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speaking, did not commence before the middle of August 1837; and having terminated by his own voluntary desertion of his post, in April 1839 (page 34), did not exceed 20 months.
"The extracts of letters and papers that follow, will best describe the events of that period, as well as the sequel, up to the present time. They fully exemplify the manner in which that ardent desire evinced from the very commencement of his career to acquire a third-share of my Flocks got possession of his mind, and absorbed his very faculties, almost to the exclusion of every just and candid consideration. Letters were received from him regularly for the first two years of his New South Wales residence, and even afterwards, while the Appeal about his own remuneration, first put forward on the 27th December 1837 (page 23), was still pending; but ever since that point was set at rest, by his receipt of my letter of 11th June 1838, in the month of November following, I have been unable to elicit a single satisfactory letter, and no Stock Return, or Account of any description whatever, until the 31st of October last, the deficiencies being constantly laid to the charge either of the Land Packets or the Sea Post, not alone by him, but by his Father. I can positively state however, from the testimony of numerous witnesses, that facts and great experience by no means justify the imputation: for the correspondence between Sydney and London is conducted with wonderful regularity; and, in my own case, from 1837 up to the present time, whenever Bills or advices from my Nephew have been concerned, both the originals and duplicates have always reached with the greatest punctuality. I cannot, I think, more appropriately close this Narrative, which must so deeply criminate my Nephew, than by stating, that after wading through a pile of old letters with care and study, I am not aware of having omitted to notice a single fact calculated to extenuate his conduct.
"It was my invariable practice to send his letters to Scotland for the perusal of his Parents whenever they contained any matter of interest, and his Father or Brothers were in the habit of taking copies of them, so that these Extracts will not be new to them. The wording may be found to be sometimes a little changed for the sake of brevity, and names have been omitted to avoid implicating other parties unnecessarily; but where individual or scattered Extracts may have been made, the utmost care has been taken not to affect the sense and spirit of the originals, which have never been allowed to suffer, to my knowledge, nor to that of two intelligence and impartial gentlemen who assisted my in the collation of the materials.
"Thirty-two sheets (from page 5 to 132) were in the hands of Mr. William Leslie from March to October last, and upon his making the observation that some variations were found to exist between them and the original letters in his Father's possession; my reply was—'I hope not of any consequence,' and his prompt rejoinder was—'No, not of consequence,' so I may dismiss all anxiety from my mind on this head. The arrangement of the early part (the first 20 sheets) is very faulty; it arose from the circumstance of requiring them to be hastily printed off, in February 1841, that I might be enabled to prepare the long letter at page 125, with greater accuracy than I could do by reference to indistinctly written, and in some cases, partially defaced, originals.
"As a prelude to the Correspondence, it may be well to describe the