respectably conducted, some with decided talent.
The Argus, the best paper in the colony, sometimes
contains really excellent articles. The
weekly papers are devoted to all sorts of interests,
religious, agricultural, sporting; and there is a
Melbourne Punch, which, though its illustrations
would not be mistaken for those of
Leech or Tenniel, is—considering the small
field in which it has to work—wonderfully well
sustained. Then there are two or three illustrated
papers published monthly, to be sent home by
the mails. Many attempts have been made to
establish illustrated journals in Melbourne, but
nearly all of them have failed.

Some of our shops would do credit to the
best trade thoroughfares of London, and in them
is to be found every novelty, within two months
of its appearance in England.

Between four and five thousand of us are
volunteers—artillery, cavalry, engineers, rifles,
and naval brigade—and we are about as efficient,
and have about as great an idea of our military
appearance and talent, as you fellows who volunteer
in England. We have our reviews and our
annual encampments on the Werribee plains,
near Geelong; and we are told by our inspecting
officers that "they never saw regular troops
execute, &c." So that, altogether, we glorify
ourselves as you do.

Besides volunteering, our youth are wont to
invigorate themselves with cricket, football, and
all the other games in which Young England
delights. Cricket is exceedingly popular among
us; witness our match with the All England
Eleven, and their second visit to us, shortly to
be made.

We are a charitable people too. The chief
public establishments in this way are the Benevolent
Asylum, the Hospital, and the Yarra
Bend (so called from being prettily situated at
a bend of the river Yarra) Lunatic Asylum.
There are plenty of other hospitals and the like,
in different parts of the colony.

Having a proper regard to appearances, we
have decorated our city with some very fine public
buildings. Our treasury, club-house, and some
of our banks, are very handsome, as are also
many of our merchants' stores or warehouses.
The Houses of Parliament, the new Post-office,
the University, and the Public Library, will be,
when completed, creditable to our architects.
People who come out to this other England
with rather green ideas about " life in the bush,"
and so on, are amazed when they find what
manner of place Melbourne is.

As to our means of communication, we really
do not paddle from harbour to harbour, and up
and down rivers, in canoes, or make overland
journeys entirely on foot or horseback; but we
have plenty of good steamers, coaches, and
railways, and some fine engineering works connected
with the last. There is a complete system of telegraphic
communication within and between the
different colonies. Melbourne streets are noisy
with Hansoms and omnibuses, but the principal
vehicle for passenger traffic is what is known as
the " low-backed car." This vehicle contains two
seats, running, not fore and aft, but athwartships,
accommodates five besides the driver, has a
light roof with curtains in case of need, and is
drawn by a single horse. There was a very
good specimen of one of these cars in the
last Exhibition. Most people who come out,
appear at first to look upon themselves as a
superior race of beings, and qualified to instruct
us on many points. A "new chum," as recent
arrivals are called, is known at once by the " old
hands." His elegant saunter, his very new
clothes, and his air of affability and patronage,
mark him out unmistakably. But the new
chum, like the Indian griff, is soon brought to
his level, and soon becomes qualified to instruct
his friends, on his return home, as to the real
state of things in the England far away over the
waters.

ABOARD THE EVELEEN BROWN.

I think it was in the summer of eighteen
hundred and thirty-seven that I became possessor
of the cutter yacht Barberina, of Southampton.
A liberal measurement of the craft
would have fixed her burden at something more
than three-quarters of a ton, while her price was
ten pounds and a row with the out-going
proprietor—who, with a stinginess more befitting
one of his natural profession (a lollipop merchant)
than a true son of the sea, sought to eliminate the
mainsail from our bargain, as if that article were
a superfluous "store," which might, or might
not, be occasionally required.

Moderate as these terms may appear, I am
disposed to think that the proprietor aforesaid
(who had christened his yacht after an animated
sweetmeat that played about the shop, and had
always treacly fingers) took advantage of my
innocence in nautical matters to the extent of
several pounds.

I cannot say that he lavished many praises
upon his craft. I was simply won by a manner
he had of putting his head on one side, and
remarking that she sat " like a duck" upon the
water. According to his report, she not only
sat, but rode, turned, and even stood up on the
same model. I had never especially noticed a
duck's seat. If that fowl, when sedentary, rests
upon its base, so, certainly, did the Barberina.
Unless, however, water percolates freely through
every pore of a duck's frame—unless a duck,
when tacking, invariably misses stays—unless a
duck, when swimming, creates a disturbance in
the ocean not inferior to that of a powerful tug,
but without the accompanying progress, there
(with the seat) all resemblance ends.

These little peculiarities revealed themselves
to my after observation. Meanwhile, my first
act, after forwarding my yacht to the metropolis,
and thence to Brighton, by the goods train, was
to endeavour to effect a change of name. Why
upon earth should I call my yacht Barberina,
and lay myself open to the suspicion of being
attached to some mysterious nymph bearing that
hideous appellation? I never could fully