After its appearance in print, on coming across M r . Were, he smilingly replied, "Well, I read your sketch of the 'Twelve Apostles,' and nothing could be fairer or better done. Y o u will permit m e , however, to add, M r . F , that though you are generally supposed to be a very near-sighted individual, I apprehend that when you are on the look-out, it would take a rather sharp-eyed fellow to get at the blind side of you." T h e next time I saw M r . W e r e was our last meeting in this world, and it was caused by the receipt of the following communication :— Wellington, 1st M a y , 1885.
DEAR MR. FINN,—
Brighton Beach.
I have been under the doctor's care for the last six months, suffering from an attack of jaundice, and have become very emaciated with wasting and loss of appetite. I a m ordered to Riverina for change of climate, and I leave on Monday morning. If you can see m e this evening, or at any time to-morrow, I a m gathering some papers which I desire to hand you, and to have the pleasure of a short conversation with you. T h e terminus is within sight, and a very short distance from m y house. Yours faithfully,
J. B. WERE. E d m u n d Finn, Esq., Parliament House, Melbourne.
After reading the foregoing I handed it to a friend sitting by me, remarking that the " terminus" mentioned therein was intended as a way-mark to point to m y intended destination; but a something seemed to foreshadow it as the terminus of the writer's long and not unnotable terrestrial career. It might, had I been conscious of it, have been taken as the indicator of another terminus, then approaching, but unseen, viz., the end of m y o w n official existence, for on the same morning I, for the first time, felt a defect of vision, which so increased during the ensuing two months as to leave m e no alternative than to sever m y connexion with a branch of H e r Majesty's service, in which I had been engaged for nearly thirty years. In compliance with his desires, I visited M r . W e r e that afternoon, and noticed such a striking change in his appearance and manner as to leave but little doubt that if not absolutely in sight, the "terminus" was not far off. H e commissioned m e to offer, in his name, to the Public Library M u s e u m , a life-size picture of himself, and a quaintly-capped Consular stick, a presentation made to him some years previously. H e also deposited in m y hands some rare and valuable documents, in print and manuscript, relating to an age n o w past, and a few of the early Melbourne Directories. Shaking hands with Mr. Were, w e parted with mutual good wishes; but I never saw his face again. T h e H o n . Roger Therry was the third Resident Judge at Port Phillip. After a short tenure he returned to Sydney, and remained Judge Therry there for several years. O n his retirement, as an agreeable variation for his judicial mind, he amused himself by writing the Chronicles of Early Sydney; but stirred up the foul and stagnant waters of by-gone convictism so m u c h that his book was voluntarily suppressed soon after its publication. This is a rock of which I have purposely steered clear. In Melbourne there was a goodly admixture of the dregs of Cockatoo Island and Port Macquarie absorbed in the primary population, and had I liked I could have done a little in the Therry style. But though at work in the role of a "fossicker," I spurned that of a social vidangeur. I would never willingly hurt the feelings of survivors who, by a life of honest toil, purged themselves of the dross of any wrong-doing legally expiated by others. A considerable tract of m y wanderings lay as if through a large cemetery, and along this gruesome journey I trod lightly over the graves of departed friends and foes alike. De mortuis nil nisi bonum is an adage which the impartial writer cannot always adopt, and I preferred to substitute De mortuis nil nisi justum. So strictly did I act up to this, that only on three occasions was m y verdict challenged, thrice only was I positively contradicted by persons by no means as conversant with the facts disputed as I was, and in each of the instances I amply vindicated m y first assertions. W h e n the chapter on "Remarkable Trials" began its appearance, a small scare was caused in certain self-accusing quarters; and the Editor of the Herald received a letter from one of the alarmists begging of him to discontinue the publication, to "stay the hand of Garryowen," or terrible
