election a +disfranchised voter, instead of an unenfranchised woman. People talk of +citizens being disfranchised for the Legislative Council when they +really mean that they are unenfranchised. You can scarcely be +disfranchised if you have never been enfranchised; and I have regarded +the enfranchisement of the people on the roll as more important for the +time being than adding new names to the rolls. This would only tend to +increase the disproportion between the representative and the +represented. But I rejoiced when the Women's Suffrage Bill was carried, +for I believe that women have thought more and accepted the +responsibilities of voting to a greater extent than was ever expected +of them. During the week I was accorded a welcome home in the old +Academy of Music, Rundle street, where I listened with embarrassment to +the avalanche of eulogium that overwhelmed me. "What a good thing it +is, Miss Spence, that you have only one idea," a gentleman once said to +me on my country tour. He wished thus to express his feeling concerning +my singleness of purpose towards effective voting. But at this welcome +home I felt that others realized what I had often said myself. It is +really because I have so many ideas for making life better, wiser, and +pleasanter all of which effective voting will aid--that I seem so +absorbed in the one reform. My opinions on other matters I give for +what they are worth--for discussion, for acceptance or rejection. My +opinions on equitable representation I hold absolutely, subject to +criticism of methods but impregnable as to principle. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +PROGRESS OF EFFECTIVE VOTING. + + +My journalistic work after my return was neither so regular nor so +profitable as before I left Adelaide. The bank failures had affected me +rather badly, and financially my outlook was anything but rosy in the +year 1895. There was, however, plenty of public work open to me, and, +in addition to the many lectures I gave in various parts of the State +on effective voting, I became a member of the Hospital Commission, +appointed that year by the Kingston Government to enquire into the +trouble at the Adelaide Hospital. That same year saw a decided step +taken in connection with effective voting, and in July a league was +formed, which has been in existence ever since. I was appointed the +first President, my brother John became secretary pro tem, and Mr. A. +W. Piper the first treasurer. I felt at last that the reform was taking +definite shape, and looked hopefully to its future. The following year +was especially interesting to the women of South Australia, and, +indeed, to suffragists all over the world, for at the general election +of 1896 women, for the first time in Australia, had the right to vote. +New Zealand had preceded us with this reform, but the first election in +this State found many women voters fairly well equipped to accept their +responsibilities as citizens of the State. But in the full realization +by the majority of women of their whole duties of citizenship I have +been distinctly disappointed. Not that they have been on the whole less +patriotic and less zealous than men voters; but, like their brothers, +they have allowed their interest in public affairs to stop short at the +act of voting, as if the right to vote were the beginning and the end +of political life. There has been too great a tendency on the part of +women to allow reform work--particularly women's branches of it--to be +done by a few disinterested and public-spirited women. Not only is the +home the centre of woman's sphere, as it should be, but in too many +cases it is permitted to be its limitation. The larger social life has +been ignored, and women have consequently failed to have the effect on +public life of which their political privilege is capable. + +At the close of a second lecturing tour through the State, during which +I visited and spoke at most of the village settlements, I received an +invitation from the Women's Land Reform League to attend a social +gathering at the residence of Miss Sutherland, Clark street, Norwood. +The occasion was my seventy-first birthday, and my friends had chosen +that day (October 31, 1896) to mark their appreciation of my public +services. There were about 30 of the members present, all interesting +by reason of their zealous care for the welfare of the State. Their +President (Mrs. C. Proud) presented me, on behalf of the members, with +a lady's handbag, ornamented with a silver plate, bearing my name, the +date of the presentation, and the name of the cause for which I stood. +From that day the little bag has been the inseparable companion of all +my wanderings, and a constant reminder of the many kind friends who, +with me, had realized that "love of country is one of the loftiest +virtues which the Almighty has planted in the human heart." That +association was the first in South Australia to place effective voting +on its platform. + +My long comradeship with Mrs. A. H. Young began before the close of the +year. A disfranchised voter at her first election, she was driven +farther afield than the present inadequate system of voting to look for +a just electoral method. She found it in effective voting, and from +that time devoted herself to the cause. Early in 1897 Mrs. Young was +appointed the first honorary secretary of the league. January of the +same year found us stirred to action by the success of Sir Edward +Braddon's first Bill for proportional representation in Tasmania. +Though limited in its application to the two chief cities of the island +State, the experiment was wholly successful. We had our first large +public meeting in the Co-operative Hall in January, and carried a +resolution protesting against the use of the block vote for the Federal +Convention elections. A deputation to the acting Premier +(Mr.--afterwards Sir Frederick--Holder) was arranged for the next +morning. But we were disappointed in the result of our mission, for Mr. +Holder pointed out that the Enabling Act distinctly provided for every +elector having 10 votes, and effective voting meant a single +transferable vote. I had written and telegraphed to the Hon. C. C. +Kingston when the Enabling Act was being drafted to beg him to consider +effective voting as the basis of election; but he did not see it then, +nor did he ever see it. In spite, however, of the short sightedness of +party leaders, events began to move quickly. + +Our disappointment over the maintenance of the block vote for the +election of 10 delegates to the Federal Convention led to my brother +John's suggestion that I should become a candidate. Startling as the +suggestion was, so many of my friends supported it that I agreed to do +so. I maintained that the fundamental necessity of a democratic +Constitution such as we hoped would evolve from the combined efforts of +the ablest men in the Australian States was a just system of +representation and it was as the advocate of effective voting that I +took my stand. My personal observation in the United States and Canada +had impressed me with the dangers inseparable from the election of +Federal Legislatures by local majorities--sometimes by +minorities--where money and influence could be employed, particularly +where a line in a tariff spelt a fortune to a section of the people, in +the manipulation of the floating vote. Parties may boast of their +voting strength and their compactness, but their voting strength under +the present system of voting is only as strong as its weakest link, +discordant or discontented minorities, will permit it to be. The +stronger a party is in the Legislature the more is expected from it by +every little section of voters to whom it owes its victory at the +polls. The impelling force of responsibility which makes all +Governments "go slow" creates the greatest discontent among impatient +followers of the rank and file, and where a few votes may turn the +scale at any general election a Government is often compelled to choose +between yielding to the demands of its more clamorous followers at the +expense of the general taxpayer or submitting to a Ministerial defeat. + +As much as we may talk of democracy in Australia, we are far from +realizing a truly democratic ideal. A State in a pure democracy draws +no nice and invidious distinctions between man and man. She disclaims +the right of favouring either property, education, talent, or virtue. +She conceives that all alike have an interest in good government, and +that all who form the community, of full age and untainted by crime, +should have a right to their share in the representation. She allows +education to exert its legitimate power through the press; talent in +every department of business, property in its social and material +advantages; virtue and religion to influence public opinion and the +public conscience. But she views all men as politically equal, and +rightly so, if the equality is to be as real in operation as in theory. +If the equality is actual in the representation of the citizens--truth +and virtue, being stronger than error and vice, and wisdom being +greater than folly, when a fair field is offered--the higher qualities +subdue the lower and make themselves felt in every department of the +State. But if the representation from defective machinery is not equal, +the balance is overthrown, and neither education, talent, nor virtue +can work through public opinion so as to have any beneficial influence +on politics. We know that in despotisms and oligarchies, where the +majority are unrepresented and the few extinguish the many, +independence of thought is crushed down, talent is bribed to do service +to tyranny, education is confined to a privileged class and denied to +the people, property is sometimes pillaged and sometimes flattered, and +even virtue is degraded by lowering its field and making subservience +appear to be patience and loyalty, and religion is not unfrequently +made the handmaid of oppression. Taxes fall heavily on the poor for the +benefit of the rich, and the only check proceeds from the fear of +rebellion. When, on the other hand, the majority extinguishes the +minority, the evil effects are not so apparent. The body oppressed is +smaller and generally wealthier, with many social advantages to draw +off attention from the political injustice under which they suffer; but +there is the same want of sympathy between class and class, moral +courage is rare, talent is perverted, genius is overlooked, education +is general, but superficial, and press and Pulpit often timid in +exposing or denouncing popular errors. An average standard of virtue is +all that is aimed at, and when no higher mark is set up there is great +fear of falling below the average. Therefore it is incumbent on all +States to look well to it that their representative systems really +secure the political equality they all profess to give, for until that +is done democracy has had no fair trial. + +In framing a new constitution the opportunity arose for laying the +foundation of just representation, and, had I been elected, my first +and last thought would have been given to the claims of the whole +people to electoral justice. But the 7,500 votes which I received left +me far enough from the lucky 10. Had Mr. Kingston not asserted both +publicly and privately that, if elected, I could not constitutionally +take my seat, I might have done better. There were rumours even that my +nomination paper would be rejected. But to obviate this, Mrs. Young, +who got it filled in, was careful to see that no name was on it that +had no right there, and its presentation was delayed till five minutes +before the hour of noon, in order that no time would be left to upset +its validity. From a press cutting on the declaration of the poll I +cull this item of news--"Several unexpected candidates were announced, +but the only nomination which evoked any expressions of approval was +that of Miss Spence." I was the first woman in Australia to seek +election in a political contest. From the two main party lists I was, +of course, excluded, but in the list of the "10 best men" selected by a +Liberal organization my name appeared. When the list was taken to the +printer--who, I think, happened to be the late Federal member, Mr. +James Hutchison--he objected to the heading of the "10 best men," as +one of them was a woman. He suggested that my name should be dropped, +and a man's put in its place. "You can't say Miss Spence is one of the +'10 best men.' Take her name out." "Not say she's one of the '10 best +men?'" the Liberal organizer objected, "Why she's the best man of the +lot." I had not expected to be elected, but I did expect that my +candidature would help effective voting, and I am sure it did. Later +the league arranged a deputation to Mr. Kingston, to beg him to use his +influence for the adoption of the principle in time for the first +Federal elections. We foresaw, and prophesied what has actually +occurred--the monopoly of representation by one party in the Senate, +and the consequent disfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters +throughout the Commonwealth. But, as before, Mr. Kingston declined to +see the writing on the wall. The Hon. D. M. Charleston was successful +in carrying through the Legislative Council a motion in favour of its +application to Federal elections, but Mr. Wynn in the Lower House had a +harder row to hoe, and a division was never taken. + +Mrs. Young and I spent a pleasant evening at Government House in July +of the same year, as Sir Fowell and Lady Buxton had expressed a desire +to understand the system. In addition to a large house party, several +prominent citizens were present, and all were greatly interested. On +leaving at 11 o'clock we found the gate closed against us, as the +porter was evidently unaware that visitors were being entertained. We +were amused at the indignation of the London-bred butler, who, on +coming to our rescue, cried with a perfect Cockney accent, "Gyte, gyte, +yer don't lock gytes till visitors is off." This was a memorable year +in the annals of our cause, for on his election to fill an +extraordinary vacancy for North Adelaide Mr. Glynn promised to +introduce effective voting into the House. This he did in July by +tabling a motion for the adoption of the principle, and we were pleased +to find in Mr. Batchelor, now the Minister for External Affairs in the +Federal Government, a stanch supporter. Among the many politicians who +have blown hot and cold on the reform as occasion arose, Mr. Batchelor +has steadily and consistently remained a supporter of what he terms +"the only system that makes majority rule possible." + +When Mrs. Young and I began our work together the question was +frequently asked why women alone were working for effective voting? The +answer was simple. There were few men with leisure in South Australia, +and, if there were, the leisured man was scarcely likely to take up +reform work. When I first seized hold of this reform women as platform +speakers were unheard of. Indeed, the prejudice was so strong against +women in public life that although I wrote the letters to The Melbourne +Argus it was my brother John who was nominally the correspondent. So +for 30 years I wrote anonymously to the press on this subject. I waited +for some man to come forward and do the platform work for me. We women +are accused of waiting and waiting for the coming man, but often he +doesn't come at all; and oftener still, when he does come, we should be +a great deal better without him. In this case he did not come at all, +and I started to do the work myself; and, just because I was a woman +working singlehanded in the cause, Mrs. Young joined me in the crusade +against inequitable representation. For many years, however, the cause +has counted to its credit men speakers and demonstrators of ability and +talent all over the State, who are carrying the gospel of +representative reform into every camp, both friendly and hostile. + +It was said of Gibbon when his autobiography was published that he did +not know the difference between himself and the Roman Empire. I have +sometimes thought that the same charge might be levelled against me +with regard to effective voting; but association with a reform for half +a century sometimes makes it difficult to separate the interests of the +person from the interests of the cause. Following on my return from +America effective voting played a larger part than ever in my life. I +had come back cheered by the earnestness and enthusiasm of American +reformers, and I found the people of my adopted country more than ever +prepared to listen to my teaching. Parties had become more clearly +defined, and the results of our system of education were beginning to +tell, I think, in the increased interest taken by individuals as well +as by societies in social and economic questions. I found interesting +people everywhere, in every mode of life, and in every class of +society. My friends sometimes accused me of judging people's +intelligence by the interest they took in effective voting; but, +although this may have been true to a certain extent, it was not wholly +correct. Certainly I felt more drawn to effective voters, but there are +friendships I value highly into which my special reform work never +enters. Just as the more recent years of my life have been coloured by +the growth of the movement which means more to me than anything else in +the world, so must the remaining chapters of this narrative bear the +imprint of its influence. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +WIDENING INTERESTS. + + +During this period my work on the State Children's Council continued, +and I never found time hang heavily on my hands; so that when Mr. +Kingston met me one day later in the year, and told me he particularly +wished me to accept an appointment as a member of the Destitute Board, +I hesitated. "I am too old," I objected. "No, no, Miss Spence," he +replied laughingly, "it is only we who grow old--you have the gift of +perpetual youth." But I was nearly 72, and at any rate I thought I +should first consult my friends. I found them all eager that I should +accept the position. I had agitated long and often for the appointment +of women on all public boards, particularly where both sexes came under +treatment, and I accepted the post. Although often I have found the +work tiring, I have never regretted the step I took in joining the +board. Experience has emphasized my early desire that two women at +least should occupy positions on it. I hope that future Governments +will rectify the mistake of past years by utilizing to a greater extent +the valuable aid of capable and sympathetic women in a branch of public +work for which they are peculiarly fitted. Early in my career as a +member of the board I found grave defects in the daily bill of fare, +and set myself to the task of remedying them as far as lay in my power. +For 30 years the same kind of soup, day in and day out, followed by the +eternal and evergreen cabbage as a vegetable, in season and out of +season, found its way to the table. My own tastes and mode of life were +simplicity personified, but my stomach revolted against a dietary as +unvaried as it was unappetizing. An old servant who heard that I +attended the Destitute Asylum every week was loud in her lamentations +that "poor dear Miss Spence was so reduced that she had to go to the +Destitute every week for rations!" My thankfulness that she had +misconceived the position stirred me to leave no stone unturned for the +betterment of the destitute bill of fare. I was successful, and the +varied diet now enjoyed bears witness to the humanitarian views of all +the members of the board, who were as anxious to help in the reform as +I was. My heart has always gone out to the poor old folk whose faces +bear the impress of long years of strenuous toil and who at the close +of life at least should find a haven of restfulness and peace in the +State for whose advancement they have laboured in the past. + +She was a witty woman who divided autobiographies into two classes... +autobiographies and ought-not-to-biographies--but I am sure she never +attempted to write one herself. There is so much in one's life that +looms large from a personal point of view about which other people +would care little, and the difficulty often arises, not so much about +what to put in as what to leave out. + +How much my personal interests had widened during my absence from home +could be gauged somewhat by the enormous increase in my correspondence +after my return. American, Canadian, English, and Continental +correspondents have kept me for many years well informed on reform and +kindred subjects; and the letters I have received, and the replies they +have drawn from me, go far to make me doubt the accuracy of the +accepted belief that "letter writing has become a lost art." A full +mind with a facile pen makes letter writing a joy, and both of these +attributes I think I may fairly claim. My correspondence with Alfred +Cridge was kept up till his death a few years ago, and his son, +following worthily in the footsteps of a noble father, has taken up the +broken threads of the lifework of my friend, and is doing his utmost to +carry it to a successful issue. My love of reading, which has been a +characteristic feature of my life, found full scope for expression in +the piles of books which reached us from all parts of the world. It has +always been my desire to keep abreast of current literature, and this, +by means of my book club and other sources, I was able to do. Sometimes +my friends from abroad sent me copies of their own publications, Dr. +Bayard Holmes invariably forwarding to me a presentation copy of his +most valuable treatises on medical subjects. Mrs. Stetson's poems and +economic writings have always proved a source of inspiration to me, and +I have distributed her books wherever I have thought they would be +appreciated. Just at this time my financial position became brighter. I +was fortunate in being able to dispose of my two properties in East +Adelaide, and the purchasing of an annuity freed me entirely from money +and domestic worries. Perhaps the greatest joy of all was that I was +once more able to follow my charitable inclinations by giving that +little mite which, coming opportunely, gladdens the heart of the +disconsolate widow or smoothes the path of the struggling worker. +Giving up my home entirely, I went to live with my dear friend Mrs. +Baker, at Osmond terrace, where, perhaps, I spent the most restful +period of a somewhat eventful life. + +The inauguration of a Criminological Society in Adelaide was a welcome +sign to me of the growing public interest in methods of prison +discipline and treatment. I was one of the foundation members of the +society, and attended every meeting during its short existence. My one +contribution to the lectures delivered under its auspices was on +"Heredity and Environment." This was a subject in which I had long been +interested, holding the view that environment had more to do with the +building up of character than heredity had to do with its decadence. +How much or how little truth there is in the cynical observation that +the only believers in heredity nowadays are the fathers of very clever +sons I am not prepared to say. I do say, however, that with the cruel +and hopeless law of heredity as laid down by Zola and Ibsen I have +little sympathy. According to these pessimists, who ride heredity to +death, we inherit only the vices, the weaknesses, and the diseases of +our ancestors. If this, however, were really the case, the world would +be growing worse and not better, as it assuredly is, with every +succeeding generation. The contrary view taken of the matter by Ibsen's +fellowcountryman, Bjornsen, appears to me to be so much more +commonsense and humanizing. He holds that if we know that our ancestors +drank and gambled to excess, or were violent-tempered or immoral, we +can quite easily avoid the pitfall, knowing it to be there. Too readily +wrongdoers are prepared to lay their failings at the door of ancestors, +society, or some other blamable source, instead of attributing them, as +they should do, to their own selfish and weak indulgence and lack of +self-control. Heredity, though an enormous factor in our constitution, +need not be regarded as an over-mastering fate, for each human being +has an almost limitless parentage to draw upon. Each child has both a +father and a mother, and two grandparents on both sides, increasing as +one goes back. But, besides drawing on a much wider ancestry than the +immediate parents, we have more than we inherit, or where could the law +of progress operate? Each generation, each child who is born, comes +into a slightly different world, fed by more experience, blown upon by +fresh influences. And each individual comes into the world, not with a +body merely, but with a soul; and this soul is susceptible to +impressions, not only from the outer material world but from the other +souls also impressed by the old and the new, by the material and the +ideal. + +"The History of the Jukes" is continually cited as proving the power +and force of heredity. Most people who read the book through, however, +instead of merely accepting allusions one-sided and defective to it, +see clearly that it forms the strongest argument for change of +environment that ever was brought forward. The assumed name of Jukes is +given to the descendants of a worthless woman who emigrated to America +upwards of a century and a half ago, and from whom hundreds of +criminals, paupers, and prostitutes have descended. But how were the +Jukes' descendants dealt with during this period? No helping hand +removed the children from their vicious and criminal surroundings known +as one of the crime-cradles of the State of New York. Neither church +nor school took them under its protecting care. Born and reared in the +haunts of vice and crime, nothing but viciousness and criminality could +be expected as a result. Without going, so far as a wellknown ex-member +of our State Legislature, whose antagonism to the humanitarian +treatment of prisoners led him to the belief that "there wasn't nothin' +in 'erry-ditty,' it was all tommy rot," I still hold to the belief that +environment plays the larger part in the formation of character. Every +phase of criminal reform is, I candidly admit, dealing with effects +rather than causes. Effects, however, must be dealt with, and the more +humanely they are dealt with the better for society at large. So long +as society shuts its eyes to the social conditions under which the +masses of the people live, move, and have their being as tending +towards lowering rather than uplifting the individual and the +community, the supply of cases for criminal treatment will +unfortunately show little tendency to decrease. The work before +reformers of the world is to prevent the creation of criminals by +changing the environment of those with criminal tendencies as well as +to seek to alleviate the resulting disease by methods of criminal +reform. + +Many interesting lectures were given by prominent citizens under the +auspices of the society, which did a great deal to awaken the public +conscience on the important question of criminal reform. The Rev. J. +Day Thompson, who was then in the zenith of his intellectual power and +a noble supporter of all things that tended to the uplifting of +humanity, dealt with the land question in relation to crime. He gave a +telling illustration of his point--which I thought equally applicable +to the question of environment in relation to prison reform--that no +permanent good could result from social legislation until society +recognised and dealt with the root of the social evil, the land +question. "In a lunatic asylum," he said, "it is the custom to test the +sanity of patients by giving them a ladle with which to empty a tub of +water standing under a running tap. 'How do you decide?' the warder was +asked. 'Why, them as isn't idiots stops the tap.'" It was the Rev. J. +Day Thompson who first called me the "Grand Old Woman" of South +Australia. When he left Adelaide for the wider sphere of service open +to him in England I felt that we had lost one of the most cultured and +able men who had ever come among us, and one whom no community could +lose without being distinctly the poorer for his absence. + +Just at this time the visit of Dr. and Mrs. Mills created a little +excitement in certain circles. Their lectures on Christian science, +both public and private, were wonderfully well attended, and I missed +few of them. I have all my life endeavoured to keep an open mind on +these questions, and have been prepared to accept new ideas and new +modes of thought. But, although I found much that was charming in the +lectures that swayed the minds of so many of my friends, I found little +to convince me that Christian scientists were right and the rest of the +world wrong in their interpretation of the meaning of life. So far as +the cultivation of will power, as it is called, is concerned, I have no +quarrel with those who maintain that a power of self-control is the +basis of human happiness. So far as the will can be trained to obey +only those instincts that tend to the growth and maintenance of +self-respect--to prevent the subordination of our better feelings to +the overpowering effects of passion, greed, or injustice--it must help +to the development of one of the primary necessities of a sane +existence. When, however, the same agency is brought to bear on the +treatment of diseases in any shape or form I find my faith wavering. +Though there may be more things in earth and heaven than are dreamed of +in my philosophy, I was not prepared to follow the teachings set before +us by the interpreters of this belief, whose visit had made an +interesting break in the lives of many people. Truth I find everywhere +expressed, goodness in all things; but I neither look for nor expect +perfection in any one thing the world has ever produced. "Tell me where +God is," a somewhat, cynical sceptic asked of a child. "Tell me where +He is not," replied the child; and the same thing applies to goodness. +Do not tell me where goodness is, but point out to, me, if you can, +where it is not. It is for each one to find out for himself where the +right path lies, and to follow it with all his strength of mind and of +purpose. Pippa's song, "God's in His heaven-all's right with the +world," does not mean that the time has come for us to lay down our +arms in the battle of right against wrong. No! no; it is an inspiration +for us to gird our loins afresh, to "right the wrongs that need +resistance;" for, God being in His heaven, and the world itself being +right, makes it so much easier to correct mistakes that are due to +human agencies and shortcomings only. + +I found time to spend a pleasant week at Victor Harbour with my +friends, Mr. and Mrs. John Wyles. I remember one day being asked +whether I was not sorry I never married. "No," I replied, "for, +although I often envy my friends the happiness they find in their +children, I have never envied them their husbands." I think we must +have been in a frivolous mood; for a lady visitor, who was present, +capped my remark with the statement that she was quite sure Miss Spence +was thankful that when she died she would not be described as the +"relic" of any man. It was the same lady who on another occasion, when +one of the juvenile members of the party asked whether poets had to pay +for poetical licence, wittily replied, "No, my dear, but their readers +do!" Although so much of my time has been spent in public work, I have +by no means neglected or despised the social side of life. Visits to my +friends have always been delightful to me, and I have felt as much +interested in the domestic virtues of my many acquaintances as I have +been an admirer of their grasp of literature, politics, or any branch +of the arts or sciences in which they have been interested. This +seaside visit had been a welcome break in a year that had brought me a +new occupation as a member of the Destitute Board, had given me the +experience of a political campaign, had witnessed the framing of the +Constitution for the Commonwealth 'neath the Southern Cross, and had +seen effective voting advance from the academic stage into the realm of +practical politics. During the year Mrs. Young and I addressed together +26 meetings on this subject. One of the most interesting was at the +Blind School, North Adelaide. The keenness with which this audience +gripped every detail of the explanation showed us how splendidly they +had risen above their affliction. I was reminded of Helen Keller, the +American girl, who at the age of 21 months had lost sight and hearing, +and whom I had met in Chicago during my American visit, just before she +took her degree at Harvard University. + +To all peacelovers the years from 1898 to 1901 were shadowed by the +South African war. The din of battle was in our ears only to a less +degree than in those of our kinsmen in the mother country. War has +always been abhorrent to me, and there was the additional objection to +my mind in the case of the South African war in that it was altogether +unjustified. Froude's chapters on South Africa had impressed me on the +publication of his book "Oceana," after his visit here in the +seventies. His indictment of England for her treatment of the Boers +from the earliest days of her occupation of Cape Colony was too +powerful to be ignored. I felt it to be impossible that so great a +historian as Froude should make such grave charges on insufficient +evidence. The annexation of 1877, so bitterly condemned by him, +followed by the treaty of peace of 1881, with its famous "suzerainty" +clause, was, I think, but a stepping stone to the war which was said to +have embittered the last years of the life of Queen Victoria. The one +voice raised in protest against the annexation of 1877 in the British +House of Commons was that of Mr. Leonard (now Lord) Courtney. Not +afraid to stand alone, though all the world were against him, the war +at the close of the century found Leonard Courtney again taking his +stand against the majority of his countrymen, and this time it cost him +his Parliamentary seat. I have often felt proud that the leadership of +proportional representation in England should have fallen into the +hands of so morally courageous a man as Leonard Courtney has invariably +proved himself to be. + +We are apt to pride ourselves on the advance we have made in our +civilization; but our self-glorification received a rude shock at the +feelings of intolerance and race hatred that the war brought forth. +Freedom of speech became the monopoly of those who supported the war, +and the person who dared to express an opinion which differed from that +of the majority needed a great deal more than the ordinary allowance of +moral courage. Unfortunately the intolerance so characteristic of that +period is a feature, to a greater or lesser extent, of every +Parliamentary election in the Commonwealth. The clause in the Federal +Electoral Act which makes disturbance of a political meeting a penal +offence is a curious reflection on a so-called democratic community. +But, though its justification can scarcely be denied even by the +partisans of the noisier elements in a political crowd, its existence +must be deplored by every right-minded and truehearted citizen. In Miss +Rose Scott I found a sympathizer on this question of the war; and one +of the best speeches I ever heard her make was on Peace and +Arbitration. "Mafeking Day" was celebrated while we were in Sydney, and +I remember how we three--Miss Scott, Mrs. Young, and I--remained +indoors the whole day, at the charming home of our hostess, on Point +Piper road. The black band of death and desolation was too apparent for +us to feel that we could face the almost ribald excesses of that day. I +felt the war far less keenly than did my two friends; but it was bad +even for me. No one called, and the only companions of our chosen +solitude were the books we all loved so much, and + + The secret sympathy, + The silver link, the silken tie, + Which heart to heart and mind to mind, + In body and in soul can bind. + +I had hoped that the Women's National Council, a branch of which was +formed in Adelaide a few years later, would have made a great deal of +the question of peace and arbitration, just as other branches have done +all over the world; and when the Peace Society was inaugurated a short +time ago I was glad to be able to express my sympathy with the movement +by becoming a member. As I was returning from a lecturing tour in the +south during this time, an old Scotch farm-wife came into the carriage +where I had been knitting in solitude. She was a woman of strong +feelings, and was bitterly opposed to the war. We chatted on the +subject for a time, getting along famously, until she discovered that I +was Miss Spence. "But you are a Unitarian!" she protested in a shocked +tone. I admitted the fact. "Oh, Miss Spence," she went on, "how can you +be so wicked as to deny the divinity of Christ?" I explained to her +what Unitarianism was, but she held dubiously aloof for a time. Then we +talked of other things. She told me of many family affairs, and when +she left me at the station she said, "All, well, Miss Spence, I've +learned something this morning, and that is that a Unitarian can be +just as good and honest as other folk." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND FEDERATION. + + +In the debates of the Federal Convention I was naturally much +interested. Many times I regretted my failure to win a seat when I saw +how, in spite of warnings against, and years of lamentable experience +of, a vicious system of voting, the members of the Convention went +calmly on their way, accepting as a matter of course the crude and +haphazard methods known to them, the unscientific system of voting so +dear to the heart of the "middling" politician and the party intriguer. +I believe Mr. Glynn alone raised his voice in favour of proportional +representation, in the Convention, as he has done consistently in every +representative assembly of which he has been a member. Instead of +seeing to it that the foundations of the Commonwealth were "broad based +upon the people's will" by the adoption of effective voting, and thus +maintaining the necessary connection between the representative and the +represented, these thinkers for the people at the very outset of +federation sowed the seeds of future discontent and Federal apathy. +Faced with disfranchisement for three or six years, possibly for +ever--so long as the present system of voting remains--it is +unreasonable to expect from the people as a whole that interest in the +national well-being which alone can lead to the safety of a progressive +nation. + +Proportional representation was for long talked of as a device for +representing minorities. It is only in recent years that the real scope +of the reform has been recognised. By no other means than the adoption +of the single transferable vote can the rule of the majority obtain. +The fundamental principle of proportional representation is that +majorities must rule, but that minorities shall be adequately +represented. An intelligent minority of representatives has great +weight and influence. Its voice can be heard. It can fully and truly +express the views of the voters it represents. It can watch the +majority and keep it straight. These clear rights of the minority are +denied by the use of the multiple vote. It has also been asked--Can a +Government be as strong as it needs to be when--besides the organized +Ministerial party and the recognised Opposition--there may be a larger +number of independent members than at present who may vote either way? +It is quite possible for a Government to be too strong, and this is +especially dangerous in Australia, where there are so many of what are +known as optional functions of government undertaken and administered +by the Ministry of the day, resting on a majority in the Legislature. +To maintain this ascendancy concessions are made to the personal +interests of members or to local or class interests of their +constituencies at the cost of the whole country. + +When introducing proportional representation into the Belgian Chamber +the Prime Minister (M. Bernhaert) spoke well and forcibly on the +subject of a strong Government:-- + + +I, who have the honour of speaking to you to-day in the name of the +Government and who have at my back the strongest majority that was ever +known in Belgium, owe it to truth to say that our opinions have not a +corresponding preponderance in the country; and I believe that, if that +majority were always correctly expressed, we should gain in stability +what we might lose in apparent strength. Gentlemen, in the actual state +of things, to whom belongs the Government of the country? It belongs to +some two or three thousand electors, who assuredly are neither the best +nor the most intelligent, who turn the scale at each of our scrutin de +liste elections. I see to the right and to the left two large +armies--Catholics and Liberals--of force almost equal, whom nothing +would tempt to desert their standard, who serve it with devotion and +from conviction. Well, these great armies do not count, or scarcely +count. On the day of battle it is as if they do not exist. What counts, +what decides, what triumphs, is another body of electors altogether--a +floating body too often swayed by their passions, by their prejudices; +or, worse still, by their interests. These are our masters, and +according as they veer from right to left, or from left to right, the +Government of the country changes, and its history takes a new +direction. Gentlemen, is it well that it should be so? Is it well that +this country should be at the mercy of such contemptible elements as +these? + + +How often have I longed to see a Premier in this, my adopted country, +rise to such fervid heights of patriotism as this? + +M. Bernhaert is right. It is the party Government that is essentially +the weak Government. It cannot afford to estrange or offend any one who +commands votes. It is said that every prominent politician in the +British House of Commons is being perpetually tempted and tormented by +his friends not to be honest, and perpetually assailed by his enemies +in order to be made to appear to be dishonest. The Opposition is +prepared to trip up the Ministry at every step. It exaggerates +mistakes, misrepresents motives, and combats measures which it believes +to be good, if these are brought forward by its opponents. It bullies +in public and undermines in secret. It is always ready to step into the +shoes of the Ministry, to undergo similar treatment. This is the sort +of strength which is supposed to be imperilled if the nation were +equitably represented in the Legislature. In the present state of the +world, especially in the Australian States, where the functions of +government have multiplied and are multiplying, it is of the first +importance that the administration should be watched from all sides, +and not merely from the point of view of those who wish to sit on the +Treasury benches. The right function of the Opposition is to see that +the Government does the work of the country well. The actual practice +of the Opposition is to try to prevent it from doing the country's work +at all. In order that government should be honest, intelligent, and +economical, it needs helpful criticism rather than unqualified +opposition; and this criticism may be expected from the less compact +and more independent ranks in a legislative body which truly represents +all the people. Party discipline, which is almost inevitable in the +present struggle for ascendancy or defeat, is the most undemocratic +agency in the world. It is rather by liberating all votes and allowing +them to group themselves according to conviction that a real government +of the people by the people can be secured. When I look back on the +intention of the framers of the Commonwealth Constitution to create in +the Senate a States' rights House I am amazed at the remoteness of the +intention from the achievement. The Senate is as much a party House as +is the House of Representatives. Nothing, perhaps, describes the +position better than the epigrammatic if somewhat triumphant statement +of a Labour Senator some time ago. "The Senate was supposed to be a +place where the radical legislation of the Lower Chamber could be +cooled off, but they had found that the saucer was hotter than the cup." + +The long illness and death of my ward, Mrs. Hood, once more gave to my +life a new direction. History was repeating itself. Just as 40 years +earlier Mrs. Hood and her brothers had been left in my charge on the +death of their mother, so once again a dying mother begged me to accept +the guardianship of her three orphan children. Verging as they were on +the threshold of manhood and womanhood, they scarcely needed the care +and attention due to smaller children, but I realized I think to the +full, what so many parents have realized--that the responsibilities for +the training of children of an older growth are greater and more +burdensome than the physical care of the infant. The family belongings +were gathered in from the four quarters of the globe to which they had +been scattered on my giving up housekeeping, and we again began a +family life in Kent Town. Soon after we had settled, the motion in +charge of the Hon. D. M. Charleston in favour of the adoption of +proportional representation for Federal elections was carried to a +successful issue in the Legislative Council. The Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick +suggested the advisableness of preparing a Bill at this stage. A motion +simply affirming a principle, he said, was not likely to carry the +cause much further, as it left the question of the application of the +principle too much an open one. The league, he thought, should have +something definite to put before candidates, so that a definite answer +could be obtained from them. In New Zealand, Mr. O'Regan, a well-known +solicitor, had also introduced into the House of Representatives during +1898 a Bill for the adoption of effective voting. Unfortunately members +had become wedded to single electorates, and when a change was made it +was to second ballots--a system of voting which has for long been +discredited on the Continent. In France, it was stated in the debates +on electoral reform in 1909, for 20 years, under second ballots, only +once had a majority outside been represented by a majority inside the +Chamber, and the average representation for the two decades had +amounted to only 45 per cent. of the voters. Writing to me after the +New Zealand elections in 1909, the Hon. George Fowlds (Minister of +Education), who has long supported effective voting, said, "The only +result of the second ballot system in New Zealand has been to +strengthen the movement in favour of proportional representation." And +Mr. Paul, a Labour member in the Dominion, is making every effort to +have effective voting included in the platform of the New Zealand +Labour Party. Further encouragement to continue our work came when +Belgium adopted the principle of proportional representation in 1898. + +The closing year of the century found the Effective Voting League in +the thick of its first election campaign. There is little doubt that +the best time for advancing a political reform is during an election, +and it was interesting to note how many candidates came to our support. +We had an interesting meeting at Parliament House for members just +about that time. An opponent of the reform, who was present, complained +that we were late in beginning our meeting. "We always begin punctually +under the present system," he remarked. "Yes," some one replied, "but +we always finish so badly." "Oh, I always finish well enough," was the +pert rejoinder; "I generally come out on top." "Ah," retorted the +other, "I was thinking of the electors." But the doubter did not come +out on top at a subsequent election, and his defeat was probably the +means of his discovering defects in the old system that no number of +successes would have led him into acknowledging. From the two or three +members who had supported Mr. Glynn in the previous Parliament we +increased our advocates in the Assembly during the campaign to 14. The +agitation had been very persistent among the electors, and their +approval of the reform was reflected in the minds of their +representatives. We inaugurated during that year the series of +citizens' meetings convened by the Mayors of the city and suburbs, +which has been so successful a feature of our long campaign for +electoral justice, and at the present time very few of the mayoral +chairs are occupied by men who are not keen supporters of effective +voting. + +The Hon. Theodore Bruce's connection with the reform dates from that +year, when he presided at a meeting in the Adelaide Town Hall during +the temporary absence of the Mayor. A consistent supporter of effective +voting from that time, it was only natural that when in May, 1909, the +candidature of Mr. Bruce (who was then and is now a Vice-President of +the league). for a seat in the Legislative Council, gave us an +opportunity for working for his return, against a candidate who had +stated that he was not satisfied with the working of the system of +effective voting, we availed ourselves of it. So much has been written +and said about the attitude of the league with regard to Parliamentary +candidates that, as its President, I feel that I ought to take this +opportunity of stating our reasons for that attitude. From its +inception the league has declined to recognise parties in a contest at +all. Its sole concern has been, and must be to support effective +voters, to whatever party they may belong. To secure the just +representation of the whole electorate of whatever size, is the work of +the Effective Voting League, and, whatever the individual opinions of +the members may be, as an official body they cannot help any candidate +who opposes the reform for which they stand. + +I remember meeting at a political meeting during a subsequent general +election a lady whom I had known as an almost rabid Kingstonian. But +the party had failed to find a position for her son in the Civil +Service, although their own sons were in that way satisfactorily +provided for. So she had thrown in her lot with the other side, which +at the time happened to gain a few seats, and the lady was quite sure +that her influence had won the day for her former opponents. Leaning +forward to whisper as if her next remark were too delicate for the ears +of a gentleman sitting near, she said, "Do you know, I don't believe +the Premier has any backbone!" I laughed, and said that I thought most +people held the same belief. To my amusement and astonishment she then +asked quite seriously, "Do you think that is why he stoops so much?" +There was no doubt in her mind that the missing back bone had reference +to the physical and not to the moral malformation of the gentleman in +question. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES. + + +Early in the year 1900 the Hon. B. R. Wise, then Attorney-General of +New South Wales, suggested a campaign for effective voting in the +mother State, with the object of educating the people, so that +effective voting might be applied for the first Federal elections. Mrs. +Young and I left Adelaide on May 10 of that year to inaugurate the +movement in New South Wales. During the few hours spent in Melbourne +Professor Nanson, the Victorian leader of the reform, with another +earnest worker (Mr. Bowditch), called on us, and we had a pleasant talk +over the proposed campaign. The power of The Age had already been felt, +when, at the convention election, the 10 successful candidates were +nominees of that paper, and at that time it was a sturdy opponent of +proportional representation. The Argus, on the other hand, had done +yeoman service in the advocacy of the reform from the time that +Tasmania had so successfully experimented with the system. As we were +going straight through to Sydney, we were able only to suggest +arrangements for a possible campaign on our return. Our Sydney visit +lasted eight weeks, during which time we addressed between 20 and 30 +public meetings. Our welcome to the harbour city was most enthusiastic, +and our first meeting, held in the Protestant Hall, on the Wednesday +after our arrival, with the Attorney-General in the chair, was packed. +The greatest interest was shown in the counting of the 387 votes taken +at the meeting. Miss Rose Scott, however, had paved the way for the +successful public meeting by a reception at her house on the previous +Monday, at which we met Mr. Wise, Sir William McMillan, Mr. (afterwards +Sr. Walker), Mr. (now Sir A. J.) Gould, Mr. Bruce Smith, Mr. W. Holman, +and several other prominent citizens. The reform was taken up earnestly +by most of these gentlemen. Sir William McMillan was appointed the +first President of the league, which was formed before we left Sydney. +During the first week of our visit we dined with Dr. and Mrs. Garran, +who, with their son (Mr. Robert Garran, C.M.G., afterwards the +collaborateur of Sir John Quick in the compilation of the "Annotated +Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth"), were keen supporters of +effective voting. Among the host of well-known people who came after +dinner to meet us was Mr. (now Sir) George Reid, with whom we had an +interesting talk over the much-discussed "Yes-No" Policy. We had both +opposed the Bill on its first appeal to the people, and seized the +occasion to thank Mr. Reid for his share in delaying the measure. "You +think the Bill as amended an improvement?" he asked. "Probably," +replied Mrs. Young, "but as I didn't think the improvement great +enough, I voted against it both times." But I had not done so, and my +vote on the second occasion was in favour of the Bill. + +But, as Mr. Reid admitted, the dislike of most reformers for federation +was natural enough, for it was only to be expected that "reforms would +be difficult to get with such a huge, unwieldy mass" to be moved before +they could be won. And experience has proved the correctness of the +view expressed. Anything in the nature of a real reform, judging from +the experience of the past, will take a long time to bring about. I am +convinced that had not South Australia already adopted the principle of +the all-round land tax, the progressive form would have been the only +one suggested or heard of from either party. Politicians are so apt to +take the line of least resistance, and when thousands of votes of small +landowners are to be won through the advocacy of an exemption, +exemptions there will be. The whole system of taxation is wrong, it +seems to me, and though, as a matter of expediency, sometimes from +conviction, many people advocate the opposite course, I have long felt +that taxation should not be imposed according to the ability to pay so +much as according to benefits received from the State. We are +frequently warned against expecting too much from Federation during its +earlier stages, but experience teaches us that, as with human beings, +so with nations, a wrong or a right beginning is responsible to a great +extent for right or wrong development. I have the strongest hopes for +the future of Australia, but the people must never be allowed to forget +that eternal vigilance, as in the past, must still in the future be the +price we must pay for our liberty. Later, Mr. Reid presided at our +Parliament House meeting, and afterwards entertained us at afternoon +tea. But one of our pleasantest memories was of a day spent with the +great freetrader and Mrs. Reid at their Strathfield home. I was anxious +to hear Mr. Reid speak, and was glad when the opportunity arose on the +occasion of a no-confidence debate. But he was by no means at his best, +and it was not until I heard him in his famous freetrade speech on his +first visit to Adelaide that I realized how great an orator he was. At +the close of the no-confidence debate the triumphant remark of an +admirer that "Adelaide couldn't produce a speaker like that" showed me +that a prophet sometimes hath honour, even in his own country. + +Mr. Wise was a brilliant speaker, and a most cultured man, and a +delightful talker. Of Mrs. Parkes, then President of the Women's +Liberal League, I saw much. She was a fine speaker, and a very +clear-headed thinker. Her organizing faculty was remarkable, and her +death a year or two ago was a distinct loss to her party. Her home life +was a standing example of the fallacy of the old idea that a woman who +takes up public work must necessarily neglect her family. Mrs. Barbara +Baynton was a woman of a quite different type, clever and emotional, as +one would expect the author of the brilliant but tragic "Bush Studies" +to be. She was strongly opposed to Federation, as, indeed were large +numbers of clever people in New South Wales. Frank Fox (afterwards +connected with The Lone Hand), Bertram Stevens (author of "An Anthology +of Australian Verse"), Judge Backhouse (who was probably the only +Socialist Judge on the Australian Bench), were frequent visitors at +Miss Scott's, and were all interesting people. An afternoon meeting on +effective voting was arranged at the Sydney University, I think, by Dr. +Anderson Stuart. We were charmed with the university and its beautiful +surroundings. Among the visitors that afternoon was Mrs. David, a +charming and well-read woman, whose book describing an expedition to +Funafuti, is delightful. We afterwards dined with her and Professor +David, and spent a pleasant hour with them. + +I was not neglectful of other reforms while on this campaign, and found +time to interest myself in the State children's work with which my +friend, Mrs. Garran, was so intimately connected. We went to Liverpool +one day to visit the benevolent institution for men. There were some +hundreds of men there housed in a huge building reminiscent of the +early convict days. If not the whole, parts of it had been built by the +convicts, and the massive stone staircase suggested to our minds the +horrors of convict settlement. I have always resented the injury done +to this new country by the foundation of penal settlements, through +which Botany Bay lost its natural connotation as a habitat for +wonderful flora, and became known only as a place where convicts were +sent for three-quarters of a century. Barrington's couplet, written as +a prologue at the opening of the Playhouse, Sydney, in 1796, to a play +given by convicts-- + + True patriots we, for be it understood + We left our country for our country's good-- + +was clever, but untrue. All experience proves that while it is a +terrible injury to a new country to be settled by convicts, it is a +real injury also to the people from whom they are sent, to shovel out +of sight all their failures, and neither try to lessen their numbers +nor to reclaim them to orderly civil life. It was not till Australia +refused any longer to receive convicts, as Virginia had previously +done, that serious efforts were made to amend the criminal code of +England, or to use reformatory methods first with young and afterwards +with older offenders. Another pleasant trip was one we took to +Parramatta. The Government launch was courteously placed at our +disposal to visit the Parramatta Home for Women, where also we found +some comfortable homes for old couples. The separation of old people +who would prefer to spend the last years of their life together is I +consider, an outrage on society. One of my chief desires has been to +establish such homes for destitute couples in South Australia, and to +every woman who may be appointed as a member of the Destitute Board in +future I appeal to do her utmost to change our methods of treatment +with regard to old couples, so that to the curse of poverty may not be +added the cruelty of enforced separation. Women in New South Wales were +striving for the franchise at that time, and we had the pleasure of +speaking at one of their big meetings. And what fine public meetings +they had in Sydney! People there seemed to take a greater interest in +politics than here, and crowded attendances were frequent at political +meetings, even when there was no election to stir them up. It was a +Sydney lady who produced this amusing Limerick in my honour:-- + + There was a Grand Dame of Australia + Who proved the block system a failure. + She taught creatures in coats + What to do with their votes, + This Effective Grand Dame of Australia! + +The third line will perhaps preclude the necessity for pointing out +that the author was an ardent suffragist! To an enlightened woman also +was probably due the retort to a gentleman's statement that "Miss +Spence was a good man lost," that, "On the contrary she thought she was +a good woman saved." "In what way?" he asked. "Saved for the benefit of +her country, instead of having her energies restricted to the +advantages of one home," was the reply. And for this I have sometimes +felt very thankful myself that I have been free to devote what gifts I +possess to what I consider best for the advantage and the uplifting of +humanity. Before leaving Sydney I tried once more to find a publisher +for "Gathered In," but was assured that the only novels worth +publishing in Australia were sporting or political novels. + +I was in my seventy-fifth year at the time of this visit, but the joy +of being enabled to extend the influence of our reform to other States +was so great that the years rolled back and left me as full of life and +vigour and zeal as I had ever been. Our work had by no means been +confined to the city and suburbs, as we spoke at a few country towns as +well. At Albury, where we stopped on our way back to Victoria, we were +greeted by a crowded and enthusiastic audience in the fine hall of the +Mechanics' Institute. We had passed through a snowstorm just before +reaching Albury, and the country was very beautiful in the afternoon, +when our friends drove us through the district. The Murray was in +flood, and the "water, water everywhere" sparkling in the winter +sunshine, with the snowcapped Australian Alps in the background, made +an exquisite picture. Albury was the only town we visited in our +travels which still retained the old custom of the town crier. Sitting +in the room of the hotel after dinner, we were startled at hearing our +names and our mission proclaimed to the world at large, to the +accompaniment t of a clanging bell and introduced by the old-fashioned +formula, "Oyez! oyez! oyez!" Our work in Victoria was limited, but +included a delightful trip to Castlemaine. We were impressed with the +fine Mechanics' Hall of that town, in which we spoke to a large +audience. But a few years later the splendid building, with many others +in the town, was razed to the ground by a disastrous cyclone. Returning +from Castlemaine, we had an amusing experience in the train. I had laid +aside my knitting, which is the usual companion of my travels, to teach +Mrs. Young the game of "Patience," but at one of the stations a foreign +gentleman entered the carriage, when we immediately put aside the +cards. After chatting awhile, he expressed regret that he had been the +cause of the banishment of our cards, and "Would the ladies not kindly +tell him his fortune also?" He was as much amused as we were when we +explained that we were reformers and not fortune tellers. I have been a +great lover of card games all my life; patience in solitude, and +cribbage, whist, and bridge have been the almost invariable +accompaniments of my evenings spent at home or with my friends. Reading +and knitting were often indulged in, but patience was a change and a +rest and relief to the mind. I have always had the idea that card games +are an excellent incentive to the memory. We had an afternoon meeting +in the Melbourne Town Hall to inaugurate a league in Victoria, at which +Dr. Barrett, the Rev. Dr. Bevan, Professor Nanson, and I were the +principal speakers. Just recently I wrote to the Victorian Minister who +had charge of the Preferential Voting Bill in the Victorian Parliament +to ask him to consider the merits of effective voting; but, like most +other politicians, the Minister did not find the time opportune for +considering the question of electoral justice for all parties. I +remained in Victoria to spend a month with my family and friends after +Mrs. Young returned to Adelaide. The death of my dear brother John, +whose sympathy and help had always meant so much to me, shortly after +my return, followed by that of my brother William in New Zealand, left +me the sole survivor of the generation which had sailed from Scotland +in 1839. