Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki (1797–1873)
The South Australian Advertiser - Friday, 26 December 1873
The death of so remarkable a man as the late Sir Edmund de Strzelecki better known as Count de Strzelecki demands more than a passing notice.
The deceased was a native of Polish Prussia, and it is stated came of a good family in that country.
Some of his education was obtained at the High School at Edinburgh. In early life Count de Strzelecki devoted himself to travelling and exploring remote parts of the world with the view of perfecting his scientific knowledge, and, as he himself records, before the age of 35 he had visited and made explorations in North and South America, and West Indies, the South Sea Islands, the Javanese Islands, China, India, Egypt, New South Wales, and Van Dieman's Land.
In the last named island he met Sir John Franklin, who assisted him greatly in his explorations in Australia, and it is worthy of remark that Count de Strzelecki received from the Tasmanian public on leaving their shores in 1843 a very flattering address, in which they record in touching terms how much their country is indebted to his „scientific knowledge and indefatigable exertions,”
and acknowledge
”that example which has testified to them the reality and dignity of his calling, who exchanges the ordinary pursuits and pleasures of life for the patient and self-denying investigation of the works of God.”
To this address was added a substantial subscription of £ 400, and Count de Strzelecki, in giving vent to the „emotions of honest pride and pleasure with which he received the address and subscription,”
stated that the testimonial led him to determine on publishing his Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, a description
„comprehending the fruits of five years of continual labor during a tour of 7,000 miles on foot through those countries.”
This book, which became a standard work in Australia, the Count published in 1845, and dedicated to Sir John Franklin, then on the eve of his departure on his final and fatal voyage of discovery to the North Pole. The main object of Count de Strzelecki's visit to Australia was to examine its mineralogy.
This investigation led him to the conclusion that portions of the country abounded in gold, and having informed Sir George Gipps, the then Governor, his report was transmitted to Lord John Russell, then Secretary of State for the Colonies; but as at that day the free whites in Australia were a mere handful compared with the convict population, Count de Strzelecki was requested not to make his discovery public.
The fact of his having been the first to foretell the existence of gold was, however, acknowledged some few years ago at the International Congress, when, on the suggestion of Sir Roderick Murchison, a gold medal was awarded to the Count for his investigations and reports made by him on the subject. In the course of his explorations Count de Strzelecki also discovered and mapped that valuable tract of country now known as Gippsland, perhaps one of the most fertile districts in Australia.
The publication of the Physical Description of New South Wales brought Count de Strzelecki to the notice of literary, scientific, and philanthropic society in London, and soon after, having expressed a desire to become naturalised among us, Lord Overstone, then Mr Samuel Jones-Loyd, assisted him in procuring the necessary certificate from Her Majesty's Secretary of State entitling him hence forward to most of the rights and privileges of a British subject.
The autumn and winter of 1846-7 will long be remembered in these islands. The food of the greater portion of the inhabitants of Ireland and of the western districts of Scotland had utterly failed.
The „Corn Law” precluded the ready introduction of a substitute, for there had been previously an absolutely prohibitory duty on Indian corn, and it so happened that this was the only meal which could be easily procured, as not only had potatoes faded, but wheat, barley, oats, and rye had been scarce crops all over Europe.
With the view of alleviating this national calamity the „British Relief Association” was organised, having for its Committee of Administration the leading merchants and bankers of the City of London, Mr. Jones-Loyd, Baron Lionel de Rothschild, Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Thomas Hankey, Mr. Robert Hanbury, Mr. Charles Bevan, and the late Messrs: Abel Smith, Samuel Gurney, and W. G. Prescott were prominent members of the Board. Mr. Jones-Loyd, now Lord Overstone, was unanimously elected Chairman. It is recorded by Sir Charles Trevelyan in his Irish Crisis that
„a painful and tender sympathy pervaded every class of society, from the Queen on her throne to the convict in the hulks, expenses were curtailed and privations were endured in order to swell this Irish subscription”.
The response to the Committee's appeal was certainly most gratifying, the amount received from all sources being about £600,000, probably the largest subscription for relief purposes ever raised even in this country.
The first act of the Executive was to appoint a Provision Committee and dispatch food to Ireland; the second to send active agents to superintend the distribution of these supplies. Count de Strzelecki was selected as one of these agents, and appointed to the charge of the counties of Sligo and Mayo, and his letters, which are given in the report of the Committee, may at this day be read with interest and profit.
On his arrival he reported that
„no pen can describe the distress by which I am surrounded. It has actually reached such a degree of lamentable extremes that it becomes above the power of exaggeration and misrepresentation.
You may now believe anything which you hear and read, because what I actually see surpasses what I ever read of past and present calamities”.
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