association, which corresponded roughly with the modern Labour Party, from returning five out of six members of the Assembly for the City of Adelaide.  But for blunders on ballot papers the whole ticket of six would have been elected.  They also elected the three members for Burra, and Clare.  I had then no footing on the Adelaide press, but I was Adelaide correspondent for The Melbourne Argus—­that is to say, my brother was the correspondent, but I wrote the letters—­he furnished the news.  I read Mill’s article one Monday night, and wrote what was meant for a leader on Tuesday morning, and went to read it to my brother at breakfast time, and posted it forthwith.  I knew The Argus had been dissatisfied with the recent elections, and fancied that the editor would hail with joy the new idea; but I received the reply that The Argus was committed to the representation of majorities; and, though the idea was ingenious, he did not even offer to print it as a letter.  About two years later Mr. Lavington Glyde, M.P., brought forward in the Assembly Mr. Fawcett’s abstract of Hare’s great scheme, and I seized the opportunity of writing a series of letters to The Register, signed by my initials.  Mr. Glyde, seeing the House did not like his suggestions, dropped the matter, but I did not.  I was no longer correspondent to The Argus—­the telegraph stopped that altogether.  My wonderful maiden aunts made up to me and my mother the 50 pounds a year that I had received as correspondent, and did as much for their brother, Alexander Brodie, of Morphett Vale, from 1,000 pounds they had sent to invest in South Australia.  It was as easy to get 10 per cent. then as to get 4 per cent. now; indeed I think the money earned 12 per cent. at first.  My brother John was accountant to the South Australian Railways, then not a very great department—­I think the line stretched as far as Kapunda to the north from Port Adelaide.  He was as much captivated by Mr. Hare’s idea as I was, and he said that if I would write a pamphlet he would pay for the printing of 1,000 copies, to be sent to all the members of Parliament and other leading people in city and country.  I called my pamphlet “A Plea for Pure Democracy,” and when writing it I felt the democratic strength of the position as I had not felt it in reading Hare’s own book.  It cost my brother 15 pounds, but he never grudged it.

While the pamphlet was in the press, I heard of the dangerous illness of my friend Lucy Anne Duval (nee Beare), one of the original passengers in the Duke of York, the first ship which arrived here.  I went to consult Mr. Taylor and Mr. Stirling at their office.  I saw only Mr. Stirling.  I said, “I should like to go and nurse her,” and he said.  “If you will go, I’ll pay your expenses;” and I went and stayed with her for three weeks, till she died, and left five children, three of them quite young.  There were Duvals in England in good circumstances, and I wrote pleading for the three little ones, though every one said it was quite useless; but an uncle by marriage was touched, and sent 100 pounds a year for the benefit of the three children, and I was constituted the guardian.  The youngest died within two years, but the allowance was not decreased, and I was able to get some schooling for an elder boy.  This was my first guardianship.