first essay at forming a library was also the handiwork of Fawkner, who, though the reverse of a litterateur, m a y be fairly regarded as unquestionably our first m a n of letters, in manuscript and print, for he was never so m u c h himself as when dabbling in some form or other with newspaper editing or writing, alike regardless of the proprieties of good temper, good manners, good style, and good taste. This bibliothecal collection was an appendage to Fawkner's Hotel, and circulated in other places than the bar-parlour, for the books were lent out to solvent subscribers at 5s. per quarter. T h e exterior distribution must have been even more limited than the then existent circle of readers ; as the library consisted of an Encyclopaedia, two or three volumes of English Reviews, half-a-dozen works of history and poetry ; whilst the " reading room " possessed the additional attractions of the Sydney and V a n Diemen's Land newspapers, with a stray number of a London journal. T h e influx of population by degrees added to the stock of books amongst the community, and in 1839 a Mr. James Hill announced for sale, on the 22nd January, " A n extensive library, comprising English, French, Latin, Italian, and Greek books." T h e establishment of the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute in the course of the same year stimulated a desire for literary enjoyment; and a very superior course of lectures, by which it was inaugurated, sowed seed which afterwards produced a crop of incalculable benefit to society, though more of an indirect than a direct nature. In 1840 a partnership—William Kerr and Joseph Thompson—established a newspaper agency at the Patriot office; and Mr. Matthew Holmes opened a by no means extensive book shop, both in West Collins Street. A somewhat amusing literary advertisement appears in the Melbourne journals in July, 1840, viz., that there is on sale at the Herald office " T h e last edition (1839) of the London Encyclopaedia, consisting of twenty-two volumes in boards; also an excellent stomach pump, of Maw's (London) manufacture." Probably it was considered that the one would form a desirable accompaniment to the other. A Reading Society, started by private subscription, ran for several years. It was quite a select affair, and candidates for membership had to undergo the ordeal of the ballot. During 1850 it circulated 3800 book and 390 magazine numbers. Its supplies were procured chiefly from England.
EARLY PUBLICATIONS.
The first local author to write up the province was George Arden, of the Gazette, and in 1840 there appeared from his pen a very creditable pamphlet upon the capabilities of Port Phillip. T h e great fault of Arden was his proneness to plunge into excesses, either eulogistic or depreciatory. H e was master of an accomplished, though inflated style, and would have been a writer of great and taking power had his mind been better ballasted, and his verbiage denuded of florid excrescences which were simply encumbrances. His Port-Phillipian brochure is characterized by marked traces of scholarship, though its merits are overlaid by exaggeration. Arden's production was a very readable one, and did m u c h good in its day. Several short treatises on Port Phillip were issued in England by persons w h o m a d e flying trips to the Antipodes, just looked about them, returned, and " wrote a book." A M r . George H . Haydon, a sojourner of some time, published in London in 1846 an interesting work under the title of Five Years' Experience in Australia Felix. In 1848 Mr. William Westgarth gave to the world his Australia Felix; or A Historical and Descriptive Account of Port Phillip. T h e author was well qualified by ability and long residence here to handle such a subject, and it was with no surprise that the Press acknowledged it to be a work of undoubted merit and fulness of information. M'Combie's History of Port Phillip is well known, and has been very generally accepted as a text-book by subsequent writers. It was an unexpected treat coming from such a man, and displayed a thorough familiarity with the story it tells, though portions of it are written with too m u c h bias, and the accuracy of the facts narrated is in several instances more than questionable. T h e Rev. Dr. Lang published a work designated Phillipsland, and he was in certain respects very competent to do so; but m u c h of anything he wrote was spoiled by personal acidity. QQ
