BY COLONEL CHARLES JAMES NAPIER, C.B. "I have never persuaded, or endeavoured to persuade, any one to quit England with the "I have always, hitherto, advised Englishmen not to emigrate, even to the United LONDON: T. & W. BOONE, 29, NEW BOND-STREET. 1835. 623. DEDICATION. TO THE BODY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COLONISTS, ASSEMBLED AT JOHN STREET, ADELPHI. GENTLEMEN, LIVING in seclusion from society, and in a foreign country, I had not even heard of the Australian Colony, till I was surprised and gratified by receiving from you a request that I would ask the Colonial Secretary for the appointment of Governor to your projected plantation. I was surprised, because I was a stranger to you all,—I was gratified, because I learned that you had been induced to give me this mark of your good opinion in consequence of my conduct while Resident* of Cefalonia. For that conduct, which you deem praise-worthy, I had been both punished, and insulted, by Lord Ripon, whose strange behaviour was, to me, inexplicable. It could not have arisen from any mental ascendancy, assumed by Sir Frederick Adam, for these gentlemen are so much upon a par, in that respect, that they always reminded me of the two Roman wrestlers, who were so equally matched that neither could overthrow the other. The effect of diet was tried: one was fed upon beef, the other upon pork. At the end of a week the beef-eater was overthrown by the pork-eater. By the way * A title which is given to the Lieutenant Governors placed in the different islands of the Ionian septinsular republic. Why given, or what it means, I do not know. |