us in his four-in-hand to the "Separation-Day" meeting of the Amateur Turf Club, a body of gentlemen who are desirous of improving the breed of horses here. It was seven miles out of Melbourne, and the horses in the public and private conveyances on the road were very good; the mounted police were on splendid chargers. Almost all are thoroughbred, and have pedigrees more or less illustrious. The ordinary hackney vehicle here is a kind of one-horse waggonette. Omnibuses to which there is no conductor ply in all directions, notice being posted at the street corners as to their destination. In such arrangements Melbourne seems far ahead of London. Waiting-rooms mark the stopping places. The race-course is very pretty, on the borders of an undulating heath: and the outlook from the grand stand over the country inland, over the city and over the sea, is very wide. We got in time for the hurdle race, for which twenty horses started; the length of the course is a mile and a half; Mr. Selman's "Jack Tar" won in 2 min. 58 sec. We had lunch in a tent with the committee and stewards behind the grand stand, and after walking about on the lawn and saddling-paddock, saw the race for the Victoria Gold Cup; only six entries, course, steeplechase, about two miles and a half. The jumps consisted of strong wooden fences such as are to be seen all over the country, about five feet high. The horses were all ridden by members of the Club, and Mr. M'Rae, riding on Mr. Howie's "Collingwood," won by ten lengths in 6 min. 14 sec.; Eddy presented the cup to him with many congratulations. After this there was a handicap flat race, for which nineteen horses started; it was won by Mr. Paterson's "Wizard" by a short neck, although he was third favourite. We stayed to see another steeplechase over the long course for which ten horses started. It was won by Mr. Addis's "Abdallah" (an Adelaide horse), by three lengths; time, 6 min. 2 sec. There were three spills, and one poor man unfortunately broke his leg. The ground was in excellent order, and the weather was bright and sunshiny. It was a pretty gathering, and there were about three thousand persons on the ground. No Australian horses have yet competed for any of the English big races, as the long sea voyage would interfere with their training. The course for the English Derby is the same as that for the Victorian (1 mile), except that it is hilly and therefore a little more difficult. The conditions of the race are the same, and taking an average of six years there is, according to time test, little to

choose between English and Australian race-horses. 2 min. 39 sec. is the best time the race has been run here. The English studs are still being drawn on both for mares and stallions, and considering the money which is being spent in obtaining the best blood from England, there is no reason whatever why the Australian horses should not equal, even if they do not ultimately surpass, the best English thoroughbreds. Besides this Caulfield race-course there is another at Flemington, three miles out of Melbourne, belonging to the Victoria Racing Club, it is nearly surrounded by hills, from which as an amphitheatre as many as 80,000 people look down on the Melbourne Cup Day, an inter-colonial and national holiday for Australia, where all classes meet. On the way home we looked in at the football match that was being played on the Melbourne cricket ground between the inter-colonial twenties of New South Wales and Victoria; it was the first played under Victorian rules, and Victoria won. In the evening we had a very pleasant dinner at the Melbourne Club, given by the members to the officers of the Bacchante and Cleopatra. The officers of the other ships of the squadron had previously been entertained by the same hosts on their arrival, while our two ships were at Albany.

July 2nd.-After breakfast walked down into the Botanical Gardens, where Mr. Guilfoyle, the director, met us. They seem very extensive, and the ground is more broken up by hills and lakes than in those at Adelaide. The ponds, with their islands and no end of little summer-houses, are all covered with duck and swan. We went into one of the large fern-houses, and down by the lake side, and planted a couple of palms on the buffalo-grass lawn. The Government have lately reduced the allowance and the gardens proportionally suffer. Leaving them we walked on up the hill to the Observatory, where Mr. Ellery, the Astronomer Royal, showed us the transit instruments and the large equatorial telescope, which had for some years the distinction of being the largest in the world. We tried to get a view of the sun-spots, but the morning was too cloudy. In the afternoon we drove with Lady Normanby through Hawthorn, Toorak and Kew (suburbs of Melbourne) to call on Lady Stawell and the Chief Justice. On two sides, the south and east of the city, the gardens and pleasant houses of most townspeople of moderate means stretch for miles. Although shops, markets, banks, and offices are in Melbourne, every one who can afford it lives in the suburbs. Many of the villas that we passed in their gardens reminded us strongly of those at Clapham or in the other suburbs

of London, except that a broad balcony and verandah round the whole house is much commoner here than in England, and tells of the greater sunglare and heat of the southern summer. Asking about poor laws in the colony, we were told there were none; there is no poor-rate, but there are benevolent asylums supported by voluntary subscriptions: into these any applicant really destitute can get but of those who people the five such in Victoria, only one-tenth part are colonial born. Drink and improvidence make paupers here as elsewhere. Few things have struck us more than the absence of all signs of poverty and distress in Australia. We are told that what distress there is exists mainly in the large towns, and owes its origin to a great extent to the unwillingness of immigrants on arriving in Australia to proceed up country. There is plenty of work for them to do if they will go: work for man, woman, and boy. The existence of miles and miles of streets, made up of dens of squalid tenements, hardly fit for an animal to dwell in, such as we have passed over in the railway when going out of London, are impossible here. Every man here can support himself if he will, and the result of the well-being of the working classes is naturally the enjoyment of a far greater degree of happiness than falls to their lot in England. Of the surprising vigour of the Victorian there can be no doubt; the secret of their energy lies in the fact that the Victorians for the most part are full-blooded English immigrants; brought only to their maturity to live in the exhilarating air of Melbourne, the finest climate in the world for healthy men. It is strange, but we are told that the thermometer here "has not the slightest effect upon the heat," so dry, so healthy is the air; up country fevers are unknown. The mean annual temperature is 57°, that is, the climate is the same as in the north of Italy. The cost of living is about the same as in London, rents are higher, furniture, &c., dearer, but butchers' meat, bread, and clothes are cheaper. About three out of every four mechanics who have reached middle life own the neat cottages they occupy.

The whole country on this side of Melbourne is broken up, and runs away in hills, tier behind tier, inland, and from the Chief Justice's garden there are this evening lovely views over them and the woods in the distance westward as the sun goes down. After dinner we went to Mr. Kowalski's concert at the Town Hall, which will seat nearly 3,000 persons: the front entrance was again all ablaze with light; the music was chiefly classical. One perform