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +MORE PUBLIC WORK. + + +For the co-operative movement I had always felt the keenest sympathy. I +saw in it the liberation of the small wage-earner from the toils of the +middlemen. I thought moreover that the incentive to thrift so strongly +encouraged by co-operative societies would be a tremendous gain to the +community as well as to the individual. How many people owe a +comfortable old age to the delight of seeing their first small profits +in a co-operative concern, or their savings in a building society +accumulating steadily and surely, if but slowly? And I have always had +a disposition to encourage anything that would tend to lighten the +burden of the worker. So that when in 1901 Mrs. Agnes Milne placed +before me a suggestion for the formation of a women's co-operative +clothing factory, I was glad to do what I could to further an extension +in South Australia of the movement, which, from its inception in older +countries, had made so strong an appeal to my reason. A band of women +workers were prepared to associate for the mutual benefit of the +operatives in the shirtmaking and clothing trades. Under the title of +the South Australian Co-operative Clothing Company, Limited, they +proposed to take over and carry on a small private factory, owned by +one of themselves, which had found it difficult to compete against +large firms working with the latest machinery. I was sure of finding +many sympathizers among my friends, and was successful in disposing of +a fair number of shares. The movement had already gained support from +thinking working women, and by the time we were ready to form ourselves +into a company we were hopeful of success. I was appointed, and have +since remained the first President of the board of directors; and, +unless prevented by illness or absence from the State, I have never +failed to be present at all meetings. The introduction of Wages Boards +added to the keen competition between merchants, had made the task of +carrying on successfully most difficult, but we hoped that as the idea +gained publicity we should benefit proportionately. It was a great blow +to us, when at the close of the first year we were able to declare a +dividend of 1/ a share, the merchants closed down upon us and reduced +their payments by 6d. or 9d. per dozen. But in spite of drawbacks we +have maintained the struggle successfully, though sometimes at +disheartening cost to the workers and officials of the society. I feel, +however, that the reward of success due to this plucky band of women +workers will come in the near future, for at no other time probably has +the position looked more hopeful than during the present year. + +During this same year the Effective Voting League made a new departure +in its propaganda work by inviting Sir Edward Braddon to address a +meeting in the Adelaide Town Hall. As Premier of Tasmania, Sir Edward +had inaugurated the reform in the gallant little island State, and he +was able to speak with authority on the practicability and the justice +of effective voting. His visit was followed a year later by one from +Sr. Keating, another enthusiastic Tasmanian supporter, whose lecture +inspired South Australian workers to even greater efforts, and carried +conviction to the minds of many waverers. At that meeting we first +introduced the successful method of explanation by means of limelight +slides. The idea of explaining the whole system by pictures had seemed +impossible, but every step of the counting can be shown so simply and +clearly by this means as to make an understanding of the system a +certainty. To the majority of people an appeal to reason and +understanding is made much more easily through the eye than through the +ear. The year 1902 saw an advance in the Parliamentary agitation of the +reform, when the Hon. Joseph (now Senator) Vardon introduced a Bill for +the first time into the Legislative Council. The measure had been +excellently prepared by Mr. J. H. Vaughan, LL.B., with the assistance +of the members of the executive of the Effective Voting League, among +whom were Messrs. Crawford Vaughan and E. A. Anstey. The Bill sought to +apply effective voting to existing electoral districts, which, though +not nearly so satisfactory as larger districts, nevertheless made the +application of effective voting possible. With the enlargement of the +district on the alteration of the Constitution subsequent to federation +becoming an accomplished fact, the league was unanimous in its desire +to seek the line of least resistance by avoiding a change in the +Constitution that an alteration in electoral boundaries would have +necessitated. + +To Mr. Vardon, when he was a candidate for Legislative honours in 1900 +the usual questions were sent from the league; but, as he had not +studied the question he declined to pledge himself to support the +reform. Realizing, however, the necessity of enquiring into all public +matters, he decided to study the Hare system, but the league declined +to support him without a written pledge. Still he was elected, and +immediately afterwards studied effective voting, became convinced of +its justice, and has remained a devoted advocate. Our experience with +legislators had usually been of the opposite nature. Pledged adherents +to effective voting during an election campaign, as members they no +longer saw the necessity for a change in a method of voting which had +placed them safely in Parliament; but in Mr. Vardon we found a man +whose conversion to effective voting was a matter of principle, and not +a question of gathering votes. That was why the league selected him as +its Parliamentary advocate when effective voting first took definite +shape in the form of a Bill. When, later, Mr. E. H. Coombe, M.P., took +charge of the Bill in the Assembly although the growth in public +opinion in favour of effective voting had been surprising, the +coalition between the Liberal and Labour parties strengthened their +combined position and weakened the allegiance of their elected members +to a reform which would probably affect their vested interests in the +Legislature. Mr. Coombe had not been an easy convert to proportional +representation. He had attended my first lecture at Gawler, but saw +difficulties in the way of accepting the Hare system as propounded by +me. His experiments were interesting. Assuming a constituency of 100 +electors with 10 members, he filled in 60 Conservative and 40 Liberal +voting papers. The proportion of members to each party should be six +Conservatives and four Liberals, and when he found that by no amount of +manipulation could this result be altered he became a convert to +effective voting. His able advocacy of the reform is too well known to +need further reference; but I should like now to thank those members, +including Mr. K. W. Duncan, who have in turn led the crusade for +righteous representation in both Houses of Parliament, for of them may +it truly be said that the interests of the people as a whole were their +first consideration. Before I left for America I saw the growing power +and strength of the Labour Party. I rejoiced that a new star had arisen +in the political firmament. I looked to it as a party that would +support every cause that tended towards righteousness. I expected it, +as a reform party, to take up effective voting, because effective +voting was a reform. I hoped that a party whose motto was "Trust the +people" would have adopted a reform by means of which alone it would be +possible for the people to gain control over its Legislature and its +Government. Alas! for human hopes that depend on parties for their +realization! As time after time I have seen defections from the ranks +of proportionalists, and people have said to me:--"Give it up, Miss +Spence. Why trouble longer? Human nature is too bad," I have answered, +"No; these politicians are but the ephemeral creations of a day or a +month, or a year; this reform is for all time, and must prevail, and I +will never give it up." + +During my many visits to Melbourne and Sydney I had been much impressed +with the influence and the power for good of the local branches of the +world-famed National Council of Women. I had long hoped for the +establishment of a branch in South Australia, and was delighted to fall +in with a suggestion made by the Countess of Aberdeen +(Vice-President-at-large of the International Council), through Lady +Cockburn, that a council should be formed in South Australia. The +inaugural meeting in September, 1902, was splendidly attended, and it +was on a resolution moved by me that the council came into existence. +Lady Way was the first President, and I was one of the Vice-Presidents. +I gave several addresses, and in 1904 contributed a paper on +"Epileptics." In dealing with this subject I owed much to the splendid +help I received from my dear friend Miss Alice Henry, of Victoria, now +in Chicago, whose writings on epileptics and weak-minded children have +contributed largely to the awakening of the public conscience to a +sense of duty towards these social weaklings. In 1905 I contributed a +paper to the quinquennial meeting of the International Council of +Women, held at Berlin, on the laws relating to women and children in +South Australia, and gave an account of the philanthropic institutions +of the State, with special reference to the State Children's Council +and Juvenile Courts. The work of the National Council in this State was +disappointing to many earnest women, who had hoped to find in it a +means for the social, political, and philanthropic education of the +women of South Australia. Had the council been formed before we had +obtained the vote there would probably have been more cohesion and a +greater sustained effort to make it a useful body. But as it was there +was so apparent a disinclination to touch "live" subjects that interest +in the meetings dwindled, and in 1906 I resigned my position on the +executive in order to have more time to spare for other public work. + +A problem which was occasioning the State Children's Council much +anxious thought was how to deal effectively with the ever-increasing +number of the "children of the streets". Boys and girls alike, who +should either be at school or engaged at some useful occupation, were +roaming the streets and parks, uncontrolled and sometimes +uncontrollable. We recognised that their condition was one of moral +peril, and graduation to criminality from these nurseries of crime so +frequently occurred that State interference seemed absolutely +imperative to save the neglected unfortunates for a worthier +citizenship. It is much easier and far more economical to save the +child than to punish the criminal. One of the most effective means of +clearing the streets would be to raise the compulsory age for school +attendance up to the time of employment. That truancy was to a great +extent responsible for these juvenile delinquents was proved by the +fact that more then one-half of the lads sent to Magill had committed +the crimes for which they were first convicted while truanting. +Moreover, an improvement was noticed immediately on the amendment of +the compulsory attendance clauses in the Education Act. Truancy--the +wicket gate of the road to ruin in youth--should be barred as +effectively as possible, and the best way to bar it is to make every +day a compulsory school day, unless the excuse for absence be +abundantly sufficient. Another aspect of the neglected children +problem, which Federal action alone will solve, is in dealing with +cases of neglect by desertion. At present each State is put to great +trouble and expense through defaulting parents. Federal legislation +would render it possible to have an order for payment made in one State +collected and remitted by an officer in another State. By this means +thousands of pounds a year could be saved to the various States, and +many a child prevented from becoming a burden to the people at large. +These are some of the problems awaiting solution and the women of South +Australia will do well to make the salvation of these neglected waifs a +personal care and responsibility. Perhaps no other work of the State +Children's Council has more practically shown their appreciation of the +capabilities of the children under their care than the establishment of +the State children's advancement fund. This is to enable State children +who show any aptitude, to pursue their education through the +continuation schools to the University. To private subscriptions for +this purpose the Government have added a subsidy of 50 pounds, and +already some children are availing themselves of this splendid +opportunity to rise in the world. The longer I live the prouder I feel +that I have been enabled to assist in this splendid work for the +benefit of humanity. + +The years as they passed left me with wider interests in, deeper +sympathies with, and greater knowledge of the world and its people. +Each year found "one thing worth beginning, one thread of life worth +spinning." The pleasure I derived from the more extended intellectual +activity of my later years was due largely to my association with a +band of cultured and earnest women interested in social, political, and +other public questions--women who, seeing "the tides of things," +desired so to direct them that each wave of progress should carry the +people to a higher place on the sands of life. To the outside world +little is known of the beginnings and endings of social movements, +which, taken separately, perhaps appear of small consequence, but which +in the aggregate count for a great deal in what is popularly known as +the forward movement. To such as these belonged an interesting +association of women, which, meeting at first informally, grew +eventually into a useful organization for the intellectual and moral +development of those who were fortunate enough to be associated with +it. This was the "Social Students' Society," of which Miss A. L. +Tomkinson was the secretary and I the first President. One of the +addresses I gave was on "Education," and among others whose addresses +helped us considerably was the Director of Education (Mr. A. Williams). +Speakers from all parties addressed the association, and while the +society existed a good deal of educational work was done. Much interest +was taken in the question of public playgrounds for children, and we +succeeded in interesting the City Council in the movement; but, owing +to lack of funds, the scheme for the time being was left in abeyance. + +In the agitation for the public ownership of the tramways, I was glad +to take a share. The private ownership of monopolies is indefensible, +and my American experiences of the injustice of the system strengthened +my resolve to do my utmost to prevent the growth of the evil in South +Australia. My attitude on the question alienated a number of friends, +both from me personally and from effective voting, so intolerant had +people become of any opposition to their own opinions. The result of +the referendum was disappointing, and, I shall always consider, a grave +reflection on a democratic community which permits a referendum to be +taken under a system of plural voting which makes the whole proceeding +a farce. But the citizens of Adelaide have need to be grateful to the +patriotic zeal of those who, led by the late Cornelius Proud fought for +the public ownership of the tramways. + +These years of activity were crossed by sickness and sorrow. For the +first time in a long life, which had already extended almost a decade +beyond the allotted span, I became seriously ill. To be thus laid low +by sickness was a deep affliction to one of my active temperament; but, +if sickness brings trouble, it often brings joy in the tender care and +appreciation of hosts of friends, and this joy I realized to the +fullest extent. The following year (1904) was darkened by the tragic +death of my ward, and once more my home was broken up, and with Miss +Gregory I went to live with my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Quilty, in +North Norwood. From then on my life has flowed easily and pleasantly, +marred only by the sadness of farewells of many old friends and +comrades on my life's journey, who one by one have passed "through +Nature to eternity." + +Much as I have written during the past 40 years, it was reserved for my +old age to discover within me the power of poetical expression. I had +rhymed in my youth and translated French verse, but until I wrote my +one sonnet, poetry had been an untried field. The one-sided pessimistic +pictures that Australian poets and writers present are false in the +impression they make on the outside world and on ourselves. They lead +us to forget the beauty and the brightness of the world we live in. +What we need is, as Matthew Arnold says of life, "to see Australia +steadily and see it whole." It is not wise to allow the "deadbeat"--the +remittance man, the gaunt shepherd with his starving flocks and herds, +the free selector on an arid patch, the drink shanty where the +rouseabouts and shearers knock down their cheques, the race meeting +where high and low, rich and poor, are filled with the gambler's ill +luck--fill the foreground of the picture of Australian life. These +reflections led me to a protest, in the form of a sonnet published in +The Register some years ago:-- + + When will some new Australian poet rise + To all the height and glory of his theme? + Nor on the sombre side for ever dream + Our hare, baked plains, our pitiless blue skies, + 'Neath which the haggard bushman strains his eyes + To find some waterhole or hidden stream + To save himself and flocks in want extreme! + This is not all Australia! Let us prize + Our grand inheritance! Had sunny Greece + More light, more glow, more freedom, or more mirth? + Ours are wide vistas bathed in purest air-- + Youth's outdoor pleasures, Age's indoor peace-- + Where could we find a fairer home on earth + Which we ourselves are free to make more fair? + +Just as years before my interest had been kindled in the establishment +of our system of State education, and later in the University and +higher education, so more recently has the inauguration of the Froebel +system of kindergarten training appealed most strongly to my reason and +judgment. There was a time in the history of education, long after the +necessity for expert teaching in primary and secondary schools had been +recognised, when the training of the infant mind was left to the least +skilled assistant on the staff of a school. With the late Mr. J. A. +Hartley, whose theory was that the earliest beginnings of education +needed even greater skill in the teacher than the higher branches, I +had long regarded the policy as mistaken; but modern educationists have +changed all that, and the training of tiny mites of two or three +summers and upwards is regarded as of equal importance with that of +children of a larger growth. South Australia owes its free kindergarten +to the personal initiative and private munificence of the Rev. Bertram +Hawker, youngest son of the late Hon. G. C. Hawker. I had already met, +and admired the kindergarten work of, Miss Newton when in Sydney, and +was delighted when she accepted Mr. Hawker's invitation to inaugurate +the system in Adelaide. Indeed, the time of her stay here during +September, 1905, might well have been regarded as a special visitation +of educational experts, for, in addition to Miss Newton, the directors +of education from New South Wales and Victoria (Messrs. G. H. Knibbs +and F. Tate) took part in the celebrations. Many interesting meetings +led up to the formation of the Kindergarten Union. My niece, Mrs. J. P. +Morice, was appointed hon. secretary, and I became one of the +Vice-Presidents. On joining the union I was proud of the fact that I +was the first member to pay a subscription. The free kindergarten has +come to South Australia to stay, and is fast growing into an integral +part of our system of education. I have rejoiced in the progress of the +movement, and feel that the future will witness the realization of my +ideal of a ladder that will reach from the kindergarten to the +University, as outlined in articles I wrote for The Register at that +time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE EIGHTIETH MILESTONE AND THE END. + + +On October 31, 1905, I celebrated my eightieth birthday. Twelve months +earlier, writing to a friend, I said:--"I entered my eightieth year on +Monday, and I enjoy life as much as I did at 18; indeed, in many +respects I enjoy it more." The birthday gathering took place in the +schoolroom of the Unitarian Church, the church to which I had owed so +much happiness through the lifting of the dark shadows of my earlier +religious beliefs. Surrounded by friends who had taken their share in +the development of my beloved State, I realized one of the happiest +times of my life. I had hoped that the celebration would have helped +the cause of effective voting, which had been predominant in my mind +since 1859. By my interests and work in so many other directions--in +literature, journalism, education, philanthropy, and religion--which +had been testified to by so many notable people on that occasion, I +hoped to prove that I was not a mere faddist, who could be led away by +a chimerical fantasy. I wanted the world to understand that I was a +clear-brained, commonsense woman of the world, whose views on effective +voting and other political questions were as worthy of credence as her +work in other directions had been worthy of acceptance. The greetings +of my many friends from all parts of the Commonwealth on that day +brought so much joy to me that there was little wonder I was able to +conclude my birthday poem "Australian spring" with the lines:-- + + With eighty winters o'er my head, + Within my heart there's Spring. + +Full as my life was with its immediate interests, the growth and +development of the outside world claimed a good share of my attention. +The heated controversies in the motherland over the preachings and +teaching of the Rev. R. J. Campbell found their echo here, and I was +glad to be able to support in pulpit and newspaper the stand made by t +he courageous London preacher of modern thought. How changed the +outlook of the world from my childhood's days, when Sunday was a day of +strict theological habit, from which no departure could be permitted! +The laxity of modern life, by comparison is, I think, somewhat +appalling. We have made the mistake of breaking away from old beliefs +and convictions without replacing them with something better. We do not +make as much, or as good, use of our Sundays as we might do. There is a +medium between the rigid Sabbatarianism of our ancestors and the +absolute waste of the day of rest in mere pleasure and frivolity. All +the world is deploring the secularizing of Sunday. Not only is +churchgoing perfunctory or absent, but in all ranks of life there is a +disposition to make it a day of rest and amusement--sometimes the +amusement rather than the rest. Sunday, the Sabbath, as Alex McLaren +pointed out to me, is not a day taken from us, but a day given to us. +"Behold, I have given you the Sabbath!" For what? For rest for man and +beast, but also to be a milestone in our upward and onward progress--a +day for not only wearing best clothes, but for reading our best books +and thinking our best thoughts. I have often grieved at the small +congregations in other churches no less than in my own, and the grief +was aggravated by the knowledge that those who were absent from church +were not necessarily otherwise well employed. I derived so much +pleasure from the excellent and cultured sermons of my friend the Rev. +John Reid during his term of office here that I regretted the fact that +others who might gain equally from them were not there to hear them. I +would like to see among the young people a finer conception of the +duties of citizenship, which, if not finding expression in church +attendance, may develop in some way that will be noble and useful to +society. + +In the meantime the work of the Effective Voting League had been rather +at a standstill. Mrs. Young's illness had caused her resignation, and +until she again took up the work nothing further was done to help Mr. +Coombe in his Parliamentary agitation. In 1908, however, we began a +vigorous campaign, and towards the close of the year the propaganda +work was being carried into all parts of the State. Although I was then +83, I travelled to Petersburg to lecture to a good audience. On the +same night Mrs. Young addressed a fine gathering at Mount Gambier, and +from that time the work has gone on unceasingly. The last great effort +was made through the newspaper ballot of September, 1909, when a public +count of about 10,000 votes was completed with all explanations during +the evening. The difficulties that were supposed to stand in the way of +a general acceptance of effective voting have been entirely swept away. +Tasmania and South Africa have successfully demonstrated the +practicability, no less than the justice, of the system. Now we get to +the bedrock of the objections raised to its adoption, and we find that +they exist only in the minds of the politicians themselves; but the +people have faith in effective voting, and I believe the time to be +near when they will demand equitable representation in every +Legislature in the world. The movement has gone too far to be checked, +and the electoral unrest which is so common all over the world will +eventually find expression in the best of all electoral systems, which +I claim to be effective voting. + +Among the many friends I had made in the other States there was none I +admired more for her public spiritedness than Miss Vida Goldstein. I +have been associated with her on many platforms and in many branches of +work. Her versatility is great, but there is little doubt that her +chief work lies in helping women and children. Her life is practically +spent in battling for her sex. Although I was the first woman in +Australia to become a Parliamentary candidate, Miss Goldstein has since +exceeded my achievement by a second candidature for the Senate. It was +during her visit here last May-June as a delegate to the State +Children's Congress that she inaugurated the Women's Non-party +Political Association, which is apparently a growing force. In a +general way the aims of the society bear a strong resemblance to those +of the social students' society, many of its members having also +belonged to the earlier association. It was a hopeful sign to me that +it included among its members people of all political views working +chiefly in the interests of women and children. Of this Society also I +became the first President, and the fact that on its platform was +included proportional representation was an incentive for me to work +for it. The education of women on public and social questions, so that +they will be able to work side by side with the opposite sex for the +public good will, I think, help in the solution of social problems that +are now obstacles in the path of progress. In addition to other +literary work for the year 1909 I was asked by Miss Alice Henry to +revise my book on State children in order to make it acceptable and +applicable to American conditions. It was a big undertaking, but I +think successful. The book, as originally written had already done good +work in Western Australia, where the conditions of infant mortality +were extremely alarming, and in England also; and there is ample scope +for such a work in America, which is still far behind even the most +backward Australian State in its care for dependent children. + +As a President of three societies, a Vice-President of two others, a +member of two of the most important boards in the State for the care of +the destitute, the deserted, and the dependent, with a correspondence +that touches on many parts of the Empire, and two continents besides, +with my faculty for the appreciation of good literature still +unimpaired, with my domestic interests so dear to me, and my constant +knitting for the infants under the care of the State Inspector--I find +my life as an octogenarian more varied in its occupations and interests +than ever before. Looking back from the progressive heights of 1910 +through the long vista of years, numbering upwards of four-fifths of a +century, I rejoice at the progress the world has made. Side by side +with the development of my State my life has slowly unfolded itself. My +connection with many of the reforms to which is due this development +has been intimate, and (I think I am justified in saying) oftentimes +helpful. While other States of the Commonwealth and the Dominion of New +Zealand have made remarkable progress, none has eclipsed the rapid +growth of the State to which the steps of my family were directed in +1839. Its growth has been more remarkable, because it has been +primarily due to its initiation of many social and political reforms +which have since been adopted by other and older countries. "Australia, +lead us further," is the cry of reformers in America. We have led in so +many things, and though America may claim the honour of being the +birthplace of the more modern theory of land values taxation, I rejoice +that South Australia was the first country in the world with the +courage and the foresight to adopt the tax on land values without +exemption. That she is still lagging behind Tasmania and South Africa +in the adoption of effective voting, as the only scientific system of +electoral reform, is the sorrow of my old age. The fact that South +Australia has been the happy hunting ground of the faddist has +frequently been urged as a reproach against this State. Its more +patriotic citizens will rejoice in the truth of the statement, and +their prayer will probably be that not fewer but more advanced thinkers +will arise to carry this glorious inheritance beneath the Southern +Cross to higher and nobler heights of physical and human development +than civilization has yet dreamed of or achieved. The Utopia of +yesterday is the possession of today, and opens the way to the Utopia +of to-morrow. The haunting horror of older civilizations--divorcing the +people from their natural inheritance in the soil, and filling the +towns with myriads of human souls dragged down by poverty, misery, and +crime--is already casting its shadow over the future of Australia; but +there is hope in the fact that a new generation has arisen untrammelled +by tradition, which, having the experience of older countries before +it, and benefiting from the advantages of the freer life and the +greater opportunities afforded by a new country, gives promise of +ultimately finding the solution of the hitherto unsolved problem of +making country life as attractive to the masses as that of the towns +and cities. As time goes on the effect of education must tell, and the +generations that are to come will be more enlightened and more +altruistic, and the tendency of the world will be more and more, even +as it is now, towards higher and nobler conceptions of human happiness. +I have lived through a glorious age of progress. Born in "the wonderful +century," I have watched the growth of the movement for the uplifting +of the masses, from the Reform Bill of 1832 to the demands for adult +suffrage. As a member of a church which allows women to speak in the +pulpit, a citizen of a State which gives womanhood a vote for the +Assembly, a citizen of a Commonwealth which fully enfranchises me for +both Senate and Representatives, and a member of a community which was +foremost in conferring University degrees on women, I have benefited +from the advancement of the educational and political status of women +for which the Victorian era will probably stand unrivalled in the +annals of the world's history. I have lived through the period of +repressed childhood, and witnessed the dawn of a new era which has made +the dwellers in youth's "golden age" the most important factor in human +development. I have watched the growth of Adelaide from the condition +of a scattered hamlet to that of one of the finest cities in the +southern hemisphere; I have seen the evolution of South Australia from +a province to an important State in a great Commonwealth. All through +my life I have tried to live up to the best that was in me, and I +should like to be remembered as one who never swerved in her efforts to +do her duty alike to herself and her fellow-citizens. Mistakes I have +made, as all are liable to do, but I have done my best. And when life +has closed for me, let those who knew me best speak and think of me as +One who never turned her back, but marched breast forward, + + Never doubted clouds would break, + Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, + Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, + Sleep to wake. + No nobler epitaph would I desire. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's An Autobiography, by Catherine Helen Spence + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY *** + +***** This file should be named 4220.txt or 4220.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/4220/ + +Produced by Col Choat. 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MILL AND GEORGE ELIOT. +CHAPTER X. RETURN FROM THE OLD COUNTRY. +CHAPTER XI WARDS OF THE STATE. +CHAPTER XII. PREACHING, FRIENDS, AND WRITING. +CHAPTER XIII. MY WORK FOR EDUCATION. +CHAPTER XIV. SPECULATION, CHARITY, AND A BOOK. +CHAPTER XV. JOURNALISM AND POLITICS. +CHAPTER XVI. SORROW AND CHANGE. +CHAPTER XVII. IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. +CHAPTER XVIII. BRITAIN, THE CONTINENT, AND HOME AGAIN. +CHAPTER XIX. PROGRESS OF EFFECTIVE VOTING. +CHAPTER XX. WIDENING INTERESTS. +CHAPTER XXI PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND FEDERATION. +CHAPTER XXII. A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES. +CHAPTER XXIII. MORE PUBLIC WORK. +CHAPTER XXIV. THE EIGHTIETH MILESTONE AND THE END. + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + +EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND. + + +Sitting down at the age of eighty-four to give an account of my life, I +feel that it connects itself naturally with the growth and development +of the province of South Australia, to which I came with my family in +the year 1839, before it was quite three years old. But there is much +truth in Wordsworth's line, "the child is father of the man," and no +less is the mother of the woman; and I must go back to Scotland for the +roots of my character and Ideals. I account myself well-born, for My +father and my mother loved each other. I consider myself well +descended, going back for many generations on both sides of intelligent +and respectable people. I think I was well brought up, for my father +and mother were of one mind regarding the care of the family. I count +myself well educated, for the admirable woman at the head of the school +which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen +and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times. In fact. +like my own dear mother, Sarah Phin was a New Woman without knowing it. +The phrase was not known in the thirties. + +I was born on October 31, 1825, the fifth of a family of eight born to +David Spence and Helen Brodie, in the romantic village of Melrose, on +the silvery Tweed, close to the three picturesque peaks of the Eildon +Hills. which Michael Scott's familiar spirit split up from one mountain +mass in a single night, according to the legend. It was indeed poetic +ground. It was Sir Walter Scott's ground. Abbotsford was within two +miles of Melrose, and one of my earliest recollections was seeing the +long procession which followed his body to the family vault at Dryburgh +Abbey. There was not a local note in "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" or +in the novels. "The Monastery" and "The Abbot," with which I was not +familiar before I entered my teens. There was not a hill or a burn or a +glen that had not a song or a proverb, or a legend about it. Yarrow +braes were not far off. The broom of the Cowdenknowes was still nearer, +and my mother knew the words as well as the tunes of the minstrelsy of +the Scottish Border. But as all readers of the life of Scott know, he +was a Tory, loving the past with loyal affection, and shrinking from +any change. My father, who was a lawyer (a writer as it was called), +and his father who was a country practitioner, were reformers, and so +it happened that they never came into personal relations with the man +they admired above all men in Scotland. It was the Tory doctor who +attended to his health, and the Tory writer who was consulted about his +affairs. + +I look back to a happy childhood. The many anxieties which reached both +my parents were quite unknown to the children till the crisis in 1839. +I do not know that I appreciated the beauty of the village I lived in +so much with my own bodily eyes as through the songs and the +literature, which were current talk. The old Abbey, with its 'prentice +window, and its wonders in stonecarving, that Scott had written about +and Washington Irving marvelled at--"Here lies the race of the House +of Yair" as a tombstone--had a grand roll in it. In the churchyard of +the old Abbey my people on the Spence side lay buried. In the square or +market place there no longer stood the great tree described in The +Monastery as standing just after Flodden Field, where the flowers of +the forest had been cut down by the English; but in the centre stood +the cross with steps up to it, and close to the cross was the well, +to which twice a day the maids went to draw water for the house until +I was nine years old, when we had pipes and taps laid on. The cross +was the place for any public speaking, and I recalled, when I was +recovering from the measles, the maid in whose charge I was, wrapped +me in a shawl and took me with her to hear a gentleman from Edinburgh +speak in favour of reform to a crowd gathered round. He said that the +Tories had found a new name--they called themselves Conservatives because +it sounded better. For his part he thought conserves were pickles, +and he hoped all the Tories would soon find themselves in a pretty pickle. +There were such shouts of laughter that I saw this was a great joke. + +We had gasworks in Melrose when I was 10 or 11, and a great joy to us +children the wonderful light was. I recollect the first lucifer +matches, and the wonder of them. My brother John had got 6d. from a +visiting, uncle as a reward for buying him snuff to fill his cousin's +silver snuffbox, and he spent the money in buying a box of lucifers, +with the piece of sandpaper doubled, through which each match was to be +smartly drawn, and he took all of us and some of his friends to the +orchard, we called the wilderness, at the back of my grandfather +Spence's house. and lighted each of the 50 matches, and we considered +it a great exhibition. 'MY grandfather (old Dr. Spence) died before the +era of lucifer matches. He used to get up early and strike a fire with +flint and steel to boil the kettle and make a cup of tea to give to his +wife in bed. He did it for his first wife (Janet Park), who was +delicate, and he did the same for his second wife until her last fatal +illness. It was a wonderful thing for a man to do in those days. He +would not call the maid; he said young things wanted plenty of sleep. +He had been a navy doctor, and was very intelligent. He trusted much to +Nature and not too much to drugs. On the Sunday of the great annular +eclipse of the sun in 1835, which was my brother John's eleventh +birthday, he had a large double tooth extracted--not by a dentist, and +gas was then unknown or any other anaesthetic, so he did not enjoy the +eclipse as other people did. It took place in the afternoon, and there +was no afternoon church. + +In summer we had two services--one in the forenoon and one in the +afternoon. In winter we had two services at one sitting, which was a +thing astonishing to English visitors. The first was generally called a +lecture--a reading with comments, of a passage of Scriture--a dozen +verses or more--and the second a regularly built sermon, with three or +four heads, and some particulars, and a practical summing up. + +Prices and cost of living had fallen since my mother had married in +1815, three months after the battle of Waterloo. At that time tea cost +8/0 a lb., loaf sugar, 1/4, and brown sugar 11 1/2d. Bread and meat were +then still at war prices, and calico was no cheaper than linen. and +that was dear. She paid 3/6 a yard for fine calico to make petticoats. +Other garments were of what was called home made linen. White cotton +stockings at 4/9, and thinner at 3/9 each; silk stockings at 11/6. I +know she paid 36/ for a yard of Brussels net to make caps of. It was a +new thing to have net made in the loom. When a woman married she must +wear caps at least in the morning. In 1838 my mother bought a chest of +tea (84 lb.) for 20 pounds, a trifle under 5/0 a lb.; the retail price was +6/0--it was a great saving; and up to the time of our departure brown +sugar cost 7 1/2d., and loaf sugar 10d. It is no wonder that these +things were accounted luxuries. When a decent Scotch couple in South +Australia went out to a station in the country in the forties and +received their stores, the wife sat down at her quarter-chest of tea +and gazed at her bag of sugar, and fairly wept to think of her old +mother across the ocean, who had such difficulty in buying an ounce of +tea and a pound of sugar. My mother even saw an old woman buy 1/4oz. of +tea and pay 11/2d. for it, and another woman buy 1/4lb. of meat. + +We kept three maids. The cook got 8 pounds a year, the housemaid 7 pounds, +and the nursemaid 6 pounds, paid half-yearly, but the summer half-year was +much better paid than the winter, because there was the outwork in the +fields, weeding and hoeing turnips and potatoes, and haymaking. The +winter work in the house was heavier on account of the fires and the +grate cleaning, but the wages were less. My mother gave the top wages +in the district, and was considerate to her maids, but I blush yet to +think how poorly those good women who made the comfort of my early home +were paid for their labours. You could get a washerwoman for a +shilling or 1/6 a day, but you must give her a glass of whisky as well +as her food. You could get a sewing girl for a shilling or less, +without the whisky. And yet cheap as sewing was it was the pride of the +middle-elms women of those days that they did it all themselves at +home. Half of the time of girls' schools was given to sewing when +mother was taught. Nearly two hours a day was devoted to it in my time. + +A glass of whisky in Scotland in the thirties cost less than a cup of +tea. I recollect my father getting a large cask of whisky direct from +the distillery which cost 6/6 a gallon, duty paid. A bottle of inferior +whisky could be bought at the grocer's for a shilling. It is surprising +how much alcoholic beverages entered into the daily life, the business, +and the pleasures of the people in those days. No bargain could be made +without them. Christenings, weddings, funerals--all called for the +pouring out of strong drink. If a lady called, the port and sherry +decanters were produced, and the cake basket. If a gentleman, probably +it was the spirit decanter. After the 3 o'clock dinner there was whisky +and hot water and sugar, and generally the came after the 10 o'clock +supper. Drinking habits were very prevalent among men, and were not in +any way disgraceful, unless excessive. But there was less drinking +among women than there is now, because public opinion was strongly +against it. Without being abstainers, they were temperate. With the +same heredity and the same environment, you would see all the brothers +pretty hard drinkers and all the sisters quite straight. Such is the +effect of public opinion. Nothing else has been so powerful in changing +these customs as the cheapening of tea and coffee and cocca, but +especially tea. + +My brothers went to the parish school, one of the best in the county. +The endowment from the tiends or tithes, extorted by John Knox from the +Lords of the congregations, who had seized on the church lands, was +more meagre for the schoolmasters than for the clergy. I think Mr. +Thomas Murray had only 33 pounds in Money, a schoolhouse, and a residence +and garden. and he had to make up a livelihood from school fees, which +began at 2/ a quarter for reading, 3/6 when writing was taught, and 51 +for arithmetic. Latin, I think, cost 10/6 a quarter, but it included +English. Mr. Murray adopted a phonic system of teaching reading, not so +complete as the late Mr. Hartley formulated for our South Australian +schools, and was most successful with it. He not only used maps, but he +had blank maps-a great innovation. My mother was only taught geography +during the years in which she was "finished" in Edinburgh, and never +saw a map then. She felt interested in geography when her children were +learning it. No boy in Mr. Murray's school was allowed to be idle; +every spare minute was given to arithmetic. In the parish school boys +of all classes were taught. Sir David Brewster's sons went to it; but +there were fewer girls, partly because no needlework was taught there, +and needlework was of supreme importance. Mr. Murray was session clerk, +for which he received 5 pounds a year. On Saturday afternoons he might do +land measuring, like Goldsmith's schoolmaster in "The Deserted +Village"-- + + Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, + And even the rumour ran that he could gauge. + +My mother felt that her children were receiving a much better education +than she had had. The education seemed to begin after she left school. +Her father united with six other tenant farmers in buying the third +edition of "The Encyclopedia Briannica," seven for the price of six. +Probably it was only in East Lothian that seven such purchasers could +be found, and my mother studied it well, as also the unabridged +Johnson's Dictionary in two volumes. She learned the Greek letters, so +that she could read the derivations, but went no further. She saw the +fallacy of Mr. Pitt's sinking fund when her father believed in it. To +borrow more than was needed so as to put aside part on compound +interest, would make the price of money rise. And why should not +private people adopt the same way of getting rid of debts? The father +said it would not do for them at all--it was only practicable for a +nation. The things I recollect of the life in the village of Melrose, +of 700 inhabitants, have been talked over with my mother. and many +embodied in a little MS. volume of reminiscences of her life. I hold +more from her than from my father; but. as he was an unlucky +speculator, I inherit from him Hope, which is invaluable to a social or +political reformer. School holidays were only a rarity in harvest time +for the parish school. At Miss Phin's we had. besides, a week at +Christmas. The boys had only New Year's Day. Saturday was only a +half-holiday. We all had a holiday for Queen Victoria's coronation, and +I went with a number of school fellows to see Abbotsford, not for the +first time in my life. + +Two mail coaches--the Blucher and the Chevy Chase--ran through +Melrose every day. People went to the post office for their letters, +and paid for them on delivery. My two elder sisters--Agnes, who died +of consumption at the age of 16, and Jessie, afterwards Mrs. Andrew +Murray, of Adelaide and Melbourne, went to boarding school with their +aunt, Mary Spence, lit Upper Wooden, halfway between Jedburgh and +Kelso. Roxburghshire is rich in old monasteries. The border lands were +more safe in the hands of the church than under feudal lords engaged in +perpetual fighting, and the vassals of the abbeys had generally +speaking, a more secure existence. Kelso. Jedburgh, and Dryburgh Abbeys +lay in fertile districts, and I fancy that when these came into the +hands of the Lords of the congregation, the vassals looked back with +regret on the old times. I was not sent to Wooden, but kept at home, +and I went to a dayschool called by the very popish name of St. Mary's +Convent, though it was quite sufficiently Protestant. My mother had the +greatest confidence in the lady who was at the head of it. She had been +a governess in good situations, and had taught herself Latin, so that +she might fit the boys of the family to take a good place in the +Edinburgh High School. She discovered that she had an incurable +disease, a form of dropsy, which compelled her to lie down for some +time every day, and this she considered she could not do as a +governess. So she determined to risk her savings, and start a boarding +and day school in Melrose, a beautiful and healthy neighbourhood, and +with the aid of a governess, impart what was then considered the +education of a gentlewoman to the girls in the neighbourhood. She took +with her her old mother, and a sister who managed the housekeeping, and +taught the pupils all kinds of plain and fancy needlework. She +succeeded, and she lived till the year 1866, although most of her +teaching was done from her sofa. When my mother was asked what it was +that made Phin so successful, and so esteemed, she said it was her +commonsense. The governesses were well enough, but the invalid old lady +was the life and soul of the school. There were about 14 boarders, and +nearly as many day scholars there, so long as there was no competition. +When that came there was a falling off, but my young sister Mary and I +were faithful till the day when after nine years at the same school, I +went with Jessie to Wooden, to Aunt Mary's, to hear there that my +father was ruined, and had to leave Melrose and Scotland for ever, and +that we must all go to Australia. That was in April, 1839. + +As I said, I had a very happy childhood. The death of my eldest sister +at 16, and of my youngest sister at two years old, did not sink into +the mind of a child as it did into that of my parents, and although +they were seriously alarmed about my health when I was 12 years old, +when I developed symptoms similar to those of Agnes at the same age, I +was not il1 enough to get at all alarmed. I was annoyed at having to +stay away from school for three months. When the collapse came Jessie +had a dear friend of some years' standing, and I had one whom had +known only for some months, but I had spent a month with her in +Edinburgh at Christmas, 1838, and we exchanged letters weekly through +the box which came from Edinburgh with my brother John's, washing. It +was too expensive for us to write by the post. Well, neither of our +friends wrote a word to us. With regard to mine it was not to he +wondered at much--she was only 13--but the other was more surprising. +It was not till 1865 that an old woman told me that when Miss F. B. +came to return some books and music to her to give to my aunt in +Melrose, "she just sat in the chair and cried as if her heart would +break." She was not quite a free agent. Very few single women were free +agents in 1839. We were hopelessly ruined, our place would know us no +more. + +The only long holidays I had in the year I spent at Thornton Loch, in +East Lothian, 40 miles away. I did not know that my father was a heavy +speculator in foreign wheat, and I thought his keen interest in the +market in Mark lane was on account of the Thornton Loch crops, in which +first my grandfather and afterwards the three Maiden aunts were deeply +concerned. My mother's father, John Brodie, was one of the most +enterprising agriculturists in the most advanced district of Great +Britain. He won a prize of two silver salvers from the Highland +Society for having the largest area of drilled wheat sown. He was +called up twice to London to give evidence before Parliamentary +committees on the corn laws, and he naturally approved of them, +because, with three large farms held on 19 years' leases at war prices, +the influx of cheap wheat from abroad would mean ruin. He proved that +he paid 6,000 pounds a year for these three farms--two he worked himself, +the third was for his eldest son; but he was liable for the rent. On +his first London trip, my aunt Margaret accompanied him, and on his +second he took my mother. That was in the year 1814, and both of them +noted from the postchaise that farming was not up to what was done in +East Lothian. + +My grandfather Brodie was a speculating man, and he lost nearly all his +savings through starting, along with others, an East Lothian Bank, +because the local banker had been ill used by the British Linen +Company. He put in only 1,000 pounds; but was liable for all, and, as many +of his fellow shareholders were defaulters, it cost 15,000 pounds before +all was over, and if it had not been that he left the farm in the capable +hands of Aunt Margaret, there would have been little or nothing left for +the family. When he had a stroke of paralysis he wanted to turn over +Thornton Loch, the only farm he then had, to his eldest son, but there +were three daughters, and one of them said she would like to carry it +on, and she did so. She was the most successful farmer in the country +for 30 years, and then she transferred it to a nephew. The capacity for +business of my Aunt Margaret, the wit and charm of my brilliant Aunt +Mary, and the sound judgment and accurate memory of my own dear mother, +showed me early that women were fit to share in the work of this world, +and that to make the world pleasant for men was not their only mission. +My father's sister Mary was also a remarkable and saintly woman, though +I do not think she was such a born teacher as Miss Phin. When my father +was a little boy, not 12 years old, an uncle from Jamaica came home for +a visit. He saw his sister Janet a dying woman, with a number of +delicate-looking children, and he offered to take David with him and +treat him like his own son. No objections were made. The uncle was +supposed to be well-to-do, and he was unmarried, but he took fever and +died, and was found to be not rich but insolvent. The boy could read +and write, and he got something to do on a plantation till his father +sent money to pay his passage home. He must have been supposed to be +worth something, for he got a cask of rum for his wages, which was +shipped home, and when the duty had been paid was drunk in the doctor's +household. But the boy had been away only 21 months, and he returned to +find his mother dead. and two or three little brothers and sisters dead +and buried, and his father married again to his mother's cousin, +Katherine Swanston, an old maid of 45, who, however, two years +afterwards was the mother of a fine big daughter, so that Aunt Helen +Park's scheme for getting the money for her sister's children failed. +In spite of my father's strong wish to be a farmer, and not a writer or +attorney, there was no capital to start a farm upon, so he was +indentured to Mr. Erskine, and after some years began business in +Melrose for himself, and married Lelen Brodie. His elder brother John +went as a surgeon in the Royal Navy--before he was twenty-one. The +demand for surgeons was great during the war time. He was made a +Freemason before the set age, because in case of capture friends from +the fraternity might be of great use. He did not like his original +profession, especially when after the peace he must be a country +practitioner like his father, at every one's beck and call, so he was +articled to his brother, and lived in the house till he married and +settled at Earlston, five miles off. Uncle John Spence was a scholarly +man, shy but kindly, who gave to us children most of the books we +possessed. They were not in such abundance as children read nowadays, +but they were read and re-read. + +In these early readings the Calvinistic teaching of the church and the +shorter catechism was supported and exemplified. The only secular books +to counteract them were the "Evenings at Home" and Miss Edgeworth's +"Tales for Young and Old!" The only cloud on my young life was the +gloomy religion, which made me doubt of my own salvation and despair of +the salvation of any but a very small proportion of the people in the +world. Thus the character of God appeared unlovely, and it was wicked +not to love God; and this was my condemnation. I had learned the +shorter catechism with the proofs from Scripture, and I understood the +meaning of the dogmatic theology. Watts's hymns were much more easy to +learn, but the doctrine was the same. There was no getting away +from the feeling that the world was under a curse ever since that +unlucky appleeating in the garden of Eden. Why, oh! why had not the +sentence of death been carried out at once, and a new start made with +more prudent people? The school in which as a day scholar I passed nine +years of my life was more literary than many which were more +pretentious. Needlework was of supreme importance, certainly, but +during the hour and a half every day, Saturday's half-holiday not +excepted, which was given to it by the whole school at once (odd +half-hours were also put in), the best readers took turns about to +read. some book selected by Miss Phin. We were thus trained to pay +attention. History, biography, adventures, descriptions, and story +books were read. Any questions or criticisms about our sewing, +knitting, netting, &c., were carried on in a low voice, and we learned +to work well and quickly, and good reading aloud was cultivated. First +one brother and then another had gone to Edinburgh for higher education +than could be had at Melrose Parish School, and I wanted to go to a +certain institution, the first of the kind, for advanced teaching for +girls, which had a high reputation. I was a very ambitious girl at 13. +I wanted to be a teacher first, and a great writer afterwards. The +qualifications for a teacher would help me to rise to literary fame, so +I obtained from my father a promise that I should go to Edinburgh next +year; but he could not keep it. He was a ruined man. