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Excerpt from History of the Colony of Victoria: From Its Settlement to the Death of Sir Charles Hotham The greater part of the books which have issued from the press professing to treat on Victoria. Have been intended for European readers, and have but comparatively little interest for colonists. The author hopes that this record of the past will possess some value in the eyes of a Victorian public, and be useful, hereafter, as a work of reference. Lord Bolingbroke, in his Letters on the Study and Use of History, has commented upon the proneness of men to exaggerate the importance of the scenes which have been enacted within the range of their own observation and some per sons will, no doubt, imagine that the author has been too minute in detailing the facts connected with the early history of the colony. He must only give the apology of Horace Walpole, under the same circumstances, who said, Perhaps I have described these squabbles too minutely; passages in which one has been conversant often appear too interesting. I can only say, that I have preferred offend ing in this respect to the contrary; but, as many men love these details, their curiosity would be unsatisfied with abridgments. But, if this be objected to by some, there are, no doubt, many think ing men who will view the matter in a different aspect. There is, perhaps, no period in the history of colonization which can be compared, in interest, with the last twenty years. The bureaucratic system of government so long in Operation has, during that period, been thrown aside in the most important colonial dependencies of Great Britain, and has been replaced by self-government. The old system has been rapidly and silently passing away, and an entirely new order of things has been developing itself. From a perfect despotism these countries are passing, at a single leap, to the very opposite point of extreme democracy. There are several subjects touched on in this history which the statesman and politi cal economist ought not to pass by without due consideration. The Government of Dependencies has scarcely, hitherto, been studied with the attention which the importance of the subject demands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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