ENTHUSIASM IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 1 73 is ready to send 600 or 700 men fully equipped, consisting of a naval brigade and mounted infantry;" and Sir Arthur Blyth, agent-general for South Australia, received from the government at Adelaide a telegram on the i6th of February, saying. Please intimate to the imperial government that South Australia offers, at her own expense, to supply 250 infantry with officers for service in the Soudan. The reasons for our government declining these offers, and yet (though tardily, it must be confessed) making some effort to express to our kin beyond the sea the deep heart-stir that their prompt and genuine good-fellowship caused among the English people were not misinterpreted. The telegram sent by the Victorian premier ended by saying, " Federal action for the formation of an Australian contingent has been suggested, and correspondence on this head is now passing between the colonies."

Susfoested! The message flashed along the wire might with advantage have gained some electric force on its passage, for the suggestion had run like fire, and the warm and generous pulses of our Australian countrymen were beating in unison with our own.

In the forefront of the movement was the Honourable William Bede Dalley, attorney-general of New South Wales, who in the absence through illness of the premier, the Honourable Alexander Stuart, was acting as colonial secretary. With an energy and enthusiasm which would have commanded a warm response even under less earnest and eager conditions of loyalty and genuine love for the mother country, he had already stirred the kindling ardour of the Australasian colonies, and on the 17th February sent to London the message: "Munificent contributions from colonists in favour of Patriotic Fund daily being made; numbers of wealthy colonists offer 1000 a year while colonial contingent is engaged. Contingent leaves March 3, consisting of 212 artillerymen, 200 horses, and 522 infantry."

The idea of forming an Australian contingent to help the British forces in the Soudan had doubtless been entertained some time before the offer was made and the preparations had commenced; but the first public expression of it was attributed to Sir Edward Strickland, who had been long associated with the colony