to his account. It is, however, significant, that persons holding high positions in the island, such as the Bishop, the Chief Justice, and others in daily intercourse with His Excellency, maintained with warmth and loyalty that the Governor had been blackly maligned without the shadow of a foundation for the aspersions cast upon his character. Sir John Eardley-Wilmot died of a broken heart only eight days after the landing of his successor. At his funeral a notable demonstration was made by the numbers who attended it, and by whom he was held personally in great esteem, respect, and friendship.

Sir John Eardley-Wilmot gave up his office on the 13th October, 1846, and died on the 3rd February, 1847. From the 14th October, 1846, to the 25th January, 1847, the colony was administered, pending the arrival of the next Lieutenant-Governor, by C. J. La Trobe, as Administrator. Mr. La Trobe had already filled a vice-regal position in Victoria. Sir William Thomas Denison, afterwards GovernorGeneral of New South Wales, took over the administration of the colony on the 26th January, 1847, and relinquished it on the 8th January, 1855.

Governor Denison's administration marks a turning point in the history of the colony. One of his first acts after assuming office was the restoration of their seats in the Legislature to the "Patriotic Six," who had resigned their office from conscientious motives, as already narrated. This step received the cordial approbation of Earl Grey, who was then Secretary of State for the Colonies. In other directions, however, the Governor did not acquit himself so well. When Earl Grey desired his advice concerning the advisability of granting Responsible Government, the new Governor expressed himself in no unmeasured terms against the proposal. Again, when the Colonial Office authorities requested his views with reference to the transportation question, Sir William Denison strongly urged that the discontinuance of the "system" was against the best interests of the young colony. The Governor, indeed, made a bid for the support of a very influential party. This was composed of those flock-masters and land-holders, who considered that cheap labour, together with a large annual outlay in the colony of Imperial funds, totally outbalanced all the evils and horrors of convictism. The Governor lent all the weight of his position and official influence to the convict labour people, and did everything in his power to put their views prominently before the Imperial authorities; nay, more, he went even so far as to represent the wishes of the pro-convict party as those paramount in the Island. Fortunately, however, at that particular juncture in affairs, the Colonial Office did not always concur in the expressions of opinion of some of its vice-regal advisers in the Australias; and it even seemed probable at one time that the system would be abolished by the Imperial authorities upon their own initiative. However, these kindly counsels were not of long duration, and the sanguine expectations of the abolitionists were cruelly disappointed by the sudden appearance in the Derwent River, on the

12th November, 1848, of the transport convict-ship "Ratcliffe," with 248 prisoners. The people of Hobart Town authorised their leading citizens to wait upon Governor Denison and strongly protest against the landing of any more of the unfortunate wretches in the ports of the colony. The objection was eloquent, but ineffectual. In the course of the year 1849 no fewer than twenty convict transports sailed into the Derwent estuary, bringing with them 1,860 prisoners to add to the population of the Island.

In the meanwhile the Imperial authorities had made attempts to land convicts at various colonial ports, viz., at Cape Town, at Sydney, and at Melbourne. In each instance the inhabitants of these cities had successfully resisted the threatened influx of this undesirable element; hence there appeared the probability that "Vandemonia"-as it was derisively called-would become the sole receptacle of the accumulated moral garbage of the people of the British Isles. But in this emergency the Rev. John West, afterwards editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, arose as the champion of the abolitionist party. To him was due in great measure the organisation of the Anti-Transportation League, and his efforts secured the hearty co-operation of the other Australasian colonies. The Governor bitterly opposed the spirit of the league, and actually went so far as to affirm that the continuance of the "system" was both necessary and desirable; but public opinion, not only in Australia, but also in Great Britain itself, had come to the decision that transportation must be abolished, and abolished at once.