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + +TOWARDS AUSTRALIA. + + +Although my mother's family had lost heavily by him, her mother gave us +500 pounds to make a start in South Australia. An 80-acre section was +built for 80 pounds, and this entitled us to the steerage passage of four +adults. This helped for my elder sister and two brothers (my younger +brother David was left for his education with his aunts in Scotland), but +we had to have another female, so we took with us a servant girl--most +ridiculous, it seems now. I was under the statutory age of 15. The +difference between steerage and intermediate fares had to be made up, +and we sailed from Greenock in July, 1839, in the barque Palmyra, 400 +tons, bound for Adelaide, Port Phillip, and Sydney. The Palmyra was +advertised to carry a cow and an experienced surgeon. Intermediate +passengers had no more advantage of the cow than steerage folks, and +except for the privacy of separate cabins and a pound of white biscuit +per family weekly, we fared exactly as the other immigrants did, though +the cost was double. Twice a week we had either fresh meat or tinned +meat, generally soup and boudle, and the biscuit seemed half bran, and +sometimes it was mouldy. But our mother thought it was very good for us +to endure hardship, and so it was. + +There were 150 passengers, mostly South Australian immigrants, in the +little ship. The first and second class passengers were bound for Port +Philip and Sydney in greater proportion than for Adelaide There was in +the saloon the youthful William Milne, and in the intermediate was Miss +Disher, his future wife. He became President of the Legislative +Council, and was knighted. There was my brother, J. B. Spence, who also +sat in the Council, and was at one time Chief Secretary. There was +George Melrose, a successful South Australian pastoralist; there was my +father's valued clerk, Thomas Laidlaw, who was long in the Legislative +Council of New South Wales and the leading man in the town of Yass. +"Honest Torn of Yass" was his soubriquet. Bound for Melbourne there +were Mr. and Mrs. Duncan, of Melrose, and Charles Williamson, from +Hawick, who founded a great business house in Collins Street. There were +Langs from Selkirk, and McHaffies, who became pastoralists. Our next +cabin mate, who brougut out a horse, had the Richmond punt when there +was no bridge there. All the young men were reading a thick book +brought out by the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge about sheep, +but they could dance in the evenings to the strains of Mr. Duncan's +violin, and although I was not 14, I was in request as a partner, as +ladies were scarce. Jessie Spence and Eliza Disher, who were grown up, +were the belles of the Palmyra. Of all the passengers in the ship the +young doctor, John Logan Campbell, has had the most distinguished +career. Next to Sir George Grey he has had most to do with the +development of New Zealand. He is now called the Grand Old Man of +Auckland. He had his twenty-first birthday, this experienced surgeon(!) +in the same week as I had my fourteenth, while the Palmyra was +lying off Holdfast Bay (now Glenelg) before we could get to the old +Port Adelaide to discharge. My brother saw him in 1883, but I have not +set eye on him since that week in 1839. We have corresponded frequently +since my brother's death. In his book "Poenama," written for his +children, there is a picture of the Palmyra, with an account of the +voyage and the only sensational incident in it. We had a collision in +the Irish Sea, and our foremast was broken, so that we had to return to +Greenock for repairs, and then obtained the concession of white biscuit +for the second class for one day in the week. Sir John Campbell's gift +of a beautiful park to the citizens of Auckland was made while my +brother John was alive. Just recently he has given money and plans for +building and equipping the first free kindergarten in Auckland--perhaps +in New Zealand--and as this includes a training college for +the students it is very complete. These Palmyra passengers have made +their mark on the history of Australia and New Zealand. It is +surprising what a fine class of people immigrated to Australia in these +days to face all the troubles of a new country. + +The first issue of The Register was printed in London, and gave +a glowing account of the province that was to be--its climate, its +resources, the sound principles on which it was founded. It is +sometimes counted as a reproach that South Australia was founded by +doctrinaires and that we retain traces of our origin; to me it is our +glory. In the land laws and the immigration laws it struck out a new +path, and sought to found a new community where the sexes should be +equal, and where land, labour, and capital should work harmoniously +together. Land was not to be given away in huge grants, as had been +done in New South Wales and Western Australia, to people with influence +or position, but was to be sold at the high price of 20/ an acre. The +price should be not too high to bring out people to work on the land. +The Western Australian settlers had been wellnigh starved, because +there was no labour to give real value to the paper or parchment deeds. +The cheapest fare third class was from 17 pounds to 20 pounds, and the +family immigration, which is the best, was quite out of the reach of those +who were needed. The immigrants were not bound to work for any special +individual or company, unless by special contract voluntarily made. +They were often in better circumstances after the lapse of a few years +than the landbuyers, and, in the old days, the owner of an 80-acre +section worked harder and for longer hours than any hired man would do, +or could be expected to do. + +In the South Australian Public Library there is a curious record--the +minutes and proceedings of the South Australian Literary Society, in +the years 1831-5. As the province was non-existent at that time, this +cultivation of literature seems premature, but the members, 40 in +number, were its founders, and pending the passage of the Bill by the +Imperial Parliament, they met fortnightly in London to discuss its +prospects, and to read papers on exploration and on matters of future +development and government. The first paper was on education for the +new land, and was read by Richard Davies Hanson. The South Australian +Company and Mr. George Fife Angas came to the rescue by buying a +considerable area of land and making up the amount of capital which was +required. It is interesting to note that the casting vote in the House +of Lords which decided that the province of South Australia should come +into existence was given by the Duke of Wellington. Adelaide was to +have been called Wellington, but somehow the Queen Consort's name +carried the day. The name of the conquerer of Waterloo is immortalized +in the capital of the Dominion of New Zealand, in the North Island, +which, like South Australia, was founded on the Wakefield principle of +selling land for money to be applied for immigration. The 40 signatures +in the records of the South Australian Literary Society are most +interesting to an old colonist like myself, and the names of many of +them are perpetuated in those of our rivers and our streets:--Torrens, +Wright, Brown, Gilbert, Gouger, Hanson, Kingston, Wakefield, Morphett, +Childers, Hill (Rowland), Stephens, Mawn, Furniss, Symonds. The second +issue of The Register was printed in Adelaide. It was also The +Government Gazette. It gave the proclamation of the province, which was +made under the historic gum tree near Holdfast Bay, now Glenelg. It +also records the sales of the town acres which had not been allotted to +the purchasers of preliminary sections. These were of 134 acres, and a +town acre, at the price of 12/6 an acre. This was a temptation to +invest at the very first, because afterwards the price was 20/ an acre, +without any city lot. From this cheap investment came the frequent +lamentation, "Why did not I buy Waterhouse's corner for 12/6?" But +there was more than 12/6 needed. The investment was of 80 pounds, which +secured the ownership of the corner block facing King William street +and Rundle street, and besides 134 acres of valuable suburban land. + +There were connected with The Register from the earliest days the +enterprising head of the house. Robert Thomas, who must have been well +aided by his intelligent wife. The sons and daughters took their place +in colonial society. Mr. George Stevenson left the staff of The Globe +and Traveller, a good old London Paper, to try his fortunes in the new +Province founded on the Wakefield principle, as Private Secretary to +the first Governor (Capt. John Hindmarsh, R.N.). It is matter of +history how the Governor and the Commissioner of Lands differed and +quarrelled, the latter having the money and the former the power of +government, and it was soon found that Mr. Stevenson could wield a +trenchant pen. He had been on the "Traveller" branch of the London +paper what would be called now a travelling correspondent. The Governor +was replaced by Col. Gawler, and Mr. Stevenson went on The +Register as editor. Mrs. Stevenson was a clever woman, and could help +her husband. She knew Charles Dickens, and still better, the family of +Hogarth, into which he married. My father and mother were surprised to +find so good a paper and so well printed in the infant city. Then there +were A. H. Davis, of the Reedbeds, and Nathaniel Hailes, who wrote +under the cognomen of "Timothy Short," who had been publisher and +bookseller. There was first Samuel Stephens, who came out in the first +ship for the South Australian Company, and married a fellow passenger, +Charlotte Hudson Beare, and died two years after, and then Edward. +manager of the South Australian Bank, and later, John Stephens who +founded The Weekly Observer, and afterwards bought The Register. These +all belonged to a literary family. + +People came out on the smallest of salaries with big families--H. T. +H. Beare on 100 pounds a year as architect, for the South Australian +Company, and he had 18 children by two wives. I do not know what salary +Mr. William Giles came out on with nine children and a young second wife, +but I am sure it was less than 300 pounds. His family in all counted 21. +But things were bad in the old country before the great lift given by +railways, and freetrade, which made England the carrier for the world; +and the possibilities of the new country were shown in that first issue +of The Register in London in the highest colours. Not too high by any +means in the light of what has been accomplished in 73 years, but there +was a long row to hoe first, and few of the pioneers reaped the prizes. +But, in spite of hardships and poverty and struggle, the early colonial +life was interesting, and perhaps no city of its size at the time +contained as large a population of intelligent and educated people as +Adelaide. + +Mrs. Oliphant, writing in 1885 at the age of 57, says that reading the +"Life of George Eliot" made her think of an autobiography, and this was +written at the saddest crisis of her life. She survived her husband and +all her children, and had just lost the youngest, the posthumous boy. +For them and for the family of a brother she had carried on the +strenuous literary work--fiction, biography, criticism, and history--and +when she died at the age of 69 she had not completed the history of +a great publishing house--that of Blackwood. Her life tallies with +mine on many points, but it is not till I have completed my 84 years +that her sad narrative impels me to set down what appears noteworthy in +a life which was begun in similar circumstances, but which was spent +mainly in Australia. The loss of memory which I see in many who are +younger than myself makes me feel that while I can recollect I should +fix the events and the ideals of my life by pen and ink. Like Mrs. +Oliphant, I was born (three years earlier) in the south of Scotland. +Like her I had an adrnirable mother but she lost hers at the age of 60, +while I kept mine till she was nearly 97. Like Mrs. Oliphant, I was +captivated by the stand made by the Free Church as a protest against +patronage, and like her I shook off the shackles of the narrow +Calvinism of Presbyterianism, and emerged into more light and liberty. +But unlike Mrs. Oliphant, I have from my earliest youth taken an +interest in politics, and although I have not written the tenth part of +what she has done, I have within the last 20 years addressed many +audiences in Australia and America, and have preached over 100 sermons. +My personal influence has been exercised through the voice more +strongly than by the pen, and in the growth and development of South +Australia, to which I came with my parents and brothers and sisters +when I was just 14, and the province not three years old, there have +been opportunities for usefulness which might not have offered if I had +remained in Melrose, in Sir Walter Scott's country. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + +A BEGINNING AT SEVENTEEN + + +Perhaps my turn for economics was partly inherited from my mother, and +emphasized by my father having been an unlucky speculator in foreign +wheat, tempted thereto by the sliding scale, which varied from 33/ a +quarter, when wheat was as cheap as it was in 1837, to 1/ a quarter, +when it was 70/ in 1839. It was supposed that my father had made his +fortune when he took his wheat out of bond but losses and deterioration +during seven years, and interest on borrowed money--credit having been +strained to the utmost--brought ruin and insolvency, and he had to go +to South Australia, followed by his wife and family soon after. It +seems strange that this disaster should be the culmination of the +peace, after the long Napoleonic war. When my father married in 1815 he +showed he was making 600 pounds a year, with 2,000 pounds book debts, as a +writer or attorney and as agent for a bank. But the business fell off, the +book debts could not be collected; the bank called up the advances; and +for 24 years there was a struggle. My mother would not have her dowry of +1,500 pounds and other money left by an aunt settled on herself--neither +her father nor herself approved of it--the wife's fortune should come +and go with her husband's. My father first speculated in hops and lost +heavily. He took up unlucky people, whom other business men had +drained. I suppose he caught at straws. He had the gentlest of +manners--"the politest man in Melrose," the old shoemaker called him. My +paternal grandfather was Dr. William Spence, of Melrose. His father was +minister of the Established Church at Cockburn's Path, Berwickshire. +His grandfather was a small landed proprietor, but he had to sell +Spence's mains, and the name was changed to Chirnside. So (as my father +used to say) he was sprung from the tail of the gentry; while my mother +was descended from the head of the commonalty. The Brodies had been +tenant farmers in East Lothian for six or seven generations, though +they originally came from the north. My grandfather Brodie thought +abrogation of the Corn Laws meant ruin for the farmers, who had taken +19 years' leases at war prices. But during the war times both landlords +and farmers coined money, while the labourers had high prices for food +and very little increase in their wages. I recollect both grandfathers +well, and through the accurate memory of my mother t can tell how +middle-class people in lowland Scotland lived and dressed and +travelled, entertained visitors. and worshipped God. She told me of the +"dear years" 1799 and 1800, and what a terrible thing a bad crop was, +when the foreign ports were closed by Napoleon. She told me that but +for the shortlived Peace of Amiens she never heard of anything but war +till the Battle of Waterloo settled it three months before her +marriage. From her own intimate relations with her grandmother, +Margaret Fernie Brodie, who was born in 1736, and died in 1817, she +knew how two generations before her people lived and thought. So that I +have a grasp on the past which many might envy, and yet the present and +the future are even more to me, as they were to my mother. On her death +in 1887 I wrote a quatrain for her memorial, and which those who knew +her considered appropriate-- + + HELEN BRODIE SPENCE + Born at Whittingham, Scotland, 1791. + Died at College Town, Adelaide, South Australia, 1887. + + Half a long life 'mid Scotland's heaths and pines, + And half among our South Australian vines; + Though loving reverence bound her to the past, + Eager for truth and progress to the last. + +Although my mother had the greatest love for Sir Walter Scott, and the +highest appreciation of his poems and novels, she never liked Melrose. +She liked Australia better after a while. Indeed, when we arrived in +November, 1839, to a country so hot, so dry, so new, we felt like the +good old founder of The Adelaide Register, Robert Thomas, when he came +to the land described in his own paper as "flowing with milk and +honey." Dropped anchor at Holdfast Bay. "When I saw the place at which +we were to land I felt inclined to go and cut my throat." When we sat +down on a log in Light square, waiting till my father brought +the key of the wooden house In Gilles street, in spite of the dignity +of my 14 years just attained, I had a good cry. There had been such a +drought that they had a dearth, almost a famine. People like ourselves +with 80 acre land orders were frightened to attempt cultivation in an +unknown climate, with seed wheat at 25/ a bushel or more, and stuck to +the town. We lived a month in Gilles street, then we bought a large +marquee, and pitched it on Brownhill Creek, above where Mitcham now +stands, bought 15 cows and a pony and cart, and sold the milk in town +at 1/ a quart. But how little milk the cows gave in those days! After +seven months' encamping, in which the family lived chiefly on rice--the +only cheap food, of which we bought a ton--we came with our herd +to West terrace, Adelaide. My father got the position of Town Clerk at +150 pounds a year twelve months after our arrival, and kept it till the +muncipal corporation was ended, as the City of Adelaide was too poor to +maintain the machinery; but 75 pounds was the rent of the house and yards. +We sold the cows, and my brothers went farming, and we took cheaper +quarters in Halifax street. + +The Town Clerkship, however, was the means of giving me a lesson in +electoral methods. Into the Municipal Bill, drawn up under the +superintendence of Rowland Hill (afterward the great post office +reformer, but then the Secretary of the Colonization Commissioner for +South Australia), he had introduced a clause providing for proportional +representation at the option of the ratepayers. The twentieth part of +the Adelaide ratepayers by uniting their votes upon one man instead of +voting for 18, could on the day before the ordinary election appear and +declare this their intention, and he would be a Councillor on their +votes. In the first election, November, 1840, two such quorums elected +two Councillors. The workmen in Borrow and Goodear's building elected +their foreman, and another quorum of citizens elected Mr. William +Senden; and this was the first quota representation in the world. My +father explained this unique provision to me at the time, and showed +its bearings for minority representation. + +After the break up of the municipality and the loss of his income my +father lost health and spirits. The brothers did not succeed in the +country. My sister had married Andrew Murray, an apparently prosperous +man, in 1841, but the protecting of the Government bills bought for +remitting to England, and other causes, brought down every mercantile +firm in Adelaide except A. L. Elder, who had not been long established; +and Murray & Greig came down too. Mr. Murray was a ready writer, and +got work on The South Australian, the newspaper which supported Capt. +Grey's policy of retrenchment and stoppage of public works; so, with a +small salary, he managed to live. When I left Scotland I brought with +me a letter of recommendation from my teacher, Miss Sarah Phin, +concerning my qualifications and my turn for teaching. I don't know if +it really did me any good, for the suspicious look and the question +about how old I was at the time embarrassed me. Of course I was only 13 +1/2 and probably my teacher over-estimated me a little, but here is, +the letter, yellow with the dust of over 70 years. + + +Melrose. June 20, 1839. + +My dearest Catherine--Our mutual friend, Mrs. Duncan, told me that you +were not to sail for Australia till next month, and I have been +thinking if my poor testimonial to your worth and abilities could be of +any service to you I ought to give it but how can I trust myself?--for +could any one read what I feel my heart dictates it would be thought +absurd. You were always one of the greatest ornaments of my school, +best girl and the best scholar, and from the time you could put three +letters together you have evinced a turn for teacing--so clear-headed +and so patient, and so thoroughly upright in word and deed, and your +knowledge of the Scriptures equal to that of many students of Divinity, +so should you ever become a teacher you have nothing to fear. You will +be able to undertake both the useful and the ornamental branches of +education--French, Italian, and Music you thoroughly understand. I +feel conscious that you will succeed. Please to remember me to your +excellent mother, and with love to Miss Spence and my darling Mary, +believe me, my beloved Catherine, your affectionate friend and teacher. +Sarah Phin. + + +My knowledge of music was not great, even in those days, but I could +teach beginners for two or three years with fair success. We thought +that my mother and the two eldest girls could start a school, and +brought out with us a good selection of schoolbooks, bought from Oliver +J. Boyd. Edinburgh, superior to the English books obtainable here, +which we used up in time; but we dared not launch out into such a +venture in 1840, and my sister Jessie had no desire to teach at all. +The years at Brownhill Creek and West terrace were the most +unhappy of my life. I suffered from the want of some intellectual +activity, and from the sense of frustrated ambition and religious +despair. The few books we had, or which we could borrow, I read over +and over again. Aikin's "British Poets," a gift from Uncle John Spence, +and Goldsmith's complete works, a school prize of my brother William's, +were thoroughly mastered, and the Waverley novels down to "Quentin +Durward" were well absorbed. I read in Chambers's Journal of daily +governesses getting a shilling an hour, and I told my friend, Mrs. +Haining, that I would go out for 6d. an hour. Although she disliked +that way of putting it, it was really on that basis that I had made my +beginning when I reached the age of 17. In the meantime I had taught my +younger sister Mary (afterwards Mrs. W. J. Wren) all I knew, and in the +columns of The South Australian I wrote an occasional letter or a few +verses. Through Mr. George Tinline we made the acquaintance of Mrs. +Samuel Stephens her brother, Thomas Hudson Beare, and his family, who +had all come out in the Duke of York, and lived six months on Kangaroo +Island before South Australia was proclaimed a British province. I have +been mixed up so much with this family that it is often supposed that +they were relatives, but it was not so. Samuel Stephens had died from +an accident two years after his marriage to a lady much older and much +richer than himself, and she was living on two acres in North Adelaide, +bought with her money at the first sale of city lands in 1837, and Mr. +Tinline boarded with her till his marriage. The nephews, and especially +the nieces, of the old lady interested me--Lucy, the eldest, a +handsome girl, was about two years younger than myself; Arabella, about +the age of my sister Mary; Elizabeth, the baby Beare, who was the first +white person to set foot on South Australian soil after the foundation +of the province, died from a burning accident when quite young. The +only survivor of that first family now is William L. Beare (84), held +in honour as one of our earliest pioneers. By a second marriage there +were nine more children. Several died young, but some still survive. + +It was not till 1843 that I went as a daily governess at the rate of +6d. an hour, and gave two hours five days a week to the families of the +Postmaster-General, the Surveyor-General, and the Private Secretary. +Thus I earned three guineas a month. I don't recollect taking holidays, +except a week at Christmas. I enjoyed the work, and I was proud of the +payment. My mother said she never felt the bitterness of poverty after +I began to earn money, and the shyness which, in spite of all her +instructions and encouragement, I had felt with all strangers, +disappeared when I felt independent. When a girl is very poor, and +feels herself badly dressed, she cannot help being shy, especially if +she has a good deal of Scotch pride. I think mother felt more sorry for +me in those early days than for the others, because I was so ambitious, +and took religious difficulties so hard. How old I felt at 17. Indeed, +at 14 I felt quite grown up. In 1843 I felt I had begun the career in +Australia that I had anticipated in Scotland. I was trusted to teach +little girls, and they interested me, each individual with a +difference. I had seen things I had written in print. If I was one of +the oldest in feeling of the young folk in South Australia in my teens, +I am the youngest woman in feeling in my eighties; so I have had +abundant compensation. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + +LOVERS AND FRIENDS. + + +It is always supposed that thoughts of love and marriage are the chief +concerns in a girl's life, but it was not the case with me. I had only +two offers of marriage in my life, and I refused both. The first might +have been accepted if it had not been for the Calvinistic creed that +made me shrink from the possibility of bringing children into the world +with so little chance of eternal salvation, so I said. "No" to a very +clever young man, with whom I had argued on many points, and with whom, +if I had married him, I should have argued till one of us died! I was +17, and had just begun to earn money. I told him why I had refused him, +and that it was final. In six weeks he was engaged to another woman. My +second offer was made to me when I was 23 by a man aged 55, with three +children. He was an artist, whose second wife and several children had +been murdered by the Maoris near Wanganui during the Maori insurrection +of the forties, and he had come to Adelaide with the three survivors. +The massacre of that family was only one of the terrible tragedies of +that time, but it was not the less shocking. The Maoris had never been +known to kill a woman, and when the house was attacked, Mr. Gilfillan +got out of a back window to call the soldiers to their help. Though +struck on the back of the head and the neck and scarred for life--owing +to which he was always compelled to wear his hair long--he succeeded +in his mission. His wife put her own two children through the +window, and they toddled off hand in hand until they met their father +returning with the soldiers. The eldest daughter, a girl of 13, escaped +with a neighbour's child, a baby in arms. She was seen by the Maoris, +struck on the forehead with a stone axe, and left unconscious. The +crying of the baby roused her, and she went to the cowyard and milked a +cow to get milk for the hungry child, and there she was found by the +soldiers. She was queer in her ways and thoughts afterwards, and, it +was said, always remained 13 years old. She died in November last, aged +74. Her stepmother and the baby and her own brother and sister were +murdered one by one as they tried to escape by the same window that had +led the rest of the family to safety. One of the toddling survivors +still lives in New Zealand. Now, these are all the chances of marriage +I have had in my life. Dickens, in "David Copperfield," speaks of an +old maid who keeps the remembrance of some one who might have made her +an offer, the shadowy Pidger, in her heart until her death. I cannot +forget these two men. I am constantly meeting with the children, +grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of the first. As for the +other, Andrew Murray gave me a fine landscape painted by John A. +Gilfillan as a slight acknowledgment of services rendered to his +newspaper when he left it to go to Melbourne, and it hangs up in my +sitting room for all to see. Mr. Gilfillan had a commission to paint +"The Landing of Capt. Cook" with the help of Portraits and miniatures +of the principal personages, and some sketches of his of Adelaide in +1849 are in the Adelaide Art Gallery. If the number of lovers has been +few, no woman in Australia has been richer in friends. This narrative +will show what good friends--men as well as women--have helped me and +sympathized in my work and my aims. I believe that if I had been in +love, especially if I had been disappointed in love, my novels would +have been stronger and more interesting; but I kept a watch over +myself, which I felt I knew I needed, for I was both imaginative and +affectionate. I did not want to give my heart away. I did not desire a +love disappointment, even for the sake of experience. I was 30 years +old before the dark veil of religious despondency was completely lifted +from my soul, and by that time I felt myself booked for a single life. +People married young if they married at all in those days. The single +aunts put on caps at 30 as a sort of signal that they accepted their +fate; and, although I did not do so, I felt a good deal the same. + +I went on with daily teaching for some years, during which my father's +health declined, but before his death two things had happened to cheer +him. My brother John left Myponga and came to town, and obtained +a clerkship in the South Australian Bank at 100 pounds a year. It was +whilst occupying a position in the bank that he had some slight connection +with the notorious Capt. Starlight, afterwards the hero of "Robbery +Under Arms," for through his hands much of the stolen money passed. In +1900, when Mrs. Young and I were leaving Melbourne on our visit to +Sydney, we were introduced to "Rolf Boldrewood," the author of that +well-known story. His grave face lit up with a smile when my friend +referred to the author of her son's hero. "Ah!" and he shook his head +slowly. "I'm not quite sure about the wisdom of making heroes of such +sorry stuff," he replied. I thought I could do better with a school. I +was 20, and my sister Mary nearly 16, and my mother could help. My +school opened in May, 1846, a month before my father's death, and he +thought that our difficulties were over. My younger brother, David +Wauchope, had been left behind for his education with the three maiden +aunts, but he came out about the end of that year, and began life in +the office of the Burra Mine at a small salary. My eldest brother +William, was not successful in the country, and went to Western +Australia for some years, and later to New Zealand, where he died in +his eightieth year, soon after the death of my brother John in his +seventy-ninth, leaving me the only survivor of eight born and of six +who grew to full age. My eldest sister Agnes died of consumption at the +age of 16; and, as my father's mother and four of his brothers and +sisters had died of this malady, it was supposed to be in the family. +The only time I was kept out of school during the nine years at Miss +Phin's was when I was 12 when I had a cough and suppuration of the +glands of the neck. As this was the way in which Agnes's illness had +begun, my parents were alarmed, though I had no idea of it. I was +leeched and blistered and drugged; I was put into flannel for the only +time in my life; I was sent away for change of air; but no one could +discover that the cough was from the lungs. It passed away with the +cold weather, and I cannot say that I have had any illness since. My +father died of decline, but, if he had been more fortunate, I think he +would have lived much longer. Probably my mother's life was prolonged +beyond that of a long-lived family by her coming to Australia in middle +life; and if I ever had any tendency to consumption, the climate must +have helped me. There were no special precautions against infection in +those days: but no other member of the family took it. and the alarm +about me was three years after Agnes's death. + +But to go on to those early days of the forties. There were two +families with whom we were intimate. Mr. George Tinline (who had been +clerk to my fathers' old friend, Williarn Rutherford, of Jedburgh), who +was in the bank of South Australia when in 1839, my father went to put +our small funds in safety, introduced us to a beautiful young widow, +Mrs. Sharpe, and her sisters Eliza and Harriet, and her brother, John +Taylor. Harriet afterwards married Edward Stirling, a close friend of +my brother-in-law, Andrew Murray, and I was a great deal interested in +the Stirlings and their eight children. Mr. William Bakewell, of +Bartley & Bakewell, solicitors, married Jane Warren of Springfield, +Barossa, and I was a familiar friend of their five children. In one +house I was "Miss Spence, the storyteller," in the other "Miss Spence, +the teller of tales!" Some of the tales appeared long after as +Christmas stories in The Adelaide Observer, but my young hearers +preferred the oral narrative, with appropriate gestures and emphasis, +and had no scruple about making faces, to anything printed in books. I +took great liberties with what I had read and sometimes invented all. +It was a part of their education, probably--certainly, it was a part +of mine, and it gave me a command of language which helped me when I +became a public speaker. My brother-in-law's newspaper furnished an +occasional opportunity to me, though no doubt he considered that he +could fill his twice-a-week journal without my help. He was, however, +helpful in other ways. He was one of the subscribers to a Reading Club, +and through him I had access to newspapers and magazines. The South +Australian Institute was a treasure to the family. I recollect a +newcomer being astonished at my sister Mary having read Macaulay's +History. "Why, it was only just out when I left England," said he. +"Well, it did not take longer to come out than you did," was her reply. +We were all omnivorous readers, and the old-fashioned accomplishment of +reading aloud was cultivated by both brothers and sisters. I was the +only one who could translate French at sight, thanks to Miss Phin's +giving me so much of Racine and Moliere and other good French authors +in my school days. + +But more important than all this was the fact that we took hold +of the growth and development of South Australia, and identified +ourselves with it. Nothing is insignificant in the history of a young +community, and--above all--nothing seems impossible. I had learned what +wealth was, and a great deal about production and exchange for myself +in the early history of South Australia--of the value of machinery, of +roads and bridges, and of ports for transport and export. I had seen +the 4-lb. loaf at 4/ and at 4d. I had seen Adelaide the dearest and the +cheapest place to live in. I had seen money orders for 2/6, and even +for 6d., current when gold and silver were very scarce. Even before the +discovery of copper South Australia had turned the corner. We had gone +on the land and become primary producers, and before the gold +discoveries in Victoria revolutionized Australia and attracted our male +population across the border, the Central State was the only one which +had a large surplus of wheat and hay to send to the goldfields. + +Edward Wilson of The Argus, riding overland to Adelaide about 1848, was +amazed to see from Willunga onward fenced and cultivated farms, with +decent homesteads and machinery up to date. The Ridley stripper enabled +our people to reap and thresh the corn when hands were all too few for +the sickle. He said he felt as if the garden of Paradise must have been +in King William street and that the earliest difference in the world--that +between Cain and Abel--was about the advantages of the 80-acre +system. Australia generally had already to realize the fact that the +pastoral industry was not enough for its development, and South +Australia had seemed to solve the problem through the doctrinaire +founders, of family immigration, small estates, and the development of +agnculture, horticulture, and viticulture. We owed a great deal in the +latter branches to our German settlers--sent out originally by Mr. G. +F. Angas, whose interest was aroused by their suffering persecution for +religious dissent--who saw that Australia had a better climate than +that of the Fatherland. We owed much to Mr. George Stevenson, who was +an enthusiastic gardener and fruitgrower, and lectured on these +subjects, but the contrast between the environs of Adelaide and those +of Sydney and Melbourne were striking, and Mr. Wilson never lost an +opportunity of calling on the Victorian Legislature and the Victorian +public to develop their own wonderful resources. When you take gold out +of the ground there is less gold to win. When you grow golden grain or +ruddy grapes this year you may expect as much and as good next year. My +brother David went with the thousands to buy their fortunes at the +diggings, but my brother John stuck to the Bank of South Australia. My +brother-in-law's subscribers and his printers had gone off and left him +woefully embarrassed. He went to Melbourne. My friend John Taylor left +his sheep in the wilderness and came to Adelaide to the aid of The +Register. He had been engaged to Sophia Stephens, who died, and her +father John Stephens also died soon after; and Mr. Taylor shouldered +the management of the paper until the time of stress was over. + +When Andrew Murray obtained employment on The Argus as commercial +editor, he left his twice-a-week newspaper in the charge of Mr. W. W. +Whitridge, my brother John, and myself. If anything was needed to be +written on State aid to religion I was to do it, as Mr. Whitridge was +opposed to it. This lasted three months. The next quarter there were no +funds for the editor. so John and I carried it on, and then let it die. +At that time I believed in State aid, which had been abolished by the +first elected Parliament of South Australia, although that Parliament +consisted of one-third nominees pledged to vote for its continuance. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + +NOVELS AND A POLITICAL INSPIRATION. + + +It was the experience of a depopulated province which led me to write +my first book, "Clara Morison--A Tale of South Australia during the +Gold Fever." I entrusted the M.S. to my friend John Taylor, with whom I +had just had the only tiff in my life. He, through his connection with +The Register, knew that I was writing in The South Australian, trying +to keep it alive, till Mr. Murray decided to let it go, and he told +this to other people. At a subscription ball to which my brother John +took me and my younger sister Mary, she found she had been pointed out +and talked of as the lady who wrote for the newspapers. I did not like +it even to be supposed of myself, but Mary was indignant, and I wrote +an injured letter to my friend. He apologized, and said he thought I +would be proud of doing disinterested work, and he was sorry the +mistake had been made regarding the sister who did it. Of course, I +forgave him. He was the last man in the world to give pain to anyone, +and I highly admired him for his disinterested work on The Register. He +reluctantly accepted 1,000 pounds when the paper was sold. He must have +lost much more through neglect of his own affairs at such a critical time. +He was taking a holiday with his sister Eliza in England and France, +where the beautiful widowed sister was settled as Madam Dubois, and I +asked him to take "Clara Morison" to Smith, Elder & Co.'s, in London, +and to say nothing to anybody about it; but before it was placed he +had to return to Adelaide, and in pursuance of my wishes, left it with +my other good friend, Mr. Bakewell, who also happened to be visiting +England with his family at the time--1853-4. I had an idea that, as +there was so much interest in Australia and its gold, I might get 100 +pounds for the novel. Mr. Bakewell wrote a preface from which I extract a +passage:--"The writer's aim seems to have been to present some picture +of the state of society in South Australia in the years 1851-2, when +the discovery of gold in the neighbouring province of Victoria took +place. At this time, the population of South Australia numbered between +seventy and eighty thousand souls, the greater part of whom were +remarkable for their intelligence, their industry, and their +enterprise, which, in the instance of the Burra Burra, and other copper +mines had met with such signal success. When it became known that gold +in vast quantities could be found within 300 miles of their own +territory, they could not remain unmoved. The exodus was almost +complete, and entirely without parallel. In those days there was no +King in Israel, and every woman did what was right in her own sight." +Another reason I had for writing the book. Thackeray had written about +an emigrant vessel taking a lot of women to Australia, as if these were +all to be gentlemen's wives--as if there was such a scarcity of +educated women there, that anything wearing petticoats had the prospect +of a great rise in position. I had hoped that Smith, Elder, & Co. would +publish my book, but their reader--Mr. Williams, who discovered +Charlotte Bronte's genius when she sent them "The Professor," and told +her she could write a better, which she did ("Jane Eyre")--wrote a +similiar letter to me, declining "Clara Morison," as he had declined +"The Professor," but saying I could do better. J. W. Parker & Son +published it in 1854, as one of the two-volume series, of which "The +Heir of Redcliffe" had been most successful. The price was to be 40 +pounds; but, as it was too long for the series, I was charged 10 pounds +for abridging it. It was very fairly received and reviewed. I think I +liked best Frederick Sinnett's notice in The Argus--that it was the work +of an observant woman--a novelist who happened to live in Australia, but +who did not labour to bring in bushrangers and convicts, and specially +Australian features. While I was waiting to hear the fate of my first +book, I began to write a second, "Tender and True," of which Mr. +Williams thought better, and recommended it to Smith, Elder, and Co., +who published it in two volumes in 1856, and gave me 20 pounds for the +copyright. This is the only one of my books that went through more than +one edition. There were two or three large editions issued, but I never +got a penny more. I was told that nothing could be made out of shilling +editions; but that book was well reviewed and now and then I have met +elderly people who read the cheap edition and liked it. The motif of the +book was the jealousy which husbands are apt to feel of their wives' +relations. As if the most desirable wife was an amiable orphan--if an +heiress, so much the better. But the domestic virtues which make a +happy home for the husband are best fostered in a centre where brothers +and sisters have to give and take; and a good daughter and sister is +likely to make a good wife and mother. I have read quite recently that +the jokes against the mother-in-law which are so many and so bitter in +English and American journalism are worn out, and have practically +ceased; but Dickens and Thackeray set the fashion, and it lasted a long +time. + +While "Clara Morison" was making her debut, I paid my first visit to +Melbourne. I went with Mr. and Mrs. Stirling in a French ship consigned +to him, and we were 12 days on the way, suffering from the limited +ideas that the captain of a French merchantman had of the appetites of +Australians at sea. I intended to pay a six weeks' visit to my sister +and her family, but she was so unwell that I stayed for eight months. I +found that Melbourne in the beginning of 1854 was a very expensive +place to live in, and consequently a very inhospitable place. Mr. +Murray's salary sounded a good one, 500 pounds a year, but it did not get +much comfort. His sister was housekeeper at Charles Williamson & Co.'s, +and that was the only place where I could take off my bonnet and have a +meal. From the windows I watched the procession that welcomed Sir +Charles Hotham, the first Governor of the separated colony of Victoria. +He was received with rejoicing, but he utterly failed to satisfy the +people. He thought anything was good enough for them. One festivity I +was invited to--a ball given on the opening of the new offices of The +Argus in Collins street--and there I met Mr. Edward Wilson, a most +interesting personality, the giver of the entertainment. He was then +vigorously championing the unlocking of the land and the developing of +other resources of Victoria than the gold. It had surprised him when he +travelled overland to Adelaide to see from Willunga 30 miles of +enclosed and cultivated farms, and it surprised me to see sheepruns +close to Melbourne. With a better rainfall and equally good soil, +Victoria had neither the farms nor the vineyards nor the orchards nor +the gardens that had sprung up under the 80-acre section and +immigration systems of South Australia. It had been an outlying portion +of New South Wales, neglected and exploited for pastoral settlement +only. The city, however, had been well planned, like that of Adelaide, +but the suburbs were allowed to grow anyhow. In Adelaide the belt of +park lands kept the city apart from all suburbs. Andrew Murray was as +keen for the development of Victoria agriculturally and industrially as +Mr. Wilson, and they worked together heartily. Owing to the state of my +sister's health I was much occupied with her and her children; but in +August she was well, and I returned with Mr. Taylor and his sister in +the steamer Bosphorus, when it touched at Melbourne on the way home. He +brought me 30 pounds for my book, and the assurance that it would be out +soon, and that I should have six copies to give to my friends. Novel +writing had not been to me a lucrative occupation. I had given up +teaching altogether at the age of 25, and I felt that, though Australia +was to be a great country, there was no market for literary work, and +the handicap of distance from the reading world was great. + +My younger sister married in 1855 William J. Wren, then an articled +clerk in Bartley & Bakewell's office, and afterwards a partner with the +present Sir James Boucaut. Mr. Wren's health was indifferent, and +caused us much anxiety. My brother John married Jessie Cumming in 1858, +and they were spared together for many years. As the Wrens went on a +long voyage to Hongkong and back for the sake of my brother-in-law's +health, my mother and I had the charge of their little boy. But in that +year, 1859, my mind received its strongest political inspiration, and +the reform of the electoral system became the foremost object of my +life. John Stuart Mill's advocacy of Thomas Hare's system of +proportional representation brought back to my mind Rowland Hill's +clause in the Adelaide Municipal Bill with wider and larger issues. It +also showed me how democratic government could be made real, and safe, +and progressive. I confess that at first I was struck chiefly by its +conservative side, and I saw that its application would prevent +the political association, which corresponded roughly with the modern +Labour Party, from returning five out of six members of the Assembly +for the City of Adelaide. But for blunders on ballot papers the whole +ticket of six would have been elected. They also elected the three +members for Burra, and Clare. I had then no footing on the Adelaide +press, but I was Adelaide correspondent for The Melbourne Argus--that +is to say, my brother was the correspondent, but I wrote the letters--he +furnished the news. I read Mill's article one Monday night, and +wrote what was meant for a leader on Tuesday morning, and went to read +it to my brother at breakfast time, and posted it forthwith. I knew The +Argus had been dissatisfied with the recent elections, and fancied that +the editor would hail with joy the new idea; but I received the reply +that The Argus was committed to the representation of majorities; and, +though the idea was ingenious, he did not even offer to print it as a +letter. About two years later Mr. Lavington Glyde, M.P., brought +forward in the Assembly Mr. Fawcett's abstract of Hare's great scheme, +and I seized the opportunity of writing a series of letters to The +Register, signed by my initials. Mr. Glyde, seeing the House did not +like his suggestions, dropped the matter, but I did not. I was no +longer correspondent to The Argus--the telegraph stopped that +altogether. My wonderful maiden aunts made up to me and my mother the +50 pounds a year that I had received as correspondent, and did as much for +their brother, Alexander Brodie, of Morphett Vale, from 1,000 pounds they +had sent to invest in South Australia. It was as easy to get 10 per cent. +then as to get 4 per cent. now; indeed I think the money earned 12 per +cent. at first. My brother John was accountant to the South Australian +Railways, then not a very great department--I think the line stretched +as far as Kapunda to the north from Port Adelaide. He was as much +captivated by Mr. Hare's idea as I was, and he said that if I would +write a pamphlet he would pay for the printing of 1,000 copies, to be +sent to all the members of Parliament and other leading people in city +and country. I called my pamphlet "A Plea for Pure Democracy," and when +writing it I felt the democratic strength of the position as I had not +felt it in reading Hare's own book. It cost my brother 15 pounds, but he +never grudged it. + +While the pamphlet was in the press, I heard of the dangerous illness +of my friend Lucy Anne Duval (nee Beare), one of the original +passengers in the Duke of York, the first ship which arrived here. I +went to consult Mr. Taylor and Mr. Stirling at their office. I saw only +Mr. Stirling. I said, "I should like to go and nurse her," and he said. +"If you will go, I'll pay your expenses;" and I went and stayed with +her for three weeks, till she died, and left five children, three of +them quite young. There were Duvals in England in good circumstances, +and I wrote pleading for the three little ones, though every one said +it was quite useless; but an uncle by marriage was touched, and sent +100 pounds a year for the benefit of the three children, and I was +constituted the guardian. The youngest died within two years, but the +allowance was not decreased, and I was able to get some schooling for +an elder boy. This was my first guardianship. + +My pamphlet did not set the Torrens on fire. It did not convert The +Register, but Mr. Fred Sinnett, who was conducting The Telegraph, was +much impressed, especially as he had the greatest reverence for John +Stuart Mill, and thought him a safe man to follow. I had another novel +under way at the time, and Mr. Sinnett thought it would help The +Telegraph to bring it out as a serial story in the weekly edition; and +I seized my opportunity to bring in Mr. Hare and proportional +representation. In England Mr. Hare, Mr. Mill, Rowland Hill, and his +brother, and Professor Craik, all considered my "Plea for Pure +Democracy" the best argument from the popular side that had appeared. I +got the kindest of letters from them, and my brother considered my +labour and his money well spent. Professor Craik, writing to Miss +Florence Davenport Hill about the "Plea for Pure Democracy," says--"It +is really a pity that the pamphlet should not be reproduced in this +country--modified, of course, to the slight extent that would be +necessary. It is really a very remarkable piece of exposition--the +best for popular effect by far on this subject that has come in my way. +I rejoice to hear that there is a chance of Mr. Hare's plan being +adopted in South Australia." I may be allowed to observe that there is +still a chance, but not yet a reality. My aunts at Thornton Loch were +applied to by my English admirers to see if they would be at the +cost of an English edition; but, though they were goodness itself to +our material needs, they thought it was throwing money away to bring +out a pamphlet on an unpopular subject that would not sell. Why, even +in South Australia, though the price was marked at one shilling, not a +single shilling had been paid for a single copy; and in South Australia +I was known! Not so well known, however. I wrote under initials only, +and many thought my letters and pamphlets were the work of Charles +Simeon Hare, one of the tallest talkers in South Australia, who said +Mr. Thomas Hare was his cousin. My novels were anonymous up to the +third, which was not then written. If my name would have done the cause +any good it would have been given, but it was too obscure then. + +The original title of my third book was "Uphill Work," and it took up +the woman question as it appeared to me at the time--the difficulty of +a woman earning a livelihood, even when she had as much ability, +industry, and perseverance as a man. My friend Mrs. Graham, who had +been receiving 100 pounds a year and many presents and much consideration +from the Alstons, of Charles Williamson & Co., had to return to +Scotland to cheer her father's last years. After his death she became +housekeeper to the Crichton Asylum for the Insane, with 600 or 700 +patients, at a salary of 30 pounds a year. This started me on the story of +two girls educated well and soundly by an eccentric uncle, but not +accomplished in the showy branches, who, fearing that the elder and +favourite niece would marry a young neighbour, and that the other might +be a confirmed invalid, disinherited them, and left his estate to a +natural son with a strict proviso against his marrying either of his +cousins. In that case the property was to go to a benevolent +institution named. Jane Melville applied for the situation of housekeeper +to this institution at 30 pounds a year, but was refused because +she was too young and inexperienced. After all sorts of disappointments +she took a situation to go out to Australia, and her sister accompanied +her as a lady's maid in the same family. You may wonder how I brought +in proportional representation, but I managed it. I think, on the +whole, it is a stronger book than either of the others. The volume has +two interesting associations, one which connects it with Mrs. Oliphant. +My friend Mrs. Graham knew I had sent it to England for publication, +and when she read the anonymous "Doctor's Family" she was sure it was +mine, and was delighted with it. When I read of the brave Australian +girl Nettie, taking on herself the burden of the flabby sister and her +worthless husband and their children, I wished that I had written such +a capital story. In a subsequent tale of Mrs. Oliphant's, "In Trust," a +father disinherits the elder girl from a fear of an unworthy marriage, +but he leaves a letter to be opened when Rosy is 21, which--should +Anne not marry Cosmo Douglas--restores her to her own mother's +fortune, which was in his power. There was no saving clause in my book. +The nieces were left only 20 pounds a year each. Mr. Williams did not +think "Uphill Work" as good as "Tender and True," and it was hung up till +circumstances most unexpectedly brought me to England, and I tried +Bentley, and found that his reader approved, but wished me to change +the name, as the first critic would say it was uphill work to read it. +Then let it be "Mr. Haliburton's Will." That would clash with +"Mrs Haliburton's Troubles." So the name was changed to Hogarth, +and the title became "Mr. Hogarth's Will." It was well reviewed, and I +got 35 pounds as my half-share of the profits on a three-volume edition, +besides 50 pounds from The Telegraph. But the book was to have more effect +in unexpected quarters than I could imagine. When staying with my aunts in +Scotland I had a letter from Mr. Edward Wilson's secretary, saying that +he had wished to write an article for The Fortnightly on "The +Representation of Classes," which was his cure for the excesses of +democracy; but, as he could not see, and his doctor had forbidden him +even to dictate, he had reluctantly abandoned the idea. He had, +however, heard that I was in Scotland, and, though my idea was +different from his, he believed that I could write the article from +some letters reprinted from The Argus and a few hints from himself, and +that I could adapt them to English conditions. I gladly undertook the +work, and satisfied Mr. Wilson. Just before I left for Australia I went +to Mr. Wilson's, and we went through the proofs together. Mr. Wilson, +being a wealthy man, did not ask any payment from The Fortnightly. but +he gave me 10 pounds and thanked me for stepping in to his assistance when +he needed it. He said that my novel had been the subject of a great +deal of discussion in his house. I asked, "Why?" He replied, "The uncle +and the nieces, of course." I thought no more of it till the death of +Mr. Wilson revealed that he had left his estate to the charities of +Melbourne. Then my brother told me that when he was in England in 1877 +Mr. Wilson had told him that it was seldom that a novel had any influence +over a man's conduct, but that reading his sister's novel had set him +thinking, and had made him alter his will. He did not think it to the +advantage of his nieces to be made rich, and he would leave his money to +Victoria and Melbourne, where he had made it. I was the innocent cause of +disappointing the nieces, for I think I made it clear that the uncle +did very wrongly. But when I see 5,000 pounds a year distributed among +Melbourne charities, and larger gifts for the building of a new +hospital, I cannot help thinking that these are the results of Mr. +Wilson reading "Mr. Hogarth's Will" and it may be that other similar +trusts are the results of Mr. Wilson's action. + +Another literary success I had during that visit to England. I went to +Smith, Elder, & Co. to ask if I could not get anything for the shilling +edition of "Tender and True," and was answered in the negative; but I +had not talked ten minutes with Mr. Williams before he said that if I +would put these ideas into shape, he thought he could get an article +accepted by The Cornhill Magazine. "An Australian's Impressions of +England" was approved by the editor, and appeared in The Cornhill for +January 1866, and for that I received 12 pounds, the best-paid work I had +ever had up to that time. The Saturday Review said of "Mr. Hogarth's +Will" that there was no haziness about money matters in it such as is +too common among lady writers. Mr. Bentley advised me to give my name, +and not to sell my copyright; but the latter has been of no value to +me; 500 copies of a three-volume novel exhausted the likely demand. I +got 12 copies to give to friends, and one copy I gave to Mr. Hare. His +daughters were a little amused to see their father in a novel, and as +the book was in the circulating library their friends and acquaintances +used to ask, "Is that really your papa that it is intended for?" I did +not at the time think of facing anybody in England, but I had been both +amused and annoyed with the portraits I was supposed to have drawn from +real people in and about Adelaide--often people I had never seen and +had not beard of. "But Harris is Ellis to the life," said my old Aunt +Brodie of Morphett Vale. "Miss Withing is my sister-in-law," said +another. Neither of these people had I seen. Of course, Mr. Reginald +was Mr. John Taylor, the only squatter I knew, but I myself was not +identified with my heroine Clara Morison. I was Margaret Elliott, the +girl who was studying law with her brother Gilbert; but my brother and +my cousin Louisa Brodie were supposed to be figuring in my book as +lovers. In a small society it was easy to affix the characteristics to +some one whom it was possible the author might have met; but I shrank +from the idea that I was capable of "taking off" people of my +acquaintance, and for many reasons would have liked if the book had not +been known to be mine in South Australia. There must, however, have +been some lifelike presentment of my characters, or they could not have +been recognised. About this time I read and appreciated Jane Austen's +novels--those exquisite miniatures, which no doubt her contemporaries +identified without much interest. Her circle was as narrow as +mine--indeed, narrower. She was the daughter of a clergyman in the +country. She represented well-to-do grownup people, and them alone. The +humour of servants, the sallies of children, the machinations of villains, +the tricks of rascals, are not on her canvas; but she differentiated among +equals with a firm hand, and with a constant ripple of amusement. The +life I led had more breadth and wider interests. The life of Miss +Austen's heroines, though delightful to read about, would have been +deadly dull to endure. So great a charm have Jane Austen's books had +for me that I have made a practice of reading them through regularly +once a year. + +As we grew to love South Australia, we felt that we were in an +expanding society, still feeling the bond to the motherland, but eager +to develop a perfect society, in the land of our adoption. