rom ourselves only in the fact that they live at a
distance. With the present means of communication, Melbourne is now
as near to London as the North of Scotland was to the South of
England less than a century ago. People look, perhaps, at the
present population of Victoria, which is rather under a million; and
then, observing that it is about the same as that of Liverpool and
Manchester together, they infer that it is of no greater importance.
There could not be a greater mistake. It is a commonplace to say
that their importance is in the future, yet even commonplaces
sometimes need repeating. There is no reason why, within the memory
of men now living, this colony should not be as populous as England
is now. At lunch, some few weeks ago--I remember it was at Dr.
Bromby's, the much-respected late head master of the Church of
England Grammar School--a clergyman narrated some of his experiences
while travelling in England a few years back:--"I was at the house
of a Yorkshire squire, who was speaking of Australia, and said 'Ah!
we used to have a few Australian sovereigns here, but now we see
very few.' I requested those present to examine the sovereigns they
had about them. If you find an 'M' under the Queen's head, it was
coined at Melbourne; if an 'S,' at Sydney. Singularly enough nearly
all the sovereigns they produced had the 'M' or the 'S.' I was
satisfied. It was a dangerous _coup_, but perfectly successful, and
gave the company a much greater idea of the importance of Australia
than anything I could say." In rapidity and at the same time
solidity, of growth there is no city of modern days, I believe, to
be placed beside Melbourne. Fifty years ago it did not exist. Now
with the suburbs the population is 300,000, and in such a liberal
manner have the streets and roads been laid out, that on the present
area there is at least room for a million. Since 1842 Melbourne has
had municipal institutions. In 1851, Victoria was separated from New
South Wales, with Melbourne for the seat of government. Such rapid
increase has been equalled only in America, but there is nothing
American about Melbourne. Many years ago there did come here a few
Americans of "advanced ideas," among others the notorious George
Francis Train, who bequeathed his "damages" against the British
Government--5,000,000 dols. for his arrest in Cork harbour--to the
Irish Republic. The legacy and the legatee have proved equally
unsubstantial. But these men ha