On St. Matthew’s Day he assisted at an Ordination:  and on the 27th returned to Melbourne for three weeks, and thence to Sydney.  His time was so taken up that his letters are far more scanty and hurried than usual.

’I have been running no little risk of being spoilt, and I don’t say that I have come off uninjured.  In Melbourne I was told by the Dean (the Bishop is in England) and by Judge Pohlman (an excellent good man) that they remembered no occasion during the twenty-two years of sojourn (before Melbourne was more than a village) when so much interest had been shown in Christian work, especially Mission work.  This is a thing to be very thankful for.  I felt it my duty to speak strongly to them on their own duties, first to Aborigines, secondly to Chinese (of whom some 40,000 live in Victoria), thirdly to Melanesians.  I did not aim only at getting money for Melanesia; I took much higher ground than that.  But the absence of the ordinary nonsense about startling conversions, rapid results, &c., and the matter-of-fact unsentimental way of stating the facts of heathenism, and the way to act upon it, did, no doubt, produce a very remarkable effect.

’I need not tell you that I did pray for strength to make good use of such unexpected and very unusual opportunities.  Crowded meetings, nothing before like it in Melbourne or the provinces.  I did not feel nervous, much to my surprise; I really wonder at it, I had dreaded it much.

’It was a sight to see St. George’s Hall crowded, children sitting on the floor, platform, anywhere, and very many adults (about 500) besides.  Now you know my old vanity.  Thank God, I don’t think it followed me very much here.  There was a strong sense of a grand opportunity, and the need of grace to use it.’

The enthusiasm at Victoria resulted in 350 pounds, and pledges of future assistance; and at Sydney there was the like grand meeting, the like address, and hearty response; and the Churches of Australia pledged themselves to bear the annual expenses of the voyages of the ‘Southern Cross.’  A number of young clerks and officials, too, united in an arrangement by which she could be insured, high as was the needful rate.

The preaching and speeches produced an immense feeling, and the after review of the expedition is thus recorded:—­

’As for my sermons in Australia, I found to my surprise that every minute was so occupied that I could not make time to write; and as for doing so in New Zealand before I started, why, I systematized and put into the printer’s hands, in about four months, grammars, &c., more or less complete, of seventeen languages, working up eight or ten more in Ms.!

’I had to preach extempore for the most part:  I did not at all like it, but what could I do?  Sermons and speeches followed like hail—­at least one, sometimes two on week-days, and three on Sundays.  I preached on such points as I had often talked out with the Primate and Sir William, and illustrated principles by an occasional statement of facts drawn from missionary experience.