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + +A TRIP TO ENGLAND. + + +I have gone on with the story of my three first novels consecutively, +anticipating the current history of myself and South Australia. There +were three great steps taken in the development of Australia. The first +was when McArthur introduced the merino sheep; the second when +Hargreaves and others discovered gold; and the latest when cold-storage +was introduced to make perishable products available for the European +markets. The second step created a sudden revolution; but the others +were gradual, and the area of alluvial diggings in Victoria made +thousands of men without capital or machinery rush to try their +fortunes--first from the adjacent colonies, and afterwards from the +ends of the earth. Law and order were kept on the goldfields of Mount +Alexander, Bendigo, and Ballarat by means of a strong body of police, +and the high licence fees for claims paid for their services, so that +nothing like the scenes recorded of the Californian diggings could be +permitted. But for the time ordinary industries were paralysed. +Shepherds left their flocks, farmers their land, clerks their desks, +and artisans their trades. Melbourne grew apace in spite of the highest +wages known being exacted by masons and carpenters. Pastoralists +thought ruin stared them in the face till they found what a market the +goldfields offered for their surplus stock. Our South Australian +farmers left their holdings in the hands of their wives and children +too young to take with them, but almost all of them returned to grow +grain and produce to send to Victoria. It was astonishing what the +women had done during their absence. The fences were kept repaired and +the stock attended to, the grapes gathered, and the wine made. In these +days it was not so easy to get 80 acres or more in Victoria; so, with +what the farmers brought from their labours on the goldfields, they +extended their holdings and improved their homes. For many years the +prices in Melbourne regulated prices in Adelaide, but when the land was +unlocked and the Victorian soil and climate were found to be as good as +ours it was Mark lane that fixed prices over all Australia for primary +products. After the return of most of the diggers there was a great +deal of marrying and giving in marriage. The miners who had left the +Burra for goldseeking gradually came back, and the nine remarkable +copper mines of Moonta and Wallaroo attracted the Cornishmen, who +preferred steady wages and homes to the diminishing chances of Ballarat +and Bendigo where machinery and deep sinking demanded capital, and the +miners were paid by the week. These new copper mines were found in the +Crown leases held by Capt. (afterwards Sir Walter) Hughes. He had been +well dealt with by Elder, Smith, & Co., and gave them the opportunity +of supporting him. At that time my friends Edward Stirling and John +Taylor were partners in that firm, and they shared in the success. Mr. +Bakewell belonged to the legal firm which did their business, so that +my greatest friends seemed to be in it. I think my brother John +profited less by the great advance of South Australia than he deserved +for sticking to the Bank of South Australia. He got small rises in his +salary, but the cost of living was so enhanced that at the end of seven +years it did not buy much more than the 100 pounds he had begun with. My +eldest maiden aunt died, and left to her brother and sister in South +Australia all she had in her power. My mother bought a brick cottage in +Pulteney street and a Burra share with her legacy--both excellent +investments--and my brother left the bank and went into the aerated +water business with James Hamilton Parr. + +We made the acquaintance of the family of Mrs. Francis Clark, of +Hazelwood, Burnside. She was the only sister of five clever brothers-- +Matthew Davenport, Rowland, Edwin, Arthur, and Frederick Hill. Rowland +is best known, but all were remarkable men. She was so like my mother +in her sound judgment, accurate observation, and kind heart, that I was +drawn to her at once. But it was Miss Clark who sought an +introduction to me at a ball, because her uncle Rowland had written to +her that "Clara Morison," the new novel, was a capital story of South +Australian life. She was the first person to seek me out on account of +literary work, and I was grateful to her. I think all the brothers Hill +wrote books, and Rosamond and Florence Davenport Hill had just +published "Our Exemplars." My friendship with Miss Clark led to much +work together, and the introduction was a great widening of interests +for me. There were four sons and three daughters--Miss Clark and +Howard were the most literary, but all had great ability and +intelligence. They were Unitarians, and W. J. Wren, my brother-in-law, +was also a Unitarian, and had been one of the 12 Adelaide citizens who +invited out a minister and guaranteed his salary. I was led to hear +what the Rev. J. Crawford Woods had to say for that faith, and told my +old minister (Rev. Robert Haining) that for three months I would hear +him in the morning and Mr. Woods in the evening, and read nothing but +the Bible as my guide; and by that time I would decide. I had been +induced to go to the Sacrament at 17, with much heart searching, but +when I was 25 I said I could not continue a communicant, as I was not a +converted Christian. This step greatly surprised both Mr. and Mrs. +Haining, as I did not propose to leave the church. The result of my +three months' enquiry was that I became a convinced Unitarian, and the +cloud was lifted from the universe. I think I have been a most cheerful +person ever since. My mother was not in any way distressed, though she +never separated from the church of her fathers. My brother was as +completely converted as I was, and he was happy in finding a wife like +minded. My sister, Mrs. Wren, also was satisfied with the new faith; so +that she and her husband saw eye to eye. It was a very live +congregation in those early days. We liked our pastor, and we admired +his wife, and there were a number of interesting and clever people who +went to the Wakefield Street Church. + +It was rather remarkable that my sister's husband and my brother's wife +arrived on the same day in two different ships--one in the Anglier +from England, and the other in the Three Bells from Glasgow--in 1851; +but I did not make the acquaintance of either till 1854 and 1855. +Jessie Cumming and Mary Spence shook hands and formed a friendship over +Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus." My brother-in-law (W. J. Wren) had fine +literary tastes, especially for poetry. The first gift to his wife +after marriage was Elizabeth Browning's poems in two volumes and Robert +Browning's "Plays and Dramatic Lyrics" in two volumes, and Mary and I +delighted in them all. In those days I considered my sister Mary and my +sister-in-law the most brilliant conversationalists I knew. My elder +sister, Mrs. Murray, also talked very well--so much so that her +husband's friends and visitors fancied she must write a lot of his +articles; but none of the three ladies went beyond writing good +letters. I think all of them were keener of sight than I was--more +observant of features, dress, and manners; but I took in more by the +ear. As Sir Walter Scott says, "Speak that I may know thee." To my +mind, dialogue is more important for a novel than description; and, if +you have a firm grasp of your characters, the dialogue will be true. +With me the main difficulty was the plot; and I was careful that this +should not be merely possible, but probable. I have heard scores of +people say that they have got good plots in their heads, and when +pressed to tell them they proved to be only incidents. You need much +more than an incident, or even two or three, with which to make a book. +But when I found my plot the story seemed to write itself, and the +actors to fit in. + +When the development of the Moonta Mine made some of my friends rich +they were also liberal. Edward Stirling said that if I wanted a trip to +England I should have it at his cost, but it seemed impossible. After +the death of Mr. Wren my mother and I went to live with my sister, and +put two small incomes together, so as to be able to bring up and +educate her two children, a boy and a girl. My brother John had left +the railway, and for nine years had been Official Assignee and Curator +of Intestate Estates; and in 1863 he had been appointed manager of the +new Adelaide branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. My +friend, Mr. Taylor, had helped well to get the position for one he +thought the fittest man in the city. He had lost his wife, Miss Mary +Ann Dutton when on a visit to England, and at this time was engaged to +Miss Harriet McDermott. His sisters both were very cold about the +engagement. They did not like second marriages at all, and +considered it a disrespect to the first wife's memory, even though a +decent interval had elapsed. When he wrote to me about it I took quite +a different view. He said it was the kindest and the wisest letter I +had ever written in my life, and he knew I had loved his late wife very +much. He came to thank me, and to tell me that he had always wished +that I should be in England at the time he was there, and that he was +going in a P. & 0. boat immediately after his marriage. Although Mr. +Stirling had promised to pay my passage, I hesitated about going. There +were my mother, who was 72, and my guardianship of the Duvals to think +about. I had also undertaken the oversight of old Mrs. Stephens, the +widow of one of the early proprietors of The Register. These objections +were all overruled. I still hesitated. "I cannot go unless I have money +to spend," I urged. "Let me do that," was the generous reply.--"I have +left you 500 pounds in my will. Let me have the pleasure of giving you +something while I live." I was not too proud to owe that memorable +visit to England to my two good friends. John Taylor had put into my +hands on board the Goolwa, in which I sailed, a draft for 200 pounds for +my spending money, and in the new will he made after his marriage he +bequeathed me 300 pounds. I said "Goodby" to him, with good wishes for his +health and happiness. I never saw him again. He took a sickly looking +child on his knee when crossing the Isthmus of Suez--there was no +canal in 1864--to relieve a weary mother. The child had smallpox, and +my friend took it and died of it. He was being buried beside his first +wife at Brighton when the Goolwa sailed up the Channel after a passage +of 14 weeks--as long as that of the Palmyra 25 years before--and the +first news we heard was that Miss Taylor had lost a brother, the +children a favourite uncle, and I, a friend. It was a sad household, +but the Bakewells were in London on business connected with some claims +of discovery of the Moonta Mines, and they took me to their house in +Palace Gardens. Kensington, till I could arrange to go to my aunt's in +Scotland. All our plans about seeing people and places together were, +of course, at an end. I was to go "a lone hand." Mrs. Taylor had a +posthumous son, who never has set foot in Australia. She married a +second time, an English clergyman named Knight, and had several sons, +but she has never revisited Adelaide, although she has many relatives +here. So the friend who loved Australia, and was eager to do his duty +by it--who thoroughly approved of the Hare system of representation, +and thought I did well to take it up, was snatched away in the prime of +life. I wonder if there is any one alive now to whom his memory is as +precious. The Register files may preserve some of his work. + +At Palace Gardens the Bakewell family were settled in a furnished house +belonging to Col. Palmer, one of the founders of South Australia, +though never a resident. Palmer place, North Adelaide, bears his name. +Thackeray's house we had to pass when we went out of the street in the +direction of the city. His death had occurred in the previous year. I +had an engagement with Miss Julia Wedgwood, through an introduction +given by Miss Sophia Sinnett, an artist sister of Frederick Sinnett's. +I was called for and sent home. I was not introduced to the family. It +was a fine large house with men servants and much style. Miss Wedgwood, +who was deaf, used an ear trumpet very cleverly. I found her as +delightful as Miss Sinnett had represented her to be, and I discovered +that Miss Sinnett had been governess to her younger sisters, but that +there was real regard for her. I don't know that I ever spent a more +delightful evening. She had just had Browning's "Dramatis Personae," +and we read together "Rabbi Ben Ezira" and "Prospice." She knew about +the Hare scheme of representation, supported by Mill and Fawcett and +Craik. She was a good writer, with a fine critical faculty. Everything +signed by her name in magazines or reviews was thenceforward +interesting to me. I promised her a copy of my "Plea for Pure +Democracy," which she accepted and appreciated. By the father's side +she was a granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of British +pottery as a fine art. Her mother was a daughter of Sir James +Mackintosh. Mrs. Wedgwood was so much pleased with my pamphlet that she +wanted to be introduced to me, and when I returned to London I had the +pleasure of making her acquaintance. Miss Wedgwood gave me a +beautifully bound copy of "Men and Women," of which she had a +duplicate, which I cherish in remembrance of her. + +During my stay I was visited by Mr. Hare. I had to face up to +the people I had written to with no idea of any personal communication, +and I must confess that I felt I must talk well to retain their good +opinion. I promised to pay a visit to the Hares when I came to London +for the season. He was a widower with eight children, whom he had +educated with the help of a governess, but he was the main factor in +their training. The two eldest daughters were married--Mrs. Andrews, +the eldest, had helped him in his calculations for his great book on +"Representation." His second daughter was artistic, and was married to +John Westlake, an eminent lawyer, great in international law, a pupil +of Colenso, who was then in London, and who was the best-abused man in +the church. Another visitor was George Cowan, a great friend of my late +brother-in-law, Mr. W. J. Wren, who wrote to him till his death, when +the pen was taken up by my sister Mary till her death, and then I +corresponded with him till his death. He came to London a raw Scotch +lad. and met Mr. Wren at the Whittington Club. Both loved books and +poetry, and both were struggling to improve themselves on small +salaries. George Cowan had been entrusted with the printed slips of +"Uphill Work," and had tried it at two publishers without success. I +had to delay any operations till I returned to London, and promised to +visit the Cowans there. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + +MELROSE REVISITED. + + +Jack Bakewell and Edward Lancelot Stirling went to see me off by the +night train to Dunbar Station, five miles from Thornton-Loch, and I +got there in time for breakfast. The old house was just the same except +for an oriel window in the drawing room looking out on the North Sea. +and the rocks which lay between it and Colhandy path (where my +great-grandfather Spence had preached and his wife had preferred +Wesley), and Chirnside, or Spence's Mains in the same direction. All +the beautiful gardens, the farm village, where about 80 souls lived, +the fields and bridges were just as I remembered them. My aunt Margaret +was no longer the vigorous business-like woman whom I recollected +riding or driving in her little gig an over the farm of 800 English +acres which my great-grandfather had rented since 1811. Not the Miss +Thompson whom I had introduced into "Uphill Work." She had had a severe +stroke of paralysis, and was a prisoner to the house, only being lifted +from her bed to be dressed, and to sit in a wheeled chair and be taken +round the garden on fine days. The vigorous intellect was somewhat +clouded, and the power of speech also; but she retained her memory. She +was always at work with her needle (for her hands were not affected) +for the London children, grandnieces, and nephews who called her +grandmamma, for she had had the care of their Parents during 11 years +of her brother Alexander's widowhood. But Aunt Margaret could play a +capital game of whist--long whist. I could see that she missed it much +on Sunday. It was her only relaxation. She had given up the farm to +James Brodie, who had married her cousin Jane, the eldest of the two +children she had mothered, and he had to come to the farm once or twice +a week, having a still larger farm of his own in East Lothian, and a +stock farm in Berwickshire also to look after. The son of the old farm +steward, John Burnet, was James Brodie's steward, and I think the farm +was well managed, but not so profitable as in old times. Aunt Mary +said, in her own characteristic way, "she always knew that her sister +was a clever woman, but that the cleverest thing she had done was +taking up farming and carrying it on for 30 years when it was +profitable, and turning it over when it began to fall off." But she +turned it over handsomely, and did not interfere in the management. My +Aunt Mary deserves a chapter for herself. She was my beau ideal of what +a maiden aunt should be, though why she was never married puzzles more +than me. Between my mother and her there was a love passing the love of +sisters--my father liked her better than his own sisters. When my +letter announcing my probable visit reached her she misread it, and +thought it was Helen herself who was to come; and when she found out +her mistake she shed many tears. I was all very well in my way, but I +was not Helen. It was not the practice in old times to blazon an +engagement, or to tell of an offer that had been declined; but my +mother firmly believed that her sister Mary, the cleverest and, as she +thought, the handsomest of the five sisters, had never in her life had +an offer of marriage, although she had a love disappointment at 30. She +had fixed her affections on a brilliant but not really worthy man, and +she had to tear him out of her heart with considerable difficulty. It +cost her a severe illness, out of which she emerged with what she +believed to be a change of heart. She was a converted Christian. I +myself don't think there was so much change. She was always a noble, +generous woman, but she found great happiness in religion. Aunt Mary's +disappointment made her most sympathetic to all love stories, and +without any disappointment at all, I think I may say the same of +myself. She was very popular with the young friends of her youngest +brother, who might have experienced calf love; so very real, but so +very ineffectual. One of these said to her:--"Oh, Miss Mary, you're just +a delight, you are so witty." Another, when she spoke of some man who +talked such delightful nonsense, said, "If you would only come to +Branxholme I'd talk nonsense to you the haill (whole) day." + +When I arrived at the old home I found Aunt Mary vigorously rubbing her +hand and wrist (she had slipped downstairs in a neighbour's house, and +broken her arm, and had to drive home before she could have it set). No +one from the neighbour's house went to accompany her; no one came to +enquire; no message was sent. When she recovered so far as to be able +to be out, she met at Dunbar the gentleman and lady also driving in +their conveyance. They greeted each other, and aunt could not resist +the temptation to say:--"I am so glad to see you, and so glad that you +have spoken to me, for I thought you were so offended at my taking the +liberty of breaking my arm in your house that you did not mean to speak +to me again." This little expression of what the French call malice, +not the English meaning, was the only instance I can recollect of Aunt +Mary's not putting the kindest construction on everybody's words and +actions. But when I think of the love that Aunt Mary gathered to +herself from brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends--it +seems as if the happiest wife and mother of a large family could not +reckon up as rich stores of affection. She was the unfailing +correspondent of those members of the family who were separated by land +and ocean from the old home, the link that often bound these together, +the most tolerant to their failings, the most liberal in her aid--full +of suggestions, as well as of sympathy. Now, in my Aunt Margaret's +enfeebled state, she was the head of the house and the director of all +things. Although she had differed from the then two single sisters and +the family generally at the time of the disruption of the Church of +Scotland, and gone over to the Free Church, the more intensely +Calvinistic of the two, though accepting the same standards--the +Westminster Confession and the Shorter Catechism--all the harsher +features fell off the living texture of her faith like cold water off a +duck's back. From natural preference she chose for her devotions those +parts of the Bible which I selected with deliberate intention. She +wondered to find so much spiritual kinship with me, when I built on +such a different foundation. When I suggested that the 109th Psalm, +which she read as the allotted portion in "Fletcher's Family +Devotions," was not fit to be read in a Christian household, she said +meekly--"You are quite right, I shall mark it, and never read it +again." + +My mother always thought me like her sister Mary, and when I asked Mr. +Taylor if he saw any resemblance between us, he said, with cruel +candour--"Oh, no. Your Aunt Mary is a very handsome woman." But in ways +and manners, both my sister Mary and myself had considerable +resemblances to our mother's favourite sister; and I can see traces of +it in my own nieces. There can be no direct descent from maiden aunts, +though the working ants and bees do not inherit their industrious +habits from either male or female parents, but from their maiden aunts. +Galton's theory, that potentialities not utilized by individuals or by +their direct descendants may miss a generation or two, opens a wide +field of thought, and collaterals may draw from the original source +what was never suspected. And the Brodies intermarried in such a way as +to shock modern ideas. When my father was asked if a certain Mr. +Dudgeon, of Leith, was related to him, he said--"He is my mother's +cousin and my stepmother's cousin, and my father-in-law's cousin, and +my mother-in-law's cousin." Except for Spences and Wauchopes there was +not a relative of my father that was not related to my mother. +Grandfather Brodie married his cousin, and Grandfather Spence married +his late wife, Janet Parks cousin Katherine Swanston. I cannot see that +these close marriages produced degenerates, either physical or mental, +in the case of my own family. + +Of the twelve months I spent in the old country, I spent six with the +dear old aunts. How proud Aunt Mary was of my third novel, with the +sketch of Aunt Margaret in it, of the Cornhill article, and the request +from Mr. Wilson to write for The Fortnightly. I introduced her to new +books and especially to new poets; she had never heard of Browning and +Jean Ingelow. She was so much cleverer than her neighbours that I often +wondered how she could put up with them. How conservative these farmers +and farmers' wives and daughters were, to be sure. These big tenants +considered themselves quite superior to tradesmen, even to merchants, +unless they were in a big way. There was infinitely more difference +between their standard of living and that of their labourers than +between theirs and that of the aristocratic landlords. James Barnet, +the farm steward, said to me--"you have brought down the price +of wheat with your Australian grain, and you do big things in wool, but +you can never touch us in meat." This was quite true in 1865. I +expected to see some improvement in the farm hamlet, but the houses +built by the landlord were still very poor and bare. The wages had +risen a little since 1839, but not much. The wheaten loaf was cheaper, +and so was tea and sugar, but the poor were still living on porridge +and bannocks of barley and pease meal instead of tea and white bread. +It was questionable if they were as well nourished. There were 100 +souls living on the farms of Thornton and Thornton Loch. + +A short visit from Mrs. Graham to me at Thornton Loch opened up to Aunt +Mary some of my treasures of memory. She asked me to recite "Brother in +the Lane," Hood's "Tale of a Trumpet," "Locksley Hall." "The Pied +Piper," and Jean Ingelow's "Songs of Seven." She made me promise to go +to see her, and find out how much she had to do for her magnificent +salary of 30 pounds a year; but she impressed Aunt Mary much. Mrs. Graham +had found that the Kirkbeen folks, among whom she lived, were more +impressed by the six months' experiences of two maiden ladies, who had +gone to Valparaiso to join a brother who died, than with her fresh and +racy descriptions of four young Australian colonies. She had seen +Melbourne from 1852 to 1855--a wonderful growth and development. The +only idea the ladies from Valparaiso formed about Australia was that it +was hot and must be Roman Catholic, and consequently the Sabbath must +be desecrated. It was in vain that my friend spoke of the Scots Church +and Dr. Cairns's Church. Heat and Roman Catholicism were inseparably +connected in their minds. + +Visiting Uncle and Aunt Handyside and grown-up cousins, whom I left +children, I saw a lot of good farming and the easy circumstances which +I always associated with tenants' holdings in East Lothian. Next farm +to Fenton was Fentonbarns, a Show place, which was held by George Hope, +a cousin of my grandmother's He was an exceptional man--a radical, a +freetrader, and a Unitarian. Cobden died that year. Uncle Handyside was +surprised that George Hope did not go into mourning for him. John +Bright still lived, and he was the bete noire of the Conservatives in +that era; and the abolition of the corn laws was held to be the cause +of the agricultural ditress--not the high rent of agricultural land. +George Hope was a striking personality. When my friend J. C. Woods was +minister at St. Mark's Unitarian Church, Edinburgh, Mr. Hope used to be +called the Bishop, though he lived 16 miles off. When the first Mrs. +Woods died, leaving an infant son, it was Mrs. Hope who cared for it +till it could go to his relatives in Ireland. Later he stood for +Parliament himself. In the paper I wrote over the name of Edward Wilson +for The Fortnightly I noted how the House of Commons represented the +people--or misrepresented them. The House consisted of peers and sons +of peers, military and naval officers, bankers, brewers, and +landownership was represented enormously, but there were only two +tenant farmers in the House. It was years after my return to Australia +that I heard of his unsuccessful candidature, and that when he sought +to take another lease of Fentonbarns, he was told that under no +circumstances would his offer be entertained. Fentonbarns had been +farmed by, three generations of Hopes for 100 years, and to no owner by +parchment titles could it have been more dear. George Hope's friend, +Russell, of The Scotsman, fulminated against the injustice of refusing +a lease to the foremost agriculturist in Scotland--and when you say +that you may say of the United Kingdom--because the tenant held +certain political opinions and had the courage to express them. My +uncle Handyside, however, always maintained that his neighbour was the +most honourable man in business that he knew, and far from being an +atheist or even a deist, he had family prayers, and on the occasion of +a death in the family, the funeral service was most impressive. He was +one of the salt of the earth, and the atmosphere was clearer around him +for his presence. + +But I must give some space to my visit to Melrose, my childhood's home. +My father's half-sister Janet Reid was alive and though her two sons +were, one at St. Kitts and the other at Grand Canary, she lived with an +old husband and her only daughter in Melrose still.. I can never forget +the look of tender pity cast on me as I was sitting in our old seat in +church, looking at seats filled by another generation. The +paterfamilias, so wonderfully like his father of 1839, and sons and +daughters, sitting in the place of uncles and aunts settled +elsewhere. They grieved that I had been banished from the romantic +associations and the high civilization of Melrose to rough it in the +wilds, while my heart was full of thankfulness that I had moved to the +wider spaces and the more varied activities of a new and progressive +colony. My dear old teacher was still alive, though the school had been +closed for many years. She lived at St. Mary's with her elder sister, +who had taught me sewing and had done the housekeeping, but she herself +was almost blind, and a girl came every day to read to her for two or +three hours. She told me what a good thing it was that she knew all the +Psalms in the prose version by heart, for in the sleepless nights which +accompany old age so often they were such a comfort to her in the night +watches. I had sent her my two novels when they were published, "Clara +Morison" and "Tender and True." She would have been glad if they had +been more distinctly religious in tone. Indeed, the novel I began at 19 +would have suited her better, but my brother's insistence on reading it +every day as I wrote it somehow made me see what poor stuff it was, and +I did not go far with it. But Miss Phin was, on the whole, pleased with +my progress, and glad that I was able to go to see her and talk of old +times. How very small the village of Melrose looked! How little +changed! The distances to the neighbouring villages of Darnick and +Newstead, and across the Tweed to Gattonsville, seemed so shrunken. It +was not so far to Abbotsford as to Norwood. The very Golden Hills +looked lower than my childish recollection of them. Aunt Janet Reid +rejoiced over me sufficiently. "You are not like your mother in the +face, but, oh, Katie, you are like dear Mrs. David in your ways. How I +was determined to hate her when she came to Melrose first. I was not 13 +and she was taking away the best of my brothers, the one that I liked +best; but it did not take long before I was as fond of her as of David +himself." + +I also had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Murray, the parish +schoolmaster. who taught my three brothers, then retired, living with +his daughter, Louisa, an old schoolfellow at Miss Phin's. There was an +absurd idea current in 1865 that all visiting Australians were rich and +I could not disabuse people of that notion. Of all the two families of +Brodies and Spences who came out in 1839 there was only my brother John +who could be called successful. He was then manager of the Adelaide +branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank. If it had not +been for help from the wonderful aunts from time to time both families +would have been stranded. I had the greatest faith in the future of +Australia, but I felt that for such gifts as I possessed there was no +market at home. Possibly I should have tried literature earlier if I +had remained in Scotland, but I am not at all sure that I could have +succeeded as well. For the first time in my life I had as much money as +I wanted. I am surprised now that I spent that 200 pounds when I had so +much hospitality. In fact, except for a week in Paris, I never had any +hotel expenses. I had got the money to enjoy it and I did. This was what +my friend wished. I made a few presents. I bought some to take home with +me. I spent money on dress freely, so as to present a proper appearance +when visiting. I was liberal with veils, though I hate the practice. To +a woman who had to look on both sides of a shilling since 1839 this +experience was new and delightful. Among other people I went to see was +Mrs. C----. the widow of the Tory writer and branch bank manager, who +was my father's successful rival. He was not speculative like my +father. He was a keen business man and had a great hunger for land. + +On the gravestones around Melrose Abbey are many names with the +avocation added--John Smith, builder; William Hogg, mason--but many +with the word portioner. They were small proprietors, but they were not +distinguished for the careful cultivation which in France is known as +"LA PETITE CULTURE." No; the portions were most carelessly handled, and +in almost every instance they were "bonded" or mortgaged. I recollect +in old days these portioners used to make moonlight, flittings and +disappear, or they sold off their holdings openly and went to America, +meaning the United States. The tendency was to buy up these portions, +and a considerable estate could be built up by any shrewd man who had +money, or the command of it. Before we left Melrose in 1839, Mr. C---- +had possession of a good deal of land. When he died he left property of +the value of 90,000 pounds, an unheard-of estate for a country writer +before the era of freetrade and general expansion. He had asked so much +revenue from the railway company when the plan was to cut through the +gardens we as children used to play in, that the company made a +deviation and left the garden severely alone. The eldest daughter had +married a landed proprietor, the second was single, the third married +to a wealthy man in the west, the fourth the richest widow in Scotland. +One son had land, and the other son land, and another business +training. All was material success, and I am sure I did not grudge it +to them, but when I took stock of real things I had not the least +glimmering of a wish to exchange. One generally desires a little more +money than one has; but even that may cost too much. I think my dear +old Aunt Reid felt that the Spences had gone down in my father's +terrible smash in 1839, and the C---- family had steadily gone up, and +she was pleased that a niece from Australia, who had written two books +and a wonderful pamphlet, and, more important still in the eyes of Mrs. +Grundy, had money to spend and to give, was staying with her in +Melrose, and wearing good and well made clothes. Old servants--the old +laundress--old schoolfellows were visited. My father's old clerk, +Allan Freer, had a good business in Melrose, though not equal to that +of the Tory firm. I think the portioners were all sold out before he +could enter the field, and the fate of these Melrose people has +thoroughly emphasized for me the importance of having our South +Australian workmen's blocks, the glory of Mr. Cotton's life, maintained +always on the same footing of perpetual lease dependent on residence. +If the small owner has the freehold, he is tempted to mortgage it, and +then in most instances the land is lost to him, and added to the +possessions of the man who has money. With a perpetual lease, there is +the same security of tenure as in the freehold--indeed, there is more +security, because he cannot mortgage. I did not see the land question +as clearly on this 1865 visit, as I did later; but the extinction of +the old portioners and the wealth acquired by the moneyed man of +Melrose gave me cause for thinking. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + +I VISIT EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + +A visit to Glasgow and to the relatives of my sister-in-law opened out +a different vista to me. This was a great manufacturing and commercial +city, which had far outgrown Edinburgh in population and wealth; but +the Edinburgh people still boasted of being the Athens of the north, +the ancient capital with the grandest historic associations. In Glasgow +I fell in with David Murray and his wife (of D. & W. Murray Adelaide)--not +quite so important a personage as be became later. Not a relative +of mine; but a family connection, for his brother William married Helen +Cumming, Mrs. J. B. Spence's sister. David Murray was always a great +collector of paintings, and especially of prints, which last he left to +the Adelaide Art Gallery. He was a close friend of my brother John's +until the death of the latter. One always enjoys meeting with Adelaide +people in other lands, and comparing the most recent items of news. I +went to Dumfries according to promise, and spent many days with my old +friend Mrs. Graham, but stayed the night always with her sister, Mrs. +Maxwell, wife of a printer and bookseller in the town. Dumfries was +full of Burns's relies and memorials. Mr. Gilfillan had taken the +likeness of Mrs. Burns and her granddaughter when he was a young man, +and Mrs. Maxwell corresponded with the grandaughter. It was also full +of associations with Carlyle. His youngest sister, Jean the Craw, as +she was called on account of her dark hair and complexion was Mrs. +Aitkin, a neighbour and close friend of Mrs. Maxwell. I was taken to +see her, and I suppose introduced as a sort of author, and she +regretted much that this summer Tom was not coming to visit her at +Dumfries. She was a brisk, cheery person, with some clever daughters, +who were friends of the Maxwell girls. When the Froude memorials came +out no one was more indignant than Jean the Craw--"Tom and his wife +always understood each other. They were not unhappy, though after her +death he reproached himself for some things." + +I found that my friend had just as much to do from morning to night as +she could do, and I hoped with a great hope that "Uphill Work" would be +published, and all the world would see how badly capable and +industrious women were paid. I fancied that a three-volume novel would +be read, marked, and inwardly digested by everybody! But Mrs. Graharn +was appreciated by the matron, the doctors, and by the people of +Dumfries, as she had not been in the village of Kirkbeen. Her +picturesque descriptions of life in the various colonies interested +home-staying folk, for she had the keenest observing faculties. There +was an old cousin of Uncle Handyside's who always turned the +conversation on to Russia, where he had visited successful brothers; +but his talk was not incisive. My cousin Agnes asked me when I supposed +this visit was paid, and I said a few years ago, probably, when she +laughed and said--"Nicol Handyside spent six weeks in Russia 30 years +ago, and he has been talking about it ever since." One visit I paid in +Edinburgh to an old lady from Melrose, who lived with a married +daughter. She had always been very deaf, and the daughter was out. With +great difficulty I got her to see by my card that my name was Spence. +"Are you Jessie Spence?" I shook my head. "No; Katie." "Are you Mary +Spence?" Another headshake, "No; I am Katie." "Then who are you?" She +could understand the negative by the headshaking, but not anything +else. I wanted a piece of paper or a slate badly, but the daughter came +in and made her mother understand that I was the middle Spence girl, +and then the old lady said, "It is a very hot country you come from," +her only idea apparently of wonderful Australia. And to think that in +times long past some intriguing aunts tried very hard to arrange a +marriage between my father and the deaf young lady who had about 600 +pounds a year in land in and near Melrose. She might have been my mother! +The idea was appalling! None of her children inherited the deafness, and +they took a fair proportion of good looks from their father, for the +mother was exceedingly homely. A brightlooking grandson was on +the rug looking through a bound volume of Punch, as my nephew in +Australia loved to do. The two mothers were school companions and +playmates. + +My return to London introduced me to a wider range of society. I had +admissions to the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons from Sir +Charles Dilke, Professor Pearson's friend, and I had invitations to +stay for longer or shorter periods with people various in means, in +tastes, and in interests. To Mr. Hare I was especially drawn, and I +should have liked to join him and his family in their yearly walking +tour, which was to be through the Tyrol and Venice; but Aunt Mary +protested for two good and sufficient reasons. The first was that I +could not walk 16 or 20 miles a day, even in the mountains, which Katie +Hare said was so much easier than on the plains; and the second was +that to take six weeks out of my visit to the old country was a great +deal too much. If it could have done any good to proportional +representation I might have stood out; but it could not. For that I +have since travelled thousands of miles by sea and by land; and, though +not on foot, I have undergone much bodily fatigue and mental strain, +but in these early days of the movement it had only entered the +academic stage. My "Plea for Pure Democracy" had been written at a +white heat of enthusiasm. I do not think I ever before or since reached +a higher level. I took this reform more boldly than Mr. Mill, who +sought by giving extra votes for property and university degrees or +learned professions to cheek the too great advance of democracy. I was +prepared to trust the people; and Mr. Hare was also confident that, if +all the people were equitably represented in Parliament, the good would +be stronger than the evil. The wise would be more effectual than the +foolish. I do not think any one whom I met took the matter up so +passionately as I did; and I had a feeling that in our new colonies the +reform would meet with less obstruction than in old countries bound by +precedent and prejudiced by vested interests. Parliament was the +preserve of the wealthy in the United Kingdom. There was no property +qualification for the candidate in South Australia, and we had manhood +suffrage. + +South Australia was the first community to give the secret ballot for +political elections. It had dispensed with Grand Juries. It had not +required a member of either House to stand a new election if he +accepted Ministerial office. Every elected man was eligible for office. +South Australia had been founded by doctrinaires, and occasionally a +cheap sneer had been levelled at it on that account; but, to my mind, +that was better than the haphazard way in which other colonies grew. +When I visited Sir Rowland Hill he was recognised as the great post +office reformer. To me he was also one of the founders of our province, +and the first pioneer of quota representation. When I met Matthew +Davenport Hill I respected him because he tried to keep delinquent boys +out of gaol, and promoted the establishment of reform schools; but I +also was grateful to him for suggesting to his brother the park lands +which surround Adelaide, and give us both beauty and health. To Col. +Light, who laid out the city so well, we owe the many open spaces and +squares; but he did not originate the idea of the park lands. Much of +the work of Mr. Davenport Hill and of his brother Frederick I took up +later with their niece (Miss C. E. Clark), and their ideas have been +probably more thoroughly carried out in South Australia than anywhere +else; but in 1865 I was learning a great deal that bore fruit +afterwards. + +I fear it would make this narrative too long if I went into detail +about the interesting people I met. Florence and Rossamund Davenport +Hill introduced me to Miss Frances Power Cobbe, whose "Intuitive +Morals" I admired so much. At Sir Rowland Hill's I met Sir Walter +Crofter, a prison reformer; Mr. Wells, Editor of "All the Year Round;" +Charles Knight, who had done so much for good and cheap literature; +Madame Bodichon (formerly Barbara Smith), the great friend and +correspondent of George Eliot, who was interesting to me because by +introducing the Australian eucalyptus to Algeria she had made an +unhealthy marshy country quite salubrious. She had a salon, where I met +very clever men and women--English and French--and which made me wish +for such things in Adelaide. The kindness and hospitality that were +shown to me--an absolute stranger--by all sorts of people were +surprising. Mr. and Mrs. Westlake took me on Sunday to see Bishop +Colenso. He showed me the photo of the enquiring Zulu who made him +doubt the literal truth of the early books of the Bible, and +presented me with the people's edition of his work on the Pentateuch. + +In all my travels and visits I saw little of the theatre or concert +room, and some of the candid confessions of Mrs. Oliphant might stand +for my own. I had read so many plays before I saw one that the +unreality of much of the acted drama impressed me unfavourably. The +asides in particular seemed impossible, and I think the more carefully +the pieces are put on the stage the more critical I become concerning +their probability; and when I hear the praise of the beautiful and +expensive theatrical wardrobes which, in the case of actresses seem to +set the fashion for the wealthy and well-born, I feel that it is a +costly means of making the story more unlikely. I seem to lose the +identity of the heroine who in two hours wears three or four different +toilettes complete. As Mrs. Oliphant did not identify the "nobody in +white tights" who rendered from "Twelfth Night" the lovely lines +beginning "That strain again; it had a dying fall" with the Orsino she +had imagined when reading the play, so I, who knew "She Stoops to +Conquer" almost by heart, was disappointed when I saw it on the stage. +I was taken to the opera once by Mr. and Mrs. Bakewell, and heard Patti +in "Don Giovanni," at Covent Garden, but opera of all kinds is wasted +on me. I liked some of the familiar airs and choruses, but all opera +needs far more make-believe than I am capable of. It is a pity that I +am so insensible to the youngest and the most progressive of the fine +arts. I am, however, in the good company of Mrs. Oliphant, who, +speaking of the musical parties in Eton, where she lived so long, for +the education of tier boys, writes in words that suit me perfectly: "In +one of these friends' houses a family quartet played what were rather +new and terrible to me--long sonatas and concerted pieces which filled +my soul with dismay. It is a dreadful confession to make, and proceeds +from want of education and instruction, but I fear any appreciation of +music I have is purely literary. I love a song and a 'tune;' the +humblest fiddler has sometimes given me the greatest pleasure, and +sometimes gone to my heart; but music, properly so called, the only +music that many of my friends would listen to, is to me a wonder and a +mystery. My mind wanders through adagios and andantes, gaping, longing +to understand. Will no one tell me what it means? I want to find the +old unhappy far off things which Wordsworth imagined in the Gaelic song +of the 'Highland Lass.' I feel out of it, uneasy, thinking all the time +what a poor creature I must be. I remember the mother of the sonata +players approaching me with beaming countenance on the occasion of one +of these performances, expecting the compliment which I faltered forth, +doing my best not to look insincere. 'And I have this every evening of +my life,' cried the triumphant mother. 'Good heavens, and you have +survived it all' was my internal response." But the worst thing is when +you do not expect a musical evening and this superior music is sprung +on you. Mrs. Webster and I were once invited to meet some very +interesting people, some of the best conversationalists in Melbourne, +and we were given high-class music instead, and scarcely could a remark +be exchanged when a warning finger was held up and silence insisted on. +I could not sing, but sometimes I attempted to hum a tune. I recollect +during my first visit to Melbourne, my little nephew Johnnie, delighted +in the rhymes and poems which I recited; but one day when I was ironing +I began to sing, and he burst out with "Don't sing, auntie; let me hear +the voice of your words." So for my own delectation I began +Wordsworth's "Leechgatherer"-- + + There was a roaring in the wind all night, + The rain came heavily and fell in floods; + But now the sun is rising calm and bright. + The birds are singing in the distant woods; + Over his own sweet voice the stock dove broods. + The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters, + And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters. + +"Oh, that's pretty, auntie; say it again," I said it again, and yet +again, at his request, till he could almost repeat it. And he was not +quite 4 years old. He is still alive, and has not become a poet, which +was what I expected in those early days. He could repeat great screeds +of Browning's "Pied Piper of Hamelin," which was his especial +favourite. Music has often cheated me of what is to me the keenest +pleasure in life. Like Samuel Johnson, I enjoy greatly "good talk," +though I never took such a dominant part in it. There are two kinds of +people who reduce me to something like silence--those who know too +little and those who know too much. My brother-in-law's friend, Mr. +Cowan, was a great talker, and a good one, but he scarcely +allowed me a fair share. He was also an admirable correspondent. + +One predominant talker I met at Mr. Edwin Hill's--William Ellis, a +special friend of the Hills, and a noteworthy man. One needs to look +back 60 years to become conscious of how much English education was in +the hands of the church. Not only the public schools and the university +were overshadowed by the Established Church, but what schools were +accessible to the poor were a sort of appanage to the rectory, and the +teachers were bound to work for the good of the church and the +convenience of the incumbent. The commercial schools, which were +independent of the church, to which Non-conformists sent their boys, +were satirised by Dickens, and they deserved the satire. The masters +were generally incompetent, and the assistant teachers or ushers were +the most miserable in regard to payment and status. William Ellis +expended large sums of money, and almost all his leisure, in +establishing secular schools that were good for something. He called +them Birkbeck schools, thus doing honour to the founder of mechanics' +institutes, and perhaps the founder of the first of these schools; and +he taught what he called social science in them himself. He was the +Senor Ferrer of England; and, though he escaped martyrdom in the more +enlightened country he was looked on suspiciously by those who +considered education that was not founded on revealed religion and +permeated by its doctrines as dangerous and revolutionary. + +But there was one great personage who saw the value of those teachings +on things that make for human happiness and intellectual freedom. and +that was the Prince Consort. He asked William Ellis to give some +lessons to the eldest of the Royal children--the Princess Victoria, +Prince Edward (our present King), and Prince Alfred, afterwards Duke of +Saxe-Coburg. Mr. Ellis said all three were intelligent, and Princess +Victoria exceptionally so. What a tragedy it was--more so than that of +many an epic or drama--that the Princess Royal and the husband of her +choice, who had educated themselves and each other to take the reins of +the German Empire, and had drawn up so many Plans for the betterment of +the general conditions of the people, should, on their accession to +power, have met death standing on the steps of the throne; and that +only a powerless widow should have been left without much authority +over her masterful son. But my firm belief is that in many of the +excellent things that the Kaiser William has done for his people, he is +working on the plans that had been committed to writing by the Crown +Prince and Princess. Her father's memory was so dear to the Crown +Princess that anything he had suggested to her was cherished all her +life; and I do not doubt that these early lessons on the right relation +of human beings to each other--the social science which regards human +happiness as depending on justice and toleration--is even now bearing +fruit in the Fatherland. Shortsighted mortals see the immediate +failures, but in the larger eye of the Infinite and the Eternal there +is always progress towards better things from every honest attempt to +remedy injustice, and to increase knowledge. + +I arranged for a week in Paris with my young friends, Rosa and Symonds +Clark, of Hazelwood, and we travelled as far as Paris with the Hare +family, who went on to the Tyrol. We enjoyed the week. Louis Napoleon +appeared then to be quite secure on his throne, and we saw the fetes +and illuminations for his birthday. What a day and night of rain it +was! But the thousands of people, joyful and good-humoured under +umbrellas or without them--gave us a favourable impression of Parisian +crowds. In London I had been with Mr. Cowan in the crush to the +theatre. It was contrary to his principles to book seats, and I never +was so frightened in my life. I thought a London crowd rough and +merciless. I was the only one of the party who could speak any French, +and I spoke it badly, and had great difficulty in following French +conversations; but we got into a hotel where no English was spoken, and +managed to pull through. But we did not know a soul, and I think we did +not learn so much from our week's sightseeing as we should have done if +Miss Katie Hare had stayed the week with us. + +I then paid a visit to Birmingham, and spent a week at the sittings of +the British Association. By subscribing a guinea I was made an +Associate, and some of the sessions were very interesting, but much too +deep for me. I sat out a lecture on the Higher Mathematics, by +Professor Henry Smith, to whom Professor Pearson gave me an +introduction, in hopes that I might visit Oxford; but he was going +abroad, and I could not go to Oxford if I knew nobody--especially +alone. I went, however, to Carr's Lane Chapel, where a humble friend +had begged me to go, because there she had been converted, and there +the Rev. R. W. Dale happened to preach on "Where prayer was wont to be +made." He said that consecration was not due to a Bishop or to any +ecclesiastical ceremony, but to the devout prayers and praise of the +faithful souls within it--that thousands over Scotland and England, +and others in America, Australia, and New Zealand, look back to words +which they had heard and praises and prayers in which they had joined +as the holiest times in their lives. I thought of my good Mrs. Ludlow, +and thanked God for her. When Mr. Cowan took me to the church in Essex +place where he and his friend Wren used to hear Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P. for +Oldham, preach, a stranger, a young American, was there. I found out +afterwards be was Moncure Conway, and he gave us a most striking +discourse. There was going on in Birmingham at this time a controversy +between the old Unitarians and the new. In the Church of the Messiah +the old ministers gave a series of sermons on the absolute truth of the +New Testament miracles. The Old Testament he was quite willing to give +up, but he pinned his faith on those wrought by Christ and His +apostles. Some of the congregation told me they had never thought of +doubting them before, but the more Mr. B. defended them as the bulwarks +of Christianity, the more they felt that our religion rested on other +foundations. I saw a good deal of the industrial life of Birmingham, +and had a sight of the Black Country by day and by night. Joseph +Chamberlain was then a young man; I believe he was a Sunday school +teacher. The Unitarian Sunday Schools taught writing and arithmetic as +well as reading. In the terrible lack of national day schools many of +the poor had no teaching at all but what was given on Sundays, and no +time on other days of the week to learn anything. I could not help +contrasting the provision made by the parish schools of Scotland out of +the beggarly funds or tithes given for church and schools out of the +spoils of the Ancient Church by the Lords of the Congregation. +Education was not free, but it was cheap, and it was general. Scotchmen +made their way all over the world better than Englishmen mainly because +they were better educated. The Sunday school was not so much needed, +and was much later in establishing itself in Scotland. Good Hannah More +taught girls to read the Bible under a spreading tree in her garden +because no church would give her a place to teach in. "If girls were +taught to read where would we get servants?" It was an early cry. