CLIPPINGS FROM THE MELBOURNE WEEKLIES.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3903, 2 July 1881, Page 1

CLIPPINGS FROM THE MELBOURNE WEEKLIES.

Prisoner, jour case was discussed last night in the parlor of my brother magistrates hotel, so you are committed for trial, the evidence bearing out aprima facie case, and anything you bare to say in your defence will be used in evidence against you. I refuse to hear anything more unless you plead guilty !' This is a sample of an Australian J.P., who is a celebrity in his way. His sight is so dim that he is seldom able to read the depositions taken by himself, and he is in the habit of ' giving the manuscript to the prisoner to read, asking, 'Now, are you satisfied of your guilt ?' In a case of assault he made 11 saw the prisoner stand first,' out of M saw the prisoner stand fast,' and would not permit an alteration when the error was pointed out, but forthwith accused the witness of perjury. In a sly grog caae he said, ' Why, I've tasted for the revenue more grog than would keep three men tipsy, and you think sir, that I can't tell rum!' A wild scion^of an English county family has been for some time roving about Queensland. He has a good quarterly allowance from home, which is transmitted from place to place after him. He found himself the other day in one of the coast towns without funds, and went to the bank. Inquiry showed that there was a sum at his disposal, but the manager required some identification of him as the proper recipient. Here was a fix. He walked round the township in the hope of meeting some one who knew him, but in vain. Just before three o'clock| he again ; entered the bank, and placed his case strongly before the manager, who continued obdurate. " Then," said Mr De Vere, " will this do ?" as he withdrew from beneath the waistband of his trousers and placed upon the counter a portion of an undergarment marked with his name and crest. The manager considered the identification perfect, and let him have his money. One of tbe best authorities in Melbourne on wheat is on his way to England. Writing to me from Sacra- „ mento City (Ist May), he mentions that , the surplus stock of wheat; available for export from San Francisco alone, this year, is 1,200,000 tons, but half a million tons will have to be held over, as enough, shipping cannot be got to take it away. • In Oregon they have 200,000 (I presume) ' surplus. What is not in my line of country, but I hear that grain and flour have risen in Melbourne, and the bakers are showing their usual alacrity in raising bread—in other ways as well as with yeast. —yEgles, The Beform Bill has its inner history as well as that which meets the public eye, and during its various progresses from one House to the other not a few " curious intrigues have been concocted. For instance, it was a great mystery to many why Sir Samuel Wilson, the night before his departure for Europe, arose in his place, and, after an involved speech, moved a conciliatory amendment, which his brother members rejected out of hand, scornfully informing him that he might . have more gracefully left his successor to take action in the matter. It was even more puzzling for the initiated to discover soon after that the Governor and his loyal henchmen in the Council were by no means on the best of terms. It has since transpired that there was.a relation between these two sets of circumstancea, a knowledge of which may not be altogether without value to the Victorian chronicler of the future. When moving the amendment, Sir Samuel Wilson, with a solemu impressiveness resembling that of the late Napoleon 111. when indulging in one of his enigmatical speeches, at the Tuilleries, said in the course of his hesitating and confused speech, " I may mention that this matter has been rather thrown upon me in a way which I cannot very well explain." Again, when withdrawing it after being contemptuously told that he wanted backbone, and that he had better go home and mind his own business, he said by way of apology,

" This^maJ^rJhas.. „ been into my hands by circumstances which I cannot here explain, andlfelt bound to move the amendment." Now why could he not explain, and why did he feel bound ? Who had thrown a responsibility upon him, and pushed his unwilling hand into tbe breach between the two Houses ? The amendment itself, afterwards accepted in another form," ran as follows :—

• That on account of the great impor-, ,tanc to the country of the question of *oforin, ] arid , the great, amount of time Which Parliament has devoted to the subject, it is not advisable to delay the question on technical grounds, aDd that this House should proceed to the first readingand consideration of the Eeform Bill seni up by the Assembly but that, to prevent ill consequences from such a precedent for the future, this House now makes an -emphatic protest against a proceeding which is contrary to the rules and practice of Parliament.' 1 When Sir.Samuel Wilson handed it in to the clerk of the House he forgot one trifling but very significant little fact. <Mo one was much surprised to discover that he had not been acting of his own ■motion, bat that he was simply a tool in the hands of another. There was, howfever* a little astonishment when it was discovered who that other was. The motion itself supplies the key to its authority, for I am informed, on excellent authority, that it was in the handwriting of no less a. personage than the Most Noble George Augustus Constantine, Marquis of Normanby.— : " Atticus." That she was from the country. They were just married, and were taking a walk in Fitzroy Gardens on Sunday evening. Seeing a reflection in the sky—the reflection of the flashing of the electric light from the Inconstant — she exclaimed : * Look Augustus! What is that light moving across the sky ? ' Augustus—who is a bit of a wag—replied, softly squeezing Angelina's hand the while : ' That, dearest is the comet recognising the man in the moon after their long separation,' and she believed it. What a glorious thing is faith!

Thst he was a butcher, and was dragging a calf along rather cruelly, when the Sportsman's printer's devil said coolly: * Hi, mate, is that the way to treat a fellow creature ?' The butcher paused a moment and the joke dawned on him, but the p. d. was up the right-of-way, and carefully ensconsced in the sanctum before the butcher could hitch up the calf.

. -A Melbourne paper says the lawless and reckless career of the. Pirates of Penzance at the Opera House has as yet received no, checkj apd their villany is nightly rewarded by large houses and loud plaudits. The piece will doubtless run for some time longer, Billee Taylor, a comic operetta, which has been a great favorite in England, is in rehearsal, and will follow the present highly successful piece. . .