the
interior of Australia. As Captain Sturt in substance remarked in a recent
lecture, of the five great divisions of the earth, Europe is well known;
Asia and America have been generally searched out; the portion that
remains to be known of Africa is generally unfavourable for Europeans,
and probably unfit for colonization; but Australia, our great island
continent, with a most favourable climate, still remains unpenetrated,
mysterious, and unknown. Without doing injustice to the enterprising
attempts of Oxley, Sturt, and Mitchell, I must remark that they were
commenced from a very unfavourable point--from the eastern and almost
south-eastern extremity of the island--and consequently the great
interior still remains untouched by them, the south-eastern corner alone
having been investigated. As Captain Sturt some years since declared,
this Province is the point from which expeditions to the deep interior
should set out. This principle, I know, has been acknowledged by
scientific men in Europe; and it is most gratifying to see the spirit
with which our Colonists on the present occasion have answered to the
claim which their position imposes upon them. Mr. Eyre goes forth this
day, to endeavour to plant the British flag--the flag which in the whole
world has "braved for a thousand years the battle and the breeze"--on the
tropic of Capricorn (as nearly as possible in 135 degrees or 136 degrees
of longitude) in the very centre of our island continent. On this day
twenty-five years since, commencing almost at this very hour, the British
flag braved indeed the battle, and at length floated triumphant in
victory on the field of Waterloo. May a similar glorious success attend
the present undertaking! Mr. Eyre goes forth to brave a battle of a
different kind, but which in the whole, may present dangers equal to
those of Waterloo. May triumph crown his efforts, and may the British
flag, planted by him in the centre of Australia, wave for another
thousand years over the pence and prosperity of the mighty population
which immigration is pouring in upon us! Of the immediate results of his
journey, no one, indeed, can at present form a solid conjecture. Looking
to the dark side, he may traverse a country useless to man; but
contemplating the bright side, and remembering that but a few years since
Sturt, setting off on an equally mysterious course, laid the foundation
for the large community in which we dwell, it is in reason to hope t