has constantly been undergoing and extending. Though he has recently denied that he ever formally associated himself with the Chartist agitation, it is undoubted that he was warmly interested, as a working youth, in the advanced Liberal movements of the time. Attracted by the freer range which colonial life seemed to offer, Mr. Parkes emigrated to New South Wales in March 1839, and spent some portion of his early Australian career as a farm labourer on the Regentville estate of Mr. John Jamieson, near Penrith. Several of the poems, which he ultimately published in a collected form, have reference to this period of his colonial life. It was in Sydney, however, that his most remarkable vicissitudes were experienced. For some time he was engaged in an iron store, and subsequently worked in a foundry. He then started business as an ivory turner, and was afterwards a dealer in toys in Hunter Street, Sydney. He now began to figure in the political arena as a leading agitator on the progressive side and a vehement opponent of the transportation system. On these lines he took a prominent part in securing the return of Mr. Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) to the partially elective Legislative Council as member for Sydney. A year later he started the Empire newspaper, which he edited until 1857 under great pecuniary difficulties as the organ of metropolitan Liberalism. In 1853 Mr. Parkes himself unsuccessfully contested Sydney, but was returned for the city by a majority of two to one in the following year. The colony was now in the throes of the great struggle which culminated in the concession of responsible government. Mr. Parkes distinguished himself by his fervid protests against the nominee Upper House, which was subsequently established under the Constitution Act. He was more successful in his opposition to Mr. Wentworth's pet project for the institution of a hereditary colonial peerage on the English model. Responsible government having been conceded, Mr. Parkes represented East Sydney in the Legislative Assembly from 1858 to 1861, when the late Right Hon. W. B. Dalley and himself were sent to England as commissioners for promoting emigration. Their mission proved a comparative failure, owing to their having no power to grant assistance to emigrants, but there are persons engaged in extensive businesses in the colony who came out in consequence of their representations. Mr. Parkes acted as correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald during the tour, and a selection of his letters was published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. in London, under the title, "Australian Views of England." Returning to Sydney in 1863, he was re-elected to the Assembly in the following year for a country constituency. Mr. Parkes first took ministerial office in Jan. 1866, when he was appointed Colonial Secretary in the Administration of Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Martin. He, however, resigned in Sept. 1868, owing to a difference with his colleagues on a minor matter of administration, but not before he had signalised his term of office by passing the Public Schools Act, on which the present educational system of New South Wales is based. After being for a few months out of Parliament, Mr. Parkes was elected for Mudgee in 1871, and in the following year became Premier of the colony, with the post of Colonial Secretary. Mr. Parkes had made himself prominent in Opposition as the staunch advocate of the free-trade policy to which New South Wales adhered till 1892. He strongly opposed the 5 per cent, ad valorem duties imposed by the Cowper Ministry in 1865-6, and vindicated his consistency by taking advantage of a period of great financial prosperity to effect their repeal in the year 1878. The Parkes Government, having been censured in relation to the release of the prisoner Gardiner, resigned office in Feb. 1875, and the ex-Premier for some time left the leadership of the Opposition to subordinates. In March 1877, however, he again came to the front, and succeeded in carrying a vote of want of confidence in the Robertson Administration, becoming Premier and Colonial Secretary until August. In the same year he was created K.C.M.G., having previously refused the C.M.G. Later (in 1877) he coalesced with his old opponent, Sir John Robertson, and formed a Ministry in conjunction with that statesman, in which he was Premier and Colonial Secretary, and which lasted from Dec 1878 to Jan. 1883. In 1882 Sir Henry Parkes visited England and was received with much distinction
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