SPEECH ON THE KING'S ILLNESS.

(Camden, July 3, 1902.)

GENTLEMEN,

Before commencing the business of the meeting I feel assured I do but voice the feeling of those present in expressing our heartfelt sympathy with our beloved King in the serious illness with which he is now prostrated. There is a peculiar pathos in his present illness, as it has happened on the very eve of his coronation, after the completion of most elaborate preparations and the Declaration of Peace, which he had so earnestly desired after a protracted and disastrous war. Instead of the universal rejoicings to which we had looked forward, a wave of profound sorrow has passed over the great British Empire, and although the latest reports give us hope of his recovery there is still much cause for anxiety. His generous instincts and remarkable tact have not only endeared him to his subjects, but won for him the respect and admiration of all nations throughout the civilised world. At the death of his august mother it is said

he promised to walk in her footsteps, and to devote his best energies to the happiness and welfare of his people. There is little doubt, if he should be spared, that he will prove himself a wise and beneficent ruler. May God grant him a speedy recovery, and that he may long reign in peace over a loyal and prosperous Empire.

REMINISCENCES OF THE

SYDNEY COLLEGE.

In 1843, Mr. Cape having relinquished the position of headmaster, Mr. T. N. Braim was appointed to the office, and I, with two of my younger brothers, became his pupils. Although between fifty and sixty years have since elapsed, I retain a lively recollection of our first appearance in the playground. We had been brought up in the country, and had scarcely ever been in Sydney, so that our acquaintance with the fashons was not exactly up to date; and we wore white beaver hats of some nondescript pattern, which immediately excited the curiosity of the other pupils. They surrounded us immediately, but evidently regarded us as three "innocents abroad," so we received but a slight bonneting, though the humiliation of being dressed differently to the other boys weighed heavily on our minds, and we lost no time in conforming to more modern fashions. We had also been provided by our good mother with neat little nightcaps to keep our heads warm whilst in bed; but, after the experience of

the hats, we thought it advisable to quietly put these out of the way, and so escaped further ridicule.

Mr. Braim, so far as I now recollect, was a man of courteous, though rather pompous, manners, with very ordinary scholastic attainments, but a good disciplinarian. He kept much aloof from the boys, and I do not think he was ever on very friendly relations with his assistant masters. Amongst those I might name Mr. O'Brien, teacher of mathematics; Moore, assistant classic; Slattery, for English, who also had a class in which he used to lecture on general knowledge. An old gentleman, whose name was Davidson, had charge of the junior classes; he was a most successful teacher of writing, for there were few of his pupils who did not write excellent hands, though I am afraid I was not amongst the number. We had also a French and drawing master; and I must not omit to mention Signor Carandini, who taught us dancing. He was a handsome Italian, a model of deportment, and his wife, Madame Carandini, was for many years prima donna of the Sydney stage. Unfortunately we had no ladies in the class, so they had to be improvised from amongst the boys, and many funny scenes occurred which sorely tried

the temper of the master and made it difficult to maintain discipline.

The school was opened by Mr. Braim with a large number of pupils, notwithstanding that many of the elder boys left on the retirement of Mr. Cape. Amongst those of my contemporaries whom I best recollect were five sons of Sir Alfred Stephen, including Alfred, the eldest, who afterwards finished his education in England, and was for a number of years Incumbent of St. Paul's, Redfern,

Consett Stephen, the founder of the wellknown firm of solicitors known as Stephen and Stephen, a man of marked ability, and one of my most valued and intimate friends,

His brother, H. M. Stephen, the present Judge, whose unblemished character and conscientious discharge of duty entitles him to the respect of the community,

W. Wentworth, the son of Australia's greatest statesman, who had inherited much of his father's ability. He and Consett Stephen were so much in advance of the other pupils that they formed a class by themselves. Wentworth left for England, where he entered one of the Universities, and being of delicate constitution, soon succumbed to the climate,