• An Rmiorant's Home Letters. By Henry Parkes. Sydney :
Angus and Itobertaon. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co.
A PRIME MINISTER'S EARLY STRUGGLES.* THESE brief, unpretentious, but deeply pathetic personal letters of the late Sir Henry Parkes will be read with interest by all who have paid any attention to the career of one of the greatest of Australian statesmen. They are not altogether correctly designated An Emigrant's Home Letters, more than half having been written from London before the redoubtable Birmingham artisan sailed as a "free emigrant" to Sydney. They reveal all the inner misery of that terrible time, when Parkes, with his young wife, no longer able to maintain the bitter struggle in Birmingham, came to London, only to find their lot in the Metropolis still harder. The daughter of the distinguished Australian statesman, to whom the public owes this little collection of early private letters, has nothing to reproach herself with in bringing out this book. No one can read it without having a better and kindlier feeling for her father's memory. Under the crushing poverty and distress which these letters reveal, how few could have borne themselves with such noble fortitude, and still more, with such unfailing hope, and even good-humour, as did the masterful man who was destined to be five times Prime Minister of the great Colony of New South Wales.
Most of these letters were written to Sir Henry's eldest sister, Sarah, and every page discloses some beautiful trait of family affection, without which the lives of the poor would indeed be as sordid and appalling as a page of Zola. It is also noticeable how, like a strong man, Parkes everywhere makes as little as he can of his sorrows and disappointments in London, which to him was indeed a "stony-hearted step- mother." Observe the fine serenity in the hopeful tone of the following characteristic remarks :— "I think leaving Birmingham was the best step we ever took, and I think leaving London will be the next best. We have suffered a great deal since we have been in London. Were obliged to pawn almost everything we had before I could get anything to do. I had some difficulty in obtaining my present
situation. The reason they took me in was this : They had but one man in the manufactory who would undertake the work which I am upon, it is so excessively heavy, and he would rather have nothing to do with it ; so they offered me a trial at this hard job
though I came from the country We were also a little behind with our rent. I can get by working hard, about five or six shillings a day, but have not been able to make near full time, owing to having to go to the emigration office, and one thing and
another. It is a very difficult thing to get a free passage It is said that a few turners might work profitably on their own account at Sydney. Still, however, I think it is not improbable that I may get hold of something better. The country is the best place for making money. A man of good common-sense and active habits, if he can but save a little to begin with, may get rich there
in no time But persons going to a strange country, where every one is taught only to take care of himself, and going there friendless and without money, must expect to meet with difficulties and to suffer privations and hardships. If I do not meet with such I shall indeed be disappointed."
In this respect, when Henry Parkes at last arrived with his sick wife and new-born babe in Sydney, he was not destined to disappointment ; for be had to encounter from the outset of his career as a colonist hardships more severe even than those which beset him at home. But he faced them in the same manful spirit, and rose from the lowly lot of a farm-labourer to become the chief citizen of Sydney and most prominent public man of Australia. His story is set forth very simply and truthfully in these letters.
It is a wonderful picture of a strong, resolute, self-reliant man, whom circumstances, however untoward, and misfortunes, how ever bitter, could not subdue. These letters, written in adversity, display by far the noblest side of Parkes's character. It would be mere flattery to say that he was even at the height of his prosperity and fame, so excellent a man, as when he toiled all the hours of the day to earn a mere subsistence for wife and children. Success, as is often the case, brought out the ignobler traits,—his childish vanity, his fierce love of domineering, his utter want of many of those finer qualities which make up the subtle sense of personal honour and self-reverence. Parkes the workman and farm-labourer was indeed a nobler man than Sir Henry the statesman.
All the early letters from Sydney written to his sister in Birmingham, are gloomy and desponding,—the new country is in a worse condition than the old, and the lot of the labourer still more bitter and more precarious. Yet every letter is full of affectionate thought for the "old folks at home." After a while Parkes and his wife become, as they say in the Colonies, " acclimatized " ; he begins to feel him- self a true citizen of the new land, no longer an English exile anxious only "to lay his bones in English mould," but a genuine Australian settler and patriot :—
" Yes, henceforth, the country of my children shall be mine. Australia has afforded me a better home than my Motherland, and I will love her with a patriot's love. With regard to my own individual prospects I am full of hope. I have had my troubles as the old ladies say. When you think of my ;andiug on the soil of this country with a wife and child, the one only three days' old, and the other in the delicate state of health of a mother at that time, and with 'only a few pence' and without a home, you will think I must have had some difficulties to contend with since my arrival in Australia. And I have had ray share of them in good earnest, and not the least of them I am grappling with at this moment. But still I am full of hope. I believe my circum- stances will improve, and that speedily. I see my way now quite clearly which shall lead me to respectability, if not competence."
With all his faults, which the long years of public fame and success brought to light, and the many weaknesses, which grew stronger with advancing years, Sir Henry Parkea stands out as the dominant figure in Australasian affairs. His story must of necessity interest all men, and most of all the rising generation of Australians. In this respect these letters will prove a valuable addition to the mass of " Parkesian literature" which is sure to spring up and increase from year to year.
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