Van Diemen's Land shared in the Act passed by the Imperial Parliament in 1854 for the better government of the Australian Colonies. Among its provisions was one for the establishment of a Legislative Council in the Island. This body was to consist of eight Members, nominated by the Governor for the time being, and sixteen to be elected by the people- in all, twenty-four Members; but Sir William Denison was a resolute and consistent antagonist of any measure of Responsible Government, and one of his last acts as the ruler of the colony was one which no Responsible Government would have sanctioned. Prior to bringing into operation the provisions of the Act passed by the Imperial Parliament for the better government of the Australian Colonies, the Governor took upon himself the responsibility of proclaiming certain land regulations, which had the effect of throwing very large areas of valuable territory into the hands of a very small number of lessees. Sir William Denison defended his action by asserting that it was his intention thereby to promote agricultural settlement in combination with pastoral enterprise. His regulations had quite a contrary tendency, and had the effect of preventing enterprise of any kind. The small farmer, the true developer of virgin land, was effectually debarred from access to the soil, and internal expansion and progress was seriously retarded. one consequence of Denison's land policy, an emigration of young men began, and continued steadily for years; while the domestics of the

As

neighbouring colonies were also recruited from the ranks of the young women born in the Island. When Mount Bischoff was discovered, there were actually no local diggers to work it, the mines being exploited, with very few exceptions, by Victorian labour imported from Clunes, Creswick, Mount Blackwood, and the Blue Mountain Gold-fields.

The new Legislative Council, established under the Imperial Act passed in 1850, did not assemble for the despatch of business until the 1st January, 1852. One of its first acts was the passing of a resolution condemning the continuance of the system of convict transportation. The passing of this resolution was deeply resented by Sir William Denison, and he denounced it in no undecided terms. Nevertheless, the "Patriots," confident of the moral support of the greater number of the colonists, resolved to take their grievance before Royalty itself, and thereupon addressed a memorial to the Queen, praying her to abrogate the Order in Council authorising transportation to Van Diemen's Land. The Governor forwarded the document, but at the same time advised the Home authorities to the effect that compliance with the request of the petitioners would be against the best interests of the colony, and would in no way improve the moral condition of its people. The Council then met and carried a vote of want of confidence in the Governor. This vote was embodied in a second petition to the Throne, and the humiliating task of forwarding. it devolved upon His Excellency. In spite of this, however, Sir William persisted in sending despatches to England belittling the influence and character of the members of the Council. As a matter of fact, the Governor entirely misconceived the strength of the Anti-Transportation movement, and the earnestness of popular sentiment that gave it birth. But, as has been previously remarked, the British authorities were not always in accord with the views of the Governor on matters of colonial policy, and the Duke of Newcastle informed the Council that transportation to Van Diemen's Land had been definitely abolished. The despatch conveying this gratifying intelligence was officially made known through the columns of the Hobart Town Gazette of May, 1853.

Meanwhile the discovery of payable gold in New South Wales, in 1851, followed by similar finds in Victoria, caused a wild rush from all parts of Australasia, and indeed of the world, to the gold-bearing localities. The people of Van Diemen's Land were infected by the gold-fever, and an exodus set out to the scenes of the "rushes" which threatened almost to depopulate the island. Amongst those who quitted Tasmania were many of its convict population. In the year 1842 the total population was recorded as 40,767. Under the incessant drain to the gold-fields of Victoria it fell to 22,261. Those who remained in the island, however, reaped a rich harvest from their unadventurousness. In Victoria, consequent upon the great rush of population to the gold-fields of that colony, in combination with the enormous finds of the precious metal, a remarkable inflation of

prices had taken place. This necessarily reacted on the marketable value of every description of produce raised in the island colony. Only limited supplies of food and merchandise were at first available, and the demand was insistent and clamorous. Every kind of grain, and fruit, flour, vegetables, hay and fodder of all sorts, timber, building materials, and the various other necessities of civilised life, commanded prices that sounded bewilderingly fabulous to ears attuned to the narrow needs of a primitive agricultural community. Land increased greatly in value, and the producers who stayed behind prospered exceedingly. The imports and exports of the colony experienced a noteworthy expansion, as did also the public revenue. In 1852 the colony was able to show a surplus of £62,000 over expenditure, while the tonnage of shipping engaged in the external commerce of the island was more than double that of a decade before. In 1853 the value of the colony's imports was upwards of £2,250,000, or some £100 per capita of the entire population, and this sum was nearly balanced by the value of the exports.

