of that small upper crust of Antipodean society
which is sufficiently cultured to have developed a taste for
aristocratic European habits, along with an uncomfortable suspicion of
'bad form' in anything of purely local growth. This is the class which
maintains an air of portentous solemnity in public ceremonials, and is
liable at any moment to be convulsed by a question of precedence at a
Government House dinner.

From a lively appreciation of comedy to caricature is an easy descent
which the author has not always resisted, but her exaggeration is so
obviously resorted to in the interests of fun that it is unlikely to
mislead. There is certainly no need to repudiate as untypical of
Australian political society the Pickwickian spectacle of a drunken
Postmaster-General fearfully trying to walk a plank after a Vice-regal
dinner, in order to win three dozen of champagne wagered by the leader
of the Opposition, while the Premier looks on and holds his sides with
merriment; or the case of the Premier's wife, who, on being told by a
newly-arrived Governor--a musical enthusiast--that he hoped to be able
to 'introduce Wagner' at the local philharmonic concerts, said: 'I'm
sure we shall be very pleased to see the gentleman.'

Considering, however, the opportunities which colonial life, and
especially colonial politics, afford for ridicule, the author has been
commendably careful to avoid, as far as possible, giving real offence.
Yet her criticism is sufficiently free to be piquant, and, on the whole,
as salutary as it is entertaining. 'Why need Australians always be on
the defensive?' asks more than once an Englishman in one of her novels.
The author seems to have put the same question to herself as an
Australian, and to have decided that ultra-sensitiveness is a worse vice
than affectation, and that her compatriots, by giving way to it, do both
themselves and their country an injustice. For it implies a too low
estimate of what is fresh and strong and of real merit in the
independent life of the nation.

Colonists need a little more of the philosophic and common-sense spirit
which can look upon deficiencies and crudities merely as phases in the
natural evolution of society in a new land. This is what Mrs. Praed has
endeavoured to teach in some of her stories. The lesson is often
surrounded with a good deal of bantering discussion; it may not always
be apparent to an English reader, but it can hardly be overlooked by an
Austra