In the religious division, Mr. J. A. Marsden, of Fitzroy, Mr. G. A. Mouritz (Harbor Trust Secretary), Mrs. Thomas Napier, of Essendon, and the late Mr. M. Cashmore, of Hotham, supplied some valuable information in connection with the Wesleyan, Baptist, and Hebrew denominations. To particularize the services of all would swell the roll into a catalogue; I must, therefore, confine my acknowledgments to the names of some of those to whom I am under obligations for manifold attentions, viz.:—Mr. C. J. Ham (ex-Mayor of Melbourne), Mr. J. Williams (Secretary of the Melbourne Hospital), Mr. F. Howlett (late Superintendent of the Benevolent Asylum), Mr. A. J. Skene (late Surveyor General), Mr. R. A. Sutherland (Crown Solicitor), Mr. E. Carlile (Clerk Assistant of the Legislative Assembly), Mr. B. C. Harriman (Secretary to the Law Department), Mr. A. C. Le Souef (Usher of the Legislative Council), Mr. E. G. Fitzgibbon (Town Clerk of Melbourne), Mr. J. Farrell (Parliament Librarian), Mr. John Ferres (ex-Government Printer), Mr. Louis Ellis (ex-Deputy Sheriff), Mr. William Overton (Clifton Hill), Mr. Thomas Halfpenny (Richmond), Mr. R. Capper, Junior, Mr. E. Ashley, the Hon. Henry Miller, Dr. W. H. Campbell (both since dead), Dr. Thos. Black (St. Kilda), Mr. H. H. Hayter (Government Statist), Mr. J. B. Were (deceased), and Mr. John Bourke, late of the General Post Office.
In 1840 the mists are cleared away, to some extent, by the improvements produced in the Press — but unfortunately, up to 1843, volumes of the journals cannot be readily got. Except two files of the Herald for 1840-41, in the Parliament and Public Libraries, I apprehend there are none others of this period extant, and even these sets are not perfect, for a hiatus of a number or two, or a column, or a slice nipped out, occurs occasionally. But from July 1841, the date of my arrival, I was on terra firma, standing, as it were, upon my native heath, and henceforth a spectator of almost everything that went on, whether the burning of a house or the founding of a church, a Mayor-making or a prize-fight, a charity sermon or an execution, a public dinner or a "corroborree." Furthermore, I am justified in saying that an uninterrupted residence in Melbourne, and a lengthened connection with its early journalism, enable me to assert, that as to the several public proceedings described as having taken place from 1841 to 1851, I was either a participator in, or an observer of, nine-tenths of them. I can safely aver that my labours, whatever else they may resolve into, are not a composite of shreds and patches, a réchauffé of lucubrations of others—a patchwork culled from other books, for a professional book-writer I do not pretend to be. Singular confession of ignorance as it may seem, I have never yet read through any book written about Melbourne or Australia. M y sources of information ripple to a large extent from a voluminous notebook kept by myself, the only paper currency which I ever had much at command, largely subsidized by unpublished incidents, picked up by persistent enquiries prosecuted during the last few years. I have no hesitation in declaring that if the work now finished had been deferred until the present time, it is probable that many of the facts I have succeeded in saving, would have been consigned to that tomb where so many lost secrets of history are interred, in consequence of the disappearance of some of the few persons capable of imparting information respecting them.
It was a source of intense satisfaction to me, to be able to arrange with one of our leading publishing firms for the issue in collected form of the Sketches, to be brought out in a style befitting the memorable year in which the project was conceived, the epoch of the Centenary of Australia, and the Jubilee of the founding in Melbourne of Newspaper Journalism, or what is conventionally designated "The Fourth Estate."
Unfortunately, an unexpected defect of vision rendered it impossible for m e to supervise the present compilation of The Chronicles, but I have every reason for believing that this important function has been confided to competent and considerate hands.
There is a merit, or perhaps demerit, to which I can lay claim. I have not, so far as I know, followed in the wake or on the lines of other writers, for I have broken away from the beaten path, and struck out a new route for myself. I have prepared m y own plan and specification, and acted up to them. In a work such as I designed, innumerable personal references to individuals (some of them happily still amongst us), were unavoidable, but in going over such slippery ground, and handling such a delicate subject, I have endeavoured to avoid giving even a reasonable offence to anyone. In many of the early political, municipal, national, and religious feuds and agitations treated of, I have engaged with, may