Affairs were now in such a prosperous condition that the time seemed peculiarly appropriate for the celebration of a jubilee festival. The occasion was commemorative of a double half-century event-the foundation of the colony, and the cessation of transportation to its shores. The day selected for the celebration was August 10th, 1853, and was marked, not only by public festivities, but by religious services in the various churches. To mark a turning-point in the history of the colony, and to break off in a manner all associations with a dark and dishonoured past, the colonists were desirous of changing the name of their island from Van Diemen's Land to Tasmania, in honor of the intrepid Dutch discoverer who first visited its shores; and this change of nomenclature was shortly afterwards legalised by a vote of the Legislature. Nevertheless, although the island was thus dissevered from a name that was redolent of infamy, the evil consequences of the old penal system yet remained. The convict element had been greatly reduced by immigration to Australia, but it was still sufficiently strong to be a standing menace to a peaceful, orderly, law-abiding, and industrious population. When the more hardened of the criminals escaped from confinement, and deliberately embraced a career of rapine and violence in the bush, they hesitated at the commission of no atrocity in the prosecution of their nefarious designs; indeed, the bushrangers of Tasmania were no whit better than their predecessors in the old penal days of "Vandemonia." Their vile deeds, too, were not only practised in Tasmania; but occasionally escaped convicts crossed over Bass' Straits in stolen boats, and continued their lawless career on the diggings and elsewhere on the mainland.

On the 8th January, 1855, Sir William Thomas Denison was succeeded by Sir Henry Edward Fox Young, who came to the island fresh from the Governorship of South Australia, where he had served a successful term of office extending over six years. On the 17th

January of the same year the Lieutenant-Governorships of Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania became Governorships. The last mentioned colony became officially so named by legislative enactment in the year 1854. From the foundation of the Island as a British colony under Colonel David Collins, in 1804, to the departure of Sir William Denison, the highest authority in the country bore the official title of Lieutenant-Governor, while the Governor of New South Wales retained the title of Governor-in-Chief. Van Diemen's Land was, however, independent of the mother colony from the date of the establishment of a separate Government in 1825-6; the difference in the rank of the two officials being rather a matter of precedence than connection in any governmental sense, though the Governor-in-Chief was the authority to whom the Lieutenant-Governor was expected to appeal in times of difficulty or perplexity. Sir H. E. F. Young was the first Governor-in-Chief of the Colony of Tasmania, and Sir William Denison was the last Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land. Under the rule of the latter, the colony had secured the cessation of transportation; had had bestowed upon it by the Imperial Parliament a larger measure of constitutional self-government; had celebrated its first fifty years of history as a British settlement; and had changed its name in the hopes of a future brighter and better than its past. With the advent of the new ruler, Tasmania may be regarded as in truth definitely finishing with the old order of things, and opening the second volume of its history. Sir H. E. F. Young guided the course of the colony from the 8th January, 1855, to the 10th December, 1861, a period of nearly seven years.

It was a happy and prosperous juncture at which the new Governor took up his duties. The revenue was in a satisfactory condition; discoveries of coal had been made in the island; the timber-getters were busy throughout the colony procuring slabs and shingles and other building materials, together with props for the miners in satisfaction of the large Victorian demands; all interests seemed to be on the up-grade, and there were considerable arrivals of immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland. As a sign of the prosperity of the colony may be mentioned the raising and transmission to London of the sum of £25,000, the donation from the Tasmanians to the fund raised for the relief of the widows and orphans of the soldiers who had fallen in the Crimean War.

A few months after Governor Young's arrival, Tasmania received a full measure of Responsible Government. By an Act of the Imperial Parliament, which received the Royal Assent on the 1st May, 1855, a Constitution was bestowed upon the colony. This provided for the creation of two Houses, both of them elective-namely, a Legislative Council of fifteen members, and an Assembly of thirty members. The functions of the new Parliament included the imposition of taxation, the expenditure of revenue, the complete control of Crown lands, and the absolute management of public business by a responsible ministry