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + +MEETING WITH J. S. MILL AND GEORGE ELIOT. + + +I leave to the last of my experiences in the old world in 1865-6 my +interviews with John Stuart Mill and George Eliot. Stuart Mill's wife +was the sister of Arthur and of Alfred Hardy, of Adelaide, and the +former had given to me a copy of the first edition of Mill's "Political +Economy," with the original dedication to Mrs. John Taylor, who +afterwards became Mill's wife, which did not appear in subsequent +editions; but, as he had two gift copies of the same edition, Mr. Hardy +sent it on to me with his almost illegible handwriting:--"To Miss +Spence from the author, not, indeed, directly, but in the confidence +felt by the presenter that in so doing he is fulfilling the wish of the +author--viz., circulating his opinions, more especially in such quarters +as the present, where they will be accurately considered and tested." I +had also seen the dedication to Harriet Mill's beloved memory of the +noble book on "Liberty." Of her own individual work there was only one +specimen extant--an article on the "Enfranchisement of women," +included in Mill's collected essays--very good, certainly, but not so +overpoweringly excellent as I expected. Of course, it was an early +advocacy of the rights of women, or rather a revival of Mary +Wollstoneeraft's grand vindication of the rights of the sex; and this +was a reform which Mill himself took up more warmly than proportional +representation, and advocated for years before Mr. Hare's revelation. +For myself, I considered electoral reform on the Hare system of more +value than the enfranchisement of women, and was not eager for the +doubling of the electors in number, especially as the new voters would +probably be more ignorant and more apathetic than the old. I was +accounted a weak-kneed sister by those who worked primarily for woman +suffrage, although I was as much convinced as they were that I was +entitled to a vote, and hoped that I might be able to exercise it +before I was too feeble to hobble to the poll. I have unfortunately +lost the letter Mr. Mill wrote to me about my letters to The Register, +and my "Plea for Pure Democracy," but it gave him great pleasure to see +that a new idea both of the theory and practice of politics had been +taken up and expanded by a woman, and one from that Australian colony, +of which he had watched and aided the beginnings, as is seen by the +name of Mill terrace, North Adelaide, to-day. Indeed, both Hare and +Mill told me their first converts were women; and I felt that the +absolute disinterestedness of my "Plea," which was not for myself, but +only that the men who were supposed to represent me at the polling +booth should be equitably represented themselves, lent weight to my +arguments. I have no axe to grind--no political party to serve; so +that it was not until the movement for the enfranchisement of women +grew too strong to be neglected that I took hold of it at all; and I do +not claim any credit for its success in South Australia and the +Commonwealth, further than this--that by my writings and my spoken +addresses I showed that one woman had a steady grasp on politics and on +sociology. In 1865, when I was in England, Mr. Mill. was permanently +resident at Avignon, where his wife died, but he had to come to England +to canvass for a seat in Parliament for Westminster as an Independent +member, believed at that time to be an advanced Radical, but known to +be a philosopher, and an economist of the highest rank in English +literature. I had only one opportunity of seeing him personally, and I +did not get so much out of him as I expected--he was so eager to know +how the colony and colonial people were developing. He asked me about +property in land and taxation, and the relations between employers and +employes, and I was a little amused and a little alarmed when he said +he was glad to get information from such a good authority. I had to +disclaim such knowledge; but he said he knew I was observant and +thoughtful, and what I had seen I had seen well. He was particularly +earnest about woman's suffrage, and Miss Taylor, his stepdaughter, said +she thought he had made a mistake in asking for the vote for single women +only and widows with property and wives who had a separate estate; it +would have been more logical to have asked for the vote on the same terms +as were extended to men. The great man said meekly--"Well, perhaps I have +made a mistake, but I thought with a property qualification the beginning +would awake less antagonism." He said to me that if I was not to return to +London till January we were not likely to meet again. He walked with me +bareheaded to the gate, and it was farewell for both. + +Wise man as Mill was he did not foresee that his greatest object, the +enfranchisement of women, would be carried at the antipodes long before +there was victory either in England or America. When I received, in +1869 from the publisher, Mr. Mill's last book, "The Subjection of +Women," I wrote thanking him for the gift. The reply was as follows:-- +"Avignon, November 28, 1869--Dear Madam--Your letter of August 16 has +been sent to me here. The copy of my little book was intended for you, +and I had much pleasure in offering it. The movement against women's +disabilities generally, and for the suffrage in particular, has made +great progress in England since you were last there. It is likely, I +think, to be successful in the colonies later than in England, because +the want of equality in social advantages between women and men is less +felt in the colonies owing, perhaps, to women's having less need of +other occupations than those of married life--I am, dear Madam, yours +very truly, J. S. Mill." I have always held that, though the Pilgrim +Fathers ignored the right of the Pilgrim Mothers to the credit of +founding the American States--although these women had to take their +full share of the toils and hardships and perils of pioneer and +frontier life, and had in addition to put up with the Pilgrim Fathers +themselves--Australian colonization was carried out by men who were +conscious of the service of their helpmates, and grateful for it. In +New Zealand and South Australia, founded on the Wakefield system, where +the sexes were almost equal in number, and the immigration was mainly +that of families, the first great triumphs for the political +enfranchisement of women were won, and through South Australia the +women of the Commonwealth obtained the Federal vote for both Houses: +whereas even in the sparsely inhabited western states in the United +States which have obtained the State vote the Federal vote is withheld +from them. But Mill died in 1873, 20 years before New Zealand or +Colorado obtained woman's suffrage. + +In treating of my one interview with Mr. Mill I have carried the +narrative down to 1869. With regard to my single meeting with George +Eliot, I have to begin in 1865, and conclude even later. Before I left +England Mr. Williams, of Smith, Elder, & Co., offered me an +introduction to George Henry Lewes, and I expressed the hope that it +might also include an introduction to George Eliot, whose works I so +admired. Mr. Lewes being away from home when I called, I requested that +the introductory letter of Mr. Williams should be taken to George Eliot +herself. She received me in the big Priory drawing room, with the grand +piano, where she held her receptions and musical evenings; but she +asked me if I had any business relating to the article which Mr. +Williams had mentioned, and I had to confess that I had none. For once +I felt myself at fault. I did not get on with George Eliot. She said +she was not well, and she did not look well. That strong pale face, +where the features were those of Dante or Savanarola, did not soften as +Mill's had done. The voice, which was singularly musical and +impressive, touched me--I am more susceptible to voices than to +features or complexion--but no subject that I started seemed to fall +in with her ideas, and she started none in which I could follow her +lead pleasantly. It was a short interview, and it was a failure. I felt +I had been looked on as an inquisitive Australian desiring an interview +upon any pretext; and indeed, next day I had a letter from Mr. +Williams, in which he told me that, but for the idea that I had some +business arrangement to speak of, she would not have seen me at all. So +I wrote to Mr. Williams that, as I had been received by mistake, I +should never mention the interview; but that impertinent curiosity was +not at all my motive in going that unlucky day to The Priory. + +Years passed by. I read everything, poetry and prose, that came from +George Eliot's pen, and was so strong an admirer of her that Mr. W. L. +Whitham, who took charge of the Unitarian Church while our pastor (Mr. +Woods) had a long furlough in England, asked me to lecture on her works +to his Mutual Improvement Society, and I undertook the task with joy. +Mr. H. G. Turner asked for the MS. to publish in the second number of +The Melbourne Review, a very promising quarterly for politics and +literature. I thought that, if I sent the review to George Eliot with a +note it might clear me from the suspicion of being a mere vulgar +lionhunter. Her answer was as follows:--"The Priory, North Bank, +Regent's Park, September 4, 1876. Dear Madam--Owing to an absence of +some months, it was only the other day that I read your kind letter of +April 17; and, although I have long been obliged to give up answering +the majority of letters addressed to me, I felt much pleased that you +had given me an opportunity of answering one from you; for I have +always remembered your visit with a regretful feeling that I had +probably caused you some pain by a rather unwise effort to give you a +reception which the state of my health at the moment made altogether +blundering and infelicitous. The mistake was all on my side, and you +were not in the least to blame. I also remember that your studies have +been of a serious kind, such as were likely to render a judgment on +fiction and poetry, or, as the Germans, with better classification, +say, in 'DICHTUNG' in general, quite other than the superficial +haphazard remarks of which reviews are generally made. You will all the +better understand that I have made it a rule not to read writing about +myself. I am exceptionally sensitive and liable to discouragement; and +to read much remark about my doings would have as depressing an effect +on me as staring in a mirror--perhaps, I may say, of defective glass. +But my husband looks at all the numerous articles that are forwarded to +me, and kindly keeps them out of my way--only on rare occasions +reading to me a passage which he thinks will comfort me by its evidence +of unusual insight or sympathy. Yesterday he read your article in The +Melbourne Review, and said at the end--'This is an excellently written +article, which would do credit to any English periodical' adding the +very uncommon testimony, 'I shall keep this.' Then he told me of some +passages in it which gratified me by that comprehension of my meaning-- +that laying of the finger on the right spot--which is more precious +than praise, and forthwith he went to lay The Melbourne Review in the +drawer he assigns to any writing about me that gives him pleasure. For +he feels on my behalf more than I feel on my own, at least in matters +of this kind. If you come to England again when I happen to be in town +I hope that you will give me the pleasure of seeing you under happier +auspices than those of your former visit.--I am, dear madam, yours +sincerely, M. G. Lewes." The receipt of this kind and candid letter +gave me much pleasure; and, although on the strength of that, I cannot +boast of being a correspendent of that great woman, I was able to say +that I had seen and talked with her, and that she considered me a +competent critic of her work. Mrs. Oliphant says that George Eliot's +life impelled her to make an involuntary confession--"How have I been +handicapped in life? Should I have done better if I had been kept, like +her, in a mental green-house and taken care of? I have always had to +think of other people and to plan everything for my own pleasure, it is +true, very often, but always in subjection to the necessity which bound +me to them. To bring up the boys--my own and Frank's--for the service +of God was better than to write a fine novel, if it had been in my +power to do so." The heart knows its own bitterness. There might have +been some points in which George Eliot might have envied Mrs. Oliphant. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + +RETURN FROM THE OLD COUNTRY. + + +Before leaving Scotland I arranged that my friend, Mrs. Graham of the +strenuous life and 30 pounds a year, should undertake the care of my +aunts, to their mutual satisfaction. My last days in England were spent in +either a thick London fog or an equally undesirable Scotch mist, which +shrouded everything in obscurity, and made me long for the sunny skies +and the clear atmosphere of Australia. I told my friends that in my +country it either rained or let it alone. Indeed, the latest news from +all Australia was that it had let it alone very badly, and that the +overstocking of stations during the preceding good seasons had led to +enormous losses. Sheepfarmers made such large profits in good seasons +that they were apt to calculate that it was worth while to run the risk +of drought; but experience has shown that overstocking does not really +pay. The making of dams, the private and public provision of water in +the underground reservoirs by artesian bores, and the facilities for +travelling stock by such ways have all lessened the risks which the +pioneer pastoralists ran bravely in the old days. An Australian drought +can never be as disastrous in the twentieth century as it was in 1866; +and South Australia, the Central State, has from the first been a +pioneer in development as well as in exploration. The hum of the +reaping machine first awoke the echoes in our wheatfields. The +stump-jumping plough and the mullenicer which beats down the scrub or +low bush so that it can be burnt, were South Australian inventions, +copied elsewhere, which have turned land accounted worthless into +prolific wheat fields. + +If South Australia was the first of the States to exhaust her +agricultural soil, she was the first to restore it by means of +fertilizers and the seed drill. When I see the drilled wheat fields I +recollect my grandfather's two silver salvers--the Prizes from the +Highland Society for having the largest area of drilled wheat in +Scotland--and when I see the grand crops on the Adelaide Plains I +recall the opinion that, with anything like a decent rainfall, that +soil could grow anything. In 1866 the northern areas had not been +opened. The farmers were continuing the process of exhausting the land +by growing wheat--wheat--wheat, with the only variety wheaten hay. I +recollect James Burnet's amazement when I said that our horses were fed +on wheaten hay. "What a waste of the great possibilities of a grain +harvest!" He was doubtful when I said that with plenty of wheaten hay +the horses needed no corn. South Australia, except about Mount Gambier, +does not grow oats, though Victoria depends on oaten hay. The British +agriculturist thinks that meadow hay is the natural forage for horses +and cattle, and for winter turnips are the standby. It was a little +amusing to me that I could speak with some authority to skilled and +experienced agriculturists, who felt our rivalry at Mark lane, but who +did not dream that with the third great move of Australia towards the +markets of the world through cold storage we could send beef, mutton, +lamb, poultry, eggs, and all kinds of fruit to the consumers of Europe, +and especially of England and its metropolis. I did not see it, any +more than the people to whom I talked. I still thought that for meat +and all perishable commodities the distance was an insuperable +obstacle, and that, except for live stock from America, or canned meat +from Australia, the United Kingdom would continue self-supporting on +these lines. + +I returned to Australia, when this island continent was in the grip of +one of the most severe and protracted droughts in its history. The war +between Prussia and Austria had begun and ended; the failure of Overend +and Gurney and others brought commercial disaster; and my brother, with +other bankers, had anxious days and sleepless nights. Some rich men +became richer; many poor men went down altogether. Our recovery was +slow but sure. In the meantime I found life at home very dull after my +interesting experiences abroad. There was nothing to do for +proportional representation except to write an occasional letter to the +press. So I started another novel, which was published serially in The +Observer. Mr. George Bentley, who published it subsequently in +book form, changed its title from "Hugh Lindsay's Guest" to "The +Author's Daughter." But my development as a public speaker was more +important than the publication of a fourth novel. Much had been written +on the subject of public speaking by men, but so far nothing concerning +the capacities of women in that direction. And yet I think all teachers +will agree that girls in the aggregate excel boys in their powers of +expression, whether in writing, or in speech, though boys may surpass +them in such studies as arithmetic and mathematics. Yet law and custom +have put a bridle on the tongue of women, and of the innumerable +proverbs relating to the sex, the most cynical are those relating to +her use of language. Her only qualification for public speaking in old +days was that she could scold, and our ancestors imposed a salutary +cheek on this by the ducking stool in public, and sticks no thicker +than the thumb for marital correction in private. The writer of the +Proverbs alludes to the perpetual dropping of a woman's tongue as an +intolerable nuisance, and declares that it is better to live on the +housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. A later writer, +describing the virtuous woman, said that on her lips is the law of +kindness, and after all this is the real feminine characteristic. As +daughter, sister, wife, and mother--what does not the world owe to the +gracious words, the loving counsel, the ready sympathy which she +expresses? Until recent years, however, these feminine Rifts have been +strictly kept for home consumption. and only exercised for the woman's +family and a limited circle of friends. In 1825, when I first opened my +eyes on the world, there were indeed women who displayed an interest in +public affairs. My own mother not only felt the keenest solicitude +regarding the passing of the Reform Bill, but she took up her pen, and +with two letters to the local press, under the signature of "Grizel +Plowter," showed the advantages of the proposed measure. But public +speaking was absolutely out of the question for women, and though I was +the most ambitious of girls, my desire was to write a great book--not +at all to sway an audience. When I returned from my first visit to +England in 1866, I was asked by the committee of the South Australian +Institute to write a lecture on my impressions of England, different +from the article which had appeared in The Cornhill Magazine under that +title, but neither the committee nor myself thought of the possibility +of my delivering it. My good friend, the late Mr. John Howard Clark, +Editor of The Register, kindly offered to read it. I did not go to hear +it, but I was told that he had difficulty in reading my manuscript, and +that, though he was a beautiful reader, it was not very satisfactory. +So I mentally resolved that if I was again asked I should offer to read +my own MS. Five years afterwards I was asked for two literary lectures +by the same committee, and I chose as my subjects the works of +Elizabeth Browning and those of her husband, Robert Browning. Now, I +consider that the main thing for a lecturer is to be heard, and a +rising young lawyer (now our Chief Justice) kindly offered to take the +back seat, and promised to raise his hand if he could not hear. It was +not raised once, so I felt satisfied. I began by saying that I undertook +the work for two reasons--first, to make my audience more +familiar with the writings of two poets very dear to me; and second, to +make easier henceforward for any woman who felt she had something to +say to stand up and say it. I felt very nervous, and as if my knees +were giving way; but I did not show any nervousness. I read the +lecture, but most of the quotations I recited from memory. Not having +had any lessons in elocution, I trusted to my natural voice, and felt +that in this new role the less gesticulation I used the better. Whether +the advice of Demosthenes is rightlv translated or not--first +requisite, action; second, action; third, action--I am sure that +English word does not express the requisite for women. I should rather +call it earnestness--a conviction that what you say is worth saying, +and worth saying to the audience before you. I had a lesson on the +danger of overaction from hearing a gentleman recite in public "The +dream of Eugene Aram," in which he went through all the movements of +killing and burying the murdered man. When a tale is crystallized into +a poem it does not require the action of a drama. However little action +I may use I never speak in public with gloves on. They interfere with +the natural eloquence of the hand. After these lectures I occasionally +was asked to give others on literary subjects. + +At this time I began to study Latin with my nephew, a boy of 14. He was +then an orphan, my youngest and beloved sister Mary having +recently died and left her two children to my care. My teacher thought +me the more apt pupil, but it was really due more to my command of +English than to my knowledge of Latin that I was able to get at the +meaning of Virgil and Horace. When it came to Latin composition I was +no better than the boy of 14. Before the death of my sister the family +invested in land in Trinity street, College Town, and built a house. +Mother had planned the house she moved into when I was six months old, +and she delighted in the task, though she said it seemed absurd to +build a house in her seventy-ninth year. But she lived in it from +January, 1870, till December, 1887, and her youngest daughter lived in +it for only ten months. Before that time I had embarked with my friend, +Miss Clark, on one of the greatest enterprises of my life--one which +led to so much that my friends are apt to say that, if I am recollected +at all, it will be in connection with the children of the State and not +with electoral reform. But I maintain now, as I maintained then, that +the main object of my life is proportional representation, or, to use +my brother John's term, effective voting. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + +WARDS OF THE STATE. + + +In a little book which the State Children's Council requested me to +write as a memorial of the great work of Miss C. E. Clark on her +retirement at the age of 80, I have given an account of the movement +from the beginning down to 1907, which had its origin in South +Australia under the leadership of Miss Clark. When I was on my way cut +from England, Miss Clark wrote a letter to The Register, suggesting +that the destitute, neglected, or orphaned children should be removed +from the Destitute Asylum and placed in natural homes with respectable +people; but the great wave which came over England about that time for +building industrial schools and reformatories affected South Australia +also, and the idea was that, though the children should be removed from +the older inmates, it should be to an institution. Land was bought and +plans were drawn up for an industrial school at Magill, five miles from +Adelaide, when Miss Clark came to me and asked me to help her to take a +different course. She enlisted Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Colton and Mrs. +(afterwards Lady) Davenport in the cause, and we arranged for a +deputation to the Minister; Howard Clark, Neville Blyth, and Mr. C. B. +Young joined us. We offered to find country homes and provide lady +visitors, but our request was simply scouted. As we did not offer to +bear any of the cost it would be absurd to give us any share in the +administration. Children would only be given homes for the sake of the +money paid, and Oliver Twist's was held up as the sort of +apprenticeship likely to be secured for pauper children. So we had to +play the waiting game. The school built to accommodate 230 children was +on four floors, though there was 40 acres of good land. It was so +popular that, though only 130 went in at first, in two years it was so +full that there was talk of adding a wing. This was our opportunity, +and the same men and women went on another deputation, and this time we +prevailed, and were allowed to place out the overflow as an experiment; +and not only the Boarding-out Committee, but the official heads of the +Destitute Department, were surprised and delighted with the good homes +we secured for 5/ a week, and with the improvement in health, in +intelligence, and in happiness that resulted from putting children into +natural homes. What distinguishes work for children in Australia from +what is done elsewhere is that it is national, and not philanthropic. +The State is in loco-parentis, and sees that what the child needs are a +home and a mother--that, if the home and the mother are good, the +child shall he kept there; but that vigilant inspection is needed, +voluntary or official--better to have both. Gradually the Magill +School was emptied, and the children were scattered. Up to the age of +13 the home was subsidized, but when by the education law the child was +free from school attendance, and went to service, the supervision +continued until the age of 18 was reached. For nearly 14 years, from +1872 to 1886, the Boarding-out Society pursued its modest labours as +auxiliary to the Destitute Board. Our volunteer visitors reported in +duplicate--one copy for the official board, and one for the unofficial +committee. When the method was inaugurated, Mr. T. S. Reed. Chairman of +the Board, was completely won over. We had nothing to do with the +reformatories. except that our visitors went to see those placed out at +service in their neighbourhood. + +Our success attracted attention elsewhere. The late Dr. Andrew Garran, +who was on The Register when I went to England, had moved to Sydney in +my absence, and was on the staff of The Sydney Morning Herald. When +Miss Clark went to England in 1877, after her mother`s death, Dr. +Garran wrote to me for some account of our methods. and of their +success, physical, moral, and financial. Dr. Garran came out with Mr. +G. F. Angas and the Australian Constitution in 1851 in search of health +and work, both of which he found here. The first pages of my four +volumes of newspaper cuttings are filled with two long articles, "The +Children of the State," and this started the movement in New South +Wales, led by Mrs. Garran, nee Sabine, and Mrs. Jefferis wife of the +leading Congregational minister, moved from Adelaide to Sydney. +Professor Henry Pearson asked me a year or two later to give similar +information to The Melbourne Age. Subsequently I wrote on this subject, +by request, to Queensland, New Zealand, and I think also Tasmania, +where we were imitated first, but where there are still to be found +children of the State in institutions. In Victoria and New South Wales +a vigorous policy emptied these buildings, which were used for other +public purposes, and the children were dispersed. The innovation which +at first was scouted as utopian, next suspected as leading to neglect, +or even unkindness--for people would only take these children for what +they could make out of them--was found to be so beneficial that nobody +in Australia would like to return to the barrack home or the barrack +school. If the inspection had been from the first merely official, +public opinion would have been suspicious and sceptical, but when +ladies saw the children in these homes, and watched how the dull faces +brightened, and the languid limbs became alert after a few weeks of +ordinary life--when the cheeks became rosier, and the eyes had new +light in them; when they saw that the foster parents took pride in +their progress at school, and made them handy about the house, as they +could never be at an institution, where everything is done at the sound +of a bell or the stroke of a clock--these ladies testified to what +they knew, and the public believed in them. In other English-speaking +countries boarding-out in families is sometimes permitted; but here, +under the Southern Cross, it is the law of the land that children shall +not be brought up in institutions, but in homes: that the child whose +parent is the State shall have as good schooling as the child who has +parents and guardians; that every child shall have, not the discipline +of routine and redtape, but free and cheerful environment of ordinary +life, preferably in the country--going to school with other young +fellow citizens, going to church with the family in which he is placed, +having the ordinary ditties, the ordinary difficulties, the ordinary +pleasures of common life; but guarded from injustice, neglect, and +cruelty by effective and kindly supervision. This movement, originated +in South Australia, and with all its far-reaching developments and +expansions, is due to the initiative of one woman of whom the State is +justly proud--Miss Caroline Emily Clark. + +Even while we were only a Boarding-out Committee, it was found +necessary to have one paid inspector; but there was great +dissatisfaction with the Boys' Reformatory which had been located in an +old leaky hulk, where the boys could learn neither seamanship nor +anything else--and with some other details of the management of the +destitute poor, and a commission with the Chief Justice as Chairman, +was appointed to make enquiries and suggest reforms. The result was the +separation of the young from the old absolutely; and a new body, the +State Children's Council, of 12 men and women of nearly equal +proportions, had authority over the reformatories, as well as what was +called the industrial school, which was to be reduced to a mere +receiving home, and all the children placed out, either on subsidy or +at service. Most of the old committee were appointed; but, to my great +joy, Dr. Edward C. Stirling and Mr. James Smith, the most enlightened +man on the Destitute Board, were among the new members. We had a paid +stall, with a most able secretary--Mr. J. B. Whiting. + +Dr. Stirling was unanimously voted in as President, and we felt we +began our new duties under the most promising auspices. But, alas, in +two years there was so much friction between the council and the +Ministry that we all resigned in a body, except Mrs. Colton (who was in +England) and Mrs. Farr. We were fighting the battle of the unpaid +boards, and we were so strong in the public estimation that we might +have won the victory. The Government had relieved children on the +petition of parents, contrary to the strong recommendation of the +council. Although the commission had declared that the reformatory boys +should be removed at once from the hulk Fitzjames, they were still kept +there, and the only offer of accommodation given was to share the +Magill Industrial School with the reformatory girls. Now, this the +council would not hear of, for we felt that the Government plans for +separate entrances and separate staircases were absolutely futile and +ridiculous for keeping apart these two dangerous classes in a single +building. The Government gave way on the point of providing a separate +building for the reformatory girls; and the committee, with the +exception of Dr. Stirling and Mr. James Smith--our two strongest +members--were reappointed. The official staff was increased by the +appointment of clerks and inspectors, many of them women, who have +always given every satisfaction, and who justify the claim made +that women's work is conscientious and thorough. + +More departments were gradually added to our sphere of action. The +separate trial of juvenile delinquents was strongly advocated by the +council. Miss Clark and Mr. C. H. Goode were particularly keen on the +introduction of Children's Courts. In this reform South Australia led +the world, and in the new Act of 1896, after six years of tentative +work, it became compulsory to try offenders under 18 at the Children's +Court in the city and suburbs, and in the Magistrate's room in the +country. The methods of organization and control vary in the different +States of the Commonwealth, but on one point the six are all agreed-- +that dependent and delinquent children are a national asset and a +national responsibility, and any forward step anywhere has every chance +of being copied. The result of Children's Courts and probation has been +that, while the population of the State has greatly increased, the +committals to the Gaol and for penal servitude have steadily decreased, +and the Boys' Reformatory has been reduced to one-third of the number +in earlier days. There are, of course, many factors in all directions +of social betterment, but the substitution of homes for institutions, +and of probation carefully watched for summary punishment, are, in my +opinion, the largest factors in, this State. The affection between +children and their foster parents is often lifelong; and we see +thousands who were taken from bad parents and evil environments taking +their place in the industrial world, and filling it well. The movement +in South Australia initiated by Miss Clark spread from State to State, +and the happy thought of the President and Secretary of the Council +that I should write an account of "Boarding-out and its Developments" +as a memorial of her great work bore fruit in the legislation of the +United Kingdom itself. A letter I received from Mr. Herbert Samuel, +then Under-Secretary of State in the British Government, was +gratifying, both to the council and to me:--"Home Office, Whitehall, +S.W., August 5, 1907. Dear Madam--I have just read your little book on +'State Children in Australia;' and, although a stranger to you, would +venture to write to thank you for the very valuable contribution you +have made to the literature on the subject. The present Government in +England are already engaged in promoting the more kindly and more +effective methods of dealing with destitute, neglected, or delinquent +children, which are already so widely adopted in South Australia. We +are passing through Parliament this year a Bill to enable a system of +probation officers, both paid and voluntary, to be established +throughout the country, for dealing not indeed with child offenders +alone, but with adult offenders also, who may be properly amenable to +that treatment. And next year we propose to introduce a comprehensive +Children's Bill, which has been entrusted to my charge, in which we +hope to be able to include some of the reforms you have at heart. In +the preparation of that Bill the experience of your colony and the +account of it which you have published will be of no small assistance. +Yours sincerely, Herbert Samuel." + +Another department of our work for the protection of infant life, and +this we took over from the Destitute Board, where some unique +provisions had been initiated by Mr. James Smith. The Destitute Asylum +was the last refuge of the old and incapacitated poor, but it never +opened its doors to the able bodied. In the Union Workhouse in England +room is always found for friendless and penniless to come there for +confinement, who leave as soon as they are physically strong enough to +take their burden--their little baby--in their arms and face the +world again. In Adelaide these women were in 1868 divided into two +classes, one for girls who had made their first slip--girls weak, but +very rarely wicked--so as to separate them, from women who came for a +second or third time, who were cared for with their infants in the +general asylum. Mr. James Smith obtained in 1881 legislation to empower +the Destitute Board to make every woman sign an agreement to remain +with her infant, giving it the natural nourishment, for six months. This +has saved many infant lives, and has encouraged maternal affection. The +Destitute Board kept in its hands the issuing of licences, and +appointed a lady to visit the babies till they were two years old, and +did good work; but when that department was properly turned over to the +State Children's Council there was even more vigilance exercised, and +the death rate among these babies, often handicapped before birth, and +always artificially fed after, was reduced to something less than the +average of all babies. We have been fortunate in our chief inspectress +of babies. Her character has uplifted the licensed foster mothers, and +the two combined have raised the real mothers. It is surprising how few +such babies are thrown on the State. The department does not pay +any board or find any clothing for these infants. It, however, pays for +supervision and pays for a lady doctor, so that there need he no excuse +for not calling in medical assistance if it is felt to be needed. +Occasionally a visitor from other States or from England is allowed as +a great favour to see, not picked cases, but the ordinary run, of the +homes of foster mothers, and the question, "Where and how do you get +such women?" is asked. We have weeded out the inferiors, and our +instructions with regard to feeding and care are so definite, and found +to be so sound, that the women take a pride in the health and the +beauty of the little ones; and besides they keep up the love of the +real mother by the care they give them. A recent Act has raised the age +of supervision of illegitimate babies from two to seven years, and this +has necessitated the appointment of an additional inspectress. In South +Australia baby farming has been extinguished. and in the other States +legislation on similar lines has been won, and they are in process of +gradually weeding out bad and doubtful foster mothers. And the foster +fathers are often as fond of the babies as their wives--and as +softhearted. "Did you see that the poor girl had on broken boots this +weather?" said he. "Yes, it's a Pity; but we are poor folks ourselves--we +can't help it," said she. "Let her off the 6/ for a fortnight, so as +she can get a pair of sound boots for her feet, we'll worry through +without it." And they did. The extreme solicitude of the State +Children's Department, as carried out by its zealous officers, for the +life and the wellbeing of their babies serves them in Public +extenuation, and the children are often so pretty and engaging that +they win love all round. A grown-up son in the home was very fond of +little Lily. "Mother will you get Lily a cream coat. such as I see +other babies wearing, and I will pay for it." + +A most pathetic story I can tell of a girl respectably connected in the +country, who had been cast off in disgrace, and came to town to take a +place, committing her infant to a good foster mother. When he was old +enough to move about, and was just trying to walk, the mother was taken +dangerously ill to the Adelaide Hospital. The foster mother thought the +girl's father should be sent for, and wrote to him giving her own +address, but not disclosing her connection with the patient. The father +of the girl came, and was told that he had better be accompanied by his +informant, who could prepare the sick woman for the interview. The +little boy was running about, and the old man took him on his knee +while the woman got ready to go out. "You must come with us, Sonny," +said she. "I can't leave you alone in the house." "A very fine little +chap. Your youngest, I suppose. I can see he is a great pet." "No," +said the woman slowly, "he is not my son, he is your grandson." "Good +God, my grandson," Then, clasping the little fellow to his heart, he +said, "I'll never part with him!" The mother recovered, and was taken +home with her child and forgiven. Such is often the work of the good +foster mother. In all the successes of the irresponsible committee and +of the responsible State Children's Council the greatest factor has +been the character of the good women who have been mothers to the +little ones. The fears that only self-interest could induce them to +take on the neglected and uncontrollable children were not borne out by +experience, and in the ease of these babies not really illegitimate--it +is the parents who deserve that title, no infant can--the mother's +instinct came out very strong. At a conference of workers among +dependent children, held in Adelaide in May, 1909, when all six States +were represented, a Western Australian representative said that the +average family home was not so good for its natural circle that it +could be depended on for strangers; but our answer was that, both for +the children of the State and for the babies who were not State +children, we insisted on something better than the average home, and +through our inspection we sought to improve it still further. We have +not reached perfection by any means. When we begin to think we have, we +are sure to fall back. Another good office the State Children's +Department fills is that of advice gratis. One of the most striking +chapters in Gen. Booth's "Darkest England" dealt with the helplessness +of the poor and the ignorant in the face of difficulties, of injustice, +and of extortion. When I was in Chicago in 1893 I saw that the first +university settlement, that of Hull House, presided over by Miss Jane +Addams (St. Jane some of her friends call her) was the centre to is +which the poor American, German, Italian, or other alien went for +advice as well as practical help. A word in season was often of more +value than dollars. To be told what to do or what not to do at a +crisis when decision is so important may be salvation for the pocket or +for the character. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + +PREACHING, FRIENDS, AND WRITING. + + +My life now became more interesting and varied. A wider field for my +journalistic capabilities was open to me, and I also took part in the +growth of education, both spiritual and secular. The main promoters of +the ambitious literary periodical The Melbourne Review, to which I +became a contributor, were Mr. Henry Gyles Turner (the banker), Mr. +Alexander Sutherland, M.A. (author of "The History of Australia" and +several other books), and A. Patchett Martin (the litterateur). It +lived for nine years, and produced a good deal of creditable writing, +but it never was able to pay its contributors, because it never +attained such a circulation as would attract advertisements. The +reviews and magazines of the present day depend on advertisements. They +cheapen the price so as to gain a circulation, which advertisers cater +for. I think my second article was on the death of Sir Richard Hanson +(one of the original South Australian Literary Society, which met in +London before South Australia existed). At the time of his death he was +Chief Justice. He was the author of two books of Biblical criticism-- +"The Jesus of History" and "Paul and the Primitive Church"--and I +undertook to deal with his life and work. About that time there was one +of those periodic outbursts of Imperialism in the Australian colonies--not +popular or general, but among politicians--on the question of how +the colonies could obtain practical recognition in the Legislature of +the United Kingdom. Each of the colonies felt that Downing street +inadequately represented its claims and its aspirations, and there were +several articles in "The Melbourne Review" suggesting that these +colonies should be allowed to send members to the House of Commons. +This, I felt, would be inadmissible; for, unless we were prepared to +bear our share of the burdens, we had no right to sit in the taxing +Assembly of the United Kingdom. The only House in which the colonies, +small or great, could be represented was the House of Lords; and it +appeared to me that, with a reformed House of Lords, this would be +quite practicable. An article in Fraser's Magazine, "Why not the Lords, +too?" had struck me much, and the lines on which it ran greatly +resemble those laid down by Lord Rosebery for lessening in number and +improving in character the unwieldy hereditary House of Peers; but +neither that writer nor Lord Rosebery grasped the idea that I made +prominent in an article I wrote for The Review, which was that the +reduction of the peers to 200, or any other number ought to be made on +the principle of proportional representation, because otherwise the +majority of the peers, being Conservative, an election on ordinary +lines would result in a selection of the most extreme Conservatives in +the body. My mother had pointed out to me that the 16 representative +Scottish peers elected by those who have not a seat as British peers, +for the duration of each Parliament, were the most Tory of the Tories, +and that the same could be said of the 28 representative peers for +Ireland elected for life. So, though the House of Lords contains a +respectable minority of Liberals, under no system of exclusively +majority representation could any of them be chosen among the 200. I +had the same idea of life peers to be added from the ranks of the +professions, of science, and of literature, unburdened by the weight +and cost of an hereditary title, that Lord Rosebery has; and into such +a body I thought that representatives of the great self-governing +colonies could enter, so that information about our resources, our +politics, and our sociology might be available, and might permeate the +press. But, greatly to my surprise, my article was sent back, but was +afterwards accepted by Fraser's Magazine. This was better for me, for +what would have been published for nothing in The Melbourne Review +brought me 8/15/0 from a good English magazine. I continued to write +for this review, until it ceased to exist, in 1885, literary and +political articles. The former included a second one on "George Eliot's +Life and Work," and one on "Honore de Balzac," which many of my friends +thought my best literary effort. + +It was through Miss Martha Turner that I was introduced to her +brother and to The Melbourne Review. She was at that time pastor of the +Unitarian Church in Melbourne. She had during the long illness of the +Rev. Mr. Higginson helped her brother with the services. At first she +wrote sermons for him to deliver, but on some occasions when he was +indisposed she read her own compositions. Fine reader as Mr. H. G. +Turner is he did not come up to her, and especially he could not equal +her in the presentment of her own thoughts. The congregation on the +death of Mr. Higginson asked Miss Turner to accept the pastorate. She +said she could conduct the services, but she absolutely declined to do +the pastoral duties--visiting especially. She was licensed to conduct +marriage services and baptized (or, as we call it, consecrated) +children to the service of Almighty God and to the service of man. +During the absence of our pastor for a long holiday in England Mr. C. +L. Whitham afterwards an education inspector, took his place for two +years, and he arranged for an exchange of three weeks with Miss Turner. +She is the first woman I ever heard in the pulpit. I was thrilled by +her exquisite voice, by her earnestness, and by her reverence. I felt +as I had never felt before that if women are excluded from the +Christian pulpit you shut out more than half of the devoutness that is +in the world. Reading George Eliot's description of Dinah Morris +preaching Methodisim on the green at Hayslope had prepared me in a +measure, but when I heard a highly educated and exceptionally able +woman conducting the services all through, and especially reading the +Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments with so much intelligence that +they seemed to take on new meaning, I felt how much the world had been +losing for so many centuries. She twice exchanged with Adelaide--the +second time when Mr. Woods had returned--and it was the beginning to +me of a close friendship. + +Imitation, they say, is the sincerest flattery; and when a similar +opportunity was offered to me during an illness of Mr. Woods, when no +layman was available, I was first asked to read a sermon of Martineau's +and then I suggested that I might give something of my own. My first +original sermon was on "Enoch and Columbus," and my second on "Content, +discontent, and uncontent." I suppose I have preached more than a +hundred times, in my life, mostly in the Wakefield Street pulpit; but +in Melbourne and Sydney I am always asked for help; and when I went to +America in 1893-4 I was offered seven pulpits--one in Toronto, Canada, +and six in the United States. The preparation of my sermons--for, +after the first one I delivered, they were always original--has always +been a joy and delight to me, for I prefer that my subjects as well as +their treatment shall be as humanly helpful as it is possible to make +them. In Sydney particularly I have preached to fine audiences. On one +occasion I remember preaching in a large hall, as the Unitarian Church +could not have held the congregation. It was during the campaign that +Mrs. Young and I conducted in Sydney--in 1900, and we had spent the +day--a delightful one--with the present Sir George and Lady Reid at +their beautiful home at Strathfield, and returned in time to take the +evening service at Sydney. I spoke on the advantages of international +peace, and illustrated my discourse with arguments, drawn from the +South African War, which was then in progress. I seized the opportunity +afforded me of speaking some plain home truths on the matter. I was +afterwards referred to by The Sydney Bulletin as "the gallant little +old lady who had more moral courage in her little finger than all the +Sydney ministers had in their combined anatomies." For one of my +sermons I wrote an original parable which pleased my friends so much +that I include it in the account of my life's work. "And it came to +pass after the five days of Creation which were periods of unknown +length of time that God took the soul, the naked soul, with which He +was to endow the highest of his creatures--into Eden to look with him +on the work which He had accomplished. And the Soul could see, could +hear, could understand, though there were neither eyes, nor ears, nor +limbs, nor bodily organs, to do its bidding. And God said, 'Soul, thou +shalt have a body as these creatures, that thou seest around thee have. +Thou art to be king, and rule over them all. Thy mission is to subdue +the earth, and make it fruitful and more beautiful than it is even now, +in thus its dawn. Which of all these living creatures wouldst thou +resemble ?' And the Soul looked, and the Soul listened, and the Soul +understood. The beauty of the birds first attracted him and their songs +were sweet, and their loving care of their young called forth a +response in the Prophetic Soul. But the sweet singers could not subdue +the earth--nay, even the strongest voice could not. Then the Soul +gazed on the lion in his strength; on the deer in his beauty. He saw +the large-eyed bull with the cow by his side, licking her calf. The +stately horse, the huge elephant, the ungainly camel--could any of +these subdue the earth? He looked down, and they made it shake with +their heavy tread, but the Soul knew that the earth could not be +subdued by them. Then he saw a pair of monkeys climbing a tree--the +female had a little one in her arms. Where the bird had wings, and the +beasts four legs planted on the ground, the monkeys had arms, and, at +the end of each, hands, with five fingers; they gathered nuts and +cracked them, and picked out the kernels, throwing the shells away--the +mother caressed her young one with gentle fingers. The Soul saw +also the larger ape with its almost upright form. 'Ah!' sighed the +Soul, 'they are not beautiful like the other creatures, neither are +they so strong as many of them. But their forelimbs, with hands and +fingers to grasp with, are what I need to subdue the earth, for they +will be the servants who can best obey my will. Let me stand upright +and gaze upward, and this is the body that I choose.' And God said, 'Soul, +thou hast chosen well, Thou shalt be larger and stronger than these +creatures thou seest thou shalt stand upright, and look upward and +onward. And the Soul can create beauty for itself, when it shines +through the body.' And it was so, and Adam stood erect and gave names +to all other creatures." + +In the seventies the old education system, or want of system, was +broken up, and a complete department of public instruction was +constructed. Mr. J. A. Hartley, head master of Prince Alfred College, +was placed at the head of it, and a vigorous policy was adopted. When +the Misses Davenport Hill came out to visit aunt and cousins, I visited +with them and Miss Clark the Grote Street Model School, and I was +delighted with the new administration. I hoped that the instruction of +the children of the people would attract the poor gentlewomen who were +so badly paid as governesses in families or in schools; but my hope has +not been at all adequately fulfilled. The Register had been most +earnest in its desire for a better system of public education. The late +Mr. John Howard Clark, its then editor, wanted some articles on the +education of girls, and he applied to me to do them, and I wrote two +leading articles on the subject, and another on the "Ladder of +Learning." from the elementary school to the university, as exemplified +in my native country where ambitious lads cultivated literature on a +little oatmeal. For an Adelaide University was in the air, and took +form owing to the benefactions of Capt. (afterwards Sir Walter Watson) +Hughes, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Elder. But the opposition to +Mr. Hartley, which set in soon after his appointment, and his supposed +drastic methods and autocratic attitude, continued. I did not knew Mr. +Hartley personally, but I knew he had been an admirable head teacher, +and the most valuable member of the Education Board which preceded the +revolution. I knew, too, that the old school teachers were far inferior +to what were needed for the new work, and that you cannot make an +omelette without breaking eggs. A letter which I wrote to Mr. Hartley, +saying that I desired to help him in any way in my power, led to a +friendship which lasted till his lamented death in 1896. I fancied at +the time that my aid did him good, but I think now that the opposition +had spent its force before I put in my oar by some letters to the +press. South Australians became afterwards appreciative of the work +done by Mr. Hartley, and proud of the good position this State took in +matters educational among the sister States under the Southern Cross. + +It was due to Mrs. Webster's second visit to Adelaide to exchange with +Mr. Woods that I made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. E. Barr Smith. +They went to the church and were shown into my seat, and Mrs. Smith +asked me to bring the eloquent preacher to Torrens Park to dine there. +I discovered that they had long wanted to know me, but I was out of +society. I recollect afterwards going to the office to see Mr. Smith on +some business or other, when he was out, and meeting Mr. Elder instead. +He pressed on me the duty of going to see Mrs. Black, a lady from +Edinburgh, who had come out with her sons and daughter. Mr. Barr Smith +came in, and his brother-in-law said, "I have just been telling Miss +Spence she should go and call on the Blacks." "Tom," said Mr. Barr +Smith, "we have been just 20 years making the acquaintance of Miss +Spence. About the year 1899 Miss Spence will be dropping in on +the Blacks." What a house Torrens Park was for books. There was no +other customer of the book shops equal to the Torrens Park family. Rich +men and women often buy books for themselves, and for rare old books +they will give big prices; but the Barr Smiths bought books in sixes +and in dozens for the joy of giving them where they would be +appreciated. On my literary side Mrs. Barr Smith, a keen critic +herself, fitted in with me admirably, and what I owed to her in the way +of books for about 10 years cannot be put on paper, and in my +journalistic work she delighted. Other friendships, both literary and +personal, were formed in the decade which started the elementary +schools and the University. The first Hughes professor of English +literature was the Rev. John Davidson of Chalmers Church, married to +Harriet, daughter of Hugh Miller, the self-taught ecologist and +journalist. + +On the day of the inauguration of the University the Davidsons asked +Miss Clark and myself to go with them, and there I met Miss Catherine +Mackay (now Mrs. Fred Martin), from Mount Gambier. I at first thought +her the daughter of a wealthy squatter of the south-east, but when I +found she was a litterateur trying to make a living by her pen, +bringing out a serial tale, "Bohemian Born," and writing occasional +articles, I drew to her at once. So long as the serial tale lasted she +could hold her own; but no one can make a living at occasional articles +in Australia, and she became a clerk in the Education Office, but still +cultivated literature in her leisure hours. She has published two +novels--"An Australian Girl" and "The Silent Sea"--which so good a +judge as F. W. H. Myers pronounced to be on the highest level ever +reached in Australian fiction, and in that opinion I heartily concur. I +take a very humble second place beside her, but in the seventies I +wrote "Gathered In," which I believed to be my best novel--the novel +into which I put the most of myself, the only novel I wrote with tears +of emotion. Mrs. Oliphant says that Jeanie Deans is more real to her +than any of her own creations, and probably it is the same with me, +except for this one work. From an old diary of the fifties, when my +first novels were written I take this extract:--"Queer that I who have +such a distinct idea of what I approve in flesh-and-blood men should +only achieve in pen and ink a set of impossible people, with an absurd +muddy expression of gloom, instead of sublime depth as I intended. Men +novelists' women are as impossible creations as my men, but there is +this difference--their productions satisfy them, mine fail to satisfy +me." But in my last novel--still unpublished--felt quite satisfied +that I had at last achieved my ambition to create characters that stood +out distinctly and real. Miss Clark took the MS. to England, but she +could not get either Bentley or Smith Elder, or Macmillan to accept it. + +On the death of Mr. John Howard Clark, which took place at this time, +Mr. John Harvey Finlayson was left to edit The Register, and I became a +regular outside contributor to The Register and The Observer. He +desired to keep up and if possible improve the literary side of the +papers, and felt that the loss of Mr. Clark might be in some measure +made up if I give myself wholeheartedly to the work. Leading articles +were to be written at my own risk. If they suited the policy of the +paper they would be accepted, otherwise not. What a glorious opening +for my ambition and for my literary proclivities came to me in July, +1878, when I was in my fifty-third year! Many leading articles were +rejected, but not one literary or social article. Generally these last +appeared in both daily and weekly papers. I recollect the second +original social article I wrote was on "Equality as an influence on +society and manners," suggested by Matthew Arnold. The much-travelled +Smythe, then, I think, touring with Charles Clark, wrote to Mr. +Finlayson from Wallaroo thus:--"In this dead-alive place, where one +might fire a mitrailleuse down the principal street without hurting +anybody, I read this delightful article in yesterday's Register. When +we come again to Adelaide, and we collect a few choice spirits, be sure +to invite the writer of this article to join us." I felt as if the +round woman had got at last into the round hole which fitted her; and +in my little study, with my books and my pigeon holes, and my dear old +mother sitting with her knitting on her rocking chair at the low +window, I had the knowledge that she was interested in all I did. I +generally read the MS to her before it went to the office. What is more +remarkable, perhaps, is that the excellent maid who was with us for 12 +years, picked out everything of mine that was in the papers and +read it. A series of papers called "Some Social Aspects of Early +Colonial Life" I contributed under the pseudonym of "A Colonist of +1839." From 1878 till 1893, when I went round the world via America, I +held the position of outside contributor on the oldest newspaper in the +State, and for these 14 years I had great latitude. My friend Dr. +Garran, then editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, accepted reviews and +articles from me. Sometimes I reviewed the same books for both, but I +wrote the articles differently, and made different quotations, so that +I scarcely think any one could detect the same hand in them; but +generally they were different books and different subjects, which I +treated. I tried The Australasian with a short story, "Afloat and +Ashore," and with a social article on "Wealth, Waste, and Want." I +contributed to The Melbourne Review, and later to The Victorian Review, +which began by paying well, but filtered out gradually. I found +journalism a better paying business for me than novel writing, and I +delighted in the breadth of the canvas on which I could draw my +sketches of books and of life. I believe that my work on newspapers and +reviews is more characteristic of me, and intrinsically better work +than what I have done in fiction; but when I began to wield the pen, +the novel was the line of least resistance. When I was introduced in +1894 to Mrs. Croly, the oldest woman journalist in the United States, +as an Australian journalist, I found that her work, though good ehough, +was essentially woman's work, dress, fashions, functions, with +educational and social outlooks from the feminine point of view. My +work might show the bias of sex, but it dealt with the larger questions +which were common to humanity; and when I recall the causes which I +furthered, and which in some instances I started, I feel inclined to +magnify the office of the anonymous contributor to the daily press. And +I acknowledge not only the kindness of friends who put some of the best +new books in my way, but the large-minded tolerance of the Editors of +The Register, who gave me such a free hand in the treatment of books, +of men, and of public questions. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + +MY WORK FOR EDUCATION. + + +I was the first woman appointed on a Board of Advice under the +Education Department, and found the work interesting. The powers of the +board were limited to an expenditure of 5 pounds for repairs without +applying to the department and to interviewing the parents of children who +had failed to attend the prescribed number of days, as well as those who +pleaded poverty as an exewe for the non-payment of fees. I always felt +that the school fees were a heavy burden on the poor, and rejoiced +accordingly when free education was introduced into South Australia. +This was the second State to adopt this great reform, Victoria +preceding it by a few years. I objected to the payment of fees on +another ground. I felt they bore heavily on the innocent children +themselves through the notion of caste which was created in the minds +of those who paid fees to the detriment of their less fortunate school +companions. And again, education that is compulsory should be free. +Other women have since become members of School Boards. but I was the +pioneer of that branch of public work for women in this State. It is a +privilege that American women have been fighting for for many years--to +vote for and to be eligible to sit on School Boards. In many of the +States this has been won to their great advantage. In this present year +of 1910 Mrs. Ella, Flagg Young, at the age of 65, has been elected by +the Chigago Board, Director of the Education of that great city of over +two millions of inhabitants at a salary of 2,000 pounds a year, with a +male university professor as an assistant. At an age when we in South +Australia are commanding our teachers to retire, in Chicago, which is +said by Foster Fraser to cashier men at 40, this elderly woman has +entered into her great power. + +It is characteristic of me that I like to do thoroughly what I +undertake to do at all, and when, on one ocasion I had not received the +usual summons to attend a board meeting, I complained of the omission +to the Chairman. "I do not want," I said, "to be a merely ornamental +member of this board. I want to go to all the meetings." He replied, +courteously, "It is the last thing that we would say of you, Miss +Spence, that you are ornamental!" It was half a minute before he +discovered that he had put his disclaimer in rather a different form +from what he had intended, and he joined in the burst of laughter which +followed. Another amusing contretemps occurred when the same gentleman +and I were visiting the parents who had pleaded for exemption from the +payment of fees. At one house there was a grown-up daughter who had +that morning left the service of the gentleman's mother--a fact +enlarged upon by my companion during the morning's drive. "Why is your +eldest daughter out of a place?" was the first question he put to the +woman. "She might be earning good wages, and be able to help you pay +the fees." "Oh!" came the unexpected reply, "she had to leave old +Mrs. ---- this morning; she was that mean there was no living in the house +with her!" Knowing her interlocutor only as the man in authority, the +unfortunate woman scarcely advanced her cause by her plain speaking, +and I was probably the only member of the trio who appreciated the +situation. I am sure many people who were poorer than this mother paid +the fees rather than suffer the indignity of such cross-questioning by +the school visitors and the board--an unfortunate necessity of the +system, which disappeared with the abolition of school fees. + +It had been suggested by the Minister of Education of that period that +the children attending the State schools should be instructed in the +duties of citizenship, and that they should be taught something of the +laws under which they lived, and I was commissioned to write a short +and pithy statement of the case. It was to be simple enough for +intelligent children in the fourth class; 11 or 12--it was to lead +from the known to the unknown--it might include the elements of +political economy and sociology--it might make use of familiar +illustrations from the experience of a new country--but it must not be +long. It was not very easy to satisfy myself and Mr. Hartley--who was +a severe critic--but when the book of 120 pages was completed +he was satisfied. A preface I wrote for the second edition--the first +5,000 copies being insufficient for the requirements of the schools--will +give some idea of the plan of the work:--"In writing this little +book, I have aimed less at symmetrical perfection than at simplicity of +diction, and such arrangement as would lead from the known to the +unknown, by which the older children in our public schools might learn +not only the actual facts about the laws they live under, but also some +of the principles which underlie all law." The reprinting gave me an +opportunity to reply to my critics that "political economy, trades +unions, insurance companies, and newspapers" were outside the scope of +the laws we live under. But I thought that in a new State where the +optional duties of the Government are so numerous, it was of great +importance for the young citizen to understand economic principles. As +conduct is the greater part of life, and morality, not only the bond of +social union, but the main source of individual happiness, I took the +ethical part of the subject first, and tried to explain that education +was of no value unless it was used for good purposes. As without some +wealth, civilization was impossible, I next sought to show that +national and individual wealth depends on the security that is given by +law, and on the industry and the thrift which that security encourages. +Land tenure is of the first importance in colonial prosperity, and +consideration of the land revenue and the limitations as to its +expenditure led me to the necessity for taxation and the various modes +of levying it. Taxation led me to the power which imposes, collects, +and expends it. This involved a consideration of those representative +institutions which make the Government at once the master and the +servant of the people. Under this Government our persons and our +prosperity are protected by a system of criminal, civil, and insolvent +law--each considered in its place. Although not absolutely included in +the laws we live under, I considered that providence, and its various +outlets in banks, savings banks, joint stock companies, friendly +societies, and trades unions, were matters too important to be left +unnoticed; and also those influences which shape character quite as +much as statute laws--public opinion, the newspaper, and amusements. +As the use of my little book was restricted solely to school hours, my +hope that the parents might be helped and encouraged by its teaching +was doomed to disappointment. But the children of 30 years ago, when +"The Laws We Live Under" was first published, are the men and women of +to-day, and who shall say but that among them are to be found some at +least worthy and true citizens, who owe to my little book their first +inspiration to "hitch their wagon to a star." Last year an enthusiastic +young Swedish teacher and journalist was so taken with this South +Australian little handbook of civics that he urged on me the duty of +bringing it up to date, and embracing women's suffrage, the relations +of the States to the Commonwealth, as well as the industrial +legislation which is in many ways peculiar to Australia, but although +those in authority were sympathetic no steps have been taken for its +reproduction. Identified as I had been for so many years with +elementary education in South Australia, my mind was well prepared +to applaud the movement in favour of the higher education of poorer +children of both sexes by the foundation of bursaries and scholarships, +and the opening up of the avenues of learning to women by admitting them +to University degrees. Victoria was the first to take this step, and all +over the Commonwealth the example has been followed. I am, however, +somewhat disappointed that University women are not more generally +progressive in their ideas. They have won something which I should have +been very glad of, but which was quite out of reach. All opportunities +ought to be considered as opportunities for service. As my brother David +regarded the possession of honours and wealth as demanding sacrifice for +the common good, so I regarded special knowledge and special culture as +means for advancing the culture of all. It is said to be human nature +when special privileges or special gifts are used only for egoistic +ends; but the complete development of the human being demands that +altruistic ideas should also be cultivated. We see that in China an +aristocracy of letters--for it is through passing difficult +examinations in old literature that the ruling classes are appointed--is +no protection to the poor and ignorant from oppression or +degradation. It is true that the classics in China are very old, but so +are the literatures of Greece and Rome, on which so many university +degrees are founded; and it ought to be impressed upon all seekers +after academic honours that personal advantage is not the be-all +and end-all of their pursuits. In our democratic Commonwealth, although +there are some lower titles bestowed by the Sovereign on colonists more +or less distinguished, these are not hereditary, so that an aristocracy +is not hereditary. There may be an upper class, based on landed estate +or one on business success, or one on learning, but all tend to become +conservative as conservatism is understood in Australia. Safety is +maintained by the free rise from the lower to the higher. But all the +openings to higher education offered in high school and university do +not tempt the working man's children who want to earn wages as soon as +the law lets them go to work. Nor do they tempt their parents to their +large share of the sacrifice which young Scotch lads and even American +lads make to get through advanced studies. The higher education is +still a sort of preserve of the well-to-do, and when one thinks of how +greatly this is valued it seems a pity that it is not open to the +talents, to the industry, to the enthusiasm of all the young of both +sexes. But one exception I must make to the aloofness of people with +degrees and professions from the preventible evils of the world, and +that is in the profession that is the longest and the most exacting--the +medical profession. The women doctors whom I have met in Adelaide, +Melbourne, and Sydney have a keen sense of their responsibility to the +less fortunate. That probably is because medicine as now understood and +practised is the most modern of the learned professions, and is more +human than engineering, which is also modern. It takes us into the +homes of the poor more intimately than even the clergyman, and it +offers remedies and palliatives as well as advice. The law is little +studied by women in Australia, but in the United States there are +probably a thousand or more legal practitioners. It is the profession +that I should have chosen when I was young if it had been in any way +feasible. I had no bent for the medical profession, and still less for +what every one thinks the most womanly of avocations--that of the +trained nurse. I could nurse my own relatives more or less well, but +did not distinguish myself in that way, and I could not devote myself +to strangers. The manner in which penniless young men become lawyers in +the United States seems impossible in Australia. Judge Lindsay, son of +a ruined southern family, studied law and delivered newspapers in the +morning, worked in a lawyer's office through the day, and acted as +janitor at night. The course appears to be shorter, and probably less +Latin and Greek were required in a western State than here. But during the +long vacation in summer, students go as waiters in big hotels at seaside +or other health resorts, or take up some other seasonal trade. All the +Columbian guards at the Chicago Exhibition were students. They kept order, +they gave directions, they wheeled invalids in bath chairs, and they +earned all that was needed, for their next winter's course. In the long +high school holidays youths and maidens who are poor and ambitious work +for money. I have seen fairly well-paid professors who went back to the +father's farm and worked hard all harvest time--and students always +did so. It appears easier in America to get a job for three months' +vacation than in England or Australia, and the most surprising thing +about an American is his versatility. Teaching is with most American +men only a step to something better, so that almost all elementary and +the far greater proportion of high school teaching is in the hands of +women. In Australia our male teachers have to spend so many years +before they are fully equipped that they rarely leave the profession. +The only check on the supply is that the course is so long and +laborious that the youth prefers an easy clerkship. Women, in spite of +the chance of marriage, enter the profession in the United States in +greater numbers, and as the scale of salaries is by no means equal pay +for equal work, except in New York, money is saved by employing women. +I think that it is the student of arts (that English title which is as +vague and unmeaning as the Scottish one of humanities)--student of +ancient classical literature--who, whether man or woman, has least +perception of the modern spirit or sympathy with the sorrows of the +world. With all honour to the classical authors, there are two things +in which they were deficient--the spirit of broad humanity and the +sense of humour. All ancient literature is grave--nay, sad. It is also +aristocratic for learning was the possession of the few. While writing +this narrative I came upon a notable thing done by Miss Crystal +Eastman, a member of the New York Bar, and Secretary of the State +Commission on Employers' Liability. It is difficult for us to +understand how so many good things are blocked, not only in the +Federal Government, but in the separate States, by the written +constitutions. In Great Britain the Constitution consists of unwritten +principles embodied either in Parliamentary statutes or in the common +law, and yields to any Act which Parliament may pass, and the judiciary +can impose no veto on it. This is one reason why England is so far +ahead of the United States in labour legislation. Miss Eastman was the +principal speaker at the annual meeting in January, 1910, of the New +York State Bar Association. She is a trained economic investigator as +well as a lawyer, and her masterly analysis of conditions under the +present liability law held close attention, and carried conviction to +many present that a radical change was necessary. The recommendations +for the statute were to make limited compensation for all accidents, +except those wilfully caused by the victim, compulsory on all +employers. With regard to dangerous occupations the person who profits +by them should bear the greatest share of the loss through accident. As +for the constitutionality of such legislation Miss Eastman said--"If +our State Constitution cannot be interpreted so as to recognise such an +idea of justice then I think we should amend our Constitution. I see no +reason why we should stand in such awe of a document which expressly +provides for its own revision every ten years." The evils against which +this brave woman lawyer contends are real and grievous. Working people +in America who suffer from injury are unmercifully exploited by the +ambulance-chasing lawyers. Casualty insurance companies are said to be +weary of being diverted from their regular business to become a mere +fighting force in the Courts to prevent the injured or the dependents +from getting any compensation. The long-suffering public is becoming aware +that the taxpayers are compelled to bear the burden of supporting the +pitifully great multitude of incapacitated or rendered dependent +because of industrial accident or occupational diseases. Employers +insure their liability, and the poor man has to fight an insurance +company, and at present reform is blocked on the plea that it is +unconstitutional. There are difficulties even in Australia, and to +enquire into such difficulties would be good work for women lawyers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + +SPECULATION, CHARITY, AND A BOOK. + + +In the meantime my family history went on. My nephew was sent to the +Northern Territory to take over the branch of the English and Scottish +Bank at Palmerston, and he took his sister from school to go with him +and stay three months in the tropics. He was only 21 at the time. Four +years after he went to inspect the branch, and took his sister with him +again. I think she loved Port Darwin more than he did, and she always +stood up for the climate. South Australia did a great work in building, +unaided by any other Australian State, the telegraph line from Port +Darwin to Adelaide. and at one time it was believed that rich +goldfields were to be opened in this great empty land, which the +British Government had handed over to South Australia, because Stuart +had been the first to cross the island continent, and the handful of +South Australian colonists bad connected telegraphically the north and +the south. The telegraph building had been contracted for by Darwent +and Dalwood, and my brother, through the South Australian Bank, was +helping to finance them. That was in 1876-7. This was the first, but +not the last by any means, of enterprises which contractors were not +able to carry out in this State, either from taking a big enterprise at +too low a rate or from lack of financial backing. The Government, as in +the recent cases of the Pinnaroo Railway and the Outer Harbour, had to +complete the halfdone work as the direct employer of labour and the +direct purchaser of materials. A great furore for goldmining in the +Northern Territory arose, and people in England bought city allotments +in Palmerston, which was expected to become the queen city of North +Australia, Port Darwin is no whit behind Sydney Harbour in beauty and +capacity. The navies of the world could ride safely in its waters. A +railway of 150 miles in length, the first section of the great +transcontinental line, which was to extend from Palmerston to Port +Augusta, was built to connect Pine Creek, where there was gold to be +found, with the seaboard. South Australia was more than ever a misnomer +for this State. Victoria lay more to the south than our province, and +now that we stretched far inside the tropics the name seemed +ridiculous. My friend Miss Sinnett suggested Centralia as the +appropriate name for the State, which by this gift was really the +central State; but in the present crisis, when South Australia finds +the task of keeping the Northern Territory white too arduous and too +costly, and is offering it on handsome terms to the Commonwealth, +Centralia might not continue to be appropriate. Our northern possession +has cost South Australia much. The sums of money sunk in prospecting +for gold and other metals have been enormous, and at present there are +more Chinese there than Europeans. In the early days, when the Wrens +were there, Eleanor was surprised when their wonderful Chinese cook +came to her and said, "Missie, I go along a gaol to-morrow. You take Ah +Kei. He do all light till I go out!" The cook had been tried and +condemned for larceny, but he was allowed to retain his situation till +the last hour. Instead of being kept in gaol pending his trial he +earned his wages and did his work. He had no desire to escape. He liked +Palmerston and the bank, and he went back to the latter when released. +He was an incorrigible thief, and got into trouble again; but as a cook +he was superlative. + +That decade of the eighties was a most speculative time all over +Australia and New Zealand. I was glad that leaving the English and +Scottish Bank enabled my brother to go into political and official +life, but it also allowed him to speculate far beyond what he could +have done if he had been manager of a bank. Everybody speculated--in +mines, in land, and in leases. I was earning by my pen a very decent +income, and I spent it, sometimes wisely and sometimes foolishly. I +could be liberal to church and to good causes. I was able to keep a +dear little State child at school for two years after the regulation +age, and I was amply repaid by seeing her afterwards an honoured +wife and mother, able to assist her children and their companions with +their lessons. I helped some lame dogs over the stile. One among them +was a young American of brilliant scholastic attainments, who was the +victim of hereditary alcoholism. His mother, a saintly and noble +prohibitionist worker, whom I afterwards met in America, had heard of +me, and wrote asking me to keep a watchful eye on her boy. This I did +for about 12 months, and found him employment. He held a science +degree, and was an authority on mineralogy, metallurgy, and kindred +subjects. During this speculative period he persuaded me to plunge +(rather wildly for me) in mining shares. I plunged to the extent of +500 pounds, and I owe it to the good sense and practical ability of my +nephew that I lost no more heavily than I did, for he paid 100 pounds to +let me off my bargain. + +My protege continued to visit me weekly, and we wrote to one another +once a week or oftener. The books I lent to him I know to this day by +their colour and the smell of tobacco. I wrote to his mother regularly, +and consulted with his good friend, Mr. Waterhouse, over what was best +to be done. One bad outburst he had when he had got some money through +me to pay off liabilities. I recollect his penitent, despairing +confession, with the reference to Edwin Arnold's poem + + He who died at Azun gave + This to those who dug his grave. + +The time came when I felt I could hold him no longer, although that +escapade was forgiven, and I determined to send him to his mother--not +without misgivings about what she might have still to suffer. He wrote +to me occasionally. His health was never good, and I attribute the +craving for drink and excitement a good deal to physical causes; but at +the same time I am sure that he could have withstood it by a more +resolute will. The will is the character--it is the real man. When +people say that the first thing in education is to break the will, they +make a radical mistake. Train the will to work according to the +dictates of an enlightened conscience, for it is all we have to trust +to for the stability of character. My poor lad called me his Australian +mother. When I saw his real mother, I wondered more and more what sort +of a husband she had, or what atavism Edward drew from to produce a +character so unlike hers. I heard nothing from herself of what she went +through, but from her friends I gathered that he had several outbreaks, +and cost her far more than she could afford. She paid everything that +he owed in Adelaide, except her debt to me, but that I was repaid after +her death in 1905, and she always felt that I had been a true friend to +her wayward son. I recollect one day my friend coming on his weekly +visit with a face of woe to tell me he had seen a man in dirt and rags, +with half a shirt, who had been well acquainted with Charles Dickens +and other notables in London. My friend had fed him and clothed him, +but he wanted to return to England to rich friends. I wrote to a few +good folk, and we raised the money and sent the wastrel to the old +country. How grateful he appeared to be, especially to the kind people +who had taken him in; but he never wrote a line. We never heard from +him again. Years afterwards I wrote to his brother-in-law, asking where +the object of our charity now was, if he were still alive. The reply +was that his ingratitude did not surprise the writer--that he was a +hopeless drunkard, a remittance man, whom the family had to ship off as +soon as possible when our ill-judged kindness sent him to England. At +that time he was in Canada, but it was not worth while to give any +address. When Mr. Bowyear started the Charity Organization Society in +Adelaide, he said I was no good as a visitor; I was too credulous, and +had not half enough of the detective in me. But I had not much faith in +this remittance man. + +I have been strongly tempted to omit altogether the next book which I +wrote; but, as this is to be a sincere narrative of my life and its +work, I must pierce the veil of anonymity and own up to "An Agnostic's +Progress." I had been impressed with the very different difficulties +the soul of man has to encounter nowadays from those so triumphantly +overcome by Christian in the great work of John Bunyan in the first +part of "The Pilgrim's Progress." He cannot now get out of the Slough +of Despond by planting his foot on the stepping stones of the Promises. +He cannot, like Hopeful, pluck from his bosom the Key of Promise which +opens every lock in Doubting Castle when the two pilgrims are shut in +it by Giant Despair, when they are caught trespassing on his grounds. +Even assured Christians, we know, may occasionally trespass on these +grounds of doubt; but the weapons of modern warfare are not of the +seventeenth century. The Interpreter's House in the old allegory +dealt only with things found in the Bible, the only channel of +revelation to John Bunyan. To the modern pilgrim God reveals Himself in +Nature, in art, in literature, and in history. The Interpreter's Hand +had to do with all these things. Vanity Fair is not a place through +which all pilgrims must pass as quickly as possible, shutting their +eyes and stopping their ears so that they should neither see nor hear +the wicked things that are done and said there. Vanity Fair is the +world in which we all have to live and do our work well, or neglect it. +Pope and Pagan are not the old giants who used to devour pilgrims, but +who can now only gnash their teeth at them in impotent rage. They are +live forces, quite active, and with agents and supporters alert to +capture souls. Of all the influences which affected for evil my young +life I perhaps resented most Mrs. Sherwood's "Infant's Progress." There +were three children in it going from the City of Destruction to the +Celestial City by the route laid down by John Bunyan; but they were +handicapped even more severely than the good Christian himself with his +heavy burden--for that fell off his back at the first sight of the +Cross and Him who was nailed to it, accepted by the eye of Faith as the +one Sacrifice for the sins of the world--for the three little ones, +Humble Mind, Playful, and Peace, were accompanied always and everywhere +by an imp called Inbred Sin, who never ceased to tempt them to evil. + +The doctrine of innate human depravity is one of the most paralysing +dogmas that human fear invented or priestcraft encouraged. I did not +think of publishing "An Agnostic's Progress" at first. I wrote it to +relieve my own mind. I wanted to satisfy myself that reverent agnostics +were by no means materialists; that man's nature might or might not be +consciously immortal, but it was spiritual; that in the duties which +lay before each of us towards ourselves and towards our +fellow-creatures, there was scope for spiritual energy and spiritual +emotion. I was penetrated by Browning's great idea expressed over and +over again--the expansion of Paul's dictum that faith is not +certainty, but a belief without sufficient proof, a belief which leads +to right action and to self-sacrifice. Of the 70 years of life which +one might hope to live and work in, I had no mean idea. I asked in the +newspaper, "Is life so short?" and answered. "No." I expanded and +spiritualized the idea in a sermon. and I again answered emphatically +"No." I saw the continuation and the expansion of true ideas by +succeeding generations. To the question put sometimes peevishly, "Is +life worth living?" I replied with equal emphasis, "Yes." My mother +told me of old times. I recalled half a century of progress, and I +hoped the forward movement would continue. I read the manuscript of "An +Agnostic's Progress" to Mr. and Mrs. Barr Smith, and they thought so +well of it that they offered to take it to England on one of their many +visits to the old country, where they had no doubt it would find a +publisher. Trubner's reader reported most favourably of the book, and +we thought there was an immediate prospect of its publication; but Mr. +Trubner died, and the matter was not taken up by his successor, and my +friends did what I had expressly said they were not to do, and had it +printed and published at their own expense. There were many printer's +errors in it, but it was on the whole well reviewed, though it did not +sell well. The Spectator joined issue with me on the point that it is +only through the wicket gate of Doubt that we can come to any faith +that is of value; but I am satisfied that I took the right stand there. +My mother was in no way disquieted or disturbed by my writing the book, +and few of my friends read it or knew about it. I still appeared so +engrossed with work on The Register and The Observer that my time was +quite well enough accounted for. I tried for a prize of 100 pounds offered +by The Sydney Mail with a novel called "Handfasted," but was not +successful, for the judge feared that it was calculated to loosen the +marriage tie--it was too socialistic and consequently dangerous. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + +JOURNALISM AND POLITICS. + + +In reviewing books I took the keenest Interest in the "Carlyle +Biographies and Letters," because my mother recollected Jeanie Welch as +a child, and her father was called in always for my grandfather +Brodie's illnesses. I was also absorbed in the "Life and Letters of +George Eliot." The Barr Smiths gave me the "Life and Letters of +Balzac," and many of his books in French, which led me to write both +for The Register and for The Melbourne Review. I also wrote "A last +word," which was lost by The Centennial in Sydney when it died out. It +was also from Mrs. Barr Smith that I got so many of the works of +Alphonse Daudet in French, which enabled me to give a rejoinder to +Marcus Clark's assertion that Balzac was a French Dickens. Indeed, +looking through my shelves, I see so many books which suggested +articles and criticisms which were her gifts that I always connect her +with my journalistic career. + +Many people have consulted me about publishing poems, novels, and +essays. As I was known to have actually got books published in England, +and to be a professional journalist and reviewer, I dare say some of +those who applied to me for encouragement thought I was actuated by +literary jealousy; but people are apt to think they have a plot when +they have only an incident, or two or three incidents; and many who can +write clever and even brilliant letters have no idea of the +construction of a story that will arrest and sustain the reader's +attention. The people who consulted me all wanted money for their work. +They had such excellent uses for money. They had too little. They were +neither willing nor able to bear the cost of publication, and it was +absolutely necessary that their work should be good enough for a +business man to undertake it. I am often surprised that I found English +publishers myself, and the handicap of distance and other things is +even greater now. If stories are excessively Australian, they lose the +sympathies of the bulk of the public. If they are mildly Australian, +the work is thought to lack distinctiveness. Great genius can overcome +these things, but great genius is rare everywhere. Except for my friend +Miss Mackay (Mrs. F. Martin), I know no Australian novelist of genius, +and her work is only too rare in fiction. Mrs. Cross reaches her +highest level in "The Masked Man." but she does not keep it up, though +she writes well and pleasantly. Of course poetry does not pay anywhere +until a great reputation is made. Poetry must be its own exceeding +great reward. And yet I agree with Charles Kingsley that if you wish to +cultivate a really good prose style you should begin with verse. In my +teens I wrote rhymes and tried to write sonnets. I encouraged writing +games among my young people, and it is surprising how much cleverness +could be developed. I can write verses with ease, but very rarely could +I rise to poetry; and therefore I fear I was not encouraging to the +budding Australian poet. + +There was a column quite outside of The Register to which I liked to +contribute for love. That was "The Riddler," which appeared in The +Observer and in The Evening Journal on Saturdays. It brought me in +contact with Mr. William Holden, long the oldest journalist in South +Australia, who revelled in statistical returns and algebraical problems +and earth measurements, but who also appreciated a good charade or +double acrostic. I used to give some of the ingredients for his +"Christmas Mince Pie," and wrote many riddles of various sorts. My +charades were not so elegant as some arranged by Miss Clark, and not so +easily found out; and my double acrostics were not so subtle as those +given in competition nowadays, but they were in the eighties reckoned +excellent. My fame had reached the ears of Mrs. Alfred Watts (nee +Giles), who spent her early colonial life on Kangaroo Island, and she +asked me to write some double acrostics for the poor incurables. I +stared at her in amazement. "We want to be quite well to tackle double +acrostics and to have access to books. Does not Punch speak of the +titled lady, eager to win a guinea prize, who gave seven volumes of +Carlyle's works to seven upper servants, and asked each to search one +to find a certain quotation?" "Oh," said Mrs. Watts, "I don't +mean for the incurables to amuse themselves with. I mean for the +benefit of the home." + +In the end I prepared a book of charades and double acrostics, for the +printing and binding of which Mrs. Watts paid. It was entitled "Silver +Wattle," and the proceeds from the sale of this little book went to +help the funds of the home. For a second volume issued for the same +purpose Mrs. Strawbridge wrote some poems, Mrs. H. M. Davidson a +translation of Victor Huge, Miss Clark her beautiful "Flowers of +Greece," and her niece some pretty verses, which, combined with the +double acrostics, and acting charades supplied by me, made an +attractive volume. Mrs. Watts had something of a literary turn, which +found expression in "Memories of Early Days in South Australia," a book +printed for private circulation among her family and intimate friends. +Dealing with the years between 1837 and 1845 it was very interesting to +old colonists, particularly when they were able to identify the people +mentioned, sometimes by initials and sometimes by pseudonyms. The +author was herself an incurable invalid from an accident shortly after +her marriage, and felt keenly for all the inmates of the Fullarton +Home. + +In 1877 my brother John--with whom I had never quarrelled in my life, +and who helped and encouraged me in everything that I did--retired +from the English, Scottish, and Australian Bank, and decided to contest +a seat for the Legislative Council. It was the last occasion on which +the Council was elected with the State as one district. Although he +announced his candidature only the night before nomination day, and did +not address a single meeting, he was elected third on the poll. He +afterwards became the Chief Secretary, and later Commissioner of Public +Works. He was an excellent worker on committees, and was full of ideas +and suggestions. Although not a good speaker, he rejoiced in my +standing on platform or in pulpit. He was nearly as democratic as I +was; and when he invented the phrase "effective voting" it was from the +sense that true democracy demanded not merely a chance, but a +certainty, that the vote given at the poll should be effective for some +one. My brother David inherited all the Conservatism of the Brodies for +generations back. Greatly interested in all abtruse problems and +abstract questions he had various schemes for the regeneration of +mankind. Two opposing theories concerning the working of bi-cameral +Legislatures supplied me with material for a Review article. One theory +was intensely Conservative, and emanated from my brother David, who was +a poor man. The other was held by the richest man of my acquaintance, +and was distinctly Liberal. My brother argued that the Upper House +should have the power to tax its own constituents, and was utterly +opposed to any extension of the franchise. My rich friend objected to +the limited franchise, and desired to have the State proclaimed one +electorate with proportional representation as a safeguard against +unwise legislation and as a means to assist reforms. The great blot, he +considered, on Australian Constitutions was the representation by +districts, especially for the House that controlled the public purse. +If districts were to be tolerated at all, they should be represented by +men who had a longer tenure of office than our Assembly's three years, +and who did not have so often to ask for votes, which frequently +depended on a railway or a jetty or a Rabbit Bill. So long as a +Government depends for its existence on the support of local +representatives it is tempted to spend public money to gratify them. +Both men were Freetraders, and both believed strongly in the justice of +land values taxation. + +My friend the late Professor Pearson had entered into active political +life in Melbourne, and was a regular writer for The Age. Perhaps no +other man underwent more obloquy from his old friends for taking the +side of Graham Berry, especially as he was a Freetrader, and the +popular party was Protectionist. He justified his action by saying that +a mistake in the fiscal policy of a country should not prevent a real +Democrat from siding with the party which opposed monopoly, especially +in land. He saw in "LATIFUNDIA"--huge estates--the ruin of the Roman +Empire, and its prevalence in the United Kingdom was the greatest +danger ahead of it. In these young countries the tendency to build up +large holdings was naturally fostered by what was the earliest of our +industries. Sheepfarming is not greatly pursued in the United States or +Canada, because of the rigorous winter--but Australia is the favourite +home of the merino sheep. Originally there was no need to buy land, or +even to pay rent to the Government for it; the land had no value +till settlement gave it. The squatter leased it on easy terms, and +bought it only when it had sufficient value to be desired by +agriculturists or by selectors who posed as agriculturists. When he +bought it he generally complained of the price these selectors +compelled him to pay, but it was then secure; and, with the growth of +population and the railroads and other improvements, these enforced +purchasers, even in 1877, had built up vast estates in single hands in +every State in Australia. In The Melbourne Review for April, 1877, +Professor Pearson sketched a plan of land taxation, which was +afterwards carried out, in which the area of land held was the test for +graduated taxation. Henry George had not then declared his gospel; and, +although I felt that there was something very faulty in the scheme, I +did not declare in my article on the subject that an acre in Collins +street might be of more value than 50,000 acres of pastoral land 500 +miles from the seaboard, and was therefore more fitly liable to +taxation for the advantage of the whole community, who had given to +that acre this exceptional value. I did not declare it because I did +not believe it. But I thought that the end aimed at--the breaking up +of large estates--could be better and more safely effected, though not +so quickly, by a change in the incidence of succession duties. + +Some time after I saw a single copy of Henry George's "Progress and +Poverty" on Robertson's shelves, and bought it, and it was I who after +reading this book opened in the three most important Australian +colonies the question of the taxation of land values. An article I +wrote went into The Register, and Mr. Liston, of Kapunda, read it, and +spoke of it at a farmers' meeting. I had then a commission from The +Sydney Morning Herald to write on any important subject, and I wrote on +this. It appeared, like a previous article on Howell's "Conflicts of +Capital and Labour," as an unsigned article. A new review, The +Victorian, had been started by Mortimer Franlyn, which paid +contributors; and, now that I was a professional journalist, I thought +myself entitled to ask remuneration. I sent to the new periodical, +published in Melbourne, a fuller treatment of the book than had been +given to the two newspapers, under the title of "A Californian +Political Economist." This fell into the hands of Henry George himself, +in a reading room in San Francisco, and he wrote an acknowledgment of +it to me. In South Australia the first tax on unimproved land values +was imposed. It was small--only a halfpenny in the pound, but without +any exemption; and its imposition was encouraged by the fact that we +had had bad seasons and a falling revenue. The income tax in England +was originally a war tax, and they say that if there is not a war the +United States will never be able to impose an income tax. The separate +States have not the power to impose such a tax. Henry George said to me +in his home in New York:--"I wonder at you, with your zeal and +enthusiasm, and your power of speaking, devoting yourself to such a +small matter as proportional representation, when you see the great +land question before you." I replied that to me it was not a small +matter. I cannot, however, write my autobiography without giving +prominence to the fact that I was the pioneer in Australia in this as +in the other matter of proportional representation. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + +SORROW AND CHANGE. + + +In the long and cheerful life of my dear mother there at last came a +change. At 94 she fell and broke her wrist. The local doctor (a +stranger), who was called in, not knowing her wonderful constitution, +was averse from setting the wrist, and said that she would never be +able to use the hand. But I insisted, and in six, weeks she was able to +resume her knitting, and never felt any ill effects. At 95 she had a +fall, apparently without cause, and was never able to stand again. She +had to stay in bed for the last 13 months of her life, with a gradual +decay of the faculties which had previously been so keen. My mother +wanted me with her always. Her talk was all of times far back in her +life--not of Melrose, where she had lived for 25 years, but of +Scoryhall (pronounced Scole), where she had lived as a girl. I had been +shown through the house by my aunt Handyside in 1865, and I could +follow her mind wanderings and answer her questions. As she suffered so +little pain it was difficult for my mother to realize the seriousness +of her illness; and, tiring of her bedroom, she begged to be taken to +the study, where, with her reading and knitting, she had spent so many +happy hours while I did my writing. Delighted though she was at the +change, a return to her bed--as to all invalids--was a comfort, and +she never left it again. Miss Goodham--an English nurse and a charming +woman, who has since remained a friend and correspondent of the +family--was sent to help us for a few days at the last. Another sorrow +came to us at this time in the loss of my ward's husband, and Rose +Hood--nee Duval--returned to live near me with her three small children. +Her commercial training enabled her to take a position as clerk in the +State Children's Department, which she retained until her death. The +little ones were very sweet and good, but the supervision of them +during the day added a somewhat heavy responsibility to our already +overburdened household. In these days, when one hears so much of the +worthlessness of servants, it is a joy to remember how our faithful +maid--we kept only one for that large house--at her own request, did +all the laundry work for the family of five, and all through the three +years of Eleanor's illness waited on her with untiring devotion. + +An amusing episode which would have delighted the heart of my dear +friend Judge Lindsay occurred about this time. The fruit from our +orange trees which grew along the wall bordering an adjoining paddock +was an irresistible temptation to wandering juveniles, and many and +grievous were the depredations. Patience, long drawn out, at last gave +way, and when the milkman caught two delinquents one Saturday afternoon +with bulging blouses of forbidden fruit it became necessary to make an +example of some one. The trouble was to devise a fitting punishment. A +Police Court, I had always maintained, was no place for children; +corporal punishment was out of the question; and the culprits stood +tremblingly awaiting their fate till a young doctor present suggested a +dose of Gregory's powder. His lawyer friend acquiesced, and Gregory's +powder it was. A moment's hesitation and the nauseous draught was +swallowed to the accompaniment of openly expressed sympathy, one dear +old lady remarking, "Poor children and not so much as a taste of +sugar." Probably, however, the unkindest cut of all was the carrying +away by the milkman of the stolen fruit! The cure was swift and +effective; and ever after the youth of the district, like the Pharisee +of old, passed by on the other side. + +My dear mother died about 8 o'clock on the evening of December 8, 1887, +quietly and painlessly. With her death, which was an exceedingly great +loss to me, practically ended my quiet life of literary work. +Henceforth I was free to devote my efforts to the fuller public work +for which I had so often longed, but which my mother's devotion to and +dependence on me rendered impossible. But I missed her untiring +sympathy, for with all her love for the old days and the old friends +there was no movement for the advancement of her adopted land that did +not claim her devoted attention. But though I was now free to take up +public work, the long strain of my mother's illness and death +had affected my usually robust health, and I took things quietly. I had +been asked by the University Shakspeare Society to give a lecture on +Donnelly's book, "The Great Cryptogram;" or "Who Wrote Shakspeare's +Plays?" and it was prepared during this period, and has frequently been +delivered since. October of the year following my mothers death found +me again in Melbourne, where I rejoiced in the renewal of a friendship +with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Walker, the former of whom had been connected +with the construction of the overland railway. They were delightful +literary people, and I had met them at the hospitable house of the +Barr-Smiths, and been introduced as "a literary lady." "Then perhaps," +said Mr. Walker, "you can give us the information we have long sought +in vain--who wrote 'Clara Morrison?'" Their surprise at my "I +did" was equalled by the pleasure I felt at their kind appreciation of +my book, and that meeting was the foundation of a lifelong friendship. +Before my visit closed I was summoned to Gippsland through the death by +accident of my dear sister Jessie--the widow of Andrew Murray, once +editor of The Argus--and the year 1888 ended as sadly for me as the +previous one had done. The following year saw the marriage of my +nephew, Charles Wren of the E.S. and A. Bank, to Miss Hall, of +Melbourne. On his deciding to live on in the old home, I, with Ellen +Gregory, whom I had brought out in 1867 to reside with relations, but +who has remained to be the prop and mainstay of my old age--and Mrs. +Hood and her three children, moved to a smaller and more suitable house +I had in another part of East Adelaide. A placid flowing of the river +of life for a year or two led on to my being elected, in 1892, +President of the Girls' Literary Society. This position I filled with +joy to myself and, I hope, with advantage to others, until some years +later the society ceased to exist. + +Crowded and interesting as my life had been hitherto, the best was yet +to be. My realization of Browning's beautiful line from "Rabbi Ben +Ezra"--"The last of life, for which the first was made," came when I saw +opening before me possibilities for public service undreamed of in my +earlier years. For the advancement of effective voting I had so far +confined my efforts to the newspapers. My brother John had suggested +the change of name from proportional representation to effective voting +as one more likely to catch the popular ear, and I had proposed a +modification of Hare's original plan of having one huge electorate, and +suggested instead the adoption of six-member districts. The State as +one electorate returning 42 members for the Assembly may be +magnificent, and may also be the pure essence of democracy, but it is +neither commonsense nor practicable. "Why not take effective voting to +the people?" was suggested to me. No sooner said than done. I had +ballot papers prepared and leaflets printed, and I began the public +campaign which has gone on ever since. During a visit to Melbourne as a +member of a charities conference it was first discovered that I had +some of the gifts of a public speaker. My friend, the Rev. Charles +Strong, had invited me to lecture before his working men's club at +Collingwood, and I chose as my subject "Effective Voting." + +When on my return Mr. Barr Smith, who had long grasped the principle of +justice underlying effective voting, and was eager for its adoption, +offered to finance a lecturing tour through the State, I jumped at the +offer. There was the opportunity for which I had been waiting for +years. I got up at unearthly hours to catch trains, and sometimes +succeeded only through the timely lifts of kindly drivers. Once I went +in a carrier's van, because I had missed the early morning cars. I +travelled thousands of miles in all weathers to carry to the people the +gospel of electoral reform. Disappointments were frequent, and +sometimes disheartening; but the silver lining of every cloud turned up +somewhere, and I look back on that first lecturing tour as a time of +the sowing of good seed, the harvest of which is now beginning to +ripen. I had no advance agents to announce my arrival, and at one town +in the north I found nobody at the station to meet me. I spent the most +miserable two and a half hours of my life waiting Micawber-like for +something to turn up; and it turned up in the person of the village +blacksmith. I spoke to him, and explained my mission to the town. He +had heard nothing of any meeting. Incidentally I discovered that my +correspondent was in Adelaide, and had evidently forgotten all about my +coming. "Well," I said to the blacksmith, "if you can get together a +dozen intelligent men I will explain effective voting to them." He +looked at me with a dumbfounded air, and then burst out, "Good +G--, madam, there are not three intelligent men in the town." But the +old order has changed, and in 1909 Mrs. Young addressed an enthusiastic +audience of 150 in the same town and on the same subject. The town, +moreover, is in a Parliamentary district, in which every candidate at +the recent general election--and there were seven of them--supported +effective voting. Far down in the south I went to a little village +containing seven churches, which accounted (said the local doctor) for +the extreme backwardness of its inhabitants. "They have so many church +affairs to attend to that there is no time to think of anything else." +At the close of this lecturing tour The Register undertook the public +count through its columns, which did so much to bring the reform before +the people of South Australia. Public interest was well aroused on the +matter before my long projected trip to America took shape. "Come and +teach us how to vote," my American friends had been writing to me for +years; but I felt that it was a big order for a little woman of 68 to +undertake the conversion to electoral reform of 60 millions of the most +conceited people in the world. Still I went. I left Adelaide bound for +America on April 4, 1893, as a Government Commissioner and delegate to +the Great World's Fair Congresses in Chicago. + +In Melbourne and Sydney on my way to the boat for San Francisco I found +work to do. Melbourne was in the throes of the great financial panic, +when bank after bank closed its doors; but the people went to church as +usual. I preached in the Unitarian Church on the Sunday, and lectured +in Dr. Strong's Australian Church on Monday. In Sydney Miss Rose Scott +had arranged a drawing-room meeting for a lecture on effective voting. +A strong convert I made on that occasion was Mr. (afterwards Sr.) +Walker. A few delightful hours I spent at his charming house on the +harbour with his family, and was taken by them to see many beauty +spots. Those last delightful days in Sydney left me with pleasant +Australian memories to carry over the Pacific. When the boat sailed on +April 17, the rain came down in torrents. Some interesting missionaries +were on board. One of them, the venerable Dr. Brown, who had been for +30 years labouring in the Pacific, introduced me to Sir John Thurston. +Mr. Newell was returning to Samoa after a two years' holiday in +England. He talked much, and well about his work. He had 104 students +to whom he was returning. He explained that they became missionaries to +other more benighted and less civilized islands, where their knowledge +of the traditions and customs of South Sea Islanders made them +invaluable as propagandists. The writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, +had prepared me to find in the Samoans a handsome and stalwart race, +with many amiable traits, and I was not disappointed. The beauty of the +scenery appealed to me strongly, and I doubt whether "the light that +never was on sea or land" could have rivalled the magic charm of the +one sunrise we saw at Samoa. During the voyage I managed to get in one +lecture, and many talks on effective voting. Had I been superstitious +my arrival in San Francisco on Friday, May 12, might have boded ill for +the success of my mission, but I was no sooner ashore than my friend +Alfred Cridge took me in charge, and the first few days were a whirl of +meetings, addresses and interviews. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + +IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. + + +Alfred Cridge, who reminded me so much of my brother David that I felt +at home with him immediately, had prepared the way for my lectures on +effective voting in San Francisco. He was an even greater enthusiast +than I. "America needs the reform more than Australia," he used to say. +But if America needs effective voting to check corruption, Australia +needs it just as much to prevent the degradation of political life in +the Commonwealth and States to the level of American politics. My +lectures in San Francisco, as elsewhere in America, were well attended, +and even better received. Party politics had crushed out the best +elements of political life, and to be independent of either party gave +a candidate, as an agent told Judge Lindsay when he was contesting the +governorship of Colorado, "as much chance as a snowball would have in +hell." So that reformers everywhere were eager to hear of a system of +voting that would free the electors from the tyranny of parties, and at +the same time render a candidate independent of the votes of heckling +minorities, and dependent only on the votes of the men who believed in +him and his politics. I met men and women interested in public +affairs--some of them well known, others most worthy to be known, and all +willing to lend the weight of their character and intelligence to the +betterment of human conditions at home and abroad. Among these were +Judge Maguire, a leader of the Bar in San Francisco and a member of the +State Legislature, who had fought trusts, "grafters," and "boodlers" +through the whole of his public career, and Mr. James Barry, proprietor +of The Star. + +"You come from Australia, the home of the secret ballot?" was the +greeting I often received, and that really was my passport to the +hearts of reformers all over America. From all sides I heard that it +was to the energy and zeal of the Singletaxers in the various States--a +well-organized and compact body--that the adoption of the secret +ballot was due. To that celebrated journalist, poetess, and economic +writer, Charlotte Perkins Stetson, who was a cultured Bostonian, living +in San Francisco, I owed one of the best women's meetings I ever +addressed. The subject was "State children and the compulsory clauses +in our Education Act," and everywhere in the States people were +interested in the splendid work of our State Children's Department and +educational methods. Intelligence and not wealth I found to be the +passport to social life among the Americans I met. At a social evening +ladies as well as their escorts were expected to remove bonnets and +mantles in the hall, instead of being invited into a private room as in +Australia--a custom I thought curious until usage made it familiar. +The homeliness and unostentatiousness of the middle class American were +captivating. My interests have always been in people and in the things +that make for human happiness or misery rather than in the beauties of +Nature, art, or architecture. I want to know how the people live, what +wages are, what the amount of comfort they can buy; how the people are +fed, taught, and amused; how the burden of taxation falls; how justice +is executed; how much or how little liberty the people enjoy. And these +things I learned to a great extent from my social intercourse with +those cultured reformers of America. Among these people I had not the +depressing feeling of immensity and hugeness which marred my enjoyment +when I arrived at New York. My literary lectures on the Brownings and +George Eliot were much appreciated, especially in the East, where I +found paying audiences in the fall or autumn of the year. These +lectures have been delivered many times in Australia; and, as the +result of the Browning lecture given in the Unitarian Schoolroom in +Wakefield street, Adelaide, I received from the pen of Mr. J. B. Mather +a clever epigram. The room was large and sparsely filled, and to the +modest back seat taken by my friend my voice scarcely penetrated. So he +amused himself and me by writing: + + I have no doubt that words of sense + Are falling from the lips of Spence. + Alas! that Echo should be drowning + Both words of Spence and sense of Browning. + +I found the Brownings far better appreciated in America than in +England, especially by American women. In spite of the fact that The +San Francisco Chronicle had interviewed me favourably on my arrival, +and that I knew personally some of the leading people on The Examiner, +neither paper would report my lectures on effective voting. The Star, +however, quite made up for the deficiencies of the other papers, and +did all it could to help me and the cause. While in San Francisco I +wrote an essay on "Electoral Reform" for a Toronto competition, in +which the first prize was $500. Mr. Cridge was also a competitor; but, +although many essays were sent in, for some reason the prize was never +awarded, and we had our trouble for nothing. On my way to Chicago I +stayed at a mining town to lecture on effective voting. I found the +hostess of the tiny hotel a brilliant pianist and a perfect linguist, +and she quoted poetry--her own and other people's--by the yard. A +lady I journeyed with told me that she had been travelling for seven +years with her husband and "Chambers's Encyclopedia." I thought they +used the encyclopaedia as a guide book until, in a sort of postscript +to our conversation, I discovered the husband to be a book agent, +better known in America as a "book fiend." + +Nobody had ever seen anything like the World's Fair. My friend +Dr. Bayard Holmes of Chigago, whose acquaintance I made through missing +a suburban train, expressed a common feeling when he said he could weep +at the thought that it was all to be destroyed--that the creation +evolved from the best brains of America should be dissolved. Much of +our human toil is lost and wasted, and much of our work is more +ephemeral than we think; but this was a conscious creation of hundreds +of beautiful buildings for a six months' existence. Nowhere else except +in America could the thing have been done, and nowhere else in America +but in Chicago. At the Congress of Charity and correction I found every +one interested in Australia's work for destitute children. It was +difficult for Miss Windeyer, of Sydney, and myself--the only +Australians present--to put ourselves in the place of many who +believed in institutions where children of low physique, low morals, +and low intelligence are massed together, fed, washed, drilled, taught +by rule, never individualized, and never mothered. I spoke from pulpits +in Chicago and Indianopolis on the subject, and was urged to plead with +the Governor of the latter State to use his influence to have at least +tiny mites of six years of age removed from the reformatory, which was +under the very walls of the gaol. But he was obdurate to my pleadings +and arguments, as he had been to those of the State workers. He +maintained that these tiny waifs of six were incorrigible, and were +better in institutions than in homes. The most interesting woman I met +at the conference was the Rev. Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer, pastor of Bell +Street Chapel, Providence. I visited her at home, in that retreat of +Baptists, Quakers, and others from the hard persecution of the New +England Orthodoxy, the founders of which had left England in search of +freedom to worship God. Her husband was the Unitarian minister of +another congregation in the same town. At the meetings arranged by Mrs. +Spencer, Professor Andrews, one of the Behring Sea arbitrators, and +Professor Wilson were present; and they invited me to speak on +effective voting at the Brunn University. + +In Philadelphia I addressed seven meetings on the same subject. At six +of them an editor of a little reform paper was present. For two years +he had lived on brown bread and dried apples, in order that he could +save enough to buy a newspaper plant for the advocacy of reforms. In +his little paper he replied to the critics, who assured me that it was +no use worrying, as everything would come right in time. "Time only +brings wonders," he wrote, "when good and great men and women rise up +to move the world along. Time itself brings only decay and death. The +truth is 'Nothing will come right unless those who feel they have the +truth speak, and Work, and strain as if on them alone rested the +destinies of the world.'" I went to see a celebrated man, George W. +Childs, who had made a fortune out of The Philadelphia Ledger, and who +was one of the best employers in the States. He knew everybody, not +only in America but in Europe; and his room was a museum of gifts from +great folks all over the world. But, best of all, he, with his devoted +friend Anthony Drexel, had founded the Drexel Institute, which was +their magnificent educational legacy to the historic town. I saw the +Liberty Bell in Chicago--the bell that rang out the Declaration of +Independence. and cracked soon after--which is cherished by all +good Americans. It had had a triumphant progress to and from the +World's Fair, and I was present when once again it was safely landed in +Independence Hall, Philadelphia. I think the Americans liked me, +because I thought their traditions reputably old, and did not, like +European visitors, call everything crude and new. The great war in +America strengthened the Federal bond, while it loosened the attachment +to the special Satte in which the United States citizen lives. +Railroads and telegraphs have done much to make Americans homogeneous, +and the school system grapples bravely with the greater task of +Americanizing the children of foreigners, who arrive in such vast +numbers. Canada allowed the inhabitants of lower Canada to keep their +language, their laws, and their denominational schools; and the +consequence is that these Canadian-British subjects are more French +than the French, more conservative than the Tories, and more Catholic +than Irish or Italians. Education is absolutely free in America up to +the age of 18; but I never heard an American complain of being taxed to +educate other people's children. In Auburn I met Harriet Tribman, +called the "Moses of her people"--an old black woman who could neither +read nor write, but who had escaped from slavery when young, and had +made 19 journeys south, and been instrumental in the escape of 300 +slaves. To listen to her was to be transferred to the pages of "Uncle +Tom's Cabin." Her language was just that of Tom and old Jeff. A pious +Christian, she was full of good works still. Her shanty was a refuge +for the sick, blind, and maimed of her own people. I went all over +Harvard University under the guidance of Professor Ashley, to whom our +Chief Justice had given me a letter of introduction. He got up a +drawing-room meeting for me, at which I met Dr. Gordon Ames, pastor of +the Unitarian Church of the Disciples. He invited me to preach his +thanksgiving service for him on the following Thursday, which I was +delighted to do. Mrs. Ames was the factory inspector of women and +children in Massachusetts, and was probably the wisest woman I met in +my travels. She spoke to me of the evils of stimulating the religious +sentiment too young, and said that the hushed awe with which most +people spoke of God and His constant presence filled a child's mind +with fear. + +She related an experience with her own child, who on going to bed had +asked if God was in the room. The child was told that God was always +besides us. After being left in darkness the child was heard sobbing, +and a return to the nursery elicited the confession, "Oh, mamma, I +can't bear to be left with no one but God." Better the simple +anthropomorphism which makes God like the good father, the generous +uncle, the indulgent grandfather, or the strong elder brother. + +Such ideas as these of God were held by the heroines of the following +stories:--A little girl, a niece of the beloved Bishop Brooks, had done +wrong, and was told to confess her sin to God before she slept, and to +beg His forgiveness. When asked next day whether she had obeyed the +command, she said--"Oh, yes! I told God all about it, and God said, +'Don't mention it, Miss Brooks.'" A similar injunction was laid upon a +child brought up by a very severe and rather unjust aunt. Her reply +when asked if she had confessed her sin was "I told God what I had +done, and what you thought about it, and I just left it to Him." The +response of a third American girl (who was somewhat of a "pickle" and +had been reared among a number of boys) to the enquiry whether she had +asked forgiveness for a wrong done was--"Oh, yes; I told God exactly +what I had done, and He said, 'Great Scot, Elsie Murray, I know 500 +little girls worse than you.'" To me this was a much healthier state of +mind than setting children weeping for their sins, as I have done +myself. + +On my second visit to Boston I spent three weeks with the family of +William, Lloyd Garrison, son of the famous Abolitionist. The Chief +Justice had given me a letter of introduction to him, and I found him a +true-hearted humanitarian, as devoted to the gospel of single tax as +his father had been to that of anti-slavery. They lived in a beautiful +house in Brookline, on a terrace built by an enterprising man who had +made his money in New South Wales. Forty-two houses were perfectly and +equally warmed by one great furnace, and all the public rooms of the +ground floor, dining, and drawing rooms, library, and hall were +connected by folding doors, nearly always open, which gave a feeling of +space I never experienced elsewhere. Electric lighting and bells all +over the house, hot and cold baths, lifts, the most complete laundry +arrangements, and cupboards everywhere ensured the maximum of +comfort with the minimum of labour. But in this house I began to be a +little ashamed of being so narrow in my views on the coloured question. +Mr. Garrison, animated with the spirit of the true brotherhood of man, +was an advocate of the heathen Chinee, and was continually speaking of +the goodness of the negro and coloured and yellow races, and of the +injustice and rapacity of the white Caucasians. I saw the files of his +father's paper, The Liberator, from its beginning in 1831 till its +close, when the victory was won in 1865. Of the time spent in the +Lloyd-Garrison household "nothing now is left but a majestic memory," +which has been kept green by the periodical letters received from this +noble man up till the time of his death last year. He showed me the +monument erected to the memory of his father in Boston in the town +where years before the great abolitionist had been stoned by the mob. +Only recently it rejoiced my heart to know that a memorial to Lloyd +Garrison the younger had been unveiled in Boston, his native city; at +the same time that a similar honour was paid to his venerated leader, +"the prophet of San Francisco." + +I account it one of the greatest privileges of my visit to America that +Mrs. Garrison introduced me to Oliver Wendell Holmes, and by +appointment I had an hour and a half's chat with him in the last year +of his long life. He was the only survivor of a famous band of New +England writers, Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorn, Bryant, Lowell, +Whittier, and Whitman were dead. His memory was failing, and he forgot +some of his own characters; but Elsie Venner he remembered perfectly +and he woke to full animation when I objected to the fatalism of +heredity as being about as paralysing to effort as the fatalism of +Calvinism. As a medical man (and we are apt to forget the physician in +the author) he took strong views of heredity. As a worker among our +destitute children, I considered environment the greater factor of the +two, and spoke of children of the most worth less parents who had +turned out well when placed early in respectable and kindly homes. +Before I left, the author presented me with an autograph copy of one of +his books--a much-prized gift. He was reading Cotton Mather's +"Memorabilia," not for theology, but for gossip. It was the only +chronicle of the small beer of current events in the days of the witch +persecutions, and the expulsion of the Quakers, Baptists, and other +schismatics. I have often felt proud that of all the famous men I have +mentioned in this connection there was only one not a Unitarian, and +that was Whittier, the Quaker poet of abolition; and his theology was +of the mildest. + +Another notable man with whom I had three hours' talk was Charles +Dudley Warner, the humorous writer. I am not partial to American +humorists generally, but the delicate and subtle humour of Dudley +Warner I always appreciated. In our talk I saw his serious side, for he +was keen on introducing the indeterminate sentence into his own State, +on the lines of the Elmira and Concord Reformatories. He told me that +he never talked in train: but during the three hours' journey to New +York neither of us opened the books with which we had provided +ourselves, and we each talked of our separate interests, and enjoyed +the talk right through. Mrs. Harriet Beeclier Stowe I saw, but her +memory was completely gone. With Julia Ward Howe, the writer of "The +Battle Hymn of the Republic" I spent a happy time. She had been the +President of the New England Women's Club for 25 years, and was a +charming and interesting woman. I was said to be very like her, and, +indeed was often accosted by her name; but I think probably the reason +was partly my cap, for Howe always wears one, and few other American +ladies do. Whenever I was with her I was haunted by the beautiful lines +from the closing verse of the "Battle Hymn"-- + + In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born, across the sea, + With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; + As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, + While God is marching on. + +At her house I met many distinguished women. Mrs. J. F. Fields, the +widow of the well-known author-publisher; Madame Blaine Bentzam, a +writer for French reviews; Miss Sarah Ortne Jewett, one of the most +charming of New England write is, and others. + +My best work in Canada was the conversion to effective voting of my +good friend Robert Tyson. For years now he has done yeoman service in +the cause, and has corresponded with workers all over the world +on the question of electoral reform. I visited Toronto, at the +invitation of Mr. William Howland, with whom I had corresponded for +years. I was invited to dinner with his father, Sir William Howland, +who was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Toronto after the federation +of the Dominion. I found it very difficult to remember the names of the +many interesting people I met there, although I could recollect the +things they spoke about. Mr. Howland took me on with him to an evening +garden party--quite a novel form of entertainment for me--where there +were other interesting people. One of these, a lady artist who had +travelled all round the world, took me on the next afternoon to an +at-home at Professor Goldwin Smith's. In a talk I had with this notable +man he spoke of his strong desire that Canada should become absorbed in +the States; but the feeling in Canada was adverse to such a change. +Still, you found Canadians everywhere, for many more men were educated +than could find careers in the Dominion. Sir Sandford Fleming, the most +ardent proportionalist in Canada, left Toronto on his trip to New +Zealand and Australia shortly after I arrived there. I spent a few +hours with him, and owed a great deal of my success in the Dominion to +his influence. I felt that I had done much good in Canada, and my time +was so occupied that the only thing I missed was leisure. + +Much of the time in New York was spent in interviews with the various +papers. I had a delightful few days at the house of Henry George, and +both he and his wife did everything in their power to make my visit +pleasant. Indeed, everywhere in America I received the greatest +kindness and consideration. I had been 11 months in the States and +Canada, and lived the strenuous life to the utmost. I had delivered +over 100 lectures, travelled thousands of miles, and met the most +interesting people in the world. I felt many regrets on parting with +friends, comrades, sympathizers, and fellow-workers. When I reflected +that on my arrival in San Francisco I knew only two persons in America +in the flesh, and only two more through correspondence, and was able to +look back on the hundreds of people who had personally interested me, +it seemed as if there was some animal magnetism in the world, and that +affinities were drawn together as if by magic. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + + +BRITAIN, THE CONTINENT, AND HOME AGAIN. + + +I went by steamer to Glasgow, as I found the fares by that route +cheaper than to Liverpool. Municipal work in that city was then +attracting world-wide attention, and I enquired into the methods of +taxation and the management of public works, much to my advantage. The +co-operative works at Shields Hall were another source of interest to +me. At Peterborough I stayed with Mr. Hare's daughter, Katie, who had +married Canon Clayton. Never before did I breathe such an +ecclesiastical atmosphere as in that ancient canonry, part of the old +monastery, said to be 600 years old. While there I spoke to the Guild +of Co-operative Women on "Australia." In Edinburgh I had a drawing-room +meeting at the house of Mrs. Muir Dowie, daughter of Robert +Chambers and mother of Minnie Muriel Dowie, who wrote "Through the +Carpathians," and another at the Fabian Society, both on effective +voting. Mrs. Dowie and Priscilla Bright McLaren, sister of John Bright, +were both keen on the suffrage, and most interesting women. I had been +so much associated with the suffragists in America, with the veteran +Susan B. Anthony at their head, that English workers in the cause gave +me a warm welcome. + +London under the municipal guidance of the County Council was very +different from the London I had visited 29 years earlier. Perhaps +Glasgow and Birmingham have gone further in municipalizing monopolies +than Londoners have, but the vastness of the scale on which London +moves makes it more interesting. Cr. Peter Burt, of Glasgow, had worked +hard to add publichouses to the list of things under municipal +ownership and regulation, and I have always been glad to see the +increasing attention paid to the Scandinavian methods of dealing with +the drink traffic. I have deplored the division among temperance +workers, which makes the prohibitionists hold aloof from this reform, +when their aid would at least enable the experiment to be tried. But in +spite of all hindrances the world moves on towards better things. It is +not now a voice crying in the wilderness. There are many thousands of +wise, brave, devoted men and women possessed with the enthusiasm of +humanity in every civilized country, and they must prevail. Professor +and Mrs. Westlake, the latter of whom was Mr. Hare's eldest daughter, +arranged a most successful drawing-room meeting for me at their home, +the River House, Chelsea, at which Mr. Arthur Balfour spoke. While he +thought effective voting probably suitable for America and Australia, +he scarcely saw the necessity for it in England. Party leaders so +seldom do like to try it on themselves, but many of them are prepared +to experiment on "the other fellow." In this State we find members of +the Assembly anxious to try effective voting on the Legislative +Council, Federal members on the State House, and vice versa. Other +speakers who supported me were Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Leonard +(now Lord) Courtney, Mr. Westlake, and Sir John Hall, of New Zealand. +The flourishing condition of the Proportional Representation Society in +England at present is due to the earnestness of the lastnamed +gentlemen, and its extremely able hon. secretary (Mr. John H. +Humphreys). + +A few days were spent with Miss Jane Hume Clapperton, author of +"Scientific Meliorism," and we had an interesting time visiting George +Eliot's haunts and friends. Through the Warwickshire lanes--where the +high hedges and the great trees at regular intervals made it impossible +to see anything beyond, except an occasional gate, reminding me of Mrs. +Browning's-- + + And between the hedgerows green, + How we wandered--I and you; + With the bowery tops shut in, + And the gates that showed the view. + +--we saw the homestead known as "Mrs. Poyser's Farm," as it answers so +perfectly to the description in "Adam Bede." I was taken to see Mrs. +Cash, a younger friend of George Eliot, and took tea with two most +interesting, old ladies--one 82, and the other 80--who had befriended +the famous authoress when she was poor and stood almost alone. How I +grudged the thousands of acres of beautiful agricultural land +given up to shooting and hunting! We in Australia have no idea of the +extent to which field sports enter into the rural life of England. +People excused this love of sport to me on the ground that it is as a +safety valve for the energy of idle men. Besides, said one, hunting +leads, at any rate, to an appreciation of Nature; but I thought it a +queer appreciation of Nature that would lead keen fox hunters to +complain of the "stinking" violets that throw the hounds off the scent +of the fox. I saw Ascot and Epsom, but fortunately not on a race day. A +horse race I have never seen. George Moore's realistic novel "Esther +Waters" does not overstate the extent to which betting demoralizes not +only the wealthier, but all classes. There is a great pauper school in +Sutton, where from 1,600 to 1,800 children are reared and educated. On +Derby Day the children go to the side of the railroad, and catch the +coppers and silver coins thrown to them by the passengers, and these +are gathered together to give the children their yearly treat. But this +association in the children's minds of their annual pleasure with Derby +Day must, I often think, have a demoralizing tendency. + +While in London I slipped in trying to avoid being run down by an +omnibus and dislocated my right shoulder. I was fortunate in being the +guest of Mr. and Mrs. Petherick at the time. I can never be +sufficiently grateful to them for their care of and kindness to me. +Only last year I went to Melbourne to meet them both again. It was the +occasion of the presentation to the Federal Government of the Petherick +Library, and I went over to sign and to witness the splendid deed of +gift. + +I have left almost to the last of the account of my English visit all +mention of the Baconians I met and from whom I gained valuable +information in corroboration of the Baconian authorship. In some +circles I found that, to suggest that Shakspeare did not write the +plays and poems was equal to throwing a bombshell among them. As a +Baconian I received an invitation to a picnic at the beautiful country +house of Mr. Edwin Lawrence, with whom I had a pleasant talk. The house +was built on a part of a royal forest, in which firs and pines were +planted at the time of the great Napoleonic wars when timber could not +be got from the Baltic and England had to trust to her own hearts of +oak and her own growth of pine for masts and planks. Mr. Lawrence had +written pamphlets and essays on the Baconian theory, and I found my +knowledge of the subject expanding and growing under his intelligent +talk. His wife's father (J. Benjamin Smith) had taught Cobden the +ethics of free trade. It was through the kind liberality of Miss +Florence Davenport Hill that a pamphlet, recording the speeches and +results of the voting at River House, Chelsea, was printed and +circulated. When I visited Miss Hill and her sister and found them as +eager for social and political reform as they had been 29 years +earlier, I had another proof of the eternal youth which large and high +interests keep within us in spite of advancing years. Miss Davenport +Hill had been a member of the London School Board for 15 years, and was +reelected after I left England. Years of her life had been devoted to +work for the children of the State, and she was a member of the Board +of Guardians for the populous union of St. Pancras. Everyone +acknowledged the great good that the admission of women to those boards +had done. I spent a pleasant time at Toynbee Hall, a University centre, +in the poorest part of London, founded by men. Canon and Mrs. Barrett +were intensely interested in South Australian work for State children. +Similar University centres which I visited in America, like Hull House, +in Chicago, were founded by women graduates. Mrs. Fawcett I met several +times, but Mrs. Garrett Anderson only once. When the suffrage was +granted to the women of South Australia I received a letter of +congratulation from Dr. Helen Blackburn, one of the first women to take +a medical degree. Nowadays women doctors are accepted as part of our +daily life, and it is to these brave pioneers of the women's cause, +Drs. Elizabeth Blackwell, Helen Rackburn, Garrett Anderson, and other +like noble souls, that the social and political prestige of women has +advanced so tremendously all over the English-speaking world. It only +remains now for a few women, full of the enthusiasm of humanity and +gifted with the power of public speaking, to gain another and important +step for the womanhood of the world in the direction of economic +freedom. Before leaving England I was gratified at receiving a +cheque from Mrs. Westlake, contributed by the English proportionalists, +to help me in the cause. This was the second gift of the kind I had +received, for my friends in San Francisco had already helped me +financially on my way to reform. Socially I liked the atmosphere of +America better than that of England, but politically England was +infinitely more advanced. Steadily and surely a safer democracy seems +to be evolving in the old country than in the Transatlantic Republic. I +left England at the end of September, 1894. + +My intended visit to Paris was cancelled through the death a short time +before of the only friend I wished to meet there, the Baroness +Blaze-de-Bury, and I went straight through to Bale. I made a detour to +Zurich, where I hoped to see people interested in proportional +representation who could speak English. An interesting fellow-worker in +the cause was Herr Karl Burkli, to whom I suggested the idea of +lecturing with ballots. The oldest advocate of proportional +representation on the Continent, M. Ernest Naville, I met at Geneva. In +that tiny republic in the heart of Europe, which is the home of +experimental legislation, I found effective voting already established +in four cantons, and the effect in these cantons had been so good (said +Ernest Naville) "that it is only a matter of time to see all the Swiss +cantons and the Swiss Federation adopt it." In Zurich Herr Burkli was +delighted that they had introduced progressive taxation into the +canton, but the effect had been to drive away the wealthy people who +came in search of quiet and healthy residence. Progressive taxation has +not by any means proved the unmixed blessing which so many of its +advocates claim it to be. In New Zealand, we are told, on the best +authority, that land monopoly and land jobbery were never so rampant in +the Dominion as since the introduction of the progressive land tax. One +wondered how the three million Swiss people lived on their little +territory, so much occupied by barren mountain, and lakes which supply +only a few fish. My Zurich friends told me that it was by their +unremitting industry and exceptional thrift, but others said that the +foreign visitors who go to the recreation ground of Europe circulate so +much money that instead of the prayer "Give us this day our daily +bread" the Swiss people ask, "Send us this day one foreigner." + +In Italy I saw the most intense culture in the world--no pleasure +grounds or deer parks for the wealthy. The whole country looked like a +garden with trellised vines and laden trees. Italian wine was grown, +principally for home consumption, and that was immense. Prohibitionists +would speak to deaf ears there. Wine was not a luxury, but a necessity +of life. It made the poor fare of dry bread and polenta (maize +porridge) go down more pleasantly. It was the greater abundance of +fruit and wine that caused the Italian poorer classes to look healthier +than the German. In Germany, which taxed itself to give cheap beet +sugar to the British consumer, the people paid 6d. a lb. for the little +they could afford to use; and in Italy it was nearly 8d.--a source of +revenue to the Governments, but prohibitive to the poor. There were no +sweet shops in Italy. England only could afford such luxuries. I +visited at Siena a home for deaf mutes, and found that each child had +wine at two of its daily meals--about a pint a day. It was the +light-red wine of the country, with little alcohol in it; but those who +warn us against looking on the wine when it is red will be shocked to +hear of these little ones drinking it like milk. Those, however, who +live in Italy say that not once a year do they see any one drunk in the +streets. + +I reached South Australia on December 12, 1894, after an absence of 20 +months. I found the women's suffrage movement wavering in the balance. +It had apparently come with a rush--as unexpected as it was welcome to +those whose strenuous exertions at last seemed likely to be crowned +with success. Though sympathetic to the cause, I had always been +regarded as a weakkneed sister by the real workers. I had failed to see +the advantage of having a vote that might leave me after an election a +disfranchised voter, instead of an unenfranchised woman. People talk of +citizens being disfranchised for the Legislative Council when they +really mean that they are unenfranchised. You can scarcely be +disfranchised if you have never been enfranchised; and I have regarded +the enfranchisement of the people on the roll as more important for the +time being than adding new names to the rolls. This would only tend to +increase the disproportion between the representative and the +represented. But I rejoiced when the Women's Suffrage Bill was carried, +for I believe that women have thought more and accepted the +responsibilities of voting to a greater extent than was ever +expected of them. During the week I was accorded a welcome home in the +old Academy of Music, Rundle street, where I listened with +embarrassment to the avalanche of eulogium that overwhelmed me. "What a +good thing it is, Miss Spence, that you have only one idea," a +gentleman once said to me on my country tour. He wished thus to express +his feeling concerning my singleness of purpose towards effective +voting. But at this welcome home I felt that others realized what I had +often said myself. It is really because I have so many ideas for making +life better, wiser, and pleasanter all of which effective voting will +aid--that I seem so absorbed in the one reform. My opinions on other +matters I give for what they are worth--for discussion, for acceptance +or rejection. My opinions on equitable representation I hold +absolutely, subject to criticism of methods but impregnable as to +principle. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + + +PROGRESS OF EFFECTIVE VOTING. + + +My journalistic work after my return was neither so regular nor so +profitable as before I left Adelaide. The bank failures had affected me +rather badly, and financially my outlook was anything but rosy in the +year 1895. There was, however, plenty of public work open to me, and, +in addition to the many lectures I gave in various parts of the State +on effective voting, I became a member of the Hospital Commission, +appointed that year by the Kingston Government to enquire into the +trouble at the Adelaide Hospital. That same year saw a decided step +taken in connection with effective voting, and in July a league was +formed, which has been in existence ever since. I was appointed the +first President, my brother John became secretary pro tem, and Mr. A. +W. Piper the first treasurer. I felt at last that the reform was taking +definite shape, and looked hopefully to its future. The following year +was especially interesting to the women of South Australia, and, +indeed, to suffragists all over the world, for at the general election +of 1896 women, for the first time in Australia, had the right to vote. +New Zealand had preceded us with this reform, but the first election in +this State found many women voters fairly well equipped to accept their +responsibilities as citizens of the State. But in the full realization +by the majority of women of their whole duties of citizenship I have +been distinctly disappointed. Not that they have been on the whole less +patriotic and less zealous than men voters; but, like their brothers, +they have allowed their interest in public affairs to stop short at the +act of voting, as if the right to vote were the beginning and the end +of political life. There has been too great a tendency on the part of +women to allow reform work--particularly women's branches of it--to +be done by a few disinterested and public-spirited women. Not only is +the home the centre of woman's sphere, as it should be, but in too many +cases it is permitted to be its limitation. The larger social life has +been ignored, and women have consequently failed to have the effect on +public life of which their political privilege is capable. + +At the close of a second lecturing tour through the State, during which +I visited and spoke at most of the village settlements, I received an +invitation from the Women's Land Reform League to attend a social +gathering at the residence of Miss Sutherland, Clark street, Norwood. +The occasion was my seventy-first birthday, and my friends had chosen +that day (October 31, 1896) to mark their appreciation of my public +services. There were about 30 of the members present, all interesting +by reason of their zealous care for the welfare of the State. Their +President (Mrs. C. Proud) presented me, on behalf of the members, with +a lady's handbag, ornamented with a silver plate, bearing my name, the +date of the presentation, and the name of the cause for which I stood. +From that day the little bag has been the inseparable companion of all +my wanderings, and a constant reminder of the many kind friends who, +with me, had realized that "love of country is one of the loftiest +virtues which the Almighty has planted in the human heart." That +association was the first in South Australia to place effective voting +on its platform. + +My long comradeship with Mrs. A. H. Young began before the close of the +year. A disfranchised voter at her first election, she was driven +farther afield than the present inadequate system of voting to look for +a just electoral method. She found it in effective voting, and from +that time devoted herself to the cause. Early in 1897 Mrs. Young was +appointed the first honorary secretary of the league. January of the +same year found us stirred to action by the success of Sir Edward +Braddon's first Bill for proportional representation in Tasmania. +Though limited in its application to the two chief cities of the island +State, the experiment was wholly successful. We had our first large +public meeting in the Co-operative Hall in January, and carried a +resolution protesting against the use of the block vote for the Federal +Convention elections. A deputation to the acting Premier +(Mr.--afterwards Sir Frederick--Holder) was arranged for the next +morning. But we were disappointed in the result of our mission, +for Mr. Holder pointed out that the Enabling Act distinctly provided +for every elector having 10 votes, and effective voting meant a single +transferable vote. I had written and telegraphed to the Hon. C. C. +Kingston when the Enabling Act was being drafted to beg him to consider +effective voting as the basis of election; but he did not see it then, +nor did he ever see it. In spite, however, of the short sightedness of +party leaders, events began to move quickly. + +Our disappointment over the maintenance of the block vote for the +election of 10 delegates to the Federal Convention led to my brother +John's suggestion that I should become a candidate. Startling as the +suggestion was, so many of my friends supported it that I agreed to do +so. I maintained that the fundamental necessity of a democratic +Constitution such as we hoped would evolve from the combined efforts of +the ablest men in the Australian States was a just system of +representation and it was as the advocate of effective voting that I +took my stand. My personal observation in the United States and Canada +had impressed me with the dangers inseparable from the election of +Federal Legislatures by local majorities--sometimes by minorities--where +money and influence could be employed, particularly where a line +in a tariff spelt a fortune to a section of the people, in the +manipulation of the floating vote. Parties may boast of their voting +strength and their compactness, but their voting strength under the +present system of voting is only as strong as its weakest link, +discordant or discontented minorities, will permit it to be. The +stronger a party is in the Legislature the more is expected from it by +every little section of voters to whom it owes its victory at the +polls. The impelling force of responsibility which makes all +Governments "go slow" creates the greatest discontent among impatient +followers of the rank and file, and where a few votes may turn the +scale at any general election a Government is often compelled to choose +between yielding to the demands of its more clamorous followers at the +expense of the general taxpayer or submitting to a Ministerial defeat. + +As much as we may talk of democracy in Australia, we are far from +realizing a truly democratic ideal. A State in a pure democracy draws +no nice and invidious distinctions between man and man. She disclaims +the right of favouring either property, education, talent, or virtue. +She conceives that all alike have an interest in good government, and +that all who form the community, of full age and untainted by crime, +should have a right to their share in the representation. She allows +education to exert its legitimate power through the press; talent in +every department of business, property in its social and material +advantages; virtue and religion to influence public opinion and the +public conscience. But she views all men as politically equal, and +rightly so, if the equality is to be as real in operation as in theory. +If the equality is actual in the representation of the citizens--truth +and virtue, being stronger than error and vice, and wisdom being +greater than folly, when a fair field is offered--the higher qualities +subdue the lower and make themselves felt in every department of the +State. But if the representation from defective machinery is not equal, +the balance is overthrown, and neither education, talent, nor virtue +can work through public opinion so as to have any beneficial influence +on politics. We know that in despotisms and oligarchies, where the +majority are unrepresented and the few extinguish the many, +independence of thought is crushed down, talent is bribed to do service +to tyranny, education is confined to a privileged class and denied to +the people, property is sometimes pillaged and sometimes flattered, and +even virtue is degraded by lowering its field and making subservience +appear to be patience and loyalty, and religion is not unfrequently +made the handmaid of oppression. Taxes fall heavily on the poor for the +benefit of the rich, and the only check proceeds from the fear of +rebellion. When, on the other hand, the majority extinguishes the +minority, the evil effects are not so apparent. The body oppressed is +smaller and generally wealthier, with many social advantages to draw +off attention from the political injustice under which they suffer; but +there is the same want of sympathy between class and class, moral +courage is rare, talent is perverted, genius is overlooked, education +is general, but superficial, and press and Pulpit often timid in +exposing or denouncing popular errors. An average standard of virtue is +all that is aimed at, and when no higher mark is set up there is great +fear of falling below the average. Therefore it is incumbent on all +States to look well to it that their representative systems really +secure the political equality they all profess to give, for +until that is done democracy has had no fair trial. + +In framing a new constitution the opportunity arose for laying the +foundation of just representation, and, had I been elected, my first +and last thought would have been given to the claims of the whole +people to electoral justice. But the 7,500 votes which I received left +me far enough from the lucky 10. Had Mr. Kingston not asserted both +publicly and privately that, if elected, I could not constitutionally +take my seat, I might have done better. There were rumours even that my +nomination paper would be rejected. But to obviate this, Mrs. Young, +who got it filled in, was careful to see that no name was on it that +had no right there, and its presentation was delayed till five minutes +before the hour of noon, in order that no time would be left to upset +its validity. From a press cutting on the declaration of the poll I +cull this item of news--"Several unexpected candidates were announced, +but the only nomination which evoked any expressions of approval was +that of Miss Spence." I was the first woman in Australia to seek +election in a political contest. From the two main party lists I was, +of course, excluded, but in the list of the "10 best men" selected by a +Liberal organization my name appeared. When the list was taken to the +printer--who, I think, happened to be the late Federal member, Mr. +James Hutchison--he objected to the heading of the "10 best men," as +one of them was a woman. He suggested that my name should be dropped, +and a man's put in its place. "You can't say Miss Spence is one of the +'10 best men.' Take her name out." "Not say she's one of the '10 best +men?'" the Liberal organizer objected, "Why she's the best man of the +lot." I had not expected to be elected, but I did expect that my +candidature would help effective voting, and I am sure it did. Later +the league arranged a deputation to Mr. Kingston, to beg him to use his +influence for the adoption of the principle in time for the first +Federal elections. We foresaw, and prophesied what has actually +occurred--the monopoly of representation by one party in the Senate, +and the consequent disfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters +throughout the Commonwealth. But, as before, Mr. Kingston declined to +see the writing on the wall. The Hon. D. M. Charleston was successful +in carrying through the Legislative Council a motion in favour of its +application to Federal elections, but Mr. Wynn in the Lower House had a +harder row to hoe, and a division was never taken. + +Mrs. Young and I spent a pleasant evening at Government House in July +of the same year, as Sir Fowell and Lady Buxton had expressed a desire +to understand the system. In addition to a large house partry, several +prominent citizens were present, and all were greatly interested. On +leaving at 11 o'clock we found the gate closed against us, as the +porter was evidently unaware that visitors were being entertained. We +were amused at the indignation of the London-bred butler, who, on +coming to our rescue, cried with a perfect Cockney accent, "Gyte, gyte, +yer don't lock gytes till visitors is off." This was a memorable year +in the annals of our cause, for on his election to fill an +extraordinary vacancy for North Adelaide Mr. Glynn promised to +introduce effective voting into the House. This he did in July by +tabling a motion for the adoption of the principle, and we were pleased +to find in Mr. Batchelor, now the Minister for External Affairs in the +Federal Government, a stanch supporter. Among the many politicians who +have blown hot and cold on the reform as occasion arose, Mr. Batchelor +has steadily and consistently remained a supporter of what he terms +"the only system that makes majority rule possible." + +When Mrs. Young and I began our work together the question was +frequently asked why women alone were working for effective voting? The +answer was simple. There were few men with leisure in South Australia, +and, if there were, the leisured man was scarcely likely to take up +reform work. When I first seized hold of this reform women as platform +speakers were unheard of. Indeed, the prejudice was so strong against +women in public life that although I wrote the letters to The Melbourne +Argus it was my brother John who was nominally the correspondent. So +for 30 years I wrote anonymously to the press on this subject. I waited +for some man to come forward and do the platform work for me. We women +are accused of waiting and waiting for the coming man, but often he +doesn't come at all; and oftener still, when he does come, we should be +a great deal better without him. In this case he did not come at all, +and I started to do the work myself; and, just because I was a woman +working singlehanded in the cause, Mrs. Young joined me in the +crusade against inequitable representation. For many years, however, +the cause has counted to its credit men speakers and demonstrators of +ability and talent all over the State, who are carrying the gospel of +representative reform into every camp, both friendly and hostile. + +It was said of Gibbon when his autobiography was published that he did +not know the difference between himself and the Roman Empire. I have +sometimes thought that the same charge might be levelled against me +with regard to effective voting; but association with a reform for half +a century sometimes makes it difficult to separate the interests of the +person from the interests of the cause. Following on my return from +America effective voting played a larger part than ever in my life. I +had come back cheered by the earnestness and enthusiasm of American +reformers, and I found the people of my adopted country more than ever +prepared to listen to my teaching. Parties had become more clearly +defined, and the results of our system of education were beginning to +tell, I think, in the increased interest taken by individuals as well +as by societies in social and economic questions. I found interesting +people everywhere, in every mode of life, and in every class of +society. My friends sometimes accused me of judging people's +intelligence by the interest they took in effective voting; but, +although this may have been true to a certain extent, it was not wholly +correct. Certainly I felt more drawn to effective voters, but there are +friendships I value highly into which my special reform work never +enters. Just as the more recent years of my life have been coloured by +the growth of the movement which means more to me than anything else in +the world, so must the remaining chapters of this narrative bear the +imprint of its influence. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + + +WIDENING INTERESTS. + + +During this period my work on the State Children's Council continued, +and I never found time hang heavily on my hands; so that when Mr. +Kingston met me one day later in the year, and told me he particularly +wished me to accept an appointment as a member of the Destitute Board, +I hesitated. "I am too old," I objected. "No, no, Miss Spence," he +replied laughingly, "it is only we who grow old--you have the gift of +perpetual youth." But I was nearly 72, and at any rate I thought I +should first consult my friends. I found them all eager that I should +accept the position. I had agitated long and often for the appointment +of women on all public boards, particularly where both sexes came under +treatment, and I accepted the post. Although often I have found the +work tiring, I have never regretted the step I took in joining the +board. Experience has emphasized my early desire that two women at +least should occupy positions on it. I hope that future Governments +will rectify the mistake of past years by utilizing to a greater extent +the valuable aid of capable and sympathetic women in a branch of public +work for which they are peculiarly fitted. Early in my career as a +member of the board I found grave defects in the daily bill of fare, +and set myself to the task of remedying them as far as lay in my power. +For 30 years the same kind of soup, day in and day out, followed by the +eternal and evergreen cabbage as a vegetable, in season and out of +season, found its way to the table. My own tastes and mode of life were +simplicity personified, but my stomach revolted against a dietary as +unvaried as it was unappetizing. An old servant who heard that I +attended the Destitute Asylum every week was loud in her lamentations +that "poor dear Miss Spence was so reduced that she had to go to the +Destitute every week for rations!" My thankfulness that she had +misconceived the position stirred me to leave no stone unturned for the +betterment of the destitute bill of fare. I was successful, and the +varied diet now enjoyed bears witness to the humanitarian views of all +the members of the board, who were as anxious to help in the reform as +I was. My heart has always gone out to the poor old folk whose faces +bear the impress of long years of strenuous toil and who at the close +of life at least should find a haven of restfulness and peace in the +State for whose advancement they have laboured in the past. + +She was a witty woman who divided autobiographies into two classes... +autobiographies and ought-not-to-biographies--but I am sure she never +attempted to write one herself. There is so much in one's life that +looms large from a personal point of view about which other people +would care little, and the difficulty often arises, not so much about +what to put in as what to leave out. + +How much my personal interests had widened during my absence from home +could be gauged somewhat by the enormous increase in my correspondence +after my return. American, Canadian, English, and Continental +correspondents have kept me for many years well informed on reform and +kindred subjects; and the letters I have received, and the replies they +have drawn from me, go far to make me doubt the accuracy of the +accepted belief that "letter writing has become a lost art." A full +mind with a facile pen makes letter writing a joy, and both of these +attributes I think I may fairly claim. My correspondence with Alfred +Cridge was kept up till his death a few years ago, and his son, +following worthily in the footsteps of a noble father, has taken up the +broken threads of the lifework of my friend, and is doing his utmost to +carry it to a successful issue. My love of reading, which has been a +characteristic feature of my life, found full scope for expression in +the piles of books which reached us from all parts of the world. It has +always been my desire to keep abreast of current literature, and this, +by means of my book club and other sources, I was able to do. Sometimes +my friends from abroad sent me copies of their own publications, Dr. +Bayard Holmes invariably forwarding to me a presentation copy of his +most valuable treatises on medical subjects. Mrs. Stetson's poems and +economic writings have always proved a source of inspiration to me, and I +have distributed her books wherever I have thought they would be +appreciated. Just at this time my financial position became brighter. +I was fortunate in being able to dispose of my two properties in East +Adelaide, and the purchasing of an annuity freed me entirely from money +and domestic worries. Perhaps the greatest joy of all was that I was once +more able to follow my charitable inclinations by giving that little mite +which, coming opportunely, gladdens the heart of the disconsolate widow or +smoothes the path of the struggling worker. Giving up my home entirely, +I went to live with my dear friend Mrs. Baker, at Osmond terrace, +where, perhaps, I spent the most restful period of a somewhat eventful +life. + +The inauguration of a Criminological Society in Adelaide was a welcome +sign to me of the growing public interest in methods of prison +discipline and treatment. I was one of the foundation members of the +society, and attended every meeting during its short existence. My one +contribution to the lectures delivered under its auspices was on +"Heredity and Environment." This was a subject in which I had long been +interested, holding the view that environment had more to do with the +building up of character than heredity had to do with its decadence. +How much or how little truth there is in the cynical observation that +the only believers in heredity nowadays are the fathers of very clever +sons I am not prepared to say. I do say, however, that with the cruel +and hopeless law of heredity as laid down by Zola and Ibsen I have +little sympathy. According to these pessimists, who ride heredity to +death, we inherit only the vices, the weaknesses, and the diseases of +our ancestors. If this, however, were really the case, the world would +be growing worse and not better, as it assuredly is, with every +succeeding generation. The contrary view taken of the matter by Ibsen's +fellowcountryman, Bjornsen, appears to me to be so much more +commonsense and humanizing. He holds that if we know that our ancestors +drank and gambled to excess, or were violent-tempered or immoral, we +can quite easily avoid the pitfall, knowing it to be there. Too readily +wrongdoers are prepared to lay their failings at the door of ancestors, +society, or some other blamable source, instead of attributing them, as +they should do, to their own selfish and weak indulgence and lack of +self-control. Heredity, though an enormous factor in our constitution, +need not be regarded as an over-mastering fate, for each human being +has an almost limitless parentage to draw upon. Each child has both a +father and a mother, and two grandparents on both sides, increasing as +one goes back. But, besides drawing on a much wider ancestry than the +immediate parents, we have more than we inherit, or where could the law +of progress operate? Each generation, each child who is born, comes +into a slightly different world, fed by more experience, blown upon by +fresh influences. And each individual comes into the world, not with a +body merely, but with a soul; and this soul is susceptible to +impressions, not only from the outer material world but from the other +souls also impressed by the old and the new, by the material and the +ideal. + +"The History of the Jukes" is continually cited as proving the power +and force of heredity. Most people who read the book through, however, +instead of merely accepting allusions one-sided and defective to it, +see clearly that it forms the strongest argument for change of +environment that ever was brought forward. The assumed name of Jukes is +given to the descendants of a worthless woman who emigrated to America +upwards of a century and a half ago, and from whom hundreds of +criminals, paupers, and prostitutes have descended. But how were the +Jukes' descendants dealt with during this period? No helping hand +removed the children from their vicious and criminal surroundings known +as one of the crime-cradles of the State of New York. Neither church +nor school took them under its protecting care. Born and reared in the +haunts of vice and crime, nothing but viciousness and criminality could +be expected as a result. Without going, so far as a wellknown ex-member +of our State Legislature, whose antagonism to the humanitarian +treatment of prisoners led him to the belief that "there wasn't nothin' +in 'erry-ditty,' it was all tommy rot," I still hold to the belief that +environment plays the larger part in the formation of character. Every +phase of criminal reform is, I candidly admit, dealing with effects +rather than causes. Effects, however, must be dealt with, and +the more humanely they are dealt with the better for society at large. +So long as society shuts its eyes to the social conditions under which +the masses of the people live, move, and have their being as tending +towards lowering rather than uplifting the individual and the +community, the supply of cases for criminal treatment will +unfortunately show little tendency to decrease. The work before +reformers of the world is to prevent the creation of criminals by +changing the environment of those with criminal tendencies as well as +to seek to alleviate the resulting disease by methods of criminal +reform. + +Many interesting lectures were given by prominent citizens under the +auspices of the society, which did a great deal to awaken the public +conscience on the important question of criminal reform. The Rev. J. +Day Thompson, who was then in the zenith of his intellectual power and +a noble supporter of all things that tended to the uplifting of +humanity, dealt with the land question in relation to crime. He gave a +telling illustration of his point--which I thought equally applicable +to the question of environment in relation to prison reform--that no +permanent good could result from social legislation until society +recognised and dealt with the root of the social evil, the land +question. "In a lunatic asylum," he said, "it is the custom to test the +sanity of patients by giving them a ladle with which to empty a tub of +water standing under a running tap. 'How do you decide?' the warder was +asked. 'Why, them as isn't idiots stops the tap.'" It was the Rev. J. +Day Thompson who first called me the "Grand Old Woman" of South +Australia. When he left Adelaide for the wider sphere of service open +to him in England I felt that we had lost one of the most cultured and +able men who had ever come among us, and one whom no community could +lose without being distinctly the poorer for his absence. + +Just at this time the visit of Dr. and Mrs. Mills created a little +excitement in certain circles. Their lectures on Christian science, +both public and private, were wonderfully well attended, and I missed +few of them. I have all my life endeavoured to keep an open mind on +these questions, and have been prepared to accept new ideas and new +modes of thought. But, although I found much that was charming in the +lectures that swayed the minds of so many of my friends, I found little +to convince me that Christian scientists were right and the rest of the +world wrong in their interpretation of the meaning of life. So far as +the cultivation of will power, as it is called, is concerned, I have no +quarrel with those who maintain that a power of self-control is the +basis of human happiness. So far as the will can be trained to obey +only those instincts that tend to the growth and maintenance of +self-respect--to prevent the subordination of our better feelings to +the overpowering effects of passion, greed, or injustice--it must help +to the development of one of the primary necessities of a sane +existence. When, however, the same agency is brought to bear on the +treatment of diseases in any shape or form I find my faith wavering. +Though there may be more things in earth and heaven than are dreamed of +in my philosophy, I was not prepared to follow the teachings set before +us by the interpreters of this belief, whose visit had made an +interesting break in the lives of many people. Truth I find everywhere +expressed, goodness in all things; but I neither look for nor expect +perfection in any one thing the world has ever produced. "Tell me where +God is," a somewhat, cynical sceptic asked of a child. "Tell me where +He is not," replied the child; and the same thing applies to goodness. +Do not tell me where goodness is, but point out to, me, if you can, +where it is not. It is for each one to find out for himself where the +right path lies, and to follow it with all his strength of mind and of +purpose. Pippa's song, "God's in His heaven-all's right with the +world," does not mean that the time has come for us to lay down our +arms in the battle of right against wrong. No! no; it is an inspiration +for us to gird our loins afresh, to "right the wrongs that need +resistance;" for, God being in His heaven, and the world itself being +right, makes it so much easier to correct mistakes that are due to +human agencies and shortcomings only. + +I found time to spend a pleasant week at Victor Harbour with my +friends, Mr. and Mrs. John Wyles. I remember one day being asked +whether I was not sorry I never married. "No," I replied, "for, +although I often envy my friends the happiness they find in their +children, I have never envied them their husbands." I think we must +have been in a frivolous mood; for a lady visitor, who was present, +capped my remark with the statement that she was quite sure Miss +Spence was thankful that when she died she would not be described as +the "relic" of any man. It was the same lady who on another occasion, +when one of the juvenile members of the party asked whether poets had +to pay for poetical licence, wittily replied, "No, my dear, but their +readers do!" Although so much of my time has been spent in public work, +I have by no means neglected or despised the social side of life. +Visits to my friends have always been delightful to me, and I have felt +as much interested in the domestic virtues of my many acquaintances as +I have been an admirer of their grasp of literature, politics, or any +branch of the arts or sciences in which they have been interested. This +seaside visit had been a welcome break in a year that had brought me a +new occupation as a member of the Destitute Board, had given me the +experience of a political campaign, had witnessed the framing of the +Constitution for the Commonwealth 'neath the Southern Cross, and had +seen effective voting advance from the academic stage into the realm of +practical politics. During the year Mrs. Young and I addressed together +26 meetings on this subject. One of the most interesting was at the +Blind School, North Adelaide. The keenness with which this audience +gripped every detail of the explanation showed us how splendidly they +had risen above their affliction. I was reminded of Helen Keller, the +American girl, who at the age of 21 months had lost sight and hearing, +and whom I had met in Chicago during my American visit, just before she +took her degree at Harvard University. + +To all peacelovers the years from 1898 to 1901 were shadowed by the +South African war. The din of battle was in our ears only to a less +degree than in those of our kinsmen in the mother country. War has +always been abhorrent to me, and there was the additional objection to +my mind in the case of the South African war in that it was altogether +unjustified. Froude's chapters on South Africa had impressed me on the +publication of his book "Oceana," after his visit here in the +seventies. His indictment of England for her treatment of the Boers +from the earliest days of her occupation of Cape Colony was too +powerful to be ignored. I felt it to be impossible that so great a +historian as Froude should make such grave charges on insufficient +evidence. The annexation of 1877, so bitterly condemned by him, +followed by the treaty of peace of 1881, with its famous "suzerainty" +clause, was, I think, but a stepping stone to the war which was said to +have embittered the last years of the life of Queen Victoria. The one +voice raised in protest against the annexation of 1877 in the British +House of Commons was that of Mr. Leonard (now Lord) Courtney. Not +afraid to stand alone, though all the world were against him, the war +at the close of the century found Leonard Courtney again taking his +stand against the majority of his countrymen, and this time it cost him +his Parliamentary seat. I have often felt proud that the leadership of +proportional representation in England should have fallen into the +hands of so morally courageous a man as Leonard Courtney has invariably +proved himself to be. + +We are apt to pride ourselves on the advance we have made in our +civilization; but our self-glorification received a rude shock at the +feelings of intolerance and race hatred that the war brought forth. +Freedom of speech became the monopoly of those who supported the war, +and the person who dared to express an opinion which differed from that +of the majority needed a great deal more than the ordinary allowance of +moral courage. Unfortunately the intolerance so characteristic of that +period is a feature, to a greater or lesser extent, of every +Parliamentary election in the Commonwealth. The clause in the Federal +Electoral Act which makes disturbance of a political meeting a penal +offence is a curious reflection on a so-called democratic community. +But, though its justification can scarcely be denied even by the +partisans of the noisier elements in a political crowd, its existence +must be deplored by every right-minded and truehearted citizen. In +Miss Rose Scott I found a sympathizer on this question of the war; and +one of the best speeches I ever heard her make was on Peace and +Arbitration. "Mafeking Day" was celebrated while we were in Sydney, and +I remember how we three--Miss Scott, Mrs. Young, and I--remained +indoors the whole day, at the charming home of our hostess, on Point +Piper road. The black band of death and desolation was too apparent for +us to feel that we could face the almost ribald excesses of that day. I +felt the war far less keenly than did my two friends; but it was bad +even for me. No one called, and the only companions of our +chosen solitude were the books we all loved so much, and + + The secret sympathy, + The silver link, the silken tie, + Which heart to heart and mind to mind, + In body and in soul can bind. + +I had hoped that the Women's National Council, a branch of which was +formed in Adelaide a few years later, would have made a great deal of +the question of peace and arbitration, just as other branches have done +all over the world; and when the Peace Society was inaugurated a short +time ago I was glad to be able to express my sympathy with the movement +by becoming a member. As I was returning from a lecturing tour in the +south during this time, an old Scotch farm-wife came into the carriage +where I had been knitting in solitude. She was a woman of strong +feelings, and was bitterly opposed to the war. We chatted on the +subject for a time, getting along famously, until she discovered that I +was Miss Spence. "But you are a Unitarian!" she protested in a shocked +tone. I admitted the fact. "Oh, Miss Spence," she went on, "how can you +be so wicked as to deny the divinity of Christ?" I explained to her +what Unitarianism was, but she held dubiously aloof for a time. Then we +talked of other things. She told me of many family affairs, and when +she left me at the station she said, "All, well, Miss Spence, I've +learned something this morning, and that is that a Unitarian can be +just as good and honest as other folk." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + + +PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION AND FEDERATION. + + +In the debates of the Federal Convention I was naturally much +interested. Many times I regretted my failure to win a seat when I saw +how, in spite of warnings against, and years of lamentable experience +of, a vicious system of voting, the members of the Convention went +calmly on their way, accepting as a matter of course the crude and +haphazard methods known to them, the unscientific system of voting so +dear to the heart of the "middling" politician and the party intriguer. +I believe Mr. Glynn alone raised his voice in favour of proportional +representation, in the Convention, as he has done consistently in every +representative assembly of which he has been a member. Instead of +seeing to it that the foundations of the Commonwealth were "broad based +upon the people's will" by the adoption of effective voting, and thus +maintaining the necessary connection between the representative and the +represented, these thinkers for the people at the very outset of +federation sowed the seeds of future discontent and Federal apathy. +Faced with disfranchisement for three or six years, possibly for ever--so +long as the present system of voting remains--it is unreasonable to +expect from the people as a whole that interest in the national +well-being which alone can lead to the safety of a progressive nation. + +Proportional representation was for long talked of as a device for +representing minorities. It is only in recent years that the real scope +of the reform has been recognised. By no other means than the adoption +of the single transferable vote can the rule of the majority obtain. +The fundamental principle of proportional representation is that +majorities must rule, but that minorities shall be adequately +represented. An intelligent minority of representatives has great +weight and influence. Its voice can be heard. It can fully and truly +express the views of the voters it represents. It can watch the +majority and keep it straight. These clear rights of the minority are +denied by the use of the multiple vote. It has also been asked--Can a +Government be as strong as it needs to be when--besides the organized +Ministerial party and the recogonised Opposition--there may be a +larger number of independent members than at present who may vote +either way? It is quite possible for a Government to be too strong, and +this is especially dangerous in Australia, where there are so many of +what are known as optional functions of government undertaken and +administered by the Ministry of the day, resting on a majority in the +Legislature. To maintain this ascendancy concessions are made to the +personal interests of members or to local or class interests of their +constituencies at the cost of the whole country. + +When introducing proportional representation into the Belgian Chamber +the Prime Minister (M. Bernhaert) spoke well and forcibly on the +subject of a strong Government:-- + + +I, who have the honour of speaking to you to-day in the name of the +Government and who have at my back the strongest majority that was ever +known in Belgium, owe it to truth to say that our opinions have not a +corresponding preponderance in the country; and I believe that, if that +majority were always correctly expressed, we should gain in stability +what we might lose in apparent strength. Gentlemen, in the actual state +of things, to whom belongs the Government of the country? It belongs to +some two or three thousand electors, who assuredly are neither the best +nor the most intelligent, who turn the scale at each of our scrutin de +liste elections. I see to the right and to the left two large +armies--Catholics and Liberals--of force almost equal, whom nothing would +tempt to desert their standard, who serve it with devotion and from +conviction. Well, these great armies do not count, or scarcely count. +On the day of battle it is as if they do not exist. What counts, what +decides, what triumphs, is another body of electors altogether--a +floating body too often swayed by their passions, by their prejudices; +or, worse still, by their interests. These are our masters, and +according as they veer from right to left, or from left to right, the +Government of the country changes, and its history takes a new +direction. Gentlemen, is it well that it should be so? Is it well that +this country should be at the mercy of such contemptible elements as +these? + + +How often have I longed to see a Premier in this, my adopted country, +rise to such fervid heights of patriotism as this? + +M. Bernhaert is right. It is the party Government that is essentially +the weak Government. It cannot afford to estrange or offend any +one who commands votes. It is said that every prominent politician in +the British House of Commons is being perpetually tempted and tormented +by his friends not to be honest, and perpetually assailed by his +enemies in order to be made to appear to be dishonest. The Opposition +is prepared to trip up the Ministry at every step. It exaggerates +mistakes, misreprerents motives, and combats measures which it believes +to be good, if these are brought forward by its opponents. It bullies +in public and undermines in secret. It is always ready to step into the +shoes of the Ministry, to undergo similar treatment. This is the sort +of strength which is supposed to be imperilled if the nation were +equitably represented in the Legislature. In the present state of the +world, especially in the Australian States, where the functions of +government have multiplied and are multiplying, it is of the first +importance that the administration should be watched from all sides, +and not merely from the point of view of those who wish to sit on the +Treasury benches. The right function of the Opposition is to see that +the Government does the work of the country well. The actual practice +of the Opposition is to try to prevent it from doing the country's work +at all. In order that government should be honest, intelligent, and +economical, it needs helpful criticism rather than unqualified +opposition; and this criticism may be expected from the less compact +and more independent ranks in a legislative body which truly represents +all the people. Party discipline, which is almost inevitable in the +present struggle for ascendancy or defeat, is the most undemocratic +agency in the world. It is rather by liberating all votes and allowing +them to group themselves according to conviction that a real government +of the people by the people can be secured. When I look back on the +intention of the framers of the Commonwealth Constitution to create in +the Senate a States' rights House I am amazed at the remoteness of the +intention from the achievement. The Senate is as much a party House as +is the House of Representatives. Nothing, perhaps, describes the +position better than the epigrammatic if somewhat triumphant statement +of a Labour Senator some time ago. "The Senate was supposed to be a +place where the radical legislation of the Lower Chamber could be +cooled off, but they had found that the saucer was hotter than the cup." + +The long illness and death of my ward, Mrs. Hood, once more gave to my +life a new direction. History was repeating itself. Just as 40 years +earlier Mrs. Hood and her brothers had been left in my charge on the +death of their mother, so once again a dying mother begged me to accept +the guardianship of her three orphan children. Verging as they were on +the threshold of manhood and womanhood, they scarcely needed the care +and attention due to smaller children, but I realized I think to the +full, what so many parents have realized--that the responsibilities +for the training of children of an older growth are greater and more +burdensome than the physical care of the infant. The family belongings +were gathered in from the four quarters of the globe to which they had +been scattered on my giving up housekeeping, and we again began a +family life in Kent Town. Soon after we had settled, the motion in +charge of the Hon. D. M. Charleston in favour of the adoption of +proportional representation for Federal elections was carried to a +successful issue in the Legislative Council. The Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick +suggested the advisableness of preparing a Bill at this stage. A motion +simply affirming a principle, he said, was not likely to carry the +cause much further, as it left the question of the application of the +principle too much an open one. The league, he thought, should have +something definite to put before candidates, so that a definite answer +could be obtained from them. In New Zealand, Mr. O'Regan, a well-known +solicitor, had also introduced into the House of Representatives during +1898 a Bill for the adoption of effective voting. Unfortunately members +had become wedded to single electorates, and when a change was made it +was to second ballots--a system of voting which has for long been +discredited on the Continent. In France, it was stated in the debates +on electoral reform in 1909, for 20 years, under second ballots, only +once had a majority outside been represented by a majority inside the +Chamber, and the average representation for the two decades had +amounted to only 45 per cent. of the voters. Writing to me after the +New Zealand elections in 1909, the Hon. George Fowlds (Minister of +Education), who has long supported effective voting, said, "The only +result of the second ballot system in New Zealand has been to +strengthen the movement in favour of proportional representation." And +Mr. Paul, a Labour member in the Dominion, is making every effort to +have effective voting included in the platform of the New +Zealand Labour Party. Further encouragement to continue our work came +when Belgium adopted the principle of proportional representation in +1898. + +The closing year of the century found the Effective Voting League in +the thick of its first election campaign. There is little doubt that +the best time for advancing a political reform is during an election, +and it was interesting to note how many candidates came to our support. +We had an interesting meeting at Parliament House for members just +about that time. An opponent of the reform, who was present, complained +that we were late in beginning our meeting. "We always begin punctually +under the present system," he remarked. "Yes," some one replied, "but +we always finish so badly." "Oh, I always finish well enough," was the +pert rejoinder; "I generally come out on top." "Ah," retorted the +other, "I was thinking of the electors." But the doubter did not come +out on top at a subsequent election, and his defeat was probably the +means of his discovering defects in the old system that no number of +successes would have led him into acknowledging. From the two or three +members who had supported Mr. Glynn in the previous Parliament we +increased our advocates in the Assembly during the campaign to 14. The +agitation had been very persistent among the electors, and their +approval of the reform was reflected in the minds of their +representatives. We inaugurated during that year the series of +citizens' meetings convened by the Mayors of the city and suburbs, +which has been so successful a feature of our long campaign for +electoral justice, and at the present time very few of the mayoral +chairs are occupied by men who are not keen supporters of effective +voting. + +The Hon. Theodore Bruce's connection with the reform dates from that +year, when he presided at a meeting in the Adelaide Town Hall during +the temporary absence of the Mayor. A consistent supporter of effective +voting from that time, it was only natural that when in May, 1909, the +candidature of Mr. Bruce (who was then and is now a Vice-President of +the league). for a seat in the Legislative Council, gave us an +opportunity for working for his return, against a candidate who had +stated that he was not satisfied with the working of the system of +effective voting, we availed ourselves of it. So much has been written +and said about the attitude of the league with regard to Parliamentary +candidates that, as its President, I feel that I ought to take this +opportunity of stating our reasons for that attitude. From its +inception the league has declined to recognise parties in a contest at +all. Its sole concern has been, and must be to support effective +voters, to whatever party they may belong. To secure the just +representation of the whole electorate of whatever size, is the work of +the Effective Voting League, and, whatever the individual opinions of +the members may be, as an official body they cannot help any candidate +who opposes the reform for which they stand. + +I remember meeting at a political meeting during a subsequent general +election a lady whom I had known as an almost rabid Kingstonian. But +the party had failed to find a position for her son in the Civil +Service, although their own sons were in that way satisfactorily +provided for. So she had thrown in her lot with the other side, which +at the time happened to gain a few seats, and the lady was quite sure +that her influence had won the day for her former opponents. Leaning +forward to whisper as if her next remark were too delicate for the ears +of a gentleman sitting near, she said, "Do you know, I don't believe +the Premier has any backbone!" I laughed, and said that I thought most +people held the same belief. To my amusement and astonishment she then +asked quite seriously, "Do you think that is why he stoops so much?" +There was no doubt in her mind that the missing back bone had reference +to the physical and not to the moral malformation of the gentleman in +question. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + + +A VISIT TO NEW SOUTH WALES. + + +Early in the year 1900 the Hon. B. R. Wise, then Attorney-General of +New South Wales, suggested a campaign for effective voting in the +mother State, with the object of educating the people, so that +effective voting might be applied for the first Federal elections. Mrs. +Young and I left Adelaide on May 10 of that year to inaugurate the +movement in New South Wales. During the few hours spent in Melbourne +Professor Nanson, the Victorian leader of the reform, with another +earnest worker (Mr. Bowditch), called on us, and we had a pleasant talk +over the proposed campaign. The power of The Age had already been felt, +when, at the convention election, the 10 successful candidates were +nominees of that paper, and at that time it was a sturdy opponent of +proportional representation. The Argus, on the other hand, had done +yeoman service in the advocacy of the reform from the time that +Tasmania had so successfully experimented with the system. As we were +going straight through to Sydney, we were able only to suggest +arrangements for a possible campaign on our return. Our Sydney visit +lasted eight weeks, during which time we addressed between 20 and 30 +public meetings. Our welcome to the harbour city was most enthusiastic, +and our first meeting, held in the Protestant Hall, on the Wednesday +after our arrival, with the Attorney-General in the chair, was packed. +The greatest interest was shown in the counting of the 387 votes taken +at the meeting. Miss Rose Scott, however, had paved the way for the +successful public meeting by a reception at her house on the previous +Monday, at which we met Mr. Wise, Sir William McMillan, Mr. (afterwards +Sr. Walker), Mr. (now Sir A. J.) Gould, Mr. Bruce Smith, Mr. W. +Holman, and several other prominent citizens. The reform was taken up +earnestly by most of these gentlemen. Sir William McMillan was +appointed the first President of the league, which was formed before we +left Sydney. During the first week of our visit we dined with Dr. and +Mrs. Garran, who. with their son (Mr. Robert Garran, C.M.G., afterwards +the collaborateur of Sir John Quick in the compilation of the +"Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth"), were keen +supporters of effective voting. Among the host of well-known people who +came after dinner to meet us was Mr. (now Sir) George Reid, with whom +we had an interesting talk over the much-discussed "Yes-No" Policy. We +had both opposed the Bill on its first appeal to the people, and seized +the occasion to thank Mr. Reid for his share in delaying the measure. +"You think the Bill as amended an improvement?" he asked. "Probably," +replied Mrs. Young, "but as I didn't think the improvement great enough, +I voted against it both times." But I had not done so, and my vote on the +second occasion was in favour of the Bill. + +But, as Mr. Reid admitted, the dislike of most reformers for federation +was natural enough, for it was only to be expected that "reforms would +be difficult to get with such a huge, unwieldy mass" to be moved before +they could be won. And experience has proved the correctness of the +view expressed. Anything in the nature of a real reform, judging from +the experience of the past, will take a long time to bring about. I am +convinced that had not South Australia already adopted the principle of +the all-round land tax, the progressive form would have been the only +one suggested or heard of from either party. Politicians are so apt to +take the line of least resistance, and when thousands of votes of small +landowners are to be won through the advocacy of an exemption, +exemptions there will be. The whole system of taxation is wrong, it +seems to me, and though, as a matter of expediency, sometimes from +conviction, many people advocate the opposite course, I have long felt +that taxation should not be imposed according to the ability to pay so +much as according to benefits received from the State. We are +frequently warned against expecting too much from Federation during its +earlier stages, but experience teaches us that, as with human beings, +so with nations, a wrong or a right beginning is responsible to a great +extent for right or wrong development. I have the strongest +hopes for the future of Australia, but the people must never be allowed +to forget that eternal vigilance, as in the past, must still in the +future be the price we must pay for our liberty. Later, Mr. Reid +presided at our Parliament House meeting, and afterwards entertained us +at afternoon tea. But one of our pleasantest memories was of a day +spent with the great freetrader and Mrs. Reid at their Strathfield +home. I was anxious to hear Mr. Reid speak, and was glad when the +opportunity arose on the occasion of a no-confidence debate. But he was +by no means at his best, and it was not until I heard him in his famous +freetrade speech on his first visit to Adelaide that I realized how +great an orator he was. At the close of the no-confidence debate the +triumphant remark of an admirer that "Adelaide couldn't produce a +speaker like that" showed me that a prophet sometimes hath honour, even +in his own country. + +Mr. Wise was a brilliant speaker, and a most cultured man, and a +delightful talker. Of Mrs. Parkes, then President of the Women's +Liberal League, I saw much. She was a fine speaker, and a very +clear-headed thinker. Her organizing faculty was remarkable, and her +death a year or two ago was a distinct loss to her party. Her home life +was a standing example of the fallacy of the old idea that a woman who +takes up public work must necessarily neglect her family. Mrs. Barbara +Baynton was a woman of a quite different type, clever and emotional, as +one would expect the author of the brilliant but tragic "Bush Studies" +to be. She was strongly opposed to Federation, as, indeed were large +numbers of clever people in New South Wales. Frank Fox (afterwards +connected with The Lone Hand), Bertram Stevens (author of "An Anthology +of Australian Verse"), Judge Backhouse (who was probably the only +Socialist Judge on the Australian Bench), were frequent visitors at +Miss Scott's, and were all interesting people. An afternoon meeting on +effective voting was arranged at the Sydney University, I think, by Dr. +Anderson Stuart. We were charmed with the university and its beautiful +surroundings. Among the visitors that afternoon was Mrs. David, a +charming and well-read woman, whose book describing an expedition to +Funafuti, is delightful. We afterwards dined with her and Professor +David, and spent a pleasant hour with them. + +I was not neglectful of other reforms while on this campaign, and found +time to interest myself in the State children's work with which my +friend, Mrs. Garran, was so intimately connected. We went to Liverpool +one day to visit the benevolent institution for men. There were some +hundreds of men there housed in a huge building reminiscent of the +early convict days. If not the whole, parts of it had been built by the +convicts, and the massive stone staircase suggested to our minds the +horrors of convict settlement. I have always resented the injury done +to this new country by the foundation of penal settlements, through +which Botany Bay lost its natural connotation as a habitat for +wonderful flora, and became known only as a place where convicts were +sent for three-quarters of a century. Barrington's couplet, written as +a prologue at the opening of the Playhouse, Sydney, in 1796, to a play +given by convicts-- + + True patriots we, for be it understood + We left our country for our country's good-- + +was clever, but untrue. All experience proves that while it is a +terrible injury to a new country to be settled by convicts, it is a +real injury also to the people from whom they are sent, to shovel out +of sight all their failures, and neither try to lessen their numbers +nor to reclaim them to orderly civil life. It was not till Australia +refused any longer to receive convicts, as Virginia had previously +done, that serious efforts were made to amend the criminal code of +England, or to use reformatory methods first with young and afterwards +with older offenders. Another pleasant trip was one we took to +Parramatta. The Government launch was courteously placed at our +disposal to visit the Parramatta Home for Women, where also we found +some comfortable homes for old couples. The separation of old people +who would prefer to spend the last years of their life together is I +consider, an outrage on society. One of my chief desires has been to +establish such homes for destitute couples in South Australia, and to +every woman who may be appointed as a member of the Destitute Board in +future I appeal to do her utmost to change our methods of treatment +with regard to old couples, so that to the curse of poverty may not be +added the cruelty of enforced separation. Women in New South Wales were +striving for the franchise at that time, and we had the pleasure of +speaking at one of their big meetings. And what fine public +meetings they had in Sydney! People there seemed to take a greater +interest in politics than here, and crowded attendances were frequent +at political meetings, even when there was no election to stir them up. +It was a Sydney lady who produced this amusing Limerick in my honour:-- + + There was a Grand Dame of Australia + Who proved the block system a failure. + She taught creatures in coats + What to do with their votes, + This Effective Grand Dame of Australia! + +The third line will perhaps preclude the necessity for pointing out +that the author was an ardent suffragist! To an enlightened woman also +was probably due the retort to a gentleman's statement that "Miss +Spence was a good man lost," that, "On the contrary she thought she was +a good woman saved." "In what way?" he asked. "Saved for the benefit of +her country, instead of having her energies restricted to the +advantages of one home," was the reply. And for this I have sometimes +felt very thankful myself that I have been free to devote what gifts I +possess to what I consider best for the advantage and the uplifting of +humanity. Before leaving Sydney I tried once more to find a publisher +for "Gathered In," but was assured that the only novels worth +publishing in Australia were sporting or political novels. + +I was in my seventy-fifth year at the time of this visit, but the joy +of being enabled to extend the influence of our reform to other States +was so great that the years rolled back and left me as full of life and +vigour and zeal as I had ever been. Our work had by no means been +confined to the city and suburbs, as we spoke at a few country towns as +well. At Albury, where we stopped on our way back to Victoria, we were +greeted by a crowded and enthusiastic audience in the fine hall of the +Mechanics' Institute. We had passed through a snowstorm just before +reaching Albury, and the country was very beautiful in the afternoon, +when our friends drove us through the district. The Murray was in +flood, and the "water, water everywhere" sparkling in the winter +sunshine, with the snowcapped Australian Alps in the background, made +an exquisite picture. Albury was the only town we visited in our +travels which still retained the old custom of the town crier. Sitting +in the room of the hotel after dinner, we were startled at hearing our +names and our mission proclaimed to the world at large, to the +accompaniment t of a clanging bell and introduced by the old-fashioned +formula, "Oyez! oyez! oyez!" Our work in Victoria was limited, but +included a delightful trip to Castlemaine. We were impressed with the +fine Mechanics' Hall of that town, in which we spoke to a large +audience. But a few years later the splendid building, with many others +in the town, was razed to the ground by a disastrous cyclone. Returning +from Castlemaine, we had an amusing experience in the train. I had laid +aside my knitting, which is the usual companion of my travels, to teach +Mrs. Young the game of "Patience," but at one of the stations a foreign +gentleman entered the carriage, when we immediately put aside the +cards. After chatting awhile, he expressed regret that he had been the +cause of the banishment of our cards, and "Would the ladies not kindly +tell him his fortune also?" He was as much amused as we were when we +explained that we were reformers and not fortune tellers. I have been a +great lover of card games all my life; patience in solitude. and +cribbage, whist, and bridge have been the almost invariable +accompaniments of my evenings spent at home or with my friends. Reading +and knitting were often indulged in, but patience was a change and a +rest and relief to the mind. I have always had the idea that card games +are an excellent incentive to the memory. We had an afternoon meeting +in the Melbourne Town Hall to inaugurate a league in Victoria, at which +Dr. Barrett, the Rev. Dr. Bevan, Professor Nanson, and I were the +principal speakers. Just recently I wrote to the Victorian Minister who +had charge of the Preferential Voting Bill in the Victorian Parliament +to ask him to consider the merits of effective voting; but, like most +other politicians, the Minister did not find the time opportune for +considering the question of electoral justice for all parties. I +remained in Victoria to spend a month with my family and friends after +Mrs. Young returned to Adelaide. The death of my dear brother John, +whose sympathy and help had always meant so much to me, shortly after +my return, followed by that of my brother William in New Zealand, left +me the sole survivor of the generation which had sailed from Scotland +in 1839. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + + +MORE PUBLIC WORK. + + +For the co-operative movement I had always felt the keenest sympathy. I +saw in it the liberation of the small wage-earner from the toils of the +middlemen. I thought moreover that the incentive to thrift so strongly +encouraged by co-operative societies would be a tremendous gain to the +community as well as to the individual. How many people owe a +comfortable old age to the delight of seeing their first small profits +in a co-operative concern, or their savings in a building society +accumulating steadily and surely, if but slowly? And I have always had +a disposition to encourage anything that would tend to lighten the +burden of the worker. So that when in 1901 Mrs. Agnes Milne placed +before me a suggestion for the formation of a women's co-operative +clothing factory, I was glad to do what I could to further an extension +in South Australia of the movement, which, from its inception in older +countries, had made so strong an appeal to my reason. A band of women +workers were prepared to associate for the mutual benefit of the +operatives in the shirtmaking and clothing trades. Under the title of +the South Australian Co-operative Clothing Company, Limited, they +proposed to take over and carry on a small private factory, owned by +one of themselves, which had found it difficult to compete against +large firms working with the latest machinery. I was sure of finding +many sympathizers among my friends, and was successful in disposing of +a fair number of shares. The movement had already gained support from +thinking working women, and by the time we were ready to form ourselves +into a company we were hopeful of success. I was appointed, and have +since remained the first President of the board of directors; and, +unless prevented by illness or absence from the State, I have never +failed to be present at all meetings. The introduction of Wages Boards +added to the keen competition between merchants, had made the task of +carrying on successfully most difficult, but we hoped that as the idea +gained publicity we should benefit proportionately. It was a great blow +to us, when at the close of the first year we were able to declare a +dividend of 1/ a share, the merchants closed down upon us and reduced +their payments by 6d. or 9d. per dozen. But in spite of drawbacks we +have maintained the struggle successfully, though sometimes at +disheartening cost to the workers and officials of the society. I feel, +however, that the reward of success due to this plucky band of women +workers will come in the near future, for at no other time probably has +the position looked more hopeful than during the present year. + +During this same year the Effective Voting League made a new departure +in its propaganda work by inviting Sir Edward Braddon to address a +meeting in the Adelaide Town Hall. As Premier of Tasmania, Sir Edward +had inaugurated the reform in the gallant little island State, and he +was able to speak with authority on the practicability and the justice +of effective voting. His visit was followed a year later by one from +Sr. Keating, another enthusiastic Tasmanian supporter, whose lecture +inspired South Australian workers to even greater efforts, and carried +conviction to the minds of many waverers. At that meeting we first +introduced the successful method of explanation by means of limelight +slides. The idea of explaining the whole system by pictures had seemed +impossible, but every step of the counting can be shown so simply and +clearly by this means as to make an understanding of the system a +certainty. To the majority of people an appeal to reason and +understanding is made much more easily through the eye than through the +ear. The year 1902 saw an advance in the Parliamentary agitation of the +reform, when the Hon. Joseph (now Senator) Vardon introduced a Bill for +the first time into the Legislative Council. The measure had been +excellently prepared by Mr. J. H. Vaughan, LL.B., with the assistance +of the members of the executive of the Effective Voting League, among +whom were Messrs. Crawford Vaughan and E. A. Anstey. The Bill sought to +apply effective voting to existing electoral districts, which, +though not nearly so satisfactory as larger districts, nevertheless +made the application of effective voting possible. With the enlargement +of the district on the alteration of the Constitution subsequent to +federation becoming an accomplished fact, the league was unanimous in +its desire to seek the line of least resistance by avoiding a change in +the Constitution that an alteration in electoral boundaries would have +necessitated. + +To Mr. Vardon, when he was a candidate for Legislative honours in 1900 +the usual questions were sent from the league; but, as he had not +studied the question he declined to pledge himself to support the +reform. Realizing, however, the necessity of enquiring into all public +matters, he decided to study the Hare system, but the league declined +to support him without a written pledge. Still he was elected, and +immediately afterwards studied effective voting, became convinced of +its justice, and has remained a devoted advocate. Our experience with +legislators had usually been of the opposite nature. Pledged adherents +to effective voting during an election campaign, as members they no +longer saw the necessity for a change in a method of voting which had +placed them safely in Parliament; but in Mr. Vardon we found a man +whose conversion to effective voting was a matter of principle, and not +a question of gathering votes. That was why the league selected him as +its Parliamentary advocate when effective voting first took definite +shape in the form of a Bill. When, later, Mr. E. H. Coombe, M.P., took +charge of the Bill in the Assembly although the growth in public +opinion in favour of effective voting had been surprising, the +coalition between the Liberal and Labour parties strengthened their +combined position and weakened the allegiance of their elected members +to a reform which would probably affect their vested interests in the +Legislature. Mr. Coombe had not been an easy convert to proportional +representation. He had attended my first lecture at Gawler, but saw +difficulties in the way of accepting the Hare system as propounded by +me. His experiments were interesting. Assuming a constituency of 100 +electors with 10 members, he filled in 60 Conservative and 40 Liberal +voting papers. The proportion of members to each party should be six +Conservatives and four Liberals, and when he found that by no amount of +manipulation could this result be altered he became a convert to +effective voting. His able advocacy of the reform is too well known to +need further reference; but I should like now to thank those members, +including Mr. K. W. Duncan, who have in turn led the crusade for +righteous representation in both Houses of Parliament, for of them may +it truly be said that the interests of the people as a whole were their +first consideration. Before I left for America I saw the growing power +and strength of the Labour Party. I rejoiced that a new star had arisen +in the political firmament. I looked to it as a party that would +support every cause that tended towards righteousness. I expected it, +as a reform party, to take up effective voting, because effective +voting was a reform. I hoped that a party whose motto was "Trust the +people" would have adopted a reform by means of which alone it would be +possible for the people to gain control over its Legislature and its +Government. Alas! for human hopes that depend on parties for their +realization! As time after time I have seen defections from the ranks +of proportionalists, and people have said to me:--"Give it up, Miss +Spence. Why trouble longer? Human nature is too bad," I have answered, +"No; these politicians are but the ephemeral creations of a day or a +month, or a year; this reform is for all time. and must prevail, and I +will never give it up." + +During my many visits to Melbourne and Sydney I had been much impressed +with the influence and the power for good of the local branches of the +world-famed National Council of Women. I had long hoped for the +establishment of a branch in South Australia, and was delighted to fall +in with a suggestion made by the Countess of Aberdeen +(Vice-President-at-large of the International Council), through Lady +Cockburn, that a council should be formed in South Australia. The +inaugural meeting in September, 1902, was splendidly attended, and it +was on a resolution moved by me that the council came into existence. +Lady Way was the first President, and I was one of the Vice-Presidents. +I gave several addresses, and in 1904 contributed a paper on +"Epileptics." In dealing with this subject I owed much to the +splendid help I received from my dear friend Miss Alice Henry, of +Victoria, now in Chicago, whose writings on epileptics and +weak-minded children have contributed largely to the awakening of the +public conscience to a sense of duty towards these social weaklings. In +1905 I contributed a paper to the quinquennial meeting of the +International Council of Women, held at Berlin, on the laws relating to +women and children in South Australia, and gave an account of the +philanthropic institutions of the State, with special reference to the +State Children's Council and Juvenile Courts. The work of the National +Council in this State was disappointing to many earnest women, who had +hoped to find in it a means for the social, political, and +philanthropic education of the women of South Australia. Had the +council been formed before we had obtained the vote there would +probably have been more cohesion and a greater sustained effort to make +it a useful body. But as it was there was so apparent a disinclination +to touch "live" subjects that interest in the meetings dwindled, and in +1906 I resigned my position on the executive in order to have more time +to spare for other public work. + +A problem which was occasioning the State Children's Council much +anxious thought was how to deal effectively with the ever-increasing +number of the "children of the streets". Boys and girls alike, who +should either be at school or engaged at some useful occupation, were +roaming the streets and parks, uncontrolled and sometimes +uncontrollable. We recognised that their condition was one of moral +peril, and graduation to criminality from these nurseries of crime so +frequently occurred that State interference seemed absolutely +imperative to save the neglected unfortunates for a worthier +citizenship. It is much easier and far more economical to save the +child than to punish the criminal. One of the most effective means of +clearing the streets would be to raise the compulsory age for school +attendance up to the time of employment. That truancy was to a great +extent responsible for these juvenile delinquents was proved by the +fact that more then one-half of the lads sent to Magill had committed +the crimes for which they were first convicted while truanting. +Moreover, an improvement was noticed immediately on the amendment of +the compulsory attendance clauses in the Education Act. Truancy--the +wicket gate of the road to ruin in youth--should be barred as +effectively as possible, and the best way to bar it is to make every +day a compulsory school day, unless the excuse for absence be +abundantly sufficient. Another aspect of the neglected children +problem, which Federal action alone will solve, is in dealing with +cases of neglect by desertion. At present each State is put to great +trouble and expense through defaulting parents. Federal legislation +would render it possible to have an order for payment made in one State +collected and remitted by an officer in another State. By this means +thousands of pounds a year could be saved to the various States, and +many a child prevented from becoming a burden to the people at large. +These are some of the problems awaiting solution and the women of South +Australia will do well to make the salvation of these neglected waifs a +personal care and responsibility. Perhaps no other work of the State +Children's Council has more practically shown their appreciation of the +capabilities of the children under their care than the establishment of +the State children's advancement fund. This is to enable State children +who show any aptitude, to pursue their education through the +continuation schools to the University. To private subscriptions for +this purpose the Government have added a subsidy of 50 pounds, and already +some children are availing themselves of this splendid opportunity to +rise in the world. The longer I live the prouder I feel that I have +been enabled to assist in this splendid work for the benefit of +humanity. + +The years as they passed left me with wider interests in, deeper +sympathies with, and greater knowledge of the world and its people. +Each year found "one thing worth beginning, one thread of life worth +spinning." The pleasure I derived from the more extended intellectual +activity of my later years was due largely to my association with a +band of cultured and earnest women interested in social, political, and +other public questions--women who, seeing "the tides of things," desired +so to direct them that each wave of progress should carry the +people to a higher place on the sands of life. To the outside world +little is known of the beginnings and endings of social movements, +which, taken separately, perhaps appear of small consequence, but which +in the aggregate count for a great deal in what is popularly known as +the forward movement. To such as these belonged an interesting +association of women, which, meeting at first informally, grew +eventually into a useful organization for the intellectual and +moral development of those who were fortunate enough to be associated +with it. This was the "Social Students' Society," of which Miss A. L. +Tomkinson was the secretary and I the first President. One of the +addresses I gave was on "Education," and among others whose addresses +helped us considerably was the Director of Education (Mr. A. Williams). +Speakers from all parties addressed the association, and while the +society existed a good deal of educational work was done. Much interest +was taken in the question of public playgrounds for children, and we +succeeded in interesting the City Council in the movement; but, owing +to lack of funds, the scheme for the time being was left in abeyance. + +In the agitation for the public ownership of the tramways, I was glad +to take a share. The private ownership of monopolies is indefensible, +and my American experiences of the injustice of the system strengthened +my resolve to do my utmost to prevent the growth of the evil in South +Australia. My attitude on the question alienated a number of friends, +both from me personally and from effective voting, so intolerant had +people become of any opposition to their own opinions. The result of +the referendum was disappointing, and, I shall always consider, a grave +reflection on a democratic community which permits a referendum to be +taken under a system of plural voting which makes the whole proceeding +a farce. But the citizens of Adelaide have need to be grateful to the +patriotic zeal of those who, led by the late Cornelius Proud fought for +the public ownership of the tramways. + +These years of activity were crossed by sickness and sorrow. For the +first time in a long life, which had already extended almost a decade +beyond the allotted span, I became seriously ill. To be thus laid low +by sickness was a deep affliction to one of my active temperament; but, +if sickness brings trouble, it often brings joy in the tender care and +appreciation of hosts of friends, and this joy I realized to the +fullest extent. The following year (1904) was darkened by the tragic +death of my ward, and once more my home was broken up, and with Miss +Gregory I went to live with my good friends Mr. and Mrs. Quilty, in +North Norwood. From then on my life has flowed easily and pleasantly, +marred only by the sadness of farewells of many old friends and +comrades on my life's journey, who one by one have passed "through +Nature to eternity." + +Much as I have written during the past 40 years, it was reserved for my +old age to discover within me the power of poetical expression. I had +rhymed in my youth and translated French verse. but until I wrote my +one sonnet, poetry had been an untried field. The one-sided pessimistic +pictures that Australian poets and writers present are false in the +impression they make on the outside world and on ourselves. They lead +us to forget the beauty and the brightness of the world we live in. +What we need is, as Matthew Arnold says of life, "to see Australia +steadily and see it whole." It is not wise to allow the "deadbeat"--the +remittance man, the gaunt shepherd with his starving flocks and +herds, the free selector on an arid patch, the drink shanty where the +rouseabouts and shearers knock down their cheques, the race meeting +where high and low, rich and poor, are filled with the gambler's ill +luck--fill the foreground of the picture of Australian life. These +reflections led me to a protest, in the form of a sonnet published in +The Register some years ago:-- + + When will some new Australian poet rise + To all the height and glory of his theme? + Nor on the sombre side for ever dream + Our hare, baked plains, our pitiless blue skies, + 'Neath which the haggard busbman strains his eyes + To find some waterhole or hidden stream + To save himself and flocks in want extreme! + This is not all Australia! Let us prize + Our grand inheritance! Had sunny Greece + More light, more glow, more freedom, or more mirth? + Ours are wide vistas bathed in purest air-- + Youth's outdoor pleasures, Age's indoor peace-- + Where could we find a fairer home on earth + Which we ourselves are free to make more fair? + +Just as years before my interest had been kindled in the establishment +of our system of State education, and later in the University and +higher education, so more recently has the inauguration of the Froebel +system of kindergarten training appealed most strongly to my reason and +judgment. There was a time in the history of education, long after the +necessity for expert teaching in primary and secondary schools had been +recognised, when the training of the infant mind was left to the least +skilled assistant on the staff of a school. With the late Mr. J. A. +Hartley, whose theory was that the earliest beginnings of +education needed even greater skill in the teacher than the higher +branches, I had long regarded the policy as mistaken; but modern +educationists have changed all that, and the training of tiny mites of +two or three summers and upwards is regarded as of equal importance +with that of children of a larger growth. South Australia owes its free +kindergarten to the personal initiative and private munificence of the +Rev. Bertram Hawker, youngest son of the late Hon. G. C. Hawker. I had +already met, and admired the kindergarten work of, Miss Newton when in +Sydney, and was delighted when she accepted Mr. Hawker's invitation to +inaugurate the system in Adelaide. Indeed, the time of her stay here +during September, 1905, might well have been regarded as a special +visitation of educational experts, for, in addition to Miss Newton, the +directors of education from New South Wales and Victoria (Messrs. G. H. +Knibbs and F. Tate) took part in the celebrations. Many interesting +meetings led up to the formation of the Kindergarten Union. My niece, +Mrs. J. P. Morice, was appointed hon. secretary, and I became one of +the Vice-Presidents. On joining the union I was proud of the fact that +I was the first member to pay a subscription. The free kindergarten has +come to South Australia to stay, and is fast growing into an integral +part of our system of education. I have rejoiced in the progress of the +movement, and feel that the future will witness the realization of my +ideal of a ladder that will reach from the kindergarten to the +University, as outlined in articles I wrote for The Register at that +time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + + +THE EIGHTIETH MILESTONE AND THE END. + + +On October 31, 1905, I celebrated my eightieth birthday. Twelve months +earlier, writing to a friend, I said:--"I entered my eightieth year on +Monday, and I enjoy life as much as I did at 18; indeed, in many +respects I enjoy it more." The birthday gathering took place in the +schoolroom of the Unitarian Church, the church to which I had owed so +much happiness through the lifting of the dark shadows of my earlier +religious beliefs. Surrounded by friends who had taken their share in +the development of my beloved State, I realized one of the happiest +times of my life. I had hoped that the celebration would have helped +the cause of effective voting, which had been predominant in my mind +since 1859. By my interests and work in so many other directions--in +literature, journalism, education, philanthropy, and religion--which +had been testified to by so many notable people on that occasion, I +hoped to prove that I was not a mere faddist, who could be led away by +a chimerical fantasy. I wanted the world to understand that I was a +clear-brained, commonsense woman of the world, whose views on effective +voting and other political questions were as worthy of credence as her +work in other directions had been worthy of acceptance. The greetings +of my many friends from all parts of the Commonwealth on that day +brought so much joy to me that there was little wonder I was able to +conclude my birthday poem "Australian spring" with the lines:-- + + With eighty winters o'er my head, + Within my heart there's Spring. + +Full as my life was with its immediate interests, the growth and +development of the outside world claimed a good share of my attention. +The heated controversies in the motherland over the preachings and +teaching of the Rev. R. J. Campbell found their echo here, and I was +glad to be able to support in pulpit and newspaper the stand made by t +he courageous London preacher of modern thought. How changed the +outlook of the world from my childhood's days, when Sunday was a day of +strict theological habit, from which no departure could be permitted! +The laxity of modern life, by comparison is, I think, somewhat +appalling. We have made the mistake of breaking away from old beliefs +and convictions without replacing them with something better. We do not +make as much, or as good, use of our Sundays as we might do. There is a +medium between the rigid Sabbatarianism of our ancestors and the +absolute waste of the day of rest in mere pleasure and frivolity. All +the world is deploring the secularizing of Sunday. Not only is +churchgoing perfunctory or absent, but in all ranks of life there is a +disposition to make it a day of rest and amusement--sometimes the +amusement rather than the rest. Sunday, the Sabbath, as Alex McLaren +pointed out to me, is not a day taken from us, but a day given to us. +"Behold, I have given you the Sabbath!" For what? For rest for man and +beast, but also to be a milestone in our upward and onward progress--a +day for not only wearing best clothes, but for reading our best books +and thinking our best thoughts. I have often grieved at the small +congregations in other churches no less than in my own, and the grief +was aggravated by the knowledge that those who were absent from church +were not necessarily otherwise well employed. I derived so much +pleasure from the excellent and cultured sermons of my friend the Rev. +John Reid during his term of office here that I regretted the fact that +others who might gain equally from them were not there to hear them. I +would like to see among the young people a finer conception of the +duties of citizenship, which, if not finding expression in church +attendance, may develop in some way that will be noble and useful to +society. + +In the meantime the work of the Effective Voting League had been rather +at a standstill. Mrs. Young's illness had caused her resignation, and +until she again took up the work nothing further was done to help Mr. +Coombe in his Parliamentary agitation. In 1908, however, we began a +vigorous campaign, and towards the close of the year the propaganda +work was being carried into all parts of the State. Although I was then +83, I travelled to Petersburg to lecture to a good audience. On +the same night Mrs. Young addressed a fine gathering at Mount Gambier, +and from that time the work has gone on unceasingly. The last great +effort was made through the newspaper ballot of September, 1909, when a +public count of about 10,000 votes was completed with all explanations +during the evening. The difficulties that were supposed to stand in the +way of a general acceptance of effective voting have been entirely +swept away. Tasmania and South Africa have successfully demonstrated +the practicability, no less than the justice, of the system. Now we get +to the bedrock of the objections raised to its adoption, and we find +that they exist only in the minds of the politicians themselves; but +the people have faith in effective voting, and I believe the time to he +near when they will demand equitable representation in every +Legislature in the world. The movement has gone too far to be checked, +and the electoral unrest which is so common all over the world will +eventually find expression in the best of all electoral systems, which +I claim to be effective voting. + +Among the many friends I had made in the other States there was none I +admired more for her public spiritedness than Miss Vida Goldstein. I +have been associated with her on many platforms and in many branches of +work. Her versatility is great, but there is little doubt that her +chief work lies in helping women and children. Her life is practically +spent in battling for her sex. Although I was the first woman in +Australia to become a Parliamentary candidate, Miss Goldstein has since +exceeded my achievement by a second candidature for the Senate. It was +during her visit here last May-June as a delegate to the State +Children's Congress that she inaugurated the Women's Non-party +Political Association, which is apparently a growing force. In a +general way the aims of the society bear a strong resemblance to those +of the social students' society, many of its members having also +belonged to the earlier association. It was a hopeful sign to me that +it included among its members people of all political views working +chiefly in the interests of women and children. Of this Society also I +became the first President, and the fact that on its platform was +included proportional representation was an incentive for me to work +for it. The education of women on public and social questions, so that +they will be able to work side by side with the opposite sex for the +public good will, I think, help in the solution of social problems that +are now obstacles in the path of progress. In addition to other +literary work for the year 1909 I was asked by Miss Alice Henry to +revise my book on State children in order to make it acceptable and +applicable to American conditions. It was a big undertaking, but I +think successful. The book, as originally written had already done good +work in Western Australia, where the conditions of infant mortality +were extremely alarming, and in England also; and there is ample scope +for such a work in America, which is still far behind even the most +backward Australian State in its care for dependent children. + +As a President of three societies, a Vice-President of two others, a +member of two of the most important boards in the State for the care of +the destitute, the deserted, and the dependent, with a correspondence +that touches on many parts of the Empire, and two continents besides, +with my faculty for the appreciation of good literature still +unimpaired, with my domestic interests so dear to me, and my constant +knitting for the infants under the care of the State Inspector--I find +my life as an octogenarian more varied in its occupations and interests +than ever before. Looking back from the progressive heights of 1910 +through the long vista of years, numbering upwards of four-fifths of a +century, I rejoice at the progress the world has made. Side by side +with the development of my State my life has slowly unfolded itself. My +connection with many of the reforms to which is due this development +has been intimate, and (I think I am justified in saying) oftentimes +helpful. While other States of the Commonwealth and the Dominion of New +Zealand have made remarkable progress, none has eclipsed the rapid +growth of the State to which the steps of my family were directed in +1839. Its growth has been more remarkable, because it has been +primarily due to its initiation of many social and political reforms +which have since been adopted by other and older countries. "Australia, +lead us further," is the cry of reformers in America. We have led in so +many things, and though America may claim the honour of being the +birthplace of the more modern theory of land values taxation, I rejoice +that South Australia was the first country in the world with +the courage and the foresight to adopt the tax on land values without +exemption. That she is still lagging behind Tasmania and South Africa +in the adoption of effective voting, as the only scientific system of +electoral reform, is the sorrow of my old age. The fact that South +Australia has been the happy hunting ground of the faddist has +frequently been urged as a reproach against this State. Its more +patriotic citizens will rejoice in the truth of the statement, and +their prayer will probably be that not fewer but more advanced thinkers +will arise to carry this glorious inheritance beneath the Southern +Cross to higher and nobler heights of physical and human development +than civilization has yet dreamed of or achieved. The Utopia of +yesterday is the possession of today, and opens the way to the Utopia +of to-morrow. The haunting horror of older civilizations--divorcing +the people from their natural inheritance in the soil, and filling the +towns with myriads of human souls dragged down by poverty, misery, and +crime--is already casting its shadow over the future of Australia; but +there is hope in the fact that a new generation has arisen untrammelled +by tradition, which, having the experience of older countries before +it, and benefiting from the advantages of the freer life and the +greater opportunities afforded by a new country, gives promise of +ultimately finding the solution of the hitherto unsolved problem of +making country life as attractive to the masses as that of the towns +and cities. As time goes on the effect of education must tell, and the +generations that are to come will be more enlightened and more +altruistic, and the tendency of the world will be more and more, even +as it is now, towards higher and nobler conceptions of human happiness. +I have lived through a glorious age of progress. Born in "the wonderful +century," I have watched the growth of the movement for the uplifting +of the masses, from the Reform Bill of 1832 to the demands for adult +suffrage. As a member of a church which allows women to speak in the +pulpit, a citizen of a State which gives womanhood a vote for the +Assembly, a citizen of a Commonwealth which fully enfranchises me for +both Senate and Representatives, and a member of a community which was +foremost in conferring University degrees on women, I have benefited +from the advancement of the educational and political status of women +for which the Victorian era will probably stand unrivalled in the annals +of the world's history. I have lived through the period of repressed +childhood, and witnessed the dawn of a new era which has made the +dwellers in youth's "golden age" the most important factor in human +development. I have watched the growth of Adelaide from the condition +of a scattered hamlet to that of one of the finest cities in the +southern hemisphere; I have seen the evolution of South Australia from +a province to an important State in a great Commonwealth. All through +my life I have tried to live up to the best that was in me, and I +should like to be remembered as one who never swerved in her efforts to +do her duty alike to herself and her fellow-citizens. Mistakes I have +made, as all are liable to do, but I have done my best. And when life +has closed for me, let those who knew me best speak and think of me as +One who never turned her back, but marched breast forward, + + Never doubted clouds would break, + Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, + Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, + Sleep to wake. + No nobler epitaph would I desire. + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext An Autobiography, by Catherine Helen Spence + diff --git a/old/tbspn10.zip b/old/tbspn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4e7fb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tbspn10